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:ya :ya :ya :ya :ya :ya :ya I am very excited at the possibilities ahead! I'm at my mother's (preserving her latest fruit glut) and she's just presented me with a box full of vintage liberty print fabrics from her quilt making efforts. They're so pretty :love

Wow, thanks for all the great ideas! I can sew (have made very basic dresses etc before) with a machine and (less neatly) by hand, so hopefully that will give me a bit of a headstart. Potholders a very good idea - hadn't even thought of the prospect of starting with something smaller than a...

I really want to try my hand at quilting. My mother is an antique dealer, so has a house full of pretty bits and bobs of fabric, and I'd love to do something with them, rather than have them go to waste in drawers and cupboards. However, I know nothing about quilting, not a clue. Do I need lots...

Here's how uneducated I am - I'd never even heard of dehydrators until opening this thread! I guess they're not that common in the UK? :hu :hu I really want one now though! I've been drying apple rings in the oven on a very low temperature, and the amount of energy it uses is insane.

Awwwwww!!!!

Wow, all of your homes are absolutely gorgeous! And so much space! We have precisely five rooms in our house, and this is the sum total of our outside space: Those photos were taken about 6 weeks ago - there's a lot less space now! This is our first year of trying to be more self...

I don't know what varieties you have in the states, but over here we have two main 'wild' types - rosa rugosa and dog rose. Rosa rugosa produces big fleshy hips, that tend to be wider than they are tall, and are apparently tastier (not tried either raw, so can't comment). The dog rose is more...

I just had to strip the trees at my mother's (everyone going away for a few weeks, and we knew that they wouldn't survive), so have had a week of drying and making jam and chutney. I made: Apple jelly with various herbs, including mint, rosemary and thyme Apple and plum jam Apple and raisin...

Drying rosehips Spread the hips out on a clean surface and allow to dry partially. When the skins begin to feel dried and shriveled, split the hips and take out the large seeds - all of them. If you let the hips dry too much, it will be difficult to remove the seeds, if not dry enough, the...

Whoops, forgot recipes! Hang on five minutes and I'll get them up

BBH, I have tons of recipes, I'll post a selection later on today when I get a chance.

Bee, you sum it up perfectly! I speak to so many people (usually on massive salaries) who tell my how 'lucky' I am not to work and spend more time concentrating on frugal living, growing veg, looking after my son, and so on. I never know quite how to tell them that actually it was a choice - we...

It is all about the blackberries here at the moment. I've already picked over 8lb, and there are more left on the bushes than I could ever manage. I'm planning cordial, jelly, chutney, all kinds of goodies. Also the odd apple/crabapple tree, the nuts are (slooooowly) getting closer to picking...

:sick I do not like peanuts. :sick:sick:sick I did, however, make a small test batch of plum and girly-pink-apple jam, which was absolutely gorgeous, and is practically barbie-doll pink, which pleases me no end! Annoyingly, the baby decided he was bored right at the end, so I didn't have time...

Thank you for all the ideas! I'll post back tomorrow and let you know what was successful. I'm hoping the nice pink apples might turn everything an attractive girly shade...

I've got to find something to do with pounds and pounds and pounds of eating apples. I don't know what variety they are, but they've got very red skin, sklightly pink flesh, and are appalling keepers, so won't store for any length of time. Can I use them in the same way as cookers and perhaps...

I'm writing in advance of the actual -saving in case I don't get back on the computer, but today I'm going to save by: 1) Picking all the ripe fruit (plums, apples, greengages, pears) in my mother's orchard 2) Going foraging for more blackberries (I've already picked and made jam/jelly/syrup...

I had never made that connection - is a comforter the American term for a duvet? I am at my mother's this week (raiding her orchard ;) ), and she never has the TV on, so my son is already having lots more entertainment of the non-TV variety!

It is -I've never seen another one like it, and I keep worrying they're going to go out of business because of the recession, so I have a cup of tea in there every now and again too! If you ever find yourself on the south coast of the UK (really likely, hey?) I thoroughly recommend it!

It's books for me too. I have the most wonderful bookshop in town, which specialises in books on the environment, permaculture, nature, foraging, green building, and so on and so on. It's like heaven, and I try to buy books in there to make sure it stays in business. It also has a fabulous...