I got up early as I wanted to attend the York in Transition Christmas Presents Swap at St Nicks, which started at 10am. On the way I found a bunch of bright yellow 'Winter Mushroom' or Enokitake, Flammulina velupites. I picked about a dozen, all quite small.
I was pleased to go as I met some good people and did two 'mini-tours' for people new to St Nicks, and I explained about the old landfill site, the beginnings of the nature reserve, the John Lally Wood, passive solar design, the two types of solar panel, green roof, rainwater harvesting, compost toilets and more. I really love showing people round!
I took a bottle of red wine with mulling spices, a Christmas present which we won't use as we don't drink red wine, and my usual bag of dried pea beans which I'm always happy to give out. I met my friend Linda, who really likes red wine, and gave her the bottle. She didn't want mulling spices, so those went on the swap table and were snapped up! I came away with a jigsaw, a wok stand for the stove and a pair of gloves. I gave two people some pea beans.
I came home at 12.30, Gill had gone to Scarborough on the train with our eldest and a friend, leaving the youngest at home in York. I had lunch and spent a bit of time on the computer but then suggested to our lad that he come off his Roblox thingy and do something active. Amazingly, he agreed and came outside and helped me move a lot of recently split logs from the front to a safe store at the rear of the house. He kept going whilst I did some chainsawing and splitting.
Later, he asked if he could have the stove lit in the front room... and I talked him through how to do it, provided the raw materials and he did an excellent job, got it laid and lit really well.
I cooked tea... a 100% freegan tea, apart from a tablespoon full of EV olive oil. I fried 2 onions (ones which had manky outside bits but the majority of the bulb was firm and lovely) and chopped up a small butternut squash which had a bit of damage at the stalk end, easy to chop out, a courgette which had one end going soft, a red pepper and most of 5 tomatoes. All this got fried up on the front room stove. I marinaded some out of date tofu (but hermetically sealed and absolutely fine) with garlic, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, and then slow fried them in some free pumpkin oil which dates back to Out Of This World years ago, I think! I put the mushrooms in with the tofu right at the end, and they just about disappeared. Enokitake is a very small mushroom! Then Gill came in and there was a request for pasta, so I boiled that on the stove. Actually, this pasta was bought too, so not a 100% freegan meal... shame! But a nice tea, much enjoyed.
I also really enjoyed... to the point of tears, the lovely BBC2 tribute to my favourite and now deceased actor, Pete Postlethwaite. Click here to see this on iPlayer, for the next few days only!
More fruit wrangling this evening, putting pineapple and apple into jars. And washing up, as per bally usual!
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2 comments:
Gosh! Out of this World stores, there is a blast from the past!
I still have my loan note, printed on Elephant poo paper, £500 ( a lot of my money even then!)
Oh well, better to have tried and failed etc ...
I became a shareholder too... just £100 though.
But the more interesting thing was that soon after they opened in York, I asked them if they wanted their sad and thrown out vegetables recycled, and I visited as a volunteer twice a week to pick these up, plus all sorts of other food which had just gone out of date. I also took a few glass and plastic bottles, cans and newspapers, which I took for recycling.
After a month, the manager asked me if I wanted any money to do this, and they offered me an 'honorarium' of £25 a month as a thank you, which was great... loads of free food, plus money, plus compostables!
However, I put on significant weight with all the free cheeses and soya 'cheatn meat' and more, and a part of me was almost happy when they went bust as I found it difficult to not eat all this amazing food and had they remained open, I'd be a blimp now!
Sad though that they went bust, primarily because of the financial pressure exerted by the big supermarkets. I was told that some of the standard lines, such as tins of tomatoes, OOTW would get from the wholesalers, but see the same tins on sale to the public in Tesco for less than OOTW were paying the wholesaler! They just couldn't compete.
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