Just a quick post about this fantastic kick starter campaign! We are already big fans of the GroCycle Oyster mushroom kit, we have one growing in our bathroom. They use old coffee grounds to grow Oyster mushrooms directly from, without much hassle at all. Seeing as Oyster mushrooms are generally quite expensive and we have… Continue reading Grow your own Oyster mushrooms! Back GroCycle Kickstarter campaign
Tag: food
Budget busting bacon misshapes, money saving
Whilst trying to find ever more frugal ways to cut back on our grocery shopping, we were looking at how much we spend on meat, especially as its one of the most expensive product lines in our weekly shop. We’re a big fan of bacon, who isn’t? (Apart from the Veggies, sorry this post is… Continue reading Budget busting bacon misshapes, money saving
Garden cooking, Dutch oven & a brace of conies
We were pondering whether or not we should invest in another brand new and shiny garden BBQ, as the cheap and cheerful ones you pick up from the supermarket or local hardware store never last for long.
This year I wanted to scrimp and save by creating our own and keeping it very frugal, for a while we were playing with the idea to use an old metal drum or maybe a full brick BBQ, as we had plenty of left over bricks. Decisions decisions….
From garden to plate in less than 15 mins
Ahh home grown fresh asparagus! They taste so much better than what you buy in the supermarket and we are not just saying that, they are sweeter, juicier and have a much stronger flavour.
Though neither Sherrie nor I have ever used an asparagus spear as a soldier substitute when dipping into boiled eggs, what were we missing!? They were absolutely yummy, though after a great debate whilst devouring our prey, we decided the next set of spears (ready in a week or two) will get the hollandaise treatment!
2 new dwarf trees: Peach & Apricot
Well we went out for a ‘quick look’ at one of the local garden centres on Saturday, which turned out not to be quick at all! Though we (ok i) came back with two dwarf fruit trees, a Peach and an Apricot!
I got permission from high command to approve the use of a little garden space for these two new additions to our edible family. Well I think we nearly have every possible fruit tree available and only in a small urban garden, it’s a good job they are of the dwarf variety lol…
Finally, potatoes planted out
Most of the potatoes have now been planted out, we were a little behind schedule (to say the least). They should have gone out a couple of weeks ago and were starting to get a little leggy and grown through the netting. Ooops!
Yes our chitting regime has been left a little by the wayside, instead of well sprouted tubers we opened the box to find them their long triffid ‘tendrils’ trying to escape through the gaps. Most of the years prior we have been pretty good at saving our egg cartons and getting the potatoes chitted, but this year we were so busy we fogot time and time again.
Keeping our mushrooms fresh
Take mushrooms for example, refrigeration is the best way right? Well yes, but leaving the plastic film over them causes them to go off quicker and become slimy due to the build-up of moisture. Piercing several holes in the plastic will increase their life by a couple of days, but no more than the general 4-5 days life span. However, there is in addition to refrigeration a very simple trick to extend the life of your mushrooms well beyond the ‘best before’ date. Now this might be common knowledge, but we had never heard of it before…
Growing food in an urban setting
Just came across this post on the Waltons blog and thought it was worth sharing for all those urban dwellers who would like to grow their own food at home, but dont think they have the space. It’s a quick start up guide for those who need a little nudge to get started! 🙂