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... the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves ...
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gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 18 1:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We are lucky in our surgery in that the little male nurse who does these jabs is really good. I had a problem once with some nurse who couldn't find a vein and after several painful jabs with no joy she eventually got there. This chap hits vein in one go and hardly anything felt. I am lucky to be going there this pm as I have a stomach ache which is annoying, it came after breaktime, and has not gone yet there is a possibility that it may be my trousers are too tight! I think I may go down to the doctors early and have myself checked out if they can/will, I am currently starting to sweat quite a lot.

I am glad the folks are buying the log sacks; my kindling is dragging a bit, for some reason. I will have a look round the other shop that sells it to make sure I am still cheaper!
Think I had better go.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 18 2:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Apple picking for the food bank - yesterday some of us from the garden club went to the research farm. We picked 793 pounds of apples (Empire, Macoun, and Fuji) 475.5 pounds of Asian apple-pears and European pears, 71.3 pounds of winter squash, and 23.4 pounds of tomatoes.

The tomato plots were being ripped out so we could only go in the two that didn't have equipment in them. And the string supports had already been taken off the posts so plants were tumbled over. Food bank only accepts undamaged fruit so when picking for myself I took tomatoes that had black spots, bruised, whatever - we've been "enjoying" very wet weather.

I washed, cut out bad spots, ran through Victorio squeezer. Such a nice device - wash tomatoes, cut off stem scar, cut in half. Feed through hopper, turn crank, and raw tomato puree comes out through screen while very dry skins and seeds feed through the front.



Got nearly a gallon of puree. Tomato sauce in the freezer's future . . .

And I found a couple more small hen of the woods, Grifola frondosa. I did put a link to the mushroom foraging entry that's on my web site in Chat, where gz was wondering what / if anyone is blogging about.

gz



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8576
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 18 8:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

a very nice device indeed!

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 18 9:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

You are certainly picking a lot of goodies for the food bank Jam Lady. I too am impressed with the puree producer, separating off the bits you don't want.

I failed badly with the flu jab. I was not too well having eaten too many nuts in the middle of the night, and the system got overloaded, resulting in a lot of stomach ache at work-serves me right for being a glutton. I thought it was my belt too tight. So little Clive wouldn't do me and I now have to go another time. Back to normality today. I think there may be another flu jab session to go, even at this late stage.

I am hoping to fill my trailer with scrap metal today. I have over the years cut a lot of pallets into firewood lengths and chopped them. Now I find I have a lot of nails in a lot of boxes which need to go! Being a bit of a hoarder, and being honest, I probably have about 5cwt of nails, and a lot of other scrap associated with agriculture including gates whose tubes I always imagined "might come in". My neighbour said the time has come! So she is coming round to help-read supervise-I can see I will have to check on it all anyway, but it would be good to be able to park outside the back door instead of the trek I currently have to do, along a muddy path, plus access to my well for vehicle washing. This shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks especially if I do some every night, and take it to my local scrap dealers on my way from work each day. Well that is the aim.....

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 18 1:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

It is indeed a very handy device, gregotyn. Here's another view so you can see the whole Victorio, assembled.



Other than the screen, which is fiddly what with the small holes, it is easy to clean after using. It is easy to put together / take apart and put back in its box for storage. I also have a few other screens for it - one for blackberries to sieve out seeds, one to puree cooked winter squash, etc.

Yesterday evening I water bath canned 6 1/2 pints (American pints) of tomato sauce. Added 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid per jar to be sure of suitably low pH. That's my preference to lemon juice or vinegar, which I find affect the flavor.


dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 18 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

that is a neat little machine, am i correct thinking that it has a conical archimedes screw and a "sieve" cone?

i have never seen one in the UK and i can think of a few folk who might find one handy.
when i had space i would have as the toms main crop was usually ( more often than not, see my growing disasters posts ) far more than could be eaten fresh

i took to freezing bags of whole toms and then using them instead of canned but i have never been keen on skins and seeds.

considering the glut of heritage toms that the market gardeners i buy veg from often have in season i could use one of them for a week or two and have a years worth of frozen puree.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 18 7:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Mine is many decades old. Very useful device, and not all that expensive. Current price for a new one is about $60. That's with one screen. Here's a link Victorio model 200 I think there's a model with an electric motor but unless you were doing a truckload at a time it hardly seems worth it.

A friend has a Squeezo, all stainless steel and about 4 times as expensive. My Victorio does just fine for what I need it for.

As a fruit, tomatoes are (mostly, modern cultivars can be sub-acid) sufficiently acid for water bath canning. Peel, chop, pack in sterilized jars wedging down and adding tomato juice to eliminate air spaces. Process pints for 40 minutes in boiling water bath, water covering jars by 2 inches. Concerned for acidity - add 1/4 teaspoon citric acid to pints, 1/2 teaspoon for quarts.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 18 7:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

That does look a handy device. I have a juicer which fits on my food processer, but it doesn't work very well, so I have hardly ever used it. That looks as if it would do things like blackberries for seedless jam very well. I have never seen it in the UK either.

You did well for the food bank Jam Lady. I expect they were very glad of all that fruit.

We have been away at a show for the weekend. Saturday was horrible; wind and rain, so as the show closed early, we retired to our camping trailer and stayed there. Yesterday was a lovely day and far better all round. Made 4 besoms and did quite well for sales.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Tue Oct 09, 18 1:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Today is not going well, a lousy day at work, followed by yahoo not allowing me into my account for some reason, which I access 4 times a week, and wanting some info like a phone number which I don't have. They tell me there has been some unusual activity on the account. Oh dear-my means of communication with the rest of the world has been removed. Manure flies in agriculture as well as with yahoo; I have been un-loading parts for a spreader this morning at work!

Your food bank seems to do really well out of you Jam Lady and the growers of the fruit; fruit is so essential for health. As a child of the post war era, I got free orange juice for vitamin C, until I was about 5 years old.

Glad Sunday improved for you at the show, MR. Not much fun outside in wet weather-and lack of customers. I stayed at home most of the time-out for Sunday lunch, but otherwise I chopped firewood, lots of it. The wood is not selling as fast this year as last for some reason. I have had a pay rise this time and it which may account for it, but I will pop round and have a look at the competition's prices. They have never had my quality as they don't saw the ends of the wood, so lots of splinters-not good, and they store outside, mine is under cover, but live and let live, healthy competition.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 18 7:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Hope today is better and that you get into your Yahoo account.

I didn't get free orange juice, but some of my friends did; think it was restricted to larger families by the time I was around, and it was really lovely. Haven't been able to get much the same since. My mother gave me rose hip syrup, which I also liked very much.

Hope your kindling starts to go better once the weather gets colder.

We had quite a busy day yesterday. Had a load of firewood to cut, and as the timber was a bit bent, husband decided he had to cut it, so I had to move it from the frame to the belt on the processor. He had to help me with one of two bits, but got it done all right. Then we had to finish emptying the big retort kiln. That has pretty well filled a dumpy sack, so we just moved that under cover as close as possible to the kiln and covered it. Needs bagging, but that can be done next week. Then a Committee meeting in the evening at which I had to take the minutes.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 18 1:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

A bonus in that I got into my email account today, so my friend here in the library must have had a word with the powers that are in yahoo. Alternatively there was a glitch which self corrected!-No emails to reply to anyway!
The country supplied the orange juice and Granny supplied the rose hip syrup. The one thing, at school, I hated was milk to drink. Eventually a note was sent not to force milk down my neck. I really loathed milk in winter, when it was put on the heating pipes to warm up to make it drinkable-I remember being sick at school with that milk-till mother sent the note! Now I drink it all the time. I think-read "know"-I was a difficult child! Old age has mellowed me without doubt. I think the free orange juice finished in 1952 MR.

I have a friend who was kicked out of his home when his uncle died and although he was supposed to inherit the farm, the deceased uncle changed his will from the expressed will of his grandparents, who had predetermined the succession. How horrid can people be to their own kith and kin. It would have at least been an idea to leave him there till he died or couldn't carry on, he is 71, loved the farm and his cats. One has just died at 27yo. The family decided that one of his cars was part of the estate-not true-but he hid it in case at my place and I am now pleased to say it has gone.

Reading about you having the charcoal in a dumpy bag reminded me that I have one with a special base which is slightly tube like about 9 inch diameter, and with a tie to stop it emptying all the time. I wondered if one of those would work for the charcoal for you and make filling the sacks easier. Does a quality controller-inspector-come into what goes into a charcoal bag? My dumpy bag was for fertiliser and the farmer was pleased to get rid of it. It will go to work fullish of sawdust as the first idea I had for it.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 18 6:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I didn't realise the free orange juice finished in 1952. It must still have been available in clinics later, as that was the year I was born. Thinking about it, perhaps they could buy it at baby clinics well into the 1950s for a reasonable price, as it tended to be families with younger children that had it.

That sort of sack would perhaps be useful Gregotyn, but we are generally trying to bag straight from the kiln now using a potato bagger. We put the charcoal over a sieve before it goes into the sacks and break up some of the really large bits. There is no inspection as such, but we do work to our coppice group charcoal standard, so anyone wanting to know can check that.

Weather forecast here seems to be varying by the hour, so hoping we don't get too much bad weather; sounds nasty in the West Country with no trains running west of Exeter, although not quite sure why, but the section along the coast by Dawlish Warren sounds a likely candidate for one part.

gz



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8576
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 18 1:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

My brother was born in November 1956 I'm June '53 vintage and I remember walking along a lane beside the pram on the way to the clinic to collect his orange juice.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 18 1:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

My orange juice was definitely stopped well before I went to school in 1952, but maybe I am wrong that it was stopped for everyone in 1952.

I assume you use the finely sieved charcoal dust for fertilizer in the garden?

Weather here is not so bad yet; it has been a reasonable morning with some showers but none heavy. Probably waiting for me to get home and to start sorting timber for cutting. It is still quite warm up here and there is definitely a slow uptake on kindling. Normally now is when it starts to really take off, till the users then keep their fires in 24 hours by the end of november. Perhaps someone is doing it cheaper than me for some reason-I'll do a recce round the town. The place I sell to doesn't always open the bunker where they are kept. Most annoying when I pass the store at night to see the bunker closed.

Have you been in touch with Cassandra recently? Give her my regards if you do have contact-failing that I will write-well do a card at the right time!

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 18 9:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The hazards of age for me, gz! I am a '47 vintage, who is rapidly going off! I am beginning to set out to do things and have to go back to get the right tool(s). I am waiting for when I am unable to do anything, then I won't have anything to forget! At work I write things down so as to eliminate errors, that is the theory anyway.

Back to the hills I have an appointment with a load of timber!

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