General Chat

My spare freezer is full of thing that I or friends have shot. Rabbits, pheasants, partridges, ducks etc. Mind you, I still prefer a nice piece of steak. My daughter, a vegetarian, went ballistic when she couldn't get in the shower because of a deer hanging in there. Bob

How lovely to have been able to knit your children's jumpers and cardigans, Chris!

And sewing coats, too. That must have been a real challenge. I used to love dressmaking, and do lament the passing of time that has made fabrics so expensive that it doesn't pay to sew garments any longer.

My sewing machine is 36 years old, a bit clunky now. I've been moaning about it, thinking it might be nice to do some stitching with my granddaughters soon.

However!! I've absolutely no idea what I might be receiving for Xmas, but I did find an empty cardboard box with the word 'Singer' printed on the side whilst looking for a box to send through the post.

I need to start rehearsing my, 'Ooooooh, how lovely, I could never have guessed'!!! ;-) :-D

The soup was only the starter, Rollo haha! My french grandmother was rarely to be seen unless huddled over a bowl of soup made from a chicken carcass and vegetables, spoon in one hand, a crust in the other. She always said she was unable to eat her soup without a piece of bread.

Many vegetables were grown on a vegetable plot down the side of the garden, we also had a box of vegetables from my grandmother's greengrocery business (I guess it was stuff going over).

Each to their own Rollo - I couldn't afford to send my children away to school - but then again that is not why I had them.

I also in midlife took up a new career of designing cakes anything from christening to wedding (never made two alike) incorporating the bridal theme. I made bouquets in sugar paste to match the bridal one. I am another who does not waste time watching tv baking programmes and as for the American ones - words fail me.

Allotments are much in demand over past 20 years with long waiting list - usually waiting for dead man's shoes.

I never ever saw my father go to a pub. My maternal g.ma was a professional chocolatier. (Amended from confectioner)

no, not at all even though my granny was a chef. One of my parents was a copper and the other a nurse working all hours and in any case term time I was away at school. Sometimes during holidays I stayed with rellies in Islington and Seven Kings where I picked up the institutions of great British cooking and boring tv. Petticoat Lane market on a Sunday though was a good antidote to boredom.

I did like a pie with the football at Highbury on Saturday afternoons. Come to think of it London food was not so bad ... jellied eels, pigs trotters, pies & mash, faggots, pease pudding, black pudding. But I cannot remember anybody cooking it you went to the pie shop etc.

Most of the places of my youth are long gone more's the pity though the old London still lurks here and there in secret pie shops dark bars with wooden floors and pickled eggs and even a few caffs. Ah the pleasure of a full breakfast at 7 am! I liked London better foggy and black. The Russian and Chinese property speculators richly deserve what's coming to them.

I can assure you that the French don't get by on soup for their evening meal! Quelle idee. Unllike the UK French street markets from Paris suburbs to provincial towns are alive and well selling a vast variety of fresh food rarely seen in England. The French don't seem to mind spending a lot of time cooking from scratch while it is rare for a meal to be eaten in less than an hour. Sunday lunch def. 2 hours. zzzzzzzzzz

My OH, a professional patissiere, just laughs when she sees "Great British Bake Off". The first time she thought it was a blag and couldn't be serious.

next year be kind to yr tummy and spend a week in France - all you need is a gite and a recipe book.

<3

I was born just before WW2 and my experiences were similar to those of Lavender.

When I married in late fifties I carried on in the same way. OH used to watch tv Saturday afternoon and keep an eye on children whilst keeping an eye on the bowls containing marg etc warming near the fire and creaming the butter and sugar.
I filled the tins for the week ahead.

In the summer I knitted their winter woollies whilst during the winter - it was summer cardigans on the needles. I sewed most of their clothes, including coats as well as my own.

I always had satisfaction out of making a meal out of nothing e.g. any leftover dishes containing meat - add a bit of this and a bit of that, make some pastry and heigh ho - pasties (with chips for a treat) making a meal.

Home economy seemed to disappear in early mid seventies. I taught both son and daughter to cook/bake and again g.daug and g.son to bake.

Perhaps free classes on catering for those who wished to learn could be available to those on benefits and help them to stretch the pennies.

Is that your experience, Rollo?

As children in the 50's we always came home to a good, home cooked meal. Everything was made from scratch. A roast on Sunday, cold meat, chips and peas on a Monday were always on the table. Lovely homemade soups most nights, (that was the french influence), cauliflower cheese with sausages, rissoles, fish pie, salads, cottage pies, various casseroles, etc. All good hearty meals, not many convenience foods, home-made puddings. I'm sure most of my friends fared similarly.

We did baking on a Saturday, filling the tins for the children to enjoy during the week. I was not allowed to be extravagant in my use of dried fruit, my mother still with thoughts of the war. It all taught me how to cook healthy, wholesome, family meals using basic ingredients. My friend and I often cooked a meal for her family when I stayed over. It was all good experience.

As, indeed, is any observation concerning the average of any class of person.

The idea that the average housewife knew how to cook in the 1950s and 60s is risible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ieth9gTRaZI

Liz, yes I got 3 pairs for the grandsons in poundland afterwards.

Really good post, Sharron.

It is an interesting point that whilst some people are increasingly unable to feed themselves, it would also appear that money is being spent on fancy goods, otherwise these shops would be unable to continue trading.

Subsequent generations since the War seem increasingly unable to cook. Imagine giving youngsters rations and unlimited vegetables, seeing them turning the produce into meals for the family. Basic items being a small amount meat/fish bulked out with bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, pulses, vegetables etc.

All these electrical goods, fancy kitchen equipment, beauty treatment shops, throw-away clothes have become the norm. I hear a member of my family speak of the £1 rule… apparently if an item costs you £1 for each use, that is the figure that should determine whether it is good value! What nonsense. When I was young my parents used items of clothing and the like, many hundreds of times, and that was the expectation from everybody.

I have also found it interesting to see what items kind folk have put into the food bank collection points at supermarkets, often hardly useful, nourishing foods, although I appreciate they may be wishing to provide luxuries at this time of year. I have often dropped of boxes off chocolates, not wanting to consume them ourselves.

Recently, a government minister received much flak for her comment about the poor being unable to cook. I did hear her retraction where she said she was speaking unscripted. She was genuine, her words badly chosen, but I think that she was clumsily trying to make the point that families seem unable to make a meal out of basic food items anymore i.e. a can of pulses and some vegetables. And that applies to rich or poor.

It doesn't apply to everybody but many..

Ann, have a look in Poundland or similar for single pairs of fun socks, or Aldi or Lidl do some.

Most years I get o.h. a novelty pair of Simpson socks, this year looked in Poundland and not a Simpson in sight! Other funny ones but nothing suitable. He only said the other day I wonder what ones I will get this year, he looks for the parcel.

I got him some work socks with reinforced toes etc from Tesco or Sainsburys, 5 or 6 pairs in a pack for about £6 or £7 a pack.

Poundland had single pairs of work socks with labelling that looked very similar if not identical to the ones I got.

We have a shop nearby called Allsorts which sells exactly that, it's part hardware, but has cards, ornaments, stamps, bird and pet food, and lots of other things. They did have a second store across the city for a while but I think that's closed now It's quite a handy place to shop for screws and such.

Lizx

These gadgets are at the back of cupboards!!

I try to get to the local farmers' market (Tuesday mornings), but it isn't always possible. I haven't been to the market for weeks.

As well as supporting the local farmers, the produce is fresh and local...... who really knows where food in supermarkets comes from, and how old it is?

Kitchen gadgets.... how did our grandparents survive? :-S

There's a small hardware shop in town........ but the BIG Aussie chain is building an enormous store a few miles away, should be opening in January. The small shops can't possibly compete.

But all those places that supply things you might want but don't really need are thriving and more things are being devised to sell.

I recently saw a milk frother for sale as a kitchen essential.

Houses are being built with just a stamp sized garden - so there's no incentive to grow your own.
Meat-eaters have been sanitised. I'm amazed at the number of people who, when they see a dead animal hanging a butchers, or a fish complete with a head, are horrified. Much easier to buy it pre-packed and looking nothing like a cute fluffy ickle wabbit.

Business rates and rents have also risen out of all proportion, especially in places like Winchester.

Having said that, we actually have a thriving independent hardware shop that sells a diverse range of things, and where screws and nails can be bought singly. But, for years it was the only hardware shop. Robert Dyas moved in to the high street 2 years ago, but it's not very big, and on some fronts can't compete with the independent shop.

HRG shares were worth 294.80p on the 23rd April 2010; compared to 187.20p now. That's a drop in value of 36.49 per cent.

All the independant food shops have been killed off by the supermarkets. Similarly B&Q and the like have wiped out the smaller hardware/ironmongers shops.

Argos aren't actually thriving. They are part of the Home Retail Group. HRG have been struggling for years. They seem to be losing out to online retailers.

I also think it goes a couple of generations back when proper cookery was dropped from school curriculums. when thos children grew up and got married they had not learnt to cook basic items and therefore relied on prepacked/cooked. Vegetables had to be clean and ready for cooking (if they cooked them at all), meat had to be weighed out into packs so they could see what they were getting (if they cooked it). So greengrocers and butchers couldn't survive. These children passed on their non skills to their children who opted for fast pre packed foods and so ad infinitum.

I have noticed though that the greengrocers stalls and the one very good, very cheap green grocers shop we have in town does very well. However the clientele are mostly over 50 and/or people from the ethnic communities.

Talk about not being able to buy single items. I wanted to buy some socks, Just one pair (different, each for sort of stocking fillers for the grandchildren. M&S seem to sell their socks in either 3s or sixes, including the comic socks.