It is always a bit of a depressing time of the year, the time after you have planted all of your potatoes, onions, a whole array of seeds and the beds down at our allotments look so . . .empty. The soil has been worked and dug over, yet, although we know that things are happening below the surface of the soil, there is very little evidence for it.
The plots look so empty, and as well there is always that doubt at the back of our minds that they may not grow at all. Where would we be if the crops fail? What would we do? For us, as we are surviving on only what we grow and produce ourselves, a decent crop is essential. Fingers crossed! Every time we visit our plots we are ever hopeful to see new growth emerging from the worked soil.
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Top money saving tips.
Over the pst couple of months that we have been on a strict frugal diet of budgeting and contemplation, we have realized that there are three simple tips to getting personal finances in order.
our 10 gallons of vinegar arrived today, so oh yeay, we now have enough to clean with for a full year!
The only issue is that it is labelled as “Non brewed condiment” which is the labelling used on this type of pseudo vinegar, as it is simply a diluted acetic solution, and not the brewed, distilled and salted solution that we know as vinegar. This Non brewed condiment is food safe, it just can’t be called vinegar. Personally, I do not care which name it uses, as it is good for cooking and also brilliant for cleaning. Our 10 gallons of vinegar arrived today, so oh yeay, we now have enough to clean with for a full year! When I was a lad in school, Domestic Science was a compulsory subject we had to take, but, this has long since been abolished. In domestic science, youngsters would be taught how to cook numerous healthy nutritious meals on a budget. We were taught how to bake bread, how to cook offal, and how to feed a family using proper raw ingredients.
A key aspect was budgeting and costing the meals, including how to pad out meals and how to reduce food waste. The abolishment of domestic science in schools has, in my view, had an adverse knock on effect on a national level. We are seeing more and more people in the UK, and across the world going to food banks - why? Because these people who rely on the foodbanks have become addicted to processed convenience food, they do not know how to prepare food from scratch. Lets look at a simple example - our daily bread. One loaf here in the UK costs between £0.45 and £1.00, yet 1kg of flour costs £0.45 and can make 6 loaves of bread. Surely, if people are so desperate for food, a bag of flour would be far better to donate to a food bank than one loaf of bread. However, we have to dumb down our thinking to the lowest common denominator - what if people lack the knowledge to bake their own bread? Hmmm, well, libraries are free to all, and they could easily borrow a book full of bread recipes, couldn’t they? One would like to think so, but it is far easier for these people to go to a food bank and collect their processed ready meals then to put the effort in to learn how to cook. Cooking cheap and nutritious meals is easy - I am sure that those on Jobseekers and disability allowance could learn a few skills - after all, they are not holding down jobs and have plenty of time on their hands. Food banks have taken away the need for people to look after themselves! The main thing that I want to do this forthcoming week is to pick up hops and grains from the local brewery where I also do a few chists per week. The spent hops from the brewery do make fantastic mulch and compost for the allotment, they are great to spread around the beds to prevent weed growth, and they are also really rich in all the essential minerals and NPK needed for healthy soil. They are also fab to add to the soil at the end of the growing season as they add a good bulk to the soil, and help with water retention. The grains that the brewery throws out are great as well, as the grains make awesome pig and chicken feed, and also do make brilliant compost. If you are ever passing a brewery, pop in and speak to the brewers, they are always more than happy to have a chat over a beer, and willing to see the back of their waste. |
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