Traditional lifestyle
#1
Traditional lifestyle
Reading the threads on the high cost of NZ living and those who feel having a veg /fruit garden or chooks is the pits, I wondered how many migrants bring their UK urban lifestyle with them including the costs.
Rumour has it that the majority of Brits buy their meals readymade in Tesco/Waitrose, with salads already shredded etc or survive on take away foods...yes I am taking the piss (I hope).
The only fully processed foods we eat are things like biscuits, cheese, butter. We cook from fresh and make our own bread and traditional cakes, puddings, fruit juices, jams....and so forth.
Not only healthier but cheaper :-)
Rumour has it that the majority of Brits buy their meals readymade in Tesco/Waitrose, with salads already shredded etc or survive on take away foods...yes I am taking the piss (I hope).
The only fully processed foods we eat are things like biscuits, cheese, butter. We cook from fresh and make our own bread and traditional cakes, puddings, fruit juices, jams....and so forth.
Not only healthier but cheaper :-)
#2
Life is what YOU make it.
Joined: Oct 2009
Location: Christchurch
Posts: 3,312
Re: Traditional lifestyle
Still got a garden full of kale and different varieties of Silverbeet, toms and green beans we cooked up to a spicy beans recipe and filled the freezer. One 19 lbs smoked Salmon and one 16 lbs salmon in steaks for crispy skin frying...only wish we had chooks, greenhouse on order, oh yes just one cucumber plant last year kept us and neighbor supplied......cheaply I did get lazy and now use the Panasonic bread maker......!
#3
Re: Traditional lifestyle
Still got a garden full of kale and different varieties of Silverbeet, toms and green beans we cooked up to a spicy beans recipe and filled the freezer. One 19 lbs smoked Salmon and one 16 lbs salmon in steaks for crispy skin frying...only wish we had chooks, greenhouse on order, oh yes just one cucumber plant last year kept us and neighbor supplied......cheaply I did get lazy and now use the Panasonic bread maker......!
#4
Re: Traditional lifestyle
I picked a couple of chillies from our chilli plant in the back garden as I made chicken fajitas tonight.
I also picked a couple of lemons from our lemon tree.
I couldn't help but see the irony or novelty of 'harvesting' in the winter.
We used up the last of the 'hobby honey' yesterday. A couple of young lads were selling 300g tubs of honey from their own back garden bee hives in our neighbourhood door to door last year.
Last year I had a cucumber plant that was busy producing the next cucumber whilst I was eating the current one over the space of a week. This year's cucumber plant wasn't so enthusiastic.
The mint, strawberries, lemon and Ballarat apples that were growing to garnish my Pimms and lemonade were great.
We really are not, 'Tom and Barbara Good' if anyone remembers the old t.v. sitcom, 'The Good Life'.
We live like we lived in Britain. We liked what we had and saw no reason to change anything. Well, except for our address. We came here for family reasons. Nothing more, nothing less. No lifestyle change. No style statement. No need to bail out or run away.
No experience is ever wasted so the saying goes.
I also picked a couple of lemons from our lemon tree.
I couldn't help but see the irony or novelty of 'harvesting' in the winter.
We used up the last of the 'hobby honey' yesterday. A couple of young lads were selling 300g tubs of honey from their own back garden bee hives in our neighbourhood door to door last year.
Last year I had a cucumber plant that was busy producing the next cucumber whilst I was eating the current one over the space of a week. This year's cucumber plant wasn't so enthusiastic.
The mint, strawberries, lemon and Ballarat apples that were growing to garnish my Pimms and lemonade were great.
We really are not, 'Tom and Barbara Good' if anyone remembers the old t.v. sitcom, 'The Good Life'.
We live like we lived in Britain. We liked what we had and saw no reason to change anything. Well, except for our address. We came here for family reasons. Nothing more, nothing less. No lifestyle change. No style statement. No need to bail out or run away.
No experience is ever wasted so the saying goes.
Last edited by Snap Shot; Jul 23rd 2016 at 9:08 am. Reason: cucumber plant
#5
Re: Traditional lifestyle
There are better things you can grow if you'd like to be financially better off.
#6
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Aug 2008
Location: Gloucestershire
Posts: 2,201
Re: Traditional lifestyle
Spooky. I was literally just looking online at what is sold in NZ supermarkets and remarked on the lack of convenience foods. I cook from scratch here in the UK probably about 5 out 7 days per week but admit to wanting a night or two off per week as I hate cooking. Judging by everyone else, I think This makes me a bad person!
#8
Re: Traditional lifestyle
Spooky. I was literally just looking online at what is sold in NZ supermarkets and remarked on the lack of convenience foods. I cook from scratch here in the UK probably about 5 out 7 days per week but admit to wanting a night or two off per week as I hate cooking. Judging by everyone else, I think This makes me a bad person!
#9
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: In a large village called Auckland
Posts: 5,249
Re: Traditional lifestyle
We don't have the ready meals or variety of stuff that is in the UK for convenience it would be more like the 'old' school' what we had in the seventies; i.e. something out of a tin or a jar on toast. The supermarket aisles are largely filled by fizzy drinks and tinned stuff; tuna, beans, beetroot, spaghetti, sauces in jars peanut butter & jam, cake, biscuits, tinned fruit, breakfast cereals and ice-cream. This pretty much sums up what most people are eating on a daily basis. Judging by what I see of the queues in shops and supermarkets kids are generally fuelled by pizza, oven chips, chicken nuggets, fizzy drinks, chips and dips and cheap crappy precooked sausages.
Most supermarkets do now have 'fresh / chilled' pasta, soups and sauces, hot cooked chickens and bagged salads - which are my go to for lazy days.
#10
Life is what YOU make it.
Joined: Oct 2009
Location: Christchurch
Posts: 3,312
Re: Traditional lifestyle
Wifey picks the lemons cuts them into sections and freezes them, drop into G&T and saves having to mess around with ice cubes.
Too cold at night for Chilli's here all ours have been dried out in the sun and used as required. Would like a recipe for making Chilli Pickle next summer though.
And a good recipe for making lemonade with all of the surplus lemons.
#11
Re: Traditional lifestyle
Reading the threads on the high cost of NZ living and those who feel having a veg /fruit garden or chooks is the pits, I wondered how many migrants bring their UK urban lifestyle with them including the costs.
Rumour has it that the majority of Brits buy their meals readymade in Tesco/Waitrose, with salads already shredded etc or survive on take away foods...yes I am taking the piss (I hope).
The only fully processed foods we eat are things like biscuits, cheese, butter. We cook from fresh and make our own bread and traditional cakes, puddings, fruit juices, jams....and so forth.
Not only healthier but cheaper :-)
Rumour has it that the majority of Brits buy their meals readymade in Tesco/Waitrose, with salads already shredded etc or survive on take away foods...yes I am taking the piss (I hope).
The only fully processed foods we eat are things like biscuits, cheese, butter. We cook from fresh and make our own bread and traditional cakes, puddings, fruit juices, jams....and so forth.
Not only healthier but cheaper :-)
Western civilisation has seen a move away from reliance on the land to reliance on the supermarket - If we have an economic disaster like the 1929 crash we will be worse off. Those who survived back then were those who had the resources and skill to live off the land - how many today can say that? I find it concerning. If I had children today I would be teaching them these skills right now.
#12
Re: Traditional lifestyle
Jmh a lot of truth in that - I am post war, but your comments on both age and learning to cook at your mother's knee etc are true? I remember complaining my mother didn't leave enough cake mixture in the mixing bowl for me to lick out :-) I do hate food waste as well.
But part of it is expectations, if the parents/grandparents don't cook the children (and their children) usually won't. I am the baker in the family, lots of making cakes/scones surrounded by fascinated (and perpetually hungry) kids. Kids love doing it themselves as well eg making pancakes/pikelets if you can stand the mess :-)
Part of it is living in a rural (or semi rural) environment. My wife is much less squeamish than me, so quite happy to gut a pheasant, chicken, rabbit (used to teach biology using pig offal) :-(
Not for everyone, but there is incredible satisfaction in partly living off produce you have grown yourself and eating home cooked meals.
But part of it is expectations, if the parents/grandparents don't cook the children (and their children) usually won't. I am the baker in the family, lots of making cakes/scones surrounded by fascinated (and perpetually hungry) kids. Kids love doing it themselves as well eg making pancakes/pikelets if you can stand the mess :-)
Part of it is living in a rural (or semi rural) environment. My wife is much less squeamish than me, so quite happy to gut a pheasant, chicken, rabbit (used to teach biology using pig offal) :-(
Not for everyone, but there is incredible satisfaction in partly living off produce you have grown yourself and eating home cooked meals.
#13
Re: Traditional lifestyle
I haven't grown them regularly for a few years, but you can plant them indoors if you're still getting frost, before planting them out, then plant a few every 2-3 weeks so long as you have a couple of months of the growing season left. We grow them up tomato cages, but if you can't get those, they'll grow up pea netting or any sort of trellis or similar.
The plants don't produce all summer as they seem to get tired and die - which is why you keep planting seeds every few weeks.
#14
Life is what YOU make it.
Joined: Oct 2009
Location: Christchurch
Posts: 3,312
Re: Traditional lifestyle
Can you get seeds? If the climate is right they're very easy to grow from seed, much easier than tomatoes .
I haven't grown them regularly for a few years, but you can plant them indoors if you're still getting frost, before planting them out, then plant a few every 2-3 weeks so long as you have a couple of months of the growing season left. We grow them up tomato cages, but if you can't get those, they'll grow up pea netting or any sort of trellis or similar.
The plants don't produce all summer as they seem to get tired and die - which is why you keep planting seeds every few weeks.
I haven't grown them regularly for a few years, but you can plant them indoors if you're still getting frost, before planting them out, then plant a few every 2-3 weeks so long as you have a couple of months of the growing season left. We grow them up tomato cages, but if you can't get those, they'll grow up pea netting or any sort of trellis or similar.
The plants don't produce all summer as they seem to get tired and die - which is why you keep planting seeds every few weeks.
Think you live in a more constant warmth than we do in South Island. I do like the idea of growing them up pea netting though turn your back and they try to gain the size of pumpkins..
#15
Re: Traditional lifestyle
I was wondering if you could buy seeds, but if you want to collect your own you would need to let one or two "inflate" and ripen.
And yeah, we're getting a steady 32°C-36°C every day, and have been for the past month. It will likely be September before it cools down much. In fact it is really too hot for cucumbers as the plants "burn up" and get dry and wizened despite rain several times a week. The tomatoes however love it!
Last edited by Pulaski; Jul 24th 2016 at 11:27 am.