Thoughts on Charity shops

I had 15 spare minutes to catch up on every ones blogs and quickly zoomed through all the new ones until I came to the comment made by "anonymous" on one of the  blogs I read. This I had to read twice! because it seemed anonymous had had a bad day and was letting off steam saying that              ( amongst other things) people who had things they had finished with shouldn't sell them but should give them to charity because there are a lot of people who really need stuff. Having just done a car boot sale with two tables full of things I no longer needed made me wonder if I should have disposed of them a different way. But if I had taken them to a charity shop surely they would have sold them for more than I was charging anyway. The charity might benifitted but it wouldn't have helped "anonymous". We have no free-cycle or similar based nearby, so that was not an option.

 It seems to me that Charity shops have got more and more expensive recently. Also there are lots of things some Charity shops will no longer sell. Once upon a time books were one of my favourite charity shop bargains, now often they are very expensive- especially at the Oxfam book shops. I have been told (and it may not be true) that thousands of books are sent for pulping every year rather than sell them cheaply. If I donate to charity shops I would rather they sold items cheaper rather than chuck them out. Which reminds me I must remember to take my bag of cross stitch kits ( ones I've had for years and know I will  NEVER stitch) and other things that didn't sell at the car-boot into town for the Church Charity Shop. They don't ask if I want to register for gift aid and are grateful for everything they are given and don't charge a fortune for the things they sell and the money stays in the town.  ( My preference would be The Hospice Shop - Him Outsides Mum spent her last days there and  they need the money the most, but after taking stuff in  once and finding that the two ladies didn't even pause in their conversation telling tales about an absent  helper to say "Thank you" I decided not to give them anymore things! I now donate directly to the Hospice instead).

Lots of new arrivals on the campsite today as we have The Lightweight Camping Group here for a 5 day Meet. First time they've been. Just like a normal camping group - but smaller tents!

Another picture from the garden to finish this tonight, This is my lovely Red Hazel, red leaves in spring with red catkins and later red tinged nuts - ALWAYS nicked by the blasted squirrels before we get a look in!

To fruit or not to fruit, that is the question

Three trees on our smallholding.
 First is a Morello cherry. Its quite old, probably about 30 years at least. When it was smaller we would pull a huge net over the top and peg it down all around to keep out the blackbirds. Now it's too big for that, so some years we have fruit and some years the birds take the lot. This year I know of at least 3 blackbirds nests nearby so it might be their turn. With the awful weather last  year it had NO fruit at all.

 Always last to have leaves  is a huge Walnut tree, we think it is as old as the house, so about 55 years old. Sometimes it has so many walnuts, we get to eat lots, other years the squirrels pinch them all before they are ripe. Last year with the awful weather we didn't get to eat a single walnut.

Probably also as old as the house, this is our HUGE old Bramley apple tree. Up until last year it had never let us down. It always had enough for us, some to sell and some windfalls to leave for the birds. Last year we were horrified to realise that the weather meant that there were NO apples, NIL, ZILCH, NOTHING.  Surely it won't be the same this year?

A Grey Day - both the weather and a missing towel.

It looked like being a grey dismal day so after putting it off for over a week we ventured out the 25 miles to our nearest big town - Ipswich, County town of Suffolk.  Poundland, Wilkinson and Aldi were calling! They have things that are so much cheaper it makes it worth the trip. Also we wanted to have another look at Sainsburys to see what we were missing in the way of their Value Brands, as other frugalers seem to find lots of bargains there.  Him Outside found Value Muesli which surprisingly says 'no added sugar'. He has tried other cheapies and found they were far too sweet. We also got the value loo rolls for the campsite but as we stupidly forgot the cold-box we couldn't take advantage of cheaper meat, fish and cheese.

Aldi did have Allinsons flour for £1- much to my surprise, I wonder why it shot up to £1.79 at Tesco? They also have little tins of sardines and tuna for much less than value brands elsewhere. Then into the town centre where it seems that there are even more empty shops than 6 weeks ago. But a chance discovery in The Butter Market Centre cheered me up - we discovered a new shop called Grape Tree. It was full of dried fruit, nuts, herbs and spices in plain packages looking awfully similar to Julian Graves which closed last August. Not only did it look similar but the shop lady told me that it was being run by the original owners of Julian Graves before they were taken over by Holland and Barrett and then closed down. She said they have now re-opened 16 shops around the country - several in the West Midlands where they were originally based. Good news indeed when so many shops are struggling. Our last stop on the way home was to use our Gardening Club card at Wyevale for some compost on special offer. Most of it will be for next year.  I would have liked a wander around all the pretty bits and pieces in the kitchen section but time was getting on and Him Outside wanted his lunch!

Now the missing grey towel. We have 2 very large dark grey bath towels ( as well as some others of course!). When I was in the bathroom yesterday I was pondering that there was only one grey towel on the towel stacker thing, but the other one wasn't in the wash basket as I had loaded the washing machine not long before and would have seen it. So today I started a search. It couldn't be in the spare room as I had hoovered and stripped the bed yesterday and would have seen it. Upstairs and downstairs I looked,  in all sorts of unlikely places- How could I have lost a large bath towel? 

Then I started again, everywhere I had already looked and FINALLY in the spare room at last there it was all the time- hanging on hook on the back of the door ( which opens against a wall ). So message to son - next time you are here please leave towels somewhere I can see them!

No pictures for the blog today - too grey and nasty for photos outside and  nothing exciting happening indoors.

Car boot success and a good read.

First of all, before I forget, thank you to everyone for comments after Saturdays Post, all the "regulars" especially Karen at Chelmarsh, Pam at Tydd, Sara from way up north and two new visitors - Fantics Antics and The Domestic Storyteller. All comments much appreciated as always ( so I know there is "Somebody out there"!)
 These two little tins at the top of the page, are the only things I found at yesterdays car boot sale for 50p each. Originally holding Christmas mugs from John Lewis' I was told, but absolutely perfect for holding a small Christmas cake to add to the hampers for family this year. We decided after Christmas 2012 that we really needed to spend less on extended family ( so don't worry H and J, M and R and A and B.  that doesn't mean you!!). For several years we had been giving a gift voucher and a small gift. This year it is small gift only. It was just getting too expensive.

We actually came home from the car boot sale over £80 richer, as we took all our junk that had been accumulating for the last 3 years since we last had a clear out. The weather was a bit chilly, and the turnout of visitors could have been better but considering we had things that  sold for 50p,£1, £2 and not much more we were pleased with the outcome. The remainder that we brought home has been sorted for disposal via charity shop or bin with the few books being added  to the shelves in the campsite recreation room and just a few bits put back in the roof cupboard for next time - 2016  I reckon! ( The £80 will be added to an ISA where we save Tax Free in the summer ready for the winter).

After the car boot unpacking and all the usual jobs of campsite and smallholding, I put my feet up and got this book finished. It was a really good read. Modern crime, the 5th in the series so far about a forensic archaeologist who works in the fictional North Norfolk University and lives on the wild coastal marshland around Blakeney. ( Although most of this book is set in Blackpool and on Pendle Hill in Lancashire.) They are not heavy going and not complicated nor psychological or weird.

Then I wrote a much overdue letter to my penfriend who lives on a very windy Scottish Island. By which time I was quite ready for bed.
Today I got busy with the hoover upstairs and downstairs, various bits of cleaning, chopping more kindling .WHY am I still having to do kindling in mid May? Because it's like blinkin' March here today! Finally a little weeding.
Him Outside has been loading an old trailer and some gang mowers onto our big trailer ready to take them to a Collective Auction up in Norfolk very soon, then taking the tractor and topper down the road to cut some very long grass at a second home.Finally cutting our grass here in the orchard which seems to be all dandelions this year. ( We don't have a lawn here on the smallholding, just patches of tatty grass!!)

These are the things on which we spend nothing ( or very very little).

So that we can live here on a 5 acre smallholding and be self employed and so that Him Outside can work part time at age 56, and so we can eat nice food and be comfortable there are some things we spend NO MONEY ON.

Looking back at the first quarter of the year- we spent NOTHING on heating (except for a bit of electric for the chainsaw to cut wood). We spent NOTHING on CDs, DVDs, Entertainment systems, satellite TV subscriptions, electronic games and similar gadgety toys. ( unless you count the new digital camera for my Birthday- I'm not counting that - It's a necessity for blogging after all !!!) We spent NOTHING on haircuts ( we do it ourselves), make up, smelly 'products' and  similar   things         ( except for unscented  soap +shampoo and deodorant from Poundland). We spent NOTHING on Take-away meals or eating out. We spent NOTHING on newspapers. We spent NOTHING on things for the garden unless they were connected with growing food. We spent NOTHING on Days out or Holidays.We spent NOTHING on jewellery or watches. We spent NOTHING on gadgets for the kitchen. We spent NOTHING on new books ( although I've found several secondhand and borrowed dozens from the library) We spent NOTHING on keeping up with the Jones' ( or keeping up with anyone else for that matter.)

BUT on the other hand we spent a lot on doing the recreation room, shower and toilet on the campsite, Too much on things for the smallholding, quite a lot on new chickens, chicken feed and 1500 egg boxes. And Far  Too much on running the gas guzzling 4 wheel drive that we have to have for pulling a trailer to collect and deliver all the smallholding things that we do!

What are the things other frugalers out there spend nothing on, so that they can do the things they chose?

Now I'm down off my soapbox again, I will get back to normal and tell you about our Saturday here in Suffolk. I was busy in the kitchen doing these things in the picture. 6 boxes of pizza topping to go in the freezer. This is made with 3 tins of tomatoes - without their juice- 4 smallish onions (home grown) chopped fine, a good squirt of tomato puree, teaspoon sugar and pepper and oregano (home grown and dried). Total cost about £1.10p I reckon ( onions are free as we sold enough last autumn to cover the cost of the onion sets.)The onions are softened in a little oil then add the tomatoes and mash them up add the rest and cook until thick.

The juice from the tinned tomatoes was used along with a small onion, a grated carrot and some of the outside sticks from a head of celery plus squirt of tom.puree and a little flour to thicken, water and lots of seasoning to make a big saucepan of tomato soup. Which seemed like a good idea with the weather turning back to cold, grey and wet today.

 Finally I mixed up a good lot of crumble topping to put in the freezer ready to make Him Outside all the desserts he likes to eat, with all the lovely fruit we grow. An hour or so well spent I think.

Meanwhile Him Outside was busy weeding while it was dry and sorting out  the jeep and workshop when it rained.

We have one crop that was damaged by the high winds - the cougettes. Despite covering with fleece they look very sad with several broken leaves, not sure how many plants out of the 18 will survive. Will look again in a few days to see how they are doing. I still have 4 more plants in the greenhouse waiting in case we lost any and there are always plenty of plants for sale at carboot sales if we do need replacements. Courgettes are one of the things we grow to sell as they are so easy to pick and pack.

Car boot sale tomorrow - weather permitting!

More about asparagus

Thank you for comments left yesterday and Bridget left a message to say my asparagus picture had inspired her to buy some asparagus  plants to grow. The trouble is that there is a bit of a wait between planting and the first time you can eat any because it takes the crowns 3 years to get established. 
This is something I wrote in June last year for the Suffolk Smallholders Newsletter.

When we first looked around this smallholding on a cold January day in 1992 the owner pointed to an empty patch and said "that's the asparagus bed". Sadly by the time we moved in 5 months later it was a few straggly asparagus shoots amid a sea of weeds and grass. Reclaiming the bed was not top of our list of priorities and it wasn't until 2006 that we eventually got around to doing things properly. We built a proper raised bed, with good drainage and planted good quality crowns. After resisting the temptation to eat any for a couple of years and then restricting ourselves to just a few for the next year, we looked forward to a good number of spears, but then came  two dry years and several crowns just disappeared, so we still haven't had the chance to be really greedy. Even so fresh cut asparagus is one of the best things to have when nothing else is around.
Searching through my books on more information on asparagus I discovered it has been cultivated since Egyptian times and grows wild in many parts of Europe, Asia and North-West Africa. The Romans would force it by covering to grow blanched stems. In this country, for many years, it was usually only grown in the lavish kitchen gardens of grand houses,but the railway age allowed it to be quickly delivered to  wealthy city dwellers, where street-sellers called it "Sparrow Grass". I'm guessing that in the past it would take up too much space for a small return in cottage gardens. In his Complete Book Of Self Sufficiency  John Seymour says " Do not be put off by any puritanical ideas that as a luxury crop they are somewhat sinful!" 
So if you've got the room and don't mind the wait it's well worth the effort. 

The crowns I bought in 2006 were 6 each of 4 varieties, ( supposed to spread the eating over a longer period) to fill up the bed. If I was starting again I would only buy 1 sort because by having 4 varieties and then losing some of the crowns in the drought years and then the wet summer of last year there is not enough of each for a meal until the whole lot get going.
 We will eat them often for about a month and then they have to be left to grow up into tall feathery plants. If you keep eating for too many weeks then the plants weaken so that they have fewer shoots the next year. At the end of the year when the stems have turned brown then they are cut off quite close to the soil.Then they need a good feed and weeding and hopefully next year they will appear again just in time to fill the hungry gap.

I seem to have been fiddling about all day again. Him Outside had to go to see the nurse for a blood test first thing this a.m. ( He has been suffering with rather too much indigestion recently and has to go to hospital for nasty tests soon - poor old thing!) so I went and did a quick dash round Co-op in the hope of some yellow label things on the meat counter. There were 2 Pork chops at half price so they were snaffled up to put in the freezer and I was just debating that a half leg of lamb reduced to £6, still seemed expensive to me but would make a meal for when we have visitors, when a bloke reached around me and grabbed it! Oh well. That's the joy of having no choice for shopping out here in the sticks - The reductions are hardly cheaper at all. They had a trolley of " reduced price" cauliflowers but their idea of a reduction was from £1.20 down to 80p !! Luckily we still have a bit of purple sprouting broccoli left but if the weather stays warm it will soon run to seed. 

Well, that's my lot for today. I'm not sure what else I've done except the normal house and campsite cleaning, egg collecting  and meal preparing and a bit more herb sorting.

Maybe tomorrow will be more exciting!

Windy day in Suffolk, but otherwise quite quiet.

It is so windy here this afternoon, hope it doesn't do too much damage. Every year just as we get lots of blossom on the trees we seem to get a windy day to blow it all off again.
Today, after 21 years of fighting our way into the fruit cage ( because the door was just a piece of netting weighted at the bottom and was always getting tangled up) we have a proper door, hinged  and with a hook and eye catch. Even when the old fruit cage posts rotted away and we replaced them we still had the hanging net door. Him Outside decided it was a job he could do this morning, And hooray! it was soon done. I have no idea why it has taken 21 years to do?

Not much else of note happened here today. I fiddled about making a fruit cake and then tidying and potting up some small herb plants into bigger pots ready to sell later. Him Outside collected the chickens that are to stay here whilst their owner is in hospital and then went off to a second home not far from us to cut their grass. Dinner was home made chips, with home grown asparagus and chicken thighs baked with a spicy, crunchy crust.
That's it- Quiet,frugal day in Suffolk