When friends of ours called to say they have moved in to their new home, they mentioned a greenhouse in the garden which they did not wish to keep. “How much do you want for it?”, I asked, “absolutely nothing” came the reply, “just pick it up and free up the space”…..
Armed with a few tools and my rather small car, some may say that perhaps I had underestimated the task slightly…..at 8 foot by 6 foot, it would need to be completely dismantled, without any instructions! I realised that this would not be achieved in a single day and so drew a plan of the greenhouse and then marked each pane of glass and part of the structure with masking tape and a number or letter. “Genius”, I thought, as this would make life an awful lot easier when putting it back together at home. Once I’d finished this exercise, I returned home feeling quite proud of myself, promising to return the following week to complete the move.
What I did not bank on was the weather changing for the worse over the week and the vast majority of the ink on the ‘labels’ I’d painstakingly stuck on, being washed off…. In addition to this, I’d lost the plan I had drawn the previous week!
After much effort, probably too many expletives and a few cuts here and there, we’d amazingly managed to take it apart and shift it back to ours – incredibly, we achieved this without smashing a single pane of glass. Reassembling the structure was not as difficult as it could have been (although I recall that was not perhaps the thoughts going through my head at the time) and we now have our own little sun trap in which to grow our own fruit and vegetables, which did not cost us a penny (and after a bit of research, I worked out that it is about £800’s worth!). I have tried to insulate the floor of the greenhouse by laying down polystyrene (the type you get in packaging of ‘white goods’) and then hardboard on top of that, which should ensure that warm air is retained for longer periods.
Fingers crossed we’ll have our own living larder in the not-too-distant future!
Having purchased a new wok this weekend and been all excited about putting it to good use this evening, my wife reminded me that what we had been told in Thailand about taking a little time to prep the wok prior to use. Apparently, this ensures you do not have to use as much oil in future cooking, so it’s healthy too!
Having decided as a family to minimise our food spend at major supermarket chains (and completely stopped using 1 in particular), we now invest a little more time in visiting local businesses to source our produce.
Upon returning from Thailand, abundant with enthusiasm for my new-found repertoire, I was faced with the prospect of sourcing the types of ingredients I’d sampled whilst away. Palm sugar, Holy Basil, Coriander root, Eggplant, Kaffir Lime, Galangal, even simple things like dried red chillies. Having visited the local, big-named supermarket, I soon realised that although you can pick up ingredients such as dried galangal, it’s just not going to have the same flavour impact as fresh produce and is not particularly on the cheap side.
So, thanks to my brother and his epic, fastidiously organised, round-the-world-trip, during which he only managed to reach Thailand before deciding to halt and make permanent camp, we had the opportunity to spend 3 ½ sun-soaked weeks on holiday catching up, attending his wedding and sampling the absolute gastronomic delights of local cuisine….result!!