Riverford Box ... and Facebook Marketplace Manners

 

This weeks Riverford vegetable box arrived on Wednesday.  

The electric van glides up silently outside the house, and unless there is a reason for me to be at the front door I usually miss it.  The drivers, when you actually see them, are very polite and usually just drop the boxes outside, covering them with a 'Box Brolly' ... a large white plastic  bag to you and me ... if the weather either is or appears to be, going to be wet.

This time I caught him in the act as he climbed back into his van, as I nipped out to put something in the recycling bins that are at my front door.  With a cheery wave and a thumbs up he was off to make his next delivery, seemingly there are quite a lot of us Riverford customers in our little town.

It's like a vegetable inspired Christmas present unpacking the goodies and seeing what the contents look like.  Of course I know exactly what should be there, but there is always the chance of a suitable swap having been made if not the right amount of something was harvested.  As has been usual for me up to now though, everything that I had chosen was present and correct, and very tasty looking.

The extras that I added to our delivery this time were, my choice of some Tenderstem broccoli, and Alan's choice was some venison burgers.  It's a long time since he's had venison so he was really looking forward to getting these.  To celebrate the acquisition we had burgers and homemade wedges for tea last night.  My burger being of the Linda McCartney kind.  💚

I am going to serve the other burgers in two different ways for him, one of them being turned into mini-meatballs to go with a pasta dish, and the other two in place of a venison steak in a nice cooked meal.

The whole delivery.

As I was just about to have my breakfast it made sense to use something from the box straight away, how could I resist! So I cooked some of the kale in olive oil and butter, and then added eggs and a sprinkle of cheese.  It was very good.

If you would like a Riverford delivery for yourself you can get to the website through my LINK.  If you also use code CHOPTOIT at the checkout I think that there is still an offer to get a free chopping board at the moment.

It's been a busy and very satisfying week on our Facebook Marketplace sales this week.  We've sold our king-sized oak bed frame, some Le Creuset and some other bits and pieces that we have had listed on there for a while.  It's nice to be getting some money into the coffers instead of it flying out.  The couple that enquired about and then came to collect the bed frame, were honestly the nicest and most polite people I have ever dealt with on FB Marketplace.  

It's little things like good old fashioned manners and politeness in every sort of interaction, that make me realise that the world is not all going to hell in a handcart ... as a lot of social media would have us believe. 

Sue xx

Moving Forwards ... and New Boots

 

When I called to the bungalow with Alan's lunch yesterday he had just finished grouting the bathroom tiles, and the pipes had all been boxed in by the joiner.

This was yesterday, but already by today the actual shower fittings have been attached to the wall and all the excess grout had been cleaned off.  He has now moved on to undercoating all the woodwork.  The joiner is hopefully on his final day, and is doing the skirting boards, door frame and loft hatch frame in the main room

Alan has worked so hard this year he is now on to using up a third pair of his older jeans as work jeans, his last two pairs ripped right through at the knees, and while it might be quite fashionable to have ripped jeans, working in them is very uncomfortable.  I did suggest selling them on Vinted as 'authentically made ripped jeans'  but we decided against it owing to them also being rigid with plaster dust. 😄

After seeing the state of his boots yesterday I suggested he bought himself a new pair while he was at the building supplies shop, so he did.

Now he has a pair of brown boots that make his feet look considerably smaller and are vaguely reminiscent of Bob the Builder.

Sue xx

Pond Scum Soup ... and Halloween Decorations

 

We give our food some good names don't we.

What with Compost Heap Jelly and now Pond Scum Soup we are inventing a whole 'rubbish' way of eating ... and we love it.  😄

Of course I am only joking, this particular rubbish soup, although looking exactly like pond scum once it was whizzed up, was full of lots of good stuff.  I used up a lot of the trimmings from my fridge, and almost everything that was left over from the last Riverford box in preparation for the new box arriving on Wednesday.  Then I added some of the outer red cabbage leaves from a cabbage I hadn't yet started.

So with the cauliflower leaves, stem and trimmings, the greenest bits left from the leeks, the dark Cavolo Nero and the red cabbage leaves it was always going to come out looking very dark and very green.

It also tasted very good, and very healthy.

I served my portion with a bit of bread and butter for lunch on Saturday and really enjoyed it.  Alan had a portion for his tea  last night alongside a cheese sandwich, and the two portions in the jars are still in my fridge, I'll have them for lunch a couple of days this week.

Oh, and my only Halloween or maybe Autumn decorations are these two lovely little pumpkins that I was tempted into buying in Aldi on Friday.  These two will be a lovely bowl of soup when their time comes ... or when I get fed up of them on the worktop.  😁

Sue xx

Provisions ... and Store Cupboard Spot the Difference

Provisions by Lucy Almey Bird

As well as being a book collector I also seem to be a food collector, although this year I have been making a real effort to nip this in the bud slightly.  But do you ever change your spots ... well leopards seemingly don't so why should I?   😄

 Books and food are of almost equal importance, if I had to choose between a packet of biscuits and a second-hand book I think you all know by now which one would win.

But as well as sorting things out to sell on Facebook Marketplace in readiness for our move, I have also been trying to eat a lot of the foods from the store cupboard.  The bottom cupboard is still absolutely full of all the food that I have with longer dates on, either next years or even further in the future.  But back in March of this year I moved a lot of the short dated or out dated things from the bottom part of the cupboard into the top, and I have managed to go through a lot of them.

Doing this really helped me focus on things, I should make sure I rotate things much more carefully in future and never let things get so outdated.  But it's never the end of the world if best before dates pass by.

March 2026

October 2026

I had a little tidy this week to see how well I am doing.  I have moved a few things into the cupboard that didn't used to live there, the free condiments sachets etc, so if I hadn't it would look even clearer.   If I had to look into a crystal ball I would say there is a tomatoey chickpea recipe in our near future, and maybe some flour based products.  

Do not be kidded by the 'Biscuit' tin, it holds a large bag of bread flour, my other 'biscuit' tin out on the worktop actually holds Weetabix, but in my favour there is Bisto gravy granules in the Bisto tin.  😄

Sue xx

Buying and Selling - Exciting Times

 

We are now into the more exciting time of the renovations.

All this week Alan has had the company of our joiner at the bungalow, so while Alan has been tiling my bathroom the joiner has been fitting skirting boards, door frames and doors.  So with two pairs of hands we're now coming on in leaps and bounds.

We have a cleaning company booked to come and do a thorough post-renovation clean on 10th November, and a removals company booked for the following week.

My mission today was to choose and order the curtain poles and curtains for all the windows.  After initially thinking he wanted to choose something unique for his bedroom window, Alan has now decided that he likes my choice so much that he wants the whole bungalow to match, and as the curtains are green ... I have absolutely no problem with this.  😁

We've gone for nice simple metal curtain poles in keeping with the style of the open-plan kitchen, dining and living room.

Along with ordering stuff we've also been selling stuff, a big declutter of all sorts of things that we have come across in our cupboards and drawers.  This morning the large Le Creuset casserole pot left home after many years of good service.  It was far too heavy for me to be able to lift these days, and we have enough pans between us to more than happily equip our new kitchen.

You'll have to excuse me now as I have bags of tiling adhesive to list on Facebook Marketplace, and then a table and chairs set to order.  Alan has talked me into selling the chunky table we already have ... as seemingly it won't suit the aesthetic of the new room.  

Sue xx