No C word allowed

[bilboraggins]

As there are lots of threads, good threads that I keep up with here, about the topic I just wondered if anyone would be interested in having a c word free prepper chat.

The kind of thread @bellinisurge might drop in and tell us the latest dehydrator adventure!

Everyone welcome of course. I just feel like I would love to have a bit more general prep chat to calm my nerves.

Some general prep/housekeeping I'm doing today is going through my fresh stores and cooking up anything to freeze that's on its last legs so just about to cook up a big batch of roast potatoes for the freezer and try not to eat too many

Yes Bilbo I keep having the same problem with Amazon baskets.

bellinisurge maybe I try some peppers then.

When you dehydrate them how dry are they? are they chewing or are they so dry it's like eating glass? I know they soften in cooking but I can't seem to get the dryness right.

when doing strawberries at the recommended time they were slightly chewy and when stored after a couple of days turned brown and stuck together, so did them for longer and they were so dry they had no taste and felt like they could cut your mouth.

raspberry were just a mush

Raspberries and strawberries I do as fruit leather.
Pepper had a bit of chewiness but not much.

And, courtesy of Doug and Stacey YouTube channel, I'm going to try fermenting veg this year too.

Overnight I made some yogurt in an 10 quid bright pink easiyo flask without using the easiyo stuff. Admittedly I used fresh milk rather than powdered but that is my next Easiyo experiment.
Thank you to whoever on here gave the heads up about the relatively cheap easiyo flask (despite the mad colour)
Fussy dd loves yogurt. That and local honey we got ages ago went down well. Big prep success.

I have some sachets of starter yogurt in.

But surely there must be away of starting your own live yogurt to use?

TBF I haven't really looked into it.

I always thought if fresh milk was left it separates and that's the beginning of live yogurt? would powdered milk separate the same if left long enough?

I'll use tbe yogurt I have just made as a starter for the next batch.
As for using powdered, I've seen that if you use full cream stuff - I have Nido - and make it up slowly before doing the "gently heat on the hob" thing, it should be exactly the same process.

I was going to experiment around this

I've successfully made yogurt from dried milk before.
I have limited space in my freezer so am wondering whether I could make a large vegetable stew to last a week in my fridge, then I would adapt it as pasta sauce and soup etc? My fridge is super cold and it would be only veg, tomato puree and herbs. Do you think it would keep that long?

If it's just me, I'd probably do it. On the "if it smells ok" rule. But not for anyone else.
Anything cunning you could do with your freezer. Say, flat pack the stew in a plastic bag for the "library" method of storage.
Or if you have frozen veg in the freezer, get them out and use them and get some tinned veg instead. I also prefer frozen veg but will use tinned at a pinch.

Yes some of these are veg i couldn't fit in freezer I think I'll make some of the veg into fritters today and then slot them around the freezer. I'll try to eat the rest more quickly as stew. I've never been too sure about 'perpetual stew'
I'm wondering whether I need to store my potatoes in compost rather than the paper bag they're in.
Rather than frozen meat and fish which is taking up a lot of space, I think I'll resort to tinned fish and replenish the freezer with veg. Like you I much prefer frozen veg to canned.

Tinned veg is ok in something. Frozen best alone.

I'm so jealous of you lot with lots of freezer space! I have an undercounter freezer and that's it! I can do a certain amount of leftovers/batch cooking but I seem to run out of space so quickly! I am currently trying to gently run down my freezer at the moment because I really needs a defrost and sort out! I used to be super organised at batch cooking, but recently I have let it lapse and my freezer has raw ingredients and beige food not meals at the moment.

I am going to do more gardening this year. My friend was planting seeds with the kids for her (new) allotment and it had inspired me to try this year, in my fully paved back garden! I have got some huge storage boxes to use as raised bed type things, fingers crossed they work. Our seeds are sprouting well on the kitchen windowsill, hope it warms us soon!

Runner beans worked in a pot for us.

Surely an under counter freezer is bigger than the bottom half of a fridge freezer? ( Especially a fucking Hotpoint that only works without the top drawer in the freezer)

But yeah there seems to be quite a few families with more than one freezer. I would worry about the leccy going off and losing the whole lot.

Good point about tinned. I need to restock as I've been running down short dated cans. But they're a little harder to find now.
I don't have that much freezer space which is a pity.

Got some little seedling pots for the kids to do, just dipping my toes in growing some things. I would love to have a little veg patch one day but my windowsill will have to do for now

@BlackeyedSusan I think it depends on your design. Mums fridge freezer is like one stcked on top of the other iyswim so that's what I picture. When I was young she had a full hight freezer AND a fridge freezer. Although now you mention, it that was probably only a small freezer. I think I just need to be more organised!
Good to know that some things do OK it pots!

Sexesam could you empty out the freezer contents and clean it, allowing some raw ingredients to thaw for a batch cooking session, and then freeze the results? So not losing out on the contents but not needing to run it totally down before the clean out either? Just a suggestion as it’s perfectly safe to regress food that was frozen if it has been fully cooked.

I’ve got DH alternating between panic (and rage at Govt not doing enough) and “don’t worry, we’ll be fine” mentality. So I’m just quietly getting on with preps and ignoring him...

@BiddyPop technically, yes I could but... Well, I just haven't. I haven't been in organised mode recently. I had a week off work and achieved very little noticeably.
I will have a moment at some point which I will try and jump upon and get it sorted. I find a job takes 3 times longer when you don't really want to do it!

I know that feeling precisely Sexesam!! And sometimes you just need to chill - as I keep reminding DH....

Thats the thing with DHs isn't it. Mine was the one who started me down the pepper route, he informed me about certain things and was doing financial things to prepare, then I realised he was ONLY going to do financial things to prepare! So I carried on quietly getting other things squirreled away and sorted. Then with one of the brexits looming he started saying we should do this, we should do that, just in case and I was replying done it, done it and I realised I had metaphorically run around the house picking up his dirty sock so that he would actually have socks to wear! (something I refuse point blank to do!)
It's all or nothing with DHs! Bloody things!