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+--- Thread: Don't panic - Be Prepared!! (/showthread.php?tid=512)
Don't panic - Be Prepared!! - Veggie - 01-09-2020
I'm not being alarmist but I do want to be ready, just in case.
Yes - its that bladdy virus that's been going around for a while now. When they introduced lockdown, there was panic buying and toilet rolls were like hen's teeth (and I know all about hen's teeth
.I've been trying to remember the things I ran out of and, if there's another lockdown, I want to be prepared. I'm not going to stockpile but I do want to have a reserve - just in case.
I'm curious what you ran out of - if you did.
For me, it was toilet rolls and paper tissues, tinned beans, tinned fish, dog food, peanut butter, nuts, granola, coffee - all of which have a long shelf life. Makes sense to me to buy some extras while I can.
I'm hoping to get a few chooks to keep me in eggs and I'll stock up on chicken food when I do.
Also some bread flour and yeast - and find my bread maker.
Should have enough fruit in the freezer and some fresh veg in the garden/GH - but not spuds so may buy in a sack, just in case.
Anyone else, thinking along these lines?
RE: Don't panic - Be Prepared!! - Small chilli - 01-09-2020
The first thing we ran out of was vanilla extract
. We managed to struggle through .Due to our location. We kinda stock pile anyway. The big crisis was tinned chopped tomatoes (We eat a lot). Ended up buying 6 x 2.5kg catering tins online & a big pack of plastic tubs. So we could open a tin and portion it up into 400g and freeze.
Now the garden is full of lovely veggies. So if we do have lockdown round 2 we’ll not waste away. We’re also growing our own meat chickens ( sorry veggie
). Really hope we don’t have a round 2. I very selfishly want to start building my house.
RE: Don't panic - Be Prepared!! - JJB - 01-09-2020
No, I wasn't until your post popped up. Now you've got me wondering.
RE: Don't panic - Be Prepared!! - Bren - 01-09-2020
I can’t say we ran out of things it was more of eating something else instead only thing that was a problem was getting hold of bread flour. We’d never eaten much store bought bread before then.
RE: Don't panic - Be Prepared!! - Mamzie - 01-09-2020
I am in process of battling school as the no social distancing for under 11s scares me senseless. So my youngest is likely to move to home education.
We keep a good stockpile as weather can go bad or I take turn for worse. But I am checking it all over again soon. Need more sacks if dog food as our 28kg pup, eats very fast ..
RE: Don't panic - Be Prepared!! - Greenfingers - 02-09-2020
I never actually ran out of anything but I was into my last bag of bread flour before I found some more. My sister, who lives in a town about 10 miles away, was telling me one day that there was no jam sugar (with pectin) to be had. The same day I was walking around Sainsburys and I rang her to ask how many she wanted. Obviously not as many jam makers here. My sister-in-law (in her 80's) has rung me with a few weird requests though. The one thing I really struggled to find was narrow elastic to make some masks. I needed to make some that fastened behind the head as the ones that go around the ears were pushing her hearing aids off. (Trying to get them mended in lockdown was a nightmare). I did find elastic in the end in a pound shop.
RE: Don't panic - Be Prepared!! - Mikey - 02-09-2020
Well I’m trying to alleviate one of the issues with my new loo. That was an issue I could find it, but I didn’t necessarily want to use what I could find!!!
Flour in general was a problem, it was kept under the counter and rationed around here.
I now have about 18kg of 00 pizza flour and about 15Kg of bread flour boxed under the stairs along with Herman The hungry beast in the fridge.
Dried pasta was an issue, but I could make fresh now, if that became an issue.
If I’m being perfectly honest compost was my biggest issue, I didn’t have any as I’d top dressed my raised beds In the autumn and filled my bean trench with the remnants. So I was having to use my greenhouse beds as potting compost which caused issues, with this years tomato selection.
I carried on food shopping throughout so there weren’t many things that were an issue, if it was to happen now though I’d have a whole different kind of shortage issue. Vinegar and sugar are essential for me at this time of year, pickling and jamming are the order of the day. I’d have problem if they weren’t available. I’d have to splash out on a dehydrator in that event. I’ve wanted one for a few years but justifying it to the OH is harder. Plus storing it.
I don’t think we’ll have the same issues again as it will only be local area shutdowns now rather than countrywide. We will have a spike though you can’t not when the schools go back. DD has masks for communal areas and OH has been given visors and masks so it will be an interesting couple of months.
RE: Don't panic - Be Prepared!! - Admin - 02-09-2020
Pasta was the biggest issue, we have always kept a decent supply of tea, coffee, sugar, bread flour, yeast and tins etc.
Mrs Boss has always been one for having plenty of loo roll in the house!
RE: Don't panic - Be Prepared!! - Veggie - 02-09-2020
(02-09-2020, 09:02 AM)Admin Wrote: Pasts was the biggest issue, we have always kept a decent supply of tea, coffee, sugar, bread flour, yeast and tins etc.I thought I kept a decent supply in too but 3 months, or whatever it was, was too long, even for my bottomless cupboard.
Mrs Boss has always been one for having plenty of loo roll in the house!
Thanks for the reminder about pasta - I'd forgotten how the shelves were stripped of pasta in days. Never realised before how popular it was.
RE: Don't panic - Be Prepared!! - PyreneesPlot - 02-09-2020
Yeast and flour here were the only real problems, although we were lucky to have just bought 25kg of bread flour from the water mill just outside the village (how quaint) I ended up using that for everything! Yeast disappeared so we had to perfect sourdough fast. We now have a small stock of yeast - enough for six weeks perhaps. We'll get another 25kg of flour next week, assuming Pierre has some.
It was much worse in the cities.
I didin't go out for 2 months but MrPP reported empty pasta shelves from time to time, and the supermarkets have all massively reduced their ranges (and hopefully waste) and it hasn't gone back to the old normal.
Compost was a problem for me too - none in the supermarkets and the GCs all closed.