Good growing weather here, which is code for warm and wet!
Below is a picture of our local "swarm spotter" L. he lives across the road and often comes over to help D with tasks around the smallholding. When he and his parents spotted a cloud of bees in our garden L. dashed across to tell us. We managed to find some bee gear to fit him, so he was able to take a look close up. I am sure you will be meeting L.here again over the summer.
Here are the ingredients that I had in store. The meat is a kilo of the Ox heart I froze earlier in the year. There is a tin of tomatoes, a couple of onions, stock cubes, garlic powder, the bowl of veg and a couple of crusts.
Using the mincer I had for my birthday I minced the heart and then the veg. I then (as my mother taught me!) "cleaned out" the mincer with the crusts. I seem to remember that she used to be extra vigilant cleaning out her mincer in difficult times with more crusts! In this case I thought it also lightened up what is a fairly dense meat. I browned off the meat in a little dripping and put the meat in the slow cooker. I then fried the the veg to soft, added the tomatoes and garlic, the breadcrumbs and a pint and a half of stock and poured the mixture over the meat in the slow cooker. This I left on all day. I now have 4 pints of basic savoury mince, which can be turned into a chilli or a pasta dish with other seasonings. (any other ideas?)
All for now folks. How do you use pallets and baling twine?
Welcome Andrew, glad you have joined us here
Gillx
Goodness, I had totally forgotten how my mother "cleaned" out the mincer with bread; it was out job to tell her when it started coming through.
ReplyDeleteIt is such a shame that so many would nt know how to make meals out of those raw ingredients and would order a pizza instead.
I think times are going to have to get a lot harder before folk learn some of the old ways.
Love your little bee-catcher/spotter. We have to be careful here in the u.s. as some of our bees are becoming africanized and are a lot more agressive than they used to be.
I would love to keep bees but my neighbours would lynch me !
What a shame when bees are aggressive. it puts people off an essential insect... and not without reason.. aggressive bees are really scary! Ours are such sweet creatures, they are a lovely dark colour, which seems to denote a quieter bee.
DeleteI can understand your neighbours but what a shame for you !
Bees! they have just set up home in the bottom of my new steps which the landscapers only finished last friday!
ReplyDeleteMy neighbour keeps bees and they are a delight. They have swarmed on 2 occasions, but are quite peaceful when they do and are easily collected by her husband in his suit and veil.
Though bees might look scary when they swarm it is when they are at their calmest as they are drunk with the stores they are carrying to their new home ( I hope serious bee keepers will allow that simplification of a complex situation !)
DeleteI am so glad you welcome your neighbours bees. I think Lizzie (above) would love a neighbour like you.