...........if I had, I wouldn't have bought my flavoured lamb steak with a minty marinade from Morrisons.

Eating carnivore means that I usually don't have to search a list of ingredients as 9 times out of 10 their is only one...............the meat itself!

I assumed a minty lamb steak would only have 'mint' as a flavouring?, how wrong could I be?

I was dismayed to find this list of ingredients!

Marinated Lamb leg steak 90%

INGREDIENTS

Lamb
Sugar
Glucose syrup
Caster Sugar
Maize Starch
Maltrodextrin
Salt
Tomato
Demerara sugar
Chilli flakes
Chilli powder
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Tomato powder
Lemon
Coriander
Cumin
Yeast extract
Paprika
Aniseed
Red pepper flakes
Red pepper powder
Caremalised sugar powder
Parsley
Yeast extract powder
Stabalisers
Xanthan gum
Guar gum
Acacia gum
Ginger powder
Smoked paprika
Fennel seed
Cumin seed
Garlic flakes
Cayenne pepper
Corriander powder
Cinnamon powder
Beetroot powder
Onion
MINT
Dried garlic
Kibbled onion
Smoked salt
Acidity regulators
Citric acid
Malic acid
Sunflower oil
Fennel powder
Cumin powder
Paprika extract
Garlic
Ginger
Potassium chloride
Dextrose
Turmeric powder
Nutmeg
Clove powder
Oregano
Corriander leaf
Thickeners
Xanthum gum
Orange
Cardamon
Cinnamon
Flavouring
Chilli pepper
Anniseed extract
Rapeseed oil
Caremelised sugar
Spirit vinegar
Lemon oil
Ginger extract
clementines
Coriander extract
Turmeric
Capsicum

In total 77 additives and 90% meat. I  think this is flaming ridiculous and in future will buy an unflavoured lamb leg steak and add a tiny bit of homemade mint sauce!!!!  Rant over, but check your labels folks!

Anyone know anything about fossils?
Is this one or am I just reading too much into it?

It’s pretty cool even if it isn’t    . Then I do have a strange affection for rocks     .

   

               

A couple of weeks ago I acquired a shrink wrapped red cabbage - and forgot about it! Today I found it by the smell.  However, all is not lost, its still firm and edible - just a few outer leaves that had rotted.
In an effort to survive, the poor old cabbage has thrown out some shoots, and roots under the wrapping. I've cut the stump off and I'm going to plant it, in the hope that it will regrow. Poor thing deserves a chance of life after its efforts.

   

Don't be alarmed - you don't have to be a Vegan to play. All are welcome.

I'm 70 years old today and finally reached my three score years and ten. I was born by Caesarean section and was a large baby so my biggest thoughts are for my poor Mother 70 years ago today. My brother and sister were also born Caesarian and in those days it wasn't a cut below the bikini line but a large incision right  up the middle.She had to live with that for the rest of her life.
It's a starnge feeling knowing you have hit what was once deemed to be a persons life expectancy and still have most of your, marbles,eyesight and reasonable health?

Here's to the next ?????? years!

Does anyone make their own cheese? 
I've just found, in the back of the cupboard "The Big Cheese making Kit" (Best before January 2014  ). https://www.bigcheesemakingkit.com/shop/...cotta-kit/
Its a kit for making Mozzarella & Ricotta, Most of the kit will be OK (butter muslin & thermometer) but I think the vegetarian rennet tablets may be past their best. Don't know what the shelf life of Citric Acid is but the Sea salt is probably usable. That's all there is in the box - apart from instructions.
The recipes need 8 pints of whole milk. 
So I'm curious to know whether any of you make cheese and whether the effort is worthwhile - before I splash out on some rennet and milk!

Today I acquired a "Foodsaver V3840" and 7 rolls of Vacuum sealing plastic stuff. - all FREE of course. 
I'm hoping that some of you use a Vacuum sealer and can give me some hints on what to use it for. At the moment, all I can think of is dehydrated veg/fruit. Wondering whether fresh green beans and sliced courgettes would be better "vacuumed" before freezing as I'm not a fan of frozen beans & courgettes. 

All advice welcome. 

I live quite frugally and my annual gas & electricity costs are just over £!000.

What galls me is that my standing charges and VAT acccount for over 40% of my annual bill at over £400 and however frugal I try to be there is nothing I can do about them.

So basically I am paying British Gas over £400 per annum for me to read my own meters and for them to then bill me. No wonder their fat cats are coining it in with multi million pound profits for basically sitting on there arses!

Rant over!

I've been told that the land behind my house (and the neighbours) was planted with apple trees as part of the WW2 War effort. Unfortunately, most of these trees have died/fallen over and survive only as stumps. One of the trees is still alive and fruiting - not bad for an 80+ year old tree that receives no TLC whatsoever. 

This thread is not about that tree however - its about a stump that has a substantial side shoot. I thought this was a sucker off the root stock and have ignored it. This week, for the first time, it has flowered! In fact, these are the first apple flowers to open this year. 

All the trees that were here in 1980 were very tall,  so there doesn't seem to have been any attempt to graft them onto dwarfing rootstocks. 
Might they have been grafted for another reason? 

Needless to say that I shall be leaving it to see what happens. I like surprises. 

I bought this cheaply YS (£3.00) from Morries a while ago and the label says its a holly tree?

The leaves are black and it isn't as spiky as the hollies I see in the woods. I thought the colouration may have been because it was a young plant? but young hollies in the woods are green and spiky!
I love its colouration as it is so hopefully it won't grow into a boring green holly!

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