General Chat

We always did have a veg garden but it was the old man's place and I was not welcome there but he has not been interested until this year since he had his stroke.This year,now the wet room is up,we can get organized.We have a lot of huge pots which are accessible from the wheelchair and this year he actually planted something and tookan interest.
He and his mate go out foraging and we have plenty of blackberries again and apples.A neighbour died a couple of years ago and,while things are happening to the house,the garden is overgrown.With permission from her sister,we had a tree full of bullaces.That went into jam which is lovely on a steamed pudding.I have a marrow pie in the fridge for pudd'n tonight.
There is a stall up the road the old man goes to for veg as well.It is one of his jobs.

Awe Sharron, bless you for taking care of the 'orphans'.
We have an allotment, and grow all our fruits and veggies. I would not be without my four freezers. I freeze as much of the veggies that I can, and make the fruit into things, plus I do abit of baking at the weekends and freeze it also. My OH often asks if there has been a famine forecasted on the news, when he attempts to extracte things from the freezer.
You will wonder how you ever managed without a veggie patch.
Good Luck with it, and hope to hear of your harvests next year.
Julia in Derbyshire

I have three freezers.You would think I had a huge family but it just us two and One Hand and Wheels,that's my dad.I also have my orphans to feed.These are two men I have known all my life who have been utter Godsends.They both lived with their mothers and are only very basic cooks so I make more of whatever we have for them to have some and they do the garden and take the old man out and clean out the shed and paint the kitchen and make me feel like the Queen of Sheba.
We seem to have worked out our own form of Communism,sort of Amish without the religion.
Now we are working up vegetable production for next year now.Our garden is big,it is an inter-war council house,so we should be able to live well when we get it back up to speed.

Jean (Monmouth), good morning. Your 'ends to middle' story reminded me that I used to do that. Used to turn my dad's shirt collars too. But I remember this incident as if it was yesterday.
When I was pregnant with my first child, some 44 years ago, I was 'blessed' with a visit from my grandmother. Out of her bag she produced a pair of good quality white linen sheets. "I've bought you these to cut down for cot and pram sheets" she said. And in the next breath "Your grandad died on those sheets, you know". Wow, what a gobstopper that was.
I also used to make three piece suits for the OH and shirts, and made all the childrens clothes and winter coats. It was just a thing you did in those days.
have a good day, everyone
Julia in Derbyshire

Sharron, its second nature to countrywomen to keep a good store of food in, I have known it to snow so much that we couldnt get a car out for 6wks, and was i glad i had the space to store things then, not so much to carry on foot. Mind, I had room then for a nineteen cubic ft freezer.

I don't sew if I can help it,apart from a bit of patchwork which is made from my old clothes and stuff from jumble sales which I have been doing for about thirty-five years.It might even get finished one day,

My store cupboard is a sight to behold.If it is on offer I get plenty.Maybe I have some subliminal knowledge of an iminent seige but you can be sure we won't starve.

People who can be frivolous are lucky, many people don't have the money to do that and if they were around when families had to watch the pennies, they knew all about turning collars and sheets etc. I have done it for my parents on my old sewing machine in years past, luckily when they were pensioners Dad had a fairly good pension from his job that continued after he died so those latter years were easier ones for my parents, which they richly deserved. They never had a car or fancy holidays, never went abroad or ate out a lot etc but at least they could have what they wanted, just a shame they both only lived to 79 - they could have had a good life for longer had their health been better.
I think the way we were poor when I was young affected me and caused me to start my hoarding, that and the fact that I ended up a single parent on a low income so several part time jobs so I could be there for my son meant I never had a lot of money to spare. The way things are going with this country more people will end up having to think twice about spending and it will come hard to those who have been used to splashing out.

I remember making aprons for Mum and aunts out of old skirts and such and have always made my own and Mum's curtains - I only remember Mum buying one pair for her bedroom when she was in her 60s that were ready made ones.

Lizx

Aren't you all good! I dont do a thing, if its tatty I give it to charity and if its unwanted I give it to my neighbour or sell on ebay. (Hangs head in shame!). I change my cushion covers and curtains yearly as I get bored...but it makes me think, my ancestors lived and died in tents and they'd turn in their graves!!

I don't know how to do that but I have turned collars.

Make do and mend! Sheets sides to middle, there is one lurking in my airing cupboard waiting to be turned into either pillow cases or oven cloths, fine for either as flannelette. Turnig a tatty dress into a skirt, or two tatty dresses into one good one. lengthenig a skirt by adding a contrast band about six inches from the hem. I have in the past, turned a coat so the good side of the cloth was on the outside. OH was on a very, very low wage!

Jude, good morning. Please read my rant on Rita's thread on Chat , re similar. LOLOL
Julia in Derbyshire

l remember some years ago a friend of daughters, (she was about 14yrs old at the time) wanted to help me cook a meal so l said yeh great you can peel the carrots....'peel the carrots, why, they come in a tin'....she had never seen a fresh carrot!!!!! bless her, she's a mum herself now, l do hope she uses fresh veg!

jude:o)

Just going off on a tangent from china eggs. I used my odd information on the TTF board the other day to help someone. A lady was looking for information on rellies who came from Ockbrook, Derby. Now I know this place is not far from where I live, but as it is not on my route into Derby itself, so I have never been there. But, I did know it was a Moravian Church settlement. Not quite in the way of the Huguenot settlement at Thorney Cambs. which has its own BMD on the IGI site.
The Moravians were German, as opposed to the Huguenots being French, and they did not flee from religious persecution. They were however, instrumental in passing on the works of John Wesley.
So, Ockbrook has a Moravian Church ,and a nowadays, a girls boarding school, and is a model village
The lady PM'd me, and thanked me for my contributioon to her thread.
Just another piece of 'useless' information., but it did help somebody
Julia in Derbyshire

I think my dad used china eggs as a kind of chicken contraceptive. I might be wrong but think he would put them under a clucky henso she would sit on them til she ngave up rather than hatch more fluff balls.

Jean, you are right, many children have no idea these days about how things are made or produced or grow, and they will probably never have the satisfaction of making do and making things from ihems already around the house. Make do and mend might need to return tho if things get too difficult, will children adjust to parents not being able to afford everything in the Argos catalogue put onto a Christmas list, for example. Maybe the hardships that are ahead will make for changes in the way people think and expect to have everything at once, or be able to be a throwaway society. Maybe David Cameron and Nick Clegg have started something by making these drastic cuts.

Lizx

Jean....well of course:o)) !!

jude

Jude, you are prejudiced in my favour!

Morning:o)

Jean you do not go on, you are very interesting so is ur OH:o)) both full of interesting information:o)

jude :o) x

Huia, children have lost touch with the natural world and it is a great shame. They know too much in some ways, but how would they cope denied all the things that electricity brings, for instance. Water only comes from a tap as far as they are concerned, and lemonade made from fruit is a thing of the past.

Quite a few years ago a neighbour was rather scornful of another who didnt know that cows had to have a calf before they would produce milk. I have to admit that it had never occurred to me. I just knew that milk came from cows, but I wasnt a farm child, unlike the scornful neighbour. But when I heard I realised that it made sense (having had 2 babies myself by then, and producing milk as a result!).

Huia.