Noob Food Q's

[Stan_Lite]

Try a golf course for shooting rabbits (with permission of course), they're usually only too happy to be rid of the vermin.

As for skinning and gutting, I just made it up as I went along the first time and it seemed to work fine.

I slit the underbelly from the ribs to the arse and pulled out the guts. To skin it, I cut off the head and slit the skin from where I'd finished the gutting incision to the neck, worked the skin away from the flesh around the neck and pulled it off slowly but firmly (FNAR). The legs were a bit difficult, so the next time I did it, I cut off the feet and slit the skin on the legs to make it easier to peel off.

I used to catch rabbits at my old workplace using a sharpened broom handle as a spear. We had a load of old 45 gallon drums stored around the back and the rabbits used to hang around among them. I used to walk around on top of the drums and lance them from above

[semi-pro waster]

Originally Posted by Bigstan

As for skinning and gutting, I just made it up as I went along the first time and it seemed to work fine.

I slit the underbelly from the ribs to the arse and pulled out the guts. To skin it, I cut off the head and slit the skin from where I'd finished the gutting incision to the neck, worked the skin away from the flesh around the neck and pulled it off slowly but firmly (FNAR). The legs were a bit difficult, so the next time I did it, I cut off the feet and slit the skin on the legs to make it easier to peel off.

Sounds about right, John 'Lofty' Wiseman has a good survival manual The SAS Survival Handbook which describes the process pretty well and good methods for catching most animals. If I remember rightly he might even go into the legalities of it, the book is well worth reading anyway.

The farmer local to my parents has someone who goes round shooting rabbits and foxes, no idea what type of gun he uses but he isn't half a noisy pillock during the summer nights.

[goldilocks]

help me with my fruit and vegetables!
our fridge is pretty dinky - so we can't store all of our fruit / veg in it.
how else can i store it to make it last?
everything i leave out on the side seems to wilt very quickly - buying fresh daily isn't really an option, neither is buying pre-prepared or frozen!
thanks!!

[LeperousDust]

What do you want to store? Some things you can leave out for ages, other things really need to be fridged.

Cool and dry (as much of both as possible) is second best

Other than that buy a bigger/second fridge

[Tak]

I know you're not meant to put bananas in with other fruit or veg as something about them makes other stuff go off faster

[LeperousDust]

Indeed, or put them with some things you want to try and "ripen" faster (its not really ripening though once its been pulled). Works quite well with slightly greenish tomatoes...

[Muban]

For things like potatoes, carrots, leeks and onions I just tend to keep them in a cool deep drawer in the kitchen. I'm lucky though as my kitchen is quite cool and the wall the drawer is next to is a cool wall. I do find that removing them from any packaging and putting them into a canvas bag helps and they keep longer. I don't know if it's just that being out of the packaging allows them to breathe better and any moisture gets absorbed/released through the canvas bag?

[goldilocks]

onions (have started storing them in the bread bin)
leeks (softer / bendier when not chilled?)
kale (the rabbits eat this quickly enough anyway - not too much of a problem)
carrots
broccoli (this seems to go yellow v fast when left out)
cabbage / cauliflower (starts to smell when it gets warm?)
apples (seem to go softer if not refrigerated)
grapes (don't like them 'warm' - they have to stay 'crisp'!)
lettuce
peppers
avocados
asparagus
garlic
(etc)

getting a bigger fridge would be IDEAL! (we are getting one soon, when we move - but we do eat a lot of veg, so anything less than a tesco sized chiller would probably still mean i resort to cupboards) big windows in the kitchen here (and in the flat we're moving into) do seem to mean the ambient room temp is always hotter than normal

will try the canvas bag approach
de-bagging shouldn't really be a problem as we do try and buy loose
as much as i love organic produce and we do try and buy it as often as possible - it does seem to go off much quicker, or is that just me?!

[Muban]

There are a couple of things in lakeland.... no idea if they are any good. I'm pretty sure my Mum had a version of the lettuce crisper though.

Lettuce Crisper
Stay fresh longer bags EDIT: boo just noticed it says still to store them in the fridge :/ I think I will just stick with my canvas bags

[LeperousDust]

Originally Posted by goldilocks

onions (have started storing them in the bread bin)
leeks (softer / bendier when not chilled?)
kale (the rabbits eat this quickly enough anyway - not too much of a problem)
carrots
broccoli (this seems to go yellow v fast when left out)
cabbage / cauliflower (starts to smell when it gets warm?)
apples (seem to go softer if not refrigerated)
grapes (don't like them 'warm' - they have to stay 'crisp'!)
lettuce
peppers
avocados
asparagus
garlic
(etc)

getting a bigger fridge would be IDEAL! (we are getting one soon, when we move - but we do eat a lot of veg, so anything less than a tesco sized chiller would probably still mean i resort to cupboards) big windows in the kitchen here (and in the flat we're moving into) do seem to mean the ambient room temp is always hotter than normal

will try the canvas bag approach
de-bagging shouldn't really be a problem as we do try and buy loose
as much as i love organic produce and we do try and buy it as often as possible - it does seem to go off much quicker, or is that just me?!

First off, organic and locally bought green grocer fruit/veg *always* go off quicker for me. Supermarket stuff lasts a scarily long time. But its never been on the shelf half as long to begin with too... I do buy some things from the super market because i can't eat them quick enough otherwise (lettuce is one particular thing that springs to mind ).

With regard to the list, i'm gonna copy paste and say what i do (which generally work quite well...)

onions (have started storing them in the bread bin) - Cool dry, bread bin seems fine yeah, i bought a 20kg bag of oinions (from the green grocers freshly arrived that day) and they lasted over a month. Which is what i assume he does when hes selling them. Towards the end of the bag they were getting softer and a little strange, but over peeling them seemed to sort most problems out, also at the price i could afford to throw away every other one and they were still a bargain
leeks (softer / bendier when not chilled?) I don't have them that often but they get put in the fridge agreed.
kale (the rabbits eat this quickly enough anyway - not too much of a problem) - i'd never even heard of kale!?
carrots - they store fine outside, although they seem to "sweat" a lot in plastic bags, the cavas bag would definately help this. In fact letting anything breathe in cool dry places is good good good.
broccoli (this seems to go yellow v fast when left out) - fridge for me definately,
cabbage / cauliflower (starts to smell when it gets warm?) - i dont eat enough to really know, although i have left it out (it goes off quicker agreed though)
apples (seem to go softer if not refrigerated) - depends a *lot* on the apples i find, i buy breaburn apples now because they just seem to stay crisp forever for me
grapes (don't like them 'warm' - they have to stay 'crisp'!) agreed, but i dont because i eat them too quick
lettuce - definately fridge, but i also buy supermarket as it seems to outlast anything else by a long stretch
peppers - seem to last a while if uncut in cool dry places, but last longer
avocados - i keep them in fridge but unsure really...
asparagus - not too sure
garlic - this is just kept cool and dry, it does sprout, but i find its fine anyway.