What and Why The 28 Day Preserving Challenge

 Let me start with the What?

Day 4 of My 28 days of Food Preserving.

I follow lots of Homestead and Smallholding channels on YouTube 

By the way if you have one leave a link in comments so I can add you to my list.

One of the channels I follow is Three River’s Homestead

Fab mum of a large family, every year she does a few homestead challenges to help keep on top of things, it’s so easy to get stuck in a rut and just do the same old stuff on a homestead. 

I have been watching her Every Little Counts challenge that she does at the end of the harvest season to use up all those little bits and bobs and preserving with them every day for a month, making sure there is no waste 

WHY?

 as we go through a cost of living crisis it’s even more important we make use of everything and put those bargains to use when we find them, use up all those harvests in store before they turn, fill the pantry shelves, and no food waste. 

So I thought I would challenge my self for the next 28 days to do just that. I have the added challenge of my kitchen being packed in boxes and I have a very limited work space. 

But hey another few weeks and I will be in a real kitchen and not working from a cardboard box. 

I am going to trying some new to me things, it’s fun to try all these little projects, hopefully at the end of the 28 days my preserving mindset will be in a good place and I can join in her challenge in September along with lots of other homesteads. 

We have spent the last few months of only buying in what we really need, it has vastly reduced our spending, saving money, using what we have in the freezers what we have in the pantry and what is growing outside. Lots of meal planning and organising has got us in good habits. 

As we now enter a new growing season we will be entering a new preserving season in a few months so it’s important that we don’t waste what still needs to harvested from winter growing, also the past few months organising the food side has made me look at what we grow and what we need and being realistic what we don’t need to grow. 

Anyway I am off lots to do take care everyone   😁

28 Day Food Preserving Challenge

 I am taking part in a 28 day food preserving challenge, 

Preserving something every day to prevent waste and fill shelves. 

Here are my first three days.

DAY 1

DAY 2

Day 3

The Year Is Ending On A Good Note.

 A run through of what’s been happening.

I have been doing Farmers Markets with the Buffalo Meat

The meat has been really selling well, 

I have three more to do before Christmas, but of course it means if I am out and about doing farmers markets 

I have had my surgery yipppppeeeeee

I am now a month post surgery and recovering well getting back to normal, it’s a bit of a pain having to travel to Cardiff to see the surgeon, but there we go it’s done and I really hope I never ever go through that again. 

I am no longer having constant pressure headaches, not having to sleep  the days away is wonderful, tinnitus is gone most of the time, balance and coordination is coming back. 

I did lose 28 lbs pre surgery put a few ponds on in the following couple of weeks but have dropped it again. Losing the weight has made a vast improvement to my COPD. 

I am still having tests looking for the cause of high cranial pressure and I hope the find the cause and can treat it before another leak occurs. 

I won’t go through the details of the surgery here but if you want to know I have done some you tube videos on my CSF leak. 

We have been moving on with the building work and this week I hope the scaffold comes down for the last time, I now have a lovely walk in Pantry, this video show my pantry off.

I have been taking it easy recovering I have been getting the last of the canning done from poly tunnel produce

 

I also got a bargain of 6 pineapples for £1 so they got canned this week too.

I picked the first Satsuma of the Year too from the poly tunnel

There are still more to come and we should both have a satsuma for Christmas  

I am getting back to crafting as well, I did run a workshop the other week

They were making draught excluders with Applique robins.

I have had my loom out again and getting some weaving done, using up lots of scrap ends of yarn.

It is so lovely to spend time in the evening doing some crafts in front of the fire while listening to a audiobook  at the moment I am listening to The Allotment girls 

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd?asin=1528820258&source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=player_overflow  

It is lovely to feel almost normal again, and do normal things. I am planning to get out on my bike again soon, had a trial run around the field with Martin surpervising did lose my balance but I plan to be out properly on it in a few weeks, although we have snow forcast next week that might postpone it a bit. 

I am really looking forward to 2023 we have lots of plans having both suffered with health issues over the past couple of years it has made us take stock and descions on the future but that is a long way off heat we are still only part way through our adventure here.

stay safe and warm everyone.

Yep it’s August

 Yes we are heading into our last Bank Holiday of the year.

I have made Marmalade from our own home grown oranges

 And It seems like the world is going to pot

Energy costs are soaring,

Food prices are soaring, 

Postal workers are striking, 

Ports are striking, 

Rail workers are striking, 

Barristers are striking, 

Refuse Collectors are striking, 

Heatwaves and water shortages.

Crop failures.

And I have a courgette glut again, 

But I am not going to fret over it, this year I am prepared and have a few ideas on hand to deal with it. 

Some of the things I have done in the past with courgettes 

http://www.beingselfsufficientinwales.co.uk/search/label/Courgettes

Other news, our farm shop is open and has been going well except no one wants to buy courgettes.

The Buffalo have calved we have two lovely little females unfortunately we lost a bull calf from Petunia after another difficult delivery, she has now been retired. 

Other news, I still battle daily with my Cranial Leak, more on that another time.

I have lost 22lbs of weight more on that another time.

The polytunnels have served us well and we have had excellent crops this year, filling the cupboards and freezer.

The peach harvest was excellent, some we sold some I preserved some were eaten fresh off the tree.

Our Scaffolding business is now completely relocated to here and Martin is getting plenty of work lots of variety and more unusual requests 

Building work is progressing well on the house, our builder has just come back from his holidays and is now ready to get slates on the roof fascia boards and gutter stuff, then he can knock through to the exsisting kitchen 

We now have a compost loo which I love it our anniversary present to ourselves this year

We have also bought a big beast of a generator that runs on diesel and will be set up to run the whole house and outbuildings during a power cut. 

On that note I am signing off time to tackle those courgettes take care everyone.

Feel Like We Have Slapped In The Face

 Yes seriously a big slap in the face, 

after spending weeks juggling budgets, 

Trips to France 

Putting our plans on hold,

Endless visits viewing mobile homes, 

Time spent away when we had so much going on here

We found the perfect mobile home for Martins parents it was above the budget we set but hey it’s for his parents to be comfortable in for the remainder of there days.

We put down a deposit told them all about it, did a video and sent to them 

They watched the video then called us the next morning.

They have changed there mind, unbelievable.