I love avocados. They're so good, and they complement many things. Yummy!

Yikes... Those prices are astronomical. It's hard enough meal planning on a budget, and not being able to get all the ingredients would frustrate me. I can usually pull cheap meals for the week if I buy big bags of veg (like a bag of onion, carrot, celery) and make different meals around them so we don't get bored. Doesn't always work like that, obviously.

We're slowly switching over to organic stuff, slowly. I haven't been able to find good apples that are organic. I don't care for Gala. The last I tried at our grocery store was so mealy. If it weren't astronomical I'd phase out canned tomatoes for glass-jarred ones.

And then I pause and realize that whatever is read, no matter what we do, x, y, and z causes cancer, auto immune messes, and imminent death. [lol]

You need your own smallholding, that's all there is to it! I get the value bags of carrots, onions and potatoes, and at this time of the year parsnips too. I tried split yellow peas and liked them. Only put them into soup so far but they work in pretty much the same way that red lentils do; adding thickness and texture and mild flavour, and at 43p for a bag (red lentils are at least twice that) they're a great price.

I've bought some more seeds on ebay. I know I'm wasting my time really, trying to grow food indoors, but the plants are nice even if I get no crops, and the cherry tomatoes and peppers specify they can be grown indoors, it's even recommended for the peppers. Surely they mean in a greenhouse? But if they do, wouldn't they say that? I dunno, unless plants are self polinating I don't see how something that fruits can grow indoors, but at 99p for 60 seeds, not much of a loss!

These are the ones that are on their way to me, anyway:

http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/d/l180/...76745229_1.jpg Sweet long red Marconi peppers
http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/d/l180/...89391368_1.jpgOrganic fennel.
http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/d/l180/...00705081_1.jpgOrganic cherry tomatoes
http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/d/l180/...95547023_1.jpgDwarf broad beans
http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/d/l180/...03787586_1.jpgTarragon

I don't even know if I like fennel xD Never had it, but it's pretty. [ninja] I'm excited for the beans! I adore broad beans, and if they grow successfully being able to harvest them when they're young will be awesome. Also, the flowers smell amazing!! Similar to sweet peas as they're the same family.

Fennel tastes like a mild black licorice. It's mild though, so if you don't like black licorice (I don't), don't be intimidated. It has a crisp, crunchy, full-of-watery taste. Have you had bok choy before? It reminds me of that crunchy/watery combo.

I think indoor gardening can be done. I've had friends be extremely successful with peppers, herbs, tomatoes, and cucumbers indoors, with plant pots and big buckets! I just suck at it. Badly. I had a successful gardener pair up and teach a "class" (loosely worded... and I was in a learning role with MY role being group communication) about indoor gardening. I planted basil for myself and it died a horrific death. I know the temperature was wrong, as well as watering it too much and not using the right soil. It's intimidated me from trying again. >.>;;

I keep having this vision of, whenever we get a house, having my colleague come and teach me how to garden. She has a successful landscaping business, and I do think she'll continue doing it even when she's eventually a therapist, too. I wish I had that drive.

Eventually I would love to learn how to properly garden and can, because then garden veg could be kept into the winter, and I could make my own jarred tomatoes!

I like fennel, but the rest of my household is a bit iffy about it. Bok choy is a great option for similar cabbage-type veggies. I frequently use it in stir-fried meals, but it's decent raw.

Having a really hard time finding organic produce in our area, but I may have found a co-op in town. Parking is a nightmare, so it's taking me a while to mosey back that way. I'm toying with gardening ideas now since it's close to planting season in our region - fewer days with freezing weather. However, we have to contend with fire ants who love to take over any tilled soil. A friend suggested hanging planters so we're trying to devise a moveable trellis system.

I actually had no idea you used to work in a chicken processing factory! Definitely makes sense why you wouldn't want frozen chicken, having all that information. Well, I don't really know how the quality of frozen chicken is, so forgive me that suggestion. [lol]

That salad looks so good! What all is in it?

I've sowed some spinach seeds too, had those already. I doubt like hell that I use the right soil or anything, lol! I reuse the same potting compost, it's what I'm likely to do with this lot. Though I can walk a little better this week than last, almost at the stage where I'd consider a trip to Yorkshire Trading for a couple of bags of compost. Distance shot; I live above Curtis, Yorkshire Trading is 4 doors down with the green sign.
http://i.imgur.com/XqpFku5.jpg

I put stuff in my kitchen window, which you can't see there, but it's a big deep bay and I have a 3 tier plant stand in the bay. It's the best growing position really. Judging by the shadows it was late morning when the Googlemobile came through Sleaford. My windows face east so they only get sun for an hour or two, inbetween the sun clearing the roofs on the other side of the road and going behind the roofline on this side.

I can move things to the downstairs loo window which faces west, but once that gets direct sun in the afternoon things scorch ><

I did grow peppers before from seeds saved out of ones I cooked, and they did fruit, but because they don't get enough sun they never got beyond egg size and stayed green. They'd need a growing season of about a year to get anywhere, I think! I could filter the light coming through the toilet window though, couldn't I. -muses-

Okay, at first I was jealous because you have a tiny underpass under your house; the PERFECT place to chill and get fresh air in the rain. Then I was really jealous when I found out you have a window seat/overhang right over that tunnel, so when you sit it's like floating in air. Now I'm really upset with you and your twenty paces from a Subway.

No, I'm not a stalker. Yes, I just found out you no longer need a "subscription" to see Google Earth and, like any other Hufflepuff, I like to find things. Specifically weird crap like the giant, pink bunny in Italy and the cloud whale that I cannot find right now because I had intended to post this at least forty minutes ago, but that's the same time that I started a Doctor Who episode and started looking through my funny tumblr folder and now I'm distracted by goats, Spongebob, lizard phones, and some incredibly drug-fueled night posts.

On a side note: OH MY GOD I JUST REALIZED I CAN LOOK FOR THE ISLAND FROM MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN. If it doesn't really exist I will be severely disappointed.

I should post a photo of where I live. There's... nothing there. Woods and deer. Deer, every morning. A lot of the time I have to stop the car while five or six pass. xD

Last night was an interesting food night. I had mentioned where we sometimes purchase a whole cow to split among the family. We decided to try the beef heart. After thinking it over, it made sense to try to slow cook it, what with how tough the muscle would be. It was quite good! It slow cooked in broth and onions for 9-10 hours, then it was sliced thinly and put into a gravy made from the cooking broth. Served it with mashed potatoes, carrots, and cornbread pudding. (Starch, starch, starch... I know. [lol])

It was tender, and the taste was like a really beefy roast. We're having leftovers from it tonight. (:

I've known others who have tried heart, but it's just ishy to me, especially since I started watching American Horror Story this morning and I saw a character eat liver, something, and raw placenta AND brain. [puke] This series is not at all what I expected, and all I can think of now is Clue when they all ate monkey brain for dinner and only Mrs. Peacock wasn't disgusted.

I'm not sure how I feel about deer herds, though. Love the animal, hate how much of a nuisance they can be sometimes. There are a few stories in my area of hunters shooting cattle and whatnot mistakenly and that farmer forever putting up "no trespassing" signs, which sucks when your state is about 80% farmland.

Haha, Alex, being female, I don't buy fast food, so it matters not to me that Subway's just over the road. xD That male/female divide amuses me no end. Like pretty much every male who's ever found out that I live next door to a pub thinks that's great. [lol]
That pink rabbit is the weirdest thing, isn't it? I like that google maps has weird stuff on it. But that takes things back to just what is that in the window above Castledine's in the pic I posted...I still think it's a blow-up doll. [lol]

I'd try heart if someone else had cooked it, but it's not something I'd buy. If someone gave it to me I'd cook it though. I'm not squeamish about animal internal organs, I love liver and kidney, and I'll try things, but some stuff looks nasty! Tripe...no thanks! [t2h] Also tongue is a gross texture to me, or the pressed type they slice for sandwich meat is, anyway, never had any other kind.

If deer were ugly no-one would have a problem with them being culled, guarantee it. We humans, so...human! Same thing with spiders, if they were cute no-one would be scared of them...

That beef heart sounds like it would make amazing sandwiches.

I bet it would make awesome sandwiches. We're doing more leftovers tonight, then I think that'll about do it. I need to get some rice going in the cooker! 8)

Spiders ARE cute... just only the jumping spiders owo

Shut up you, you and your guy opinions. [t2h] You're out-numbered in this thread, so shush! xD

Jelly: I do love the windows on that pub. The huge differences between English and American home designing makes me sad. I thought that whole section was your apartment? That means unless that's a second floor and not just a crawl space, and your building extends back farther than I can see, you've got what America would consider to be an efficiency-sized home. I would trade you in a heartbeat, though. The sheer amount of town access you have is totally worth it. I dunno why, but everything has to be huge here. I was reminded of that when I watched The Holiday. Effing love that movie... Also, I caved and got Subway today. XD

I've been trying for over three years now to try liver and onions. Almost every truck stop has it and, had my grandmother lived longer, we could have gone out and she taken the leftovers if I didn't like it. I am painfully shy about wasting food. Almost needed an ambulance a few months ago because I love spicy food, but my stomach is easily upset, and I had spaghetti with calamari that just about put me in cardiac arrest. The waitress said not to worry, though. Apparently that chef loves ceyenne and tends to overuse it. Got a second free dish and mixed them together!

Chi: Have you ever tried blood sausage? There are so many things I need to try... Never lutefisk. <<DO NOT EAT THAT. That, if you haven't heard of it, is literally cod soaked in water for a week, dredged in lye for two days, then soaked for another week to pull the lye back out. The smell alone made me faint once when I was little.

Poet: Screw jumping spiders!! [gonk] they were cute until the day I came inside after hunting down the ice cream truck like a champion and four of them friggin' mugged me at my door. (i.e. they jumped from the door frame to my face in about .2 seconds and I almost fell off the 8 foot porch) It was a huge betrayal because I had a peach freeze and one of the bastards was black and white like Miss Spider. [cry]

The only times I have ever in my life found spiders cute are a few cartoony spiders, and that one video where the spider buried itself in the sand. But only if I don't think about it - if I think too much about a spider lying in wait beneath the sand I get all [gonk]

@Alexander
I've never tried blood sausage, but I wouldn't be opposed to it. I've heard of the lutefisk, and while I'd probably try it for the sake of being adventurous, I definitely don't want to. XD

How 'bout some rocky mountain oysters?! [insane]

DANCE, YOU FOOLS. DANCE!

And, just for the sake of a mini off-topic conversation:
http://hugelolcdn.com/i700/137732.jpg

Edit: Rocky Mountain oysters... I've known someone to try them. I did not stop him before he said the word "crunchy." [puke]

Yeah, that post makes me feel bad every time it makes the rounds on tumblr. Then again, when I was a kid I wouldn't eat treats that were shaped like animals. Cried about chocolate easter bunnies, never ate the huge gummy rat my dad got me, only made it through bags of gummy bears by imagining that they reassembled in my stomach and had a pool party in my stomach fluids...

I anthropomorphize just a bit.

I envy you as I recall acting out a horrible massacre at the Barnum's Circus. A lot. It sounds much more disturbing now that I'm older.

Sometimes I'd laugh and bite the heads off animal crackers, but at the same time I felt really bad about it.

You know what's fun? Trying to paint animal cookie cutter cookies. I miss my childhood.

That sentense is probably a good way of epitomising humanity, to be honest.

Alex, I'm not sure which windows you think are mine now xD I have 5 that overlook the high street.
http://i.imgur.com/sIbcKrZ.png
My flat's pretty big. Not by US house sizes of course, but then we've got one hell of a lot less space on our little island. I'll trot out my downstairs floor plan again, just because I have one.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y17...e/DSC00879.jpg
Then 2 bedrooms and the bathroom upstairs.

Cherry, you keep those bulls balls to yourself, kthx [t2h] I know I said I'm not squeamish about eating organs, but maybe I lied xD

I'm trying to calculate mine on mspaint right now. Is that feet you're using?