Every year about this time I used to write a piece for the Suffolk Smallholders Society Newsletter all about Preparing for Winter in the country. It was aimed at new members of the SSS who had moved to the Suffolk countryside - and there were always some every year.
Twice in our married life we were without electric for a week - once was this time 37 years ago, In Bacton, over night on the 15/16th October 1987, the night of the hurricane, I remember it well as I was 8½ months pregnant and son remembers opening his birthday presents by torchlight on the 17th. Our next door neighbour had electric back before us and the electricity company didn't realise we were still off for another 3 days. With no TV and no phone line we had no idea how widespread the devastation was until much later. Colin was a supervisor for County Council road maintenance and went out with the men working long hours clearing trees and I hardly saw him all week. Luckily we had propane gas cooker and gas fire.
The second time was sometime in the early 2000's at the smallholding in Knodishall, again caused by strong winds and again we had bottled LPG cooker and a wood stove and old multi fuel Rayburn for heat.
Since those events I've always kept candles and matches, plus torch and radio with batteries to run them in the house. And now with only electric for cooking I have a camping stove and gas cylinders ready too, plus the wood burner of course.
And Food............
There was a time early on at the smallholding that shopping choices were very small - before supermarkets moved into Saxmundham it was just the Co-op and you could guarantee that something I'd run out of at home would be exactly where the empty space was on the Co-op shelves. So I got used to keeping a big stock in my lovely big pantry.
No big pantry now but lots of cupboards in the kitchen and plenty of room to keep a good amount of spare things for one person.
Everyone likes a look in other peoples cupboards but in 11 years I've never shared mine on the blog before .
I never want to be without toast so flour of all sorts is one thing that I keep plenty of in stock, more than anything else - ever since Ukraine was invaded and we were told there would be a flour shortage, there hasn't been but the price has certainly gone up.
Top shelf new bread flour two each of quality Allinson's and cheaper Aldi - I mix them for a good but slightly cheaper loaf. Also up there is a part bag of cooking salt that was huge from Approved Foods about 10 years ago and has moved house four times!
Next shelf has plain flour that's in use, granary and wholemeal, new yeast and new cornflour at the back, baking powder in the jar. Malt extract for malt bread, standing on a piece of kitchen roll to catch any sticky dribbles
Bottom shelf bread flour that's in use plus self raising in the tin that came from a boot sale. Behind is cornflour in the jar and storage jars of brown and demerara sugar.
In the pull out unit are two more plain and self raising plus a new granary
No flour shortage here!
More cupboard photos another day.
Back Soon
Sue
Having had more than one incident of "little creepy crawlies" in bags of flour from three major supermarkets I invested in some large Lock n Lock boxes for the unopened bags. I don't care how little or how much I paid for the flour, waste was waste and if being kept long enough then the air tight properties of those boxes kept everything fresh.
ReplyDeleteIt's always good to keep at least a couple weeks worth of tinned and dry shelf food on hand, even in the summer these days.
Only ever found weevils once long time ago when I brought flour by the sack.
DeleteI remember the SSS magazine we used to get every month. It was interesting. I also remember the storm of '87. We were cut off from the rest of the world for a week. Our relatives were worried as they couldn't get in touch. I remember some Irish soldiers came to put us back on the grid and cut up the rest of the hundreds of trees that were blocking the road for over half a mile. Luckily we had Calor gas for cooking and hubby could get down to the animals that were fortunately unharmed.
ReplyDeleteColin was Chairman of the SSS for several years and I did membership for even longer. I loved the show at Framlingham. Wrote every month for the magazine about what we'd been doing on the smallholding and I was on Radio Suffolk once a month very early morning too for a while
DeleteBack at the farmhouse, I had plenty of room for big earthenware jars to store various dry goods in, flours included. I still have the jars, but several are in the stables now and no-one is interested in buying them as they have no room! I have a big enamel Flour bin for my flours once they are opened, and "seal" the tops with a stout peg. The back up flours are in the little pine sideboard that Tam and I drove all the well to Dolgellau to buy after it was on Marketplace. That was the first year we were here and it is my Baking Cupboard.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were first at Ynyswen, powercuts were a regular thing but only for a day or so - a week without must have been a challenge. We had the Hergom stove in the kitchen for warmth and heating stuff on top (lost the oven heat when we changed over from wood/coal to oil). Plus a wood burning stove in the living room, and plenty of candles. Gas camping stoves in cupboard too (still have). Here we have oil central heating and electricity and no wood burner, so I would struggle more in a power cut. Fortunately lots of blankets, quilts and cats for warmth . . .
Years ago I had a lovely big pottery storage jar that held two bags of flour and it stood in my pantry. Then a tin fell off a shelf above it and smashed the lid to bits. I wouldn't have room on the worktop for it now.
DeleteI remember bathing the children by candlelight in the 70s when the power went out. They found it quite an adventure.
ReplyDeleteI think you are well stocked on flour for a while. :-)
ReplyDeleteI have one bag, decanted into a jar once it was opened, but then I don't make bread anymore ... or very rarely ... so I have no need for any more. You are well prepared, and that is very sensible. Do you do the freezer stage for 24 hours before you put your flours into the cupboard, to kill off any potential bugs? I always do this now after just the once finding my flour alive with the little blighters.
I don't bother with the freezer thing and haven't found any weevils . It's only flour that I have lots of - still waiting for a shortage!
DeleteI was still waiting for a shortage of olive oil until quite recently. Alan told me there would be one about three years ago so I stocked up. I've just used the last bottle. :-)
DeleteI didn't know the freezer tip. Thank you. We ordered a huge sack of flour during lockdown, and decanted it into 500g zip lock bags, so it was ready portioned for the Breadmaker. That also meant less likelihood of mass infestation. My last big bag of rice had creepy crawlies. It really upsets me to have to discard food 😥
ReplyDeleteHow will you bake bread if there's a powercut? Joan in Dublin
ReplyDeleteI won't!
DeleteWhen I was a child in the 1950s we lived in an oil camp in Qatar which only had one shop, which was run by the oil company. It was very basic, as was all of life in those days. The flour invariably had weevils in it, and the only solution was to sift them out before baking anything. We all thrived!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I did that many years ago when I found some in a sack. Still alive to tell the tale!
DeleteYes, count me in as one of your readers who likes a kitchen cupboard 'reveal'.
ReplyDeleteMixing the bread flours as an economy is a great idea.
Alison in Wales x
Cupboard photos were quite a thing in Blogland about 10 years ago - I used to think it was weird but here I am joining in!
DeleteYour cupboards are nicely stocked. Being prepared for a power outage is important. The potential for a few days or a week without power requires preparedness. Like you, I have candles, flashlights, a wood supply and a propane gas grill for cooking. Our power outages are usually caused by high winds or snow storms taking down trees that fall on power lines and transformers. I love living in my rural forested town with lots of trees and trees falling is just a reality.
ReplyDeleteThe Electric companies are gradually upgrading power lines so they aren't so easily brought down but the 1987 storm was a big one and damage was widespread.
DeleteI do miss having an LPG cooker it was good being independent .
I have never been a person that stocks up on stuff like that. I don't bake bread and wouldn't know what to do with that much flour!
ReplyDeleteI love my bread machine which lets me try all sorts of bread at a price half that of shop bread. I bake too
DeleteI have a camp stove and a couple of small cylinders, but this week I plan on purchasing a couple more. I am also going to get some more three wick candles as those can be used to heat up the house nicely. I really would love my husband to pick up a larger cylinder of propane so if the power is out for any length of time we could haul in the propane firepit and heat at least a portion of the house.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I miss cooking on a gas cooker although induction hob is quick and easy to wipe clean. The ideal would be a half and half hob - which sadly isn't a thing
DeleteWe have gas stove, so even if we lose power, we can cook. I've always got a nice assortment of meats. We don't lose water, since we are on municipal water. When we move out of town, we'll have a generator, since the power goes out more frequently there.
ReplyDeleteWater can be lost even on mains water here with a burst water main. Son and DiL lost water for a day last year.
DeleteWe had a generator at the smallholding for powering the freezers if we lost power - thankfully we never used it often.
My cupboards are ridiculously full. I admit to being a prepper, firstly because of programmes like "The Survivors" (1970s) which inspired us to be smallholders and as self sufficient as possible and also, like yourselves, by being without power and also snowed in for 5 days a few years ago. It ceratinly helped in lockdown when David was sheilding. I might throw caution to the wind and also do "a cupboard tour" !
ReplyDeleteLovely to hear from you.
DeleteCupboard tours were a big thing when we both began blogging not so much now I look forward to yours
I always try to keep a bit more on hand especially in winter as I don't like to drive in the snow! We do usually lose power in the winter at least once, but only for a little more than a day or so. It's dreadfully cold, but we bundle up and tend to go to bed really early! We do camp so we have lots of lanterns and lamps and such.
ReplyDeleteIt's lack of light that I really don't like. I've got a battery powered lamp that's good as long as it's charged up!
Delete