Being selfsufficientish in 2016

[Flo]

It's depressing isn't it when you have an item that you feel would be useful but the charity shop is no help. Did you try freecycle to get rid of it? Is there gumtree in your area to try selling it? Or am I asking things already tried?

The greenhouse is up now - since the weekend - and I've split up a couple of miserable looking polyanthus and put the good bits into small pots in on the shelving (free from a neighbour over the fence years back) to get their feet down again. They won't need heat to keep them going but it's protection from wind and show like precipitation! Not sure why they sudden didn't do well but we shall see. But I don't see why I should buy new when I can repair.

There are chilli, pepper, sweet pea and celeriac seeds on the window sills getting their feet down for later on. The ones that need a long start that is - am not going to heat a greenhouse when I heat me indoors.

Oh and I need to mend a fleece - the seam in one pocket needs mending - could have been why it was in the charity shop in the first place of course. My first repair was a fast one so this time I will do it properly!

[Green Aura]

No functioning Freecycle up here, although there are a number of buy, swap, sell groups on FB. To be honest I didn't think about them - Blythswood seems to have become my first port of call to give or buy everything from a handbag to wardrobe.

(Plus it's practically next door to the cafe where we stop for breakfast on the way in to Inverness. We're ready for a cuppa after a 2 hour drive!)

[Flo]

Well I've rescued the last of the cooking apples from store and cooked them up - one helping in the freezer and one to make into crumble. The freezer is seeing me nicely along for veggies still though onions and carrots are being bought in. But as it's mid March I feel that I'm doing fairly well in vegetable self sufficiency.

[harðfiskur]

what veggies do you mostly use?

[Flo]

Peas, various sorts of beans, onions, salad leaves, lettuce, spring onions, carrots, Brussels sprouts, leeks, purple sprouting broccoli, kale, marrows, courgettes. Am going to try butternut squash and pumpkins this year as I have extra space on a renovation allotment which will go back to be let to someone else come winter. There is quite a lot of fruit on the allotment in the way of rhubarb, apples, pears, blueberries and strawberries too.

[Flo]

My washing machine has been acting silly recently and of course it's well out of warranty. However I had my suspicions about the socket that it was connected to - after the landlord replaced the socket and son-in-law applied muscle to moving said machine out into the kitchen from its alcove to put the plug back in (and letting me clean underneath which was disgusting) things seem to have gone back to normal. I'm not saying that it will last but at least I can now do a hot wash of over 30 degrees if I need to - just sometimes mucky doesn't come clean on a cool wash.

All that was required was a free electrician (don't do electrics) and other muscle than mine - suppose I could have moved the machine but why do it when there's an alternative? At least the machine is still here and not having to be replaced.

[Flo]

Have had a look in the seed box to see what is hanging around after taking part in a couple of seed swaps - could be that I will need very little next year, very little indeed.

[Flo]

I've been over self sufficient in courgettes this year and I think that the same can be said of plums.

[Green Aura]

Plum brandy!

[Flo]

Allergic to alcohol me dear so that idea is no use.

[Green Aura]

Chinese plum sauce?

[Flo]

Good thought! Thank you.

[Odsox]

Prunes ?

[Flo]

Yuck Odsox - just yuck!

[Odsox]

Yuck Odsox - just yuck!

Well you could always bottle some, there's nothing better than bottled plums and custard for pud in winter.
Or plum jam
Or plum butter
Or plum cheese
Or plum pudding, oh no hang on that's made with prunes