We are approaching the hungry gap....

[British Red]

It's Sunday so...roast dinners

Mild Winters are lovely right? Less heating, it's all good. Except....

Here I am peeling the spuds

Potatoes in sink by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Let's have a close up
.
Sprouted potato by English Countrylife, on Flickr

Now at this time of year, it's great when the seed potatoes " chit"

Chitting Potatoes by English Countrylife, on Flickr

But the reality is, when seed potatoes chit, stored potatoes sprout. We can offset this a bit by putting stored spuds in a cool dark place and seed potatoes in a warm well lit place, but this buys a 4 week grace period.

What does this mean in reality? Precious few stored potatoes in April, May or early June. If you buy UK spuds after Christmas, they are in good nick because they've been stored in chilled buildings. Actually that " seasonal" UK cabbage has often been refrigerated for many, many months - but that's another story. So, in a self sufficient life, don't bank on potatoes for that period when the workload is hardest - they will be semi liquid!

[jansman]

I force new potatoes and reckon on the first boiling by Whitsun. In our ‘just in time’ world,the Hungry Gap is not ( at the moment) an issue. In fact,most folks wouldn’t understand that term.Of course there are always tinned and dried potatoes to cover the gap twixt Spring and the first earlies.

These days of course, carbohydrates come in less ‘British’ ways ,if you get my drift. Rice and pasta is a modern equivalent. Indeed ,we carry 6 months supply of both.

[British Red]

Oh it's no issue at all right now. Plenty of refrigerated spuds, rice, pasta and more. There's also Spanish strawberries, Israeli blueberries and all the rest

For us, it's useful to speculate on how we would manage long term when stores are exhausted. From April to Mid June say. There would be no rice, often no spuds. Of course some years blight would take all the potatoes - as they did pre chemical spraying. Parsnips are possible sand clamped up till May as are carrots ( parsnips were the carbohydrate source long before rice or potatoes were known). What else then? I can only the no of grains - oats, wheat, barley.....

[jansman]

Oh it's no issue at all right now. Plenty of refrigerated spuds, rice, pasta and more. There's also Spanish strawberries, Israeli blueberries and all the rest

For us, it's useful to speculate on how we would manage long term when stores are exhausted. From April to Mid June say. There would be no rice, often no spuds. Of course some years blight would take all the potatoes - as they did pre chemical spraying. Parsnips are possible sand clamped up till May as are carrots ( parsnips were the carbohydrate source long before rice or potatoes were known). What else then? I can only the no of grains - oats, wheat, barley.....

Bread. Flour is easily stored.

[British Red]

Bread, porridge, beer of course.

Starting to think that a better mill is called for...

[jansman]

Our baker at work is in a re enactment society.Napoleonic War. He makes a very dense bread,similar to that eaten then. Some of that with soup or stew,or cheese,and you’ve had some grub!

[British Red]

It's all wholemeal for sure! I keep thinking of how to have a small scale driven mill. In hilly areas water power....have to be wind here. We have plenty of working windmills but a small scale one might be fun to make

[Smudge]

Many cultures developed a flat bread, heavy/filling and uncomplicated to make.

[grenfell]

It's all wholemeal for sure! I keep thinking of how to have a small scale driven mill. In hilly areas water power....have to be wind here. We have plenty of working windmills but a small scale one might be fun to make

A re-enactor friend of mine has a hand powered quern stone and I've had a go with it. Nothing special really , it's just in effect two stones one on top of the other with the top one having a handle so very simple technology free. It's quite long winded though and you certainly know when you've ground enough for a loaf. I'd certainly recommend rigging it up to wind , water or perhaps even animal power.

[British Red]

I have handmills - but as you say it's a huge amount of work. I totally understand why water mills and wind mills were the first mechanisation in many societies.