How to Make Frugal Piccalilli (Stage 1)

How to Make Frugal Piccalilli – It’s Frugalilli!

With a mountain of cucumbers and a fridge full of vegetables needing used, what better way to try preserving some vitamins in a tasty snack than to get them pickled?

Simple recipe that I hope works and an overnight salt bath for the vegetables… read more

Frugal Food From the Garden. (NB: We don't eat the quail, we eat and sell their eggs.)

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

Photo from the old corn mill, Port William

Aside from the fact that I am constantly being distracted by butterflies at the moment, I did, eventually, manage to get around to doing some work in the garden, mainly by way of tidying up the greenhouse and sorting out the tomato and cucumber bushes. The tomato plants were becoming so leafy that no light was getting to the dozens of little fruits that were hiding among the greenery. Hopefully, I haven't done the wrong thing in removing many of the lower leaves to allow the sunlight to get at the tomatoes. I was very late getting my tomato seeds planted this year, so they are well behind some of those I've seen elsewhere.

 

I literally had to thin the coiling tendrils of the cucumbers because they were taking over the entire greenhouse and there's little enough room in there at this time of year. The closer I look, the more cucumbers I can see!

 

 

 Down in the frugal poly-tunnel, I'm beginning to wonder if I've done the right thing is leaving the pumpkins - one each side supposed to be for each of my grand daughters in the hope of having pumpkins for Halloween. They are spreading at a terrifying rate and already have tiny pumpkins about the size of golf balls on them. The cucumbers will need to hurry up in there or they'll be swamped by 'the creature' that is a giant pumpkin plant!

Comfrey as green manure

 

A few weeks ago, some fellow frugalers and I were having a bit of a swapathon. I received some ginger mint, which is doing really well, and some small cuttings from comfrey, of which I had none in this garden. It's used as green manure and for speeding up the composting process, so I was hoping to be able to harvest it before the year ends. It's looking good! The above are the cuttings planted about a month ago. I'm delighted to say that the quail eggs I sent in exchange for the plants have, since, hatched - photo courtesy of Shaz.

Da- old Japanese Coturnix Quail, (fawn x tuxedo)

The herb gardens here are still growing at a an amazing rate, supplying herbs galore for friends and neighbours alike. The newest of the spiral gardens was constructed during the last week of May but it is already filled with herbs - and some unexpected 'guest' plants in the shape of sunflowers that have grown from seeds dropped by the birds. (Apologies for photo quality, the sun had set by the time I got around to taking these photos last night.)

Hands up all of you who have courgettes to spare! I know that several of out regular readers have, so we are now organising a courgette cake challenge. Chocolate and courgettes go well when baked together and I'd like to thank Gill for linking us to her carrot and courgette recipe in my previous post.

Yet another courgette trying to break free!

The Frugaldom potato patch is in full bloom and we have already had some of the potatoes. These were all grown from past their best potatoes left over from early in the year - left to sprout and then planted. We have a major slug and snail problem here, so things do tend to beat us to it in the veg-eating stakes, but there are enough potatoes here to last a few weeks at least.

We are still picking raspberries here but the rhubarb has now all gone and the bed being prepared for winter. I need to get a load of manure and straw to cover this over until next year. The next person past my door on a horse will be accosted and a request made for the contents of their stable. :) Next to be picked looks like being some blueberries and then there should be apples ready.

Blueberries

Well that takes care of the garden update for now - I'll pick and freeze the blueberries for ice-cream making, as there aren't many of them while the bushes are establishing themselves in my 'log-man' acidic (ericaceous) bed but here's hoping they start picking up for next year. That's them been in there for about a year, now.

 

Rounding up on the £4,000 budget challenge, I have £1,137.43 remaining to last me until the new year. That's after paying this month's telephone bill and purchasing the tickets for the frugal friends' fun day out to explore Carrick-a-Rede and the Giant's Causeway during our mini cruise to Northern Ireland later this week.

 

And just for good measure, here are this morning's photos. Yes, you got it... more butterflies!

 

Small Wall Brown Butterfly

Peacock Butterfly

Red Admiral Butterfly

 



I really tried my best not to include any butterflies in this post but they made me do it, I tell you, they made me do it! The above three photos were taken this morning while I was hanging out the washing.

I promise, no more butterflies unless I spot something really unusual.

Have a fun and frugal day,

NYK in Frugaldom.

A Frugal Concoction of a Day

Chairs, Cucumbers and Fruit Fizz

Today has been a mixed sort of a day - web work, some research and updating on a long-standing challenge I once set myself to make a huge piggy bank and fill it... but that tale will keep for a bit longer.

 

This morning, I had a surprise awaiting me in the shape of another three new chairs! Did I show you the two I got yesterday?

 

Here they are - an old pair of deck chairs that a neighbour would otherwise have taken to the tip. A bit of a scrub and a coat of metal paint should see these as good as new and ideal for entertaining on the patio. Normally, I need to borrow extra seating from next door when visitors arrive for barbecues etc.

 

This morning, I found myself the proud owner of a further three chairs from another neighbour who is scaling down on surplus furniture.

 

This lovely pair of dining chairs will be incorporated into the sitting room come guest room in place of the huge office chair I have in there at the moment. After my cousin arrived for a few days' holiday last week, absolutely weighed down with more offcuts of fabric, sewing materials and an electric sewing machine, making some seat and cushion covers can now be added to my 'to do' list. There's some lovely red and cream material that should do just the job!

 

Finally, on the seating front, there is this handy, comfy, space-saving, sturdy little folding office chair that, once recovered, should make a fantastic addition to my bedroom. Having been spurred into further action during the Home Improvement Hero challenge, I continued into the next room - my bedroom - to give it a budget makeover. Again, I'll save this for another blog post, as it's a total makeover on a tiny budget.

 

So that's the tale of the chairs, now what's all this about cucumbers and fruit fizz?

 

I had meant to bottle the champagne-style fizz yesterday, but somehow time slipped away from me and I ended up doing other things. Today became bottling day, so I rinsed and scalded everything in preparation. (See post here for how to make this for pennies per bottle.)

 

 

The liquid got strained through a sieve and returned to the bucket before ladling it out with a jug and pouring it, via a funnel, through a coffee filter. So far, I have done 5 bottles, but there's enough left for a sixth if I can find a suitable bottle soon enough to use it. The photo of the bottled fizz doesn't reflect the true colour, as this is a real rosy pink and has already started fizzing and fermenting.

 

And now for the cucumbers...

 

I know I said we were going to have a good crop of courgettes this year, but the cucumbers are also growing at an alarming rate. I popped out to water them while waiting for the fruit fizz to filter and the closer I looked, the more cucumbers I saw. We've already picked and eaten a couple and I gave cousin one away with her for her sandwiches, as she's going off on a frugal campervan expedition this week, but I think I'm going to be looking for ideas of what to do with surplus cucumbers very soon. Some will get traded with neighbours, some will get pickled and as many as possible will get eaten - they are so good - but if they all grow to an edible size, I may need some help!

So that was today's adventure in Frugaldom - 'bottling the fruit fizz' got scored off my 'to do' list, several new items got added and I didn't manage to get out cycling or walking. I priced up the spare parts to get my old bread maker back into full service and compared the price with buying another second-hand one via eBay. The second-hand one for spare parts looks like the money-saving option, so that's also been added to my list.

Until tomorrow,
Frugaldom.