Challenge Monday, not quite April!

No, I know it isn't quite april, but I do so like to start things on a monday! It's so much neater!

And thats the mealplan for the month. Main meals anyway. Breakfast is always porridge. With watery milk or milky water, depending on how you look at it!

New vat of easiyo is in the fridge (from the shelves, bought when on offer!) and super cheap jam as a sweetner!
Lunches will be mainly soup, as I love it! And OH should be allowed his ham or he'll moan! Mind, if it won't fit in the budget he'll know about it!!

Treats and cakes will be homemade, but thats not unusual. And as the last of the stored apples...

Are getting past their best, its time for an apple cinnamon herman:) perfect for a sweet treat! And I'll make fudge brownies for DS (honest they aren't for me) at the end of the week! Especially as its then the Easter holidays!

One of the things that will have to go on the storage list is meat. Of every kind. I know this time of year I couldn't have it if it wasn't in the freezer. I make it go as far as possible anyway! Herman sponge, sterted at 4pm......

Herman dough the next morning at 7am!

Knocked bacck and shaped...bloomer you think? Ready to rise...couple of hours later..

OOOhh! I've not used herman to make loaves before, just rolls! So oven to super hot..

Aint they pretty!!! I'm quite happy with them little devils...

Pretty good texture and yummy with butter:) So thats bread taken care of for the next couple of days...unless DS gets peckish!!

BBS x nothing earnt...but nothing spent:D

Overworked greenhouse growing

Can you guess what has come up in this tray? The poor little overworked greenhouse has been catching lots of sunshine :) Lettuces! red one end, green the other! I know, I can never sell very many and these trays hold over 250, but I like to eat a fresh lettuce! Though as yet I've never tried cooking one!

Next there's the pots of salad greens, I love these as they are cut and come again as I seed them quite thickly!

Also strewn some radish seed in the old greenhouse and covered it with some fleece so hopefully I have something to go with my salad leaves! I do like a good radish:)

Peppers and tomatoes too, though Mr snail has been a bit busy overnight...hence the pretty blue pellets!
Also put some rainbow chard in some ickle pots, and a tray of flowers! Yes, I know I can't eat flowers! And funnily enough I'm not much of a gardener! But I do like some colour amongst my veg and herbs!

Chives anyone?? I let them self seed and every year I have to try to find new homes for them!! And yes, that is my old boots in the garden!!

Gah! Chives coming up like weeds! And Mom!! This is what the old greenhouse looks like now!

And its mainly glass...well...ish!
BBS x

Fairy experiments

Experiments and old favourites...

When I was finding some pots to put my mixed salad seeds in I stumbled over this....

No, its not an instrument of torture!! Its a briquette maker. I bought it when I was about 20, yes, I know, its vintage now! Well, you were supposed to mush up newspaper, squish it down and hey presto, paper briquettes that needed drying out but burnt well.

Well, we keep getting given newspapers (people must think we spill alot of things!) and i thought about the big piles of chippings that the tree fellers left behind.

 

So, in an old bin, mix the torn up newspapers, and plenty of chippins....

Nice and neat!! We shall see how they dry out! Well, it is an experiment after all!! They are now in the greenhouse, under the washing line. That poor little greenhouse works hard! Its also got lettuce plants, peppers plants, tomato plants, and some mixed salad pots in there!
Ah, now for the old favourites...

Guess the foodstuff!!! Hmmm...cheap sausages, boiled eggs, breadcrumbs..its gotta be...

Scoth eggs..ready to fry....

Fried!!! These little beauties are so cheap to make yourself, even though they are faffy! 99p nasty sausages, 6 boiled eggs, plus one to coat @9p each, so thats another 63p! The breadcrumbs were probably another 20p worth:) and a tadge of flour and the deep fat friers fat! Add something we already grow..

potatoes ala wedgies..wedges? and some 'fenslaw'..

Aka things we grow shredded! And voila...tea for one meal for 3 of us, and lunch the next day ditto!! I know, the scotch eggs aint healthy..but they are VERY yummy!

Then there was the lasagne...yum again!

Last time I made meaty bolognaise sauce I made triple! Value lasagne sheets, white sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan (well the cheap version)

Cheap, cheerful and meaty!! Well, meatish ;-)
And I need stodge...honest I do...as I think I've got my fairy back.
For weeks I've been complaining about lack of firewood...so i took my wheelbarrow...and my axe...

Tadah!!! Firewood, chip chopped by the fairy:D And its a great form of stress relief too!
 

Oops. I seem to have bought a giant kilner jar with a spout! Its just so beautiful!! No, I didn't need it. It was a pure want! But I'm sure in the summer it will find a use with the koolaid mommy sent me!!

BBS x

The Wheelbarrow Fairies April Challenge

The April Challenge:

I work on a smallholding. Which means my hours round to 16 a week.
But this time of year its nearer 4 hours a week. Or 2.
Self employed, just under minimum wage.
This time next year DS will have left college. So no tax credits.
I can't be a magician and conjour up more work hours.
I can't make the land more productive.
I can't charge more for what I grow. I tried that before. I put the prices up 10p a thing. No one bought them. So things are now 50p. And thats what they'll have to stay. Even though everything I have to buy goes up.
We already eat ALOT of what we grow, we are semi subsistence farmers.
But April, May and some of June are the 'hungry gap'. Things aren't quite ready and old things have finished.
Not alot if anything left to sell. Not alot of money to be made.
Through the year I preserve alot of things, dehydrate, can, freeze and coldstore.
And when I have money I stock up.
This challenge is for me to figure, while I still have a little back up, what is the most useful things for me to really stock up on.
And I want the menfolk to realise what money I actually have, that I'm not a never ending source of can I have's.
　
So, those are the reasons for the challenge.
And this is the challenge:
For April, we will live on whats in the freezers, the shelves, the sheds. Anything else can be bought only with the money I have earnt.
(If I earn nothing there is a 'below the line' slush fund of £15 a week as there are 3 of us)
So, it may be £30, or it may be nothing. It depends.
I already have a month mealplan on the planning board!
And for evening meals and breakfasts all we need is milk.
There's alot of flour and baking ingredients on the shelves.
Lets see what I learn!!
If I earn anything I'll say, and if I spend anything ditto.
So far in March 1 wholesaler has finished, and 2 market stalls.
And it gets worse...watch this space!! It starts Monday, as April is tuesday!!
BBS x

Herman rolls..fairy stylee

The next thrilling installment...
Ok, so to make a dozen rolls, I start at 4pm the day before I wanna bake. And make the sponge...
Sponge:2 cups warm fluid..sometimes i use 2 water, sometimes 1 water 1 milk. Sometimes i use mushed up tinned tomatoes and water! It just depends :)1 cup herman,
2 cups bread flour. I only ever feed him with plain flour but use the more expensive bread flour when its time to bake!1 teaspoon yeast. i told you, he's not a proper sourdough. But he has the flavour and a good texture:) Mix in a non-metalic bowl and cover with clingfilm and leave to go mad for about 6 hours, till its good and bubbly (for me about 10pm).
Then add
2 cups bread flour,
1 tbsp oil,
and a good pinch of salt.At this point I add other things if I want different flavours. Dried tomatoes, cheese, whatever takes the fancy!
Knead for ten mins till smooth and elastic. I get another cup of flour to knead in, dust and knead.
Then in an oiled bowl, covered with a teatowel, he sits somewhere not too warm, I leave him in our kitchen which has no heating!
In the morning, knock him back and shape!
I normally make 8 or 16 rolls, depending on what I fancy!
Slash or snip the tops before allowing to rise somewhere warmish for a couple of hours.
Just before baking, I like to top mine with cheese and tomato, or cheese and ham, and I always leave some just flour dusted as they're great with soup.
Make sure your oven is well pre-heated. They go into a HOT 230 degree oven for 10 mins, then down to 200 degrees for another 15 mins. Till the bottoms sound hollow when tapped.
I must admit I always make rolls as bread in our house gets cut very thick and never lasts!
There's alot of recipes I use herman for...I'll post the apple and cinnamon one soon:) He's very versatile and adds his own flavour!
I've used it to make cinnamon buns, garlic monkey bread, loads of cakes!
He doesn't like it too cold, he slows down. And he hates it hot..I've never yet managed to keep one going all summer! I think my longest is 8 months! But...
My mommy was given a herman when I was a little girl, I can vividly remember making the cakes with her. And the smell of cinnamon:) It took me years to find the recipe again!!
BBS x
　

Herman, fairy style

Herman -
I'll tell you what I do...not what the recipe says, as it works for me!!
2 cups lukewarm water,
2 cups flour (plain)
a good teaspoon of dried yeast.
Mix it all up, stir every day.
Its supposed to be feed every 5th day with 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar.
Its not a true sourdough, but it is an everlasting yeast. And if you keep it going it tastes like sourdough :) and acts like it.
I tend to start it off, then a couple of days later I feed it..next day use it...then feed it after I've taken any. I rarely feed it the right amount! And its very forgiving!!
I was told to keep it in anything but metal, and not to use metal utensils. And keep it loosly covered so it can breathe.
I'll post the actual roll recipe tomorrow as I'm supposed to be working!!
BBS x

Growing, growing...gone

Well, here's Herman, the sourdough starter, after his sponge stage and his ten minutes kneading before bedtime:) Doesn't he look a harmless little thing...

And here he is after a night in the kitchen rising slowly!! Ready to take over the world! So he gets knocked back, and shaped into rolls :)

Half left plain with a dusting of flour. Half with slices of tomato and a grating of cheese....

Now at this point I'd normally say and here's the tray as it came out of the oven..but darling daughter was here..so this is whats left of the cheese and tomato ones...

and yes, I ate it for lunch today because I was worried it might be lonely. Plain ones? I think there was 4 left..was!

Ah yum.

Whats left now are mine for tea with another batch of nettle soup, a double batch in fact, just in case DS comes home hungry!

This is DD..no..she's not murdering DS, she decided he needed his eyebrows plucking! See the look of pain? Goes to show women have higher pain thresholds than men! After this she continued to treat him like a girls world and put his hair up in numerous fashions! I just sat, in the grandma chair, laughing! DD is 25 this week. She said she only feels 21 inside. After some deliberation I decided that I felt 17. A good day!
If I go missing for a few days its because i have broken my camera! And its on my phone...which is, you guessed it...broken! OOps.
BBS x but maybe without pictures!

The fairy gets her gloves on

Zoop!! Can you guess what it is???

Nettle soup:D

Pint of nettles, pint of spinach, an onion, a leek, 2 carrots, some parsley, a potato and a pint of milk!! I had 2 bowls for my dinner as it was so good, and when DS came home from school he finished what was left!! And it cost all of 25p for the pint of milk!! Woohoo!!

Stinging nettle patch!!!

Mind your fingers...and I forgot i had a prsnip kicking around too so in that went for a bit of sweetness!!

A strange concoction of what we grow and it was absolutely delicious!!

Lovely mix of veg:)

And here's herman aka sourdough starter! He's liking the warm weather!! Bubbles :) So I thought I'd do some sourdough rolls in the morning :) Here's the 'sponge'.

Oooh more bubbles! Just bfore bedtime I'll add the rest of the flour and give it ten minutes kneading:) Then it gets left in the kitchen overnight for a slow rise. In the morning I'll knock it back and shape it when I get up, and by teabreak I'll be able to bake:D Fresh rolls for lunch tomorrow! Yum!

BBSx

Half fat to finest fairy

Haha pastry!! As I've been mostly reading cookery books in the bath we have something else to try..pinwheels, or swirls...or both even. And would that be...oh dear...PSB!!! And spinach..I am a cruel woman and no mistake!! Hey but it comes with puff pastry!!
One side ham, PSB and cream cheese, the other side cheddar and spinach!!

There we go...mash, sweetcorn and strange swirly things....

Swirly!1 Do you know i made them because I showed the photo in the cook book to OH and said don't they look yummy. No was his reply!! So I made them anyway..I really am cruel sometimes! And theres veg to eat...alot of it!!

Oh look...more PSB!! Another bag...already some in my little stall so dehydrating some and some for tea! The full dehydrator gave me 2 jars :)

Lovely colour, I blanched these before drying:)

You'd think I'd be sick of it but I'm determined to find as many ways of serving it as possible!

Stir fry veg for tea!!

With yes, you guessed it...copious amounts of PSB! At least we shouldn't be vitamin deficient :D

BBS x