Today I acquired a "Foodsaver V3840" and 7 rolls of Vacuum sealing plastic stuff. - all FREE of course.  I'm hoping that some of you use a Vacuum sealer and can give me some hints on what to use it for. At the moment, all I can think of is dehydrated veg/fruit. Wondering whether fresh green beans and sliced courgettes would be better "vacuumed" before freezing as I'm not a fan of frozen beans & courgettes.  All advice welcome.  ..read more

I live quite frugally and my annual gas & electricity costs are just over £!000. What galls me is that my standing charges and VAT acccount for over 40% of my annual bill at over £400 and however frugal I try to be there is nothing I can do about them. So basically I am paying British Gas over £400 per annum for me to read my own meters and for them to then bill me. No wonder their fat cats are coining it in with multi million pound profits for basically sitting on there arses! Rant over ..read more

I've been told that the land behind my house (and the neighbours) was planted with apple trees as part of the WW2 War effort. Unfortunately, most of these trees have died/fallen over and survive only as stumps. One of the trees is still alive and fruiting - not bad for an 80+ year old tree that receives no TLC whatsoever.  This thread is not about that tree however - its about a stump that has a substantial side shoot. I thought this was a sucker off the root stock and have ignored it. This week, for the first time, it has flowered! In fact, these are the first apple flowers to open this ..read more

I bought this cheaply YS (£3.00) from Morries a while ago and the label says its a holly tree? The leaves are black and it isn't as spiky as the hollies I see in the woods. I thought the colouration may have been because it was a young plant? but young hollies in the woods are green and spiky! I love its colouration as it is so hopefully it won't grow into a boring green holly!   QMXS8535.JPG (Size: 207.04 KB / Downloads: 6 ..read more

Bright ideas needed please. As you know, I don't have chickens now so their old run is looking for other uses.  Its fenced on all sides but there is no roof.  The sides are higher at the door end (about 7') but only a couple of feet high at the far end. The roof was removed so that I could stand up in it. Putting netting over it would not work. Its in the shade most of the day but I may be able to  lower some of the nearby shrubs to give a bit more light.  The floor has been lined with chicken wire to stop rats so its not suitable for root crops.  The floor has been d ..read more

Can't tell your Seedlings from your Weedlings?  Useful information from Real Seeds https://realseeds.co.uk/seedlinggallery.html ..read more

I like chickpea hummus - so versatile for spreading on toast, eating with salad or as a dip with vegetables. The recipe usually requires Tahini but they didn't have any in Lidl so I asked the Duck for an alternative recipe.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_hummus_96922 This recipe uses smooth peanut butter instead of tahini and, as luck would have it, I was given a jar of that recently. I only buy Whole Earth Crunchy PB so the smooth stuff was going to be used for satay sauce and not eaten.  Anyway, back to the recipe, which claims not to need a blender and can be made with a ..read more

I've mentioned Dr Michael Greger before, when I was doing Veganuary in January. He's a nutritionist and has written several books that  intrigue me - although I'm too mean to buy them. There's "How Not to Die", "How Not to Diet" and "How Not to Age". Basically he recommends  "A Daily Dozen" of foods to be eaten to be healthy. https://veganuary.com/wp-content/uploads...t-2021.pdf Portion sizes at https://veganuary.com/dr-gregers-daily-dozen-checklist/ I've been dabbling with this list since January but I rarely manage to incorporate everything in my daily eating - because I ..read more

My living room window faces Northeast. I need a couple of smallish plants for the windowsill. They could be either foliage or flowwring plants. I had a mother-in-laws-tongue whisch is supposd to be 'bombproof'..........and it died. Same with another foliage plant. Any ideas folks ..read more

I haven't done hanging baskets for years.... but my Step Dad has requested some, he doesnt ask for much so I want to do a good job.  BUT he isnt good at dead heading  and he wants them to look as good as those down the road - What would you put in? I dont really want to spend a fortune ..read more