Winter food supply

The garden is still supplying us with fresh veg - carrots, parsnips, sprouts and red cabbage. Our store of potatoes, onions and garlic are holding out well and should last till spring.  In the freezer it is surprising how quickly space appears - the drawers were jammed packed till a few weeks ago now pulling out packs of fruit for puddings two or three times a week is creating holes.   I can now buy meat in bulk to last a fortnight and freeze some.  This will save time and petrol going to the super  butchers in the next village.

The weather has warmed to 13C so I have started to clear the poly tunnel.  Cutting down the tomatoes and turning over the soil today; next time I must take in a step ladder and cut all these strings off the supporting frames.  Spiders and bugs like to weave little nests and sacs where the strings are wrapped round.

Taken the green tomatoes in and hope at least some will ripen. The green peppers do gradually go red but you have to be careful they don't go off just sitting there.

After all our autumn visitors the food cupboard was disorganization and very low.  Action needed.  I made a list of all the standard things we have in store and actually use - no treats, no speculations, no I might use it one day.

I used this to do a really big bulk buy on line (£100), thus avoiding delivery charges that week, and I also went for big sizes.  Like 1 kilo of cornflakes, spaghetti, pasta shapes, etc which meant I got a cheaper price per kilo.  These are all things we will use up over the winter.

I will use this list to check what I need each time I shop and to keep an eye on offers.  I am really interested in the bigger packs of things - you can buy all sorts of sizes in cornflakes but only one size in flour?