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gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 18 1:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Back to normality, and work! The show went ok, as it was wet for the morning but cleared for the afternoon, and that is when the many hordes arrived and started to do the drinking. I, who doesn't drink in the way some do, was really wanting to get the show down and away home, after setting up in the morning, I was ready to take it down any time and go back to the wood cutting! A good time was had by many there so the objective was achieved and I guess most spent money. I was with a trade stand, a competitor, who I deliver to, but we show our tractors with that dealer, so I feel sort of obliged to give a hand. We get on well so there we are, I help him put it all up and do the fetching and carrying, he sells our tractors. I was tired when I got home!

Now that is a lot of peaches Jam Lady, and for a good cause. I like the idea of being able to gather for charity as well as for oneself. A quarter of a ton goes a long way in fruit terms and also is good for those whose diet is usually lacking in fruit. I have at least one apple a day, and sometimes two. Having been a diabetic and recovered I tend to have an apple, as it is, I am told the lowest of the fruits, sugar-wise. I used to eat 3 bananas along with a pear and apple every day. Clearly the advice after my artery op was not meant to be taken literally-"eat as much fruit and veg. as you like!"-oops. I think peaches were grown in the UK in the 'big house' glass houses of the Victorian era, when labour was cheap and having fires going all day and night was all part of being the under gardener to His Lordship's head gardener. If I remember it was important if you were "Somebody", to be able to outdo the next "Somebody" with your superior gardener, if you could, with one exotic plant more the "them next door".

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 18 1:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

nice peach harvest, we get quite a decent amount of apples to the york food bank each year.

that a society feeds it's folk is a basic decency, there should be no need of any improvised "safety nets" unless everyone needs them.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 18 6:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I agree with you Dpack. I help at a food bank, and some of the stories we hear are heartbreaking. Some people who come to us are so ashamed to have got in that position. We are fortunate at the moment that one of the local supermarkets is giving us their getting towards end of shelf life fruit and veg, so we are able to hand it out. The problem is always balancing supply and demand, as we never know how many people are going to turn up needing parcels. We know most of them the night before, but we may still get people walking in with referrals on the day, and some might not manage to get there.

Those peach trees look amazing Jam Lady. Shame about the Iron Mountain ones. I regret to say that we just don't know what variety we are getting as even the good farm shops don't tell us, and we just have to have what the importers send us. I prefer nectarines, and had some white fleshed ones last time, which I think are the better flavoured.

I eat a lot of fruit, which as I am not diabetic, is probably not a bad thing. My favourite time of year for fruit at the moment as we are getting English plums and cherries and imported nectarines and apricots. We can sometimes get local apricots from the Isle of Wight, but not always as they depend on what happens in the spring.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 18 1:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Nectarines are merely peaches without the fuzz. The major diversity in peaches is cling stone (flesh adheres to the pit, usually early season) and free stone (flesh comes cleanly off the pit, mostly later season.) There are also donut peaches - small and flattened, especially toward the tiny pit, hence the donut name. They come both white flesh and yellow.

My plans are peach pineapple jam, peach blueberry jam, and peach chutney. If I have enough I'll make a cobbler. But maybe not, as the igniter for my oven is getting slow to light. Friends from the "pickers" are making straight peach jam, peach pie, etc.

The two rows we were picking wee John Boy (prominent status as a commercial peach variety. Discovered in 1981 as a complete limb sport of Loring. Fruit is of very high quality, ripening 10 to 14 days before Loring with better color. Fruit is large and very firm. The tree is vigorous and productive with good resistance to bacterial leaf spot) and the other is still under a research number.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 18 2:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Dpack, I would agree with you IF every one in the society had the same level of intelligence, abilities, and income. It isn't so. We are individuals.

Plus life gets in the way. The garden club also supports A Woman's Place - for women who have run away from abusive situations - with both cash and donations. Ditto The Lord's Pantry.

Then there are exceptional circumstances. Late Monday evening, in the rain, a commercial tow truck hauling the box for a tractor trailer missed a left turn onto road in town and crashed into a pizzeria on the corner. Huge fire. Pizzeria was destroyed, major damage to popular cafe next door.



This image is from Thursday afternoon. Corner building has been demolished and removed. Major roads still closed. Linemen still working on repairs - we lost power Monday about midnight, got it back a few hours later. And we are a couple of miles away from the incident.

The three apartments above the stores have been destroyed along with their contents. These are people working lower level jobs who likely did not have tenants insurance. A Go Fund Me page has been set up for them by one of the churches in town.

I'm not going to say what should be. Just be glad that people DO step up. Peaches may not change someone's life in a major way but it is still a good thing for both pickers and recipients.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 18 5:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Fresh fruit is always useful for people on low income for whatever reason as it is often seen as a luxury so one of the first things to be cut when money is tight. That is one reason we are so grateful to get fresh fruit and veg from a local supermarket for the food bank.

That looks like a really bad accident Jam Lady. Hope nobody was hurt. It is going to be traumatic enough for the people living there anyway.

gz



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8577
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 18 9:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

A query from the Pirate, MR, what wood would be used in a hop drying kiln?
Thinking of what would be leftovers from coppicing?

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 18 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Well, I have just pressed a wrong button on the machine and the last half hour has "disparued".
I picked some more blackberries for my friends who I see most Saturdays after library.
I went to the kindling chopping machine yesterday afternoon. A fantastic tool for chopping wood but not quite like me doing it. I have around 80% yield of good stuff, 15% to get manual treatment and 5% to go to the friends who don't worry about how it looks as long as it works. Well you want the most you can get for your money, and bent sticks occupy more space than straights. I am paying on the nets I do, so will pay once I have got excited and netted it all up.

I am going to my friends' after library to give her some blackberries. It is small reward as she always feeds me when I go there. Her husband and I talk farming, and we have big differences-he is doing the farming from being a boy to now-74yo. My farming is all in theory, and playing with it at home. Billy left school at 14 and has been at home working ever since, but used to spread lime with an old Fordson Major and spreader, which he saved for and bought at 16! His stories I would like to write down. As he said I own it all now, but had to pay off the inherited overdraft from his father. He is proud of himself having had no real education-schooling for him was a clip round the ears for talking! He began with 230 ac. and now has 400ac., no overdraft and 4 working tractors, all Massey, 120-180hp, and kept all his old tractors-5 of various Massey types.

Not much else to report.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 18 1:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Our peach picking is a drop in the bucket compared to the quantity of donations the research farm shares out: https://snyderfarm.rutgers.edu/what-we-do/food-donations.html

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 18 6:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

They have done amazingly Jam Lady. In the UK we regard soup kitchens and food banks as something that though necessary, didn't ought to be needed. For us it has overtones of the 1930s. Since just after WWII we have had the Welfare State, which we all pay contributions into, which is supposed to help those that have got to the level to need food banks, but increasingly, because of government policy, doesn't help.

Gregotyn, if you could write down what your friend has done, or if he could write it, it would be very valuable. There probably are very few farmers these days that worked from that age, and all of them are going to be getting on a bit, because the school leaving age was raised to 15 a long time ago. Most modern farmers have been to agricultural college, and a lot have even got degrees. Different type of farming, so the old ways are useful and interesting to know.

The kindling machines are useful for large quantities of wood of the right sort, but as I usually work from trailer chips or hazel rods they are no good to me.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 18 12:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

What would you have the research farm do with the excess? They are supported with tax money so I don't know that they would be allowed to sell it. The Great Tomato Tasting https://snyderfarm.rutgers.edu/tomato-tasting/ did used to be free but - having become insanely popular - there is now a $10 admission fee.

There is a schizm over here, Mistress Rose. It tends to be the rightward leaning conservatives who believe people should take care of themselves without the need for support of society / safety nets.

A friend in my Wednesday morning knitting group is angry about illegals entering the country, convinced that people who don't work are all living a good life on welfare and take benefits that are paid for with our taxes - you get the picture. She also, for years, volunteered for a local rescue squad, taking night calls, became captain of the squad until she had back surgery and could no longer physically manage the need to lift / move patients. The rescue squad is all volunteer, supported with donations. As you might anticipate, she supports Trump in everything. (The knitting group doesn't discuss politics, what with the divergence of opinions.) When my little gray cay had to be euthanized and I was so sad that I wasn't going to knitting she emailed to see if I was alright, commiserated about the cat, encouraged me to come to knitting.

People are amazing, not all this or all that but instead are able to be some of this, some of that.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 18 6:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

It seems a very good use for the produce from the research farms Jam Lady. I am not sure what is done with the produce from ours, not even sure if they are government funded now in fact as so much of that sort of thing has been privatised.

Someone I knew as a boy who has now gone to Australia was ranting on about immigrants and coloured people in a rather unpleasant way on FB, so I reminded him that he was an immigrant and that the native people of Australia were black. He replied in a very derogatorily way about them so I have unfriended him, as I can't put up with that sort of thing, and I regret to say I don't know of any good points about him.

Your friend seems a good person in many ways, just seems to have been brainwashed by rumourmongering.

We did a show over the weekend, and I managed to cook our dinner Saturday over our barbecue. It is rather basic, so wouldn't do all I wanted, but managed chicken pieces, baked onion and sweet pepper with corn cobs. Not exactly perfect, but all perfectly edible and rather good flavour. I tried to do jacket potatoes too, but they didn't cook properly so husband finished them off yesterday and did some sausages to go with them.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 18 1:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

There's more going on than I had realized, Mistress Rose. I was at Wave Hill yesterday, making a garden visit and for a panna cotta cooking demo. The presenter was an executive chef from the company who manages the cafe there. Company also does catering, owns a 60 acre farm upstate (I think that's 24 hectare.) It was a relatively small audience going by other of their cooking demos I've been to - the day was overcast with occasional tiff-tuff rain. So he was chatting about the company with us.

If they're catering a party for 100 or more people and have fresh fruit out, any left over fruit is carefully packed, brought back to their commercial kitchen, and re-purposed. We had bonus little mixed berry cookies that came about in this manner.

But what if it is prepared food, you might wonder. Say the two entrees for the same 100 person party are beef and chicken. Never neatly divide 50 /50. So they prepare 75 servings of each. Any that remain are carefully packed up, put in a refrigerated truck, and brought to one or another food kitchen in New York City (which is where the company's kitchen is located.)

My friend who thinks everyone should do for themselves would probably approve that it's a non-government situation while still being irked that people are getting something handed to them. Me? I think it's terrific. How about you?

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 18 6:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I think it is brilliant. There is no point in throwing away good food just for the sake of it, and feeding those who might not be able to afford a meal seems an excellent way of disposing of it.

Our gripe in the UK is that if the welfare state was doing its work properly there would be no need for food banks, and it is a breakdown of that system, and inbuilt delays, that is putting people in the situation of needing them. I was reading an article yesterday about how inequality leads to general health problems simply because people see no way out of the situation however hard they work. If someone is stuck in a badly paid job with no prospects of improvement, they are more likely to 'escape' by overeating, drinking or drugs, and in fact life expectancy in the US is dropping, and definitely slowing down in the UK for these very reasons.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 18 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

If you don't want the situation that people cannot feed themselves, for lack of good health for example, jobs or any legitimate reason, then the haves, via taxes, should give those a helping hand. It is the idle who won't work that I hate helping. I have been unemployed. In the UK there are centres where you go and have to produce evidence that you have been looking for work. The people there are not pushovers by any means and one gave me a hard time-yet I was out every day looking for work, but the woman interviewing me didn't believe me. I got my present job after nearly a year, and I am still there-9 years on- I got lucky, nothing to do with the dole office, just who I knew. I am glad I was able to get a job, but there are those who are not suited to what is available. I feel for them. Again I was lucky I had always saved money, which some say is a mistake, as you get more if you are out of work and no reserve money, especially if you have dependants. I prefer my independant status, I only rely on a good doctor!
It is as you say MR, if the welfare state did its job properly the food banks would be redundant, but the near out of date food would probably be wasted! What a wonderful thing that company is doing Jam Lady. Because of the catering situation I have no doubt that the over produced food is paid for by the recipients of whoever they were catering for. Research into various agricultural production techniques is usually funded by companies who have a vested interest to sell to the producers of food, and not so much to the next user of the food.
It is the old story that if you produce too much the price comes down.
My theory is that if you can work you should, and if you can't work then you need helping.

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