What Preps are you doing this week? Part 10

[GillyBee]

The wife has been granted an allotment, half a plot.

It looks a bit neglected, will probably result in some labour from me in the new year.

Not sure what we're going to plant yet, spuds and courgettes did well in our garden, peas and runner beans too. Suggestions, tips and advice more than welcome!

If I had one again it would get fruit - rhubarb, raspberries, blackcurrants, loganberryberries which give a valuable result for not too much work. The rest would get the stuff I don't have room at home for. Nice salad spuds, garlic, the big winter squash, kale etc. And have a look at Charles Dowdings blogs on bringing overgrown land back into use..

[jennyjj01]

Chuffed that I just acquired 5 plastic dustbins for a tenner, which I've just run amok on with the drill to make 5 mini compost bins. Weirdly satisfying drilling dozens of holes.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'm going to decant my big compost heap into them. I figure smaller fuller containers with lids will rot down quicker than one big, mostly open, heap. Also be rat proof. That's the plan anyway. That, and watering them weekly.

Gardeners, is my thinking sound or am I ruining a perfectly good compost heap by breaking it up into 80L tubs? I understand how big is good for getting the heat going, but without a lid, my heap is just a frozen over pile.

I want to get a bit of a rotation system going.

I DO have a good mix of ingredients.

[Arzosah]

Gardeners, is my thinking sound or am I ruining a perfectly good compost heap by breaking it up into 80L tubs? I understand how big is good for getting the heat going, but without a lid, my heap is just a frozen over pile.

I'll be interested to know the results of that, Jenny.

I'm very pleased that I've finally put the second curtain up in the kitchen, so it's now completely private. No one can see in, but it's still nice to know that it's private. And must be warmer, maybe by a whole tenth of a degree

[PreppingPingu]

Been cycling through the garage stock and found a plastic lidded tub filled with lots of vac sealed brown paper bags with plain flour in that I bought during the pandemic chaos of 2020. (One of those giants mill bags that the supermarkets got rid of cheap after lock downs which i spilt and re bagged and vac sealed.) I had missed it in previous sort through as I thought it had some forest school gear in! I am guessing that is likely to be a bit rancid by now even if it has been kept in a cool stable temperature and sealed. I did open one and the flour didn't smell but it was very clumped together. I will bin it. The way I look at food preps if they do get a bit past it is that it's no difference to paying car insurance. Most of the time you get nothing back from your car insurance - it's just there in case and you have to renew and re pay each year. So following that line of thinking if I do have to chuck out some food or compost it etc, its no difference to that car insurance that you haven't had to claim on that year!

[Nurseandy]

We had some tesco flour from 2020 that we've just used for (ahem) croissants of all things. It was kept in its original packaging in a closed plastic tub in the garden shed. Hadn't clumped like yours though.

[Arzosah]

I confess, I've still got a little bit of 2020 flour too - Dove's gluten free. It tastes fine, activates fine - it's been kept in the house, after being frozen for a few days when I bought it originally. I'd ordered plain, but they turned up with SR - I took it anyway, the times being what they were - it *has* meant I've got into baking a bit more than I otherwise would

[Yorkshire Andy]

Got another 100 batteries ordered (sounds a lot ) but good grief between toys and Christmas lights (kids Christmas trees took 6xaa.. wreath took 4xaa planetarium (don't ask but the 6 yo is space mad 3*AA ) lights along the fence 4*AA ...... Least they get well rotated and don't go bad before they are needed

Got little miss a new sleeping bag from Santa for army cadets
3-4 season from mountain warehouse for £30 with discount code comfort of +5°c limit of 0°C extreme of -15°c

https://www.mountainwarehouse.com/summi ... nbEALw_wcB

So good for all but bitter winter nights...

[grenfell]

We had some tesco flour from 2020 that we've just used for (ahem) croissants of all things. It was kept in its original packaging in a closed plastic tub in the garden shed. Hadn't clumped like yours though.

In a sort of prepping oneupmanship shortly after getting married in 2000 I went through the cupboards and found a bag of flour 17 years out of date ( BB I think) . So to bin it or...
I went with the or and baked it into a small loaf. It didn't rise as well as fresh stuff but certainly wasn't rancid or inedible...

[DustyDog]

Big shop coming up, trying to pursuade the SO to get a big sack of spuds and big sack of flour, I’ve heard there’s been some bad crops this season, not sure if spuds or flour is part of that but defo heard olive oil could be going up a fair bit in price with the bad harvest also finally got my sourdough starter alive and well so some tasty bread in the making.

[Nurseandy]

We had some tesco flour from 2020 that we've just used for (ahem) croissants of all things. It was kept in its original packaging in a closed plastic tub in the garden shed. Hadn't clumped like yours though.

In a sort of prepping oneupmanship shortly after getting married in 2000 I went through the cupboards and found a bag of flour 17 years out of date ( BB I think) . So to bin it or...
I went with the or and baked it into a small loaf. It didn't rise as well as fresh stuff but certainly wasn't rancid or inedible...

Nice, 17 years out of date, impressive.
So, as a rough rule of thumb are we saying flour a few years out of date is suitable for pastries and flour decade's out of date is better suited to simple breads?

But joking aside that's actually really encouraging for our food storage.