Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Showing posts with label store cupboard food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label store cupboard food. Show all posts

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Approved Food order


I have often read of other blogging friends ordering from Approved Foods and thought I would have a go as well - but it has taken me until recently for there to be anything I really wanted, to be on offer. 

No fault of AF, just one of those things, but finally a day came when I checked and there was loads of stuff there which we not only use, but we were also nearly out of!

 So I placed an order and a few days later was notified of the 1 hour window of delivery. As this was at a time when I was out, I altered it :) and the next day eagerly unpacked the parcel.




Lots of things we like to eat, both lots of staples and a few luxuries!




The box was a bit bashed about and sadly a few tins were very dented and two of the bags of wholefoods were split open, but a call to Approved Foods soon sorted out a refund AND an apology for something with I really do not think was their fault. So full marks for customer service AF.

I saved over £40 on this little lot, all things we eat regularly but at much lower prices than normal. And it saves food being wasted just because it is past a so called "Best Before" date


Not sure I will be ordering regularly as a lot of the food does not appeal to us,  but I will keep watching as who knows when I might spot some more bargains :)


Sunday, 4 November 2012

The virtues of a store cupboard.

At the moment, with both Compostman and I still operating at much less than full capacity, shopping is a bit "ad hoc" and rather a chore - we are both finding it hard to drive far and neither of us has much energy or inclination to slave over a hot stove - just standing up has been a bit of a problem sometimes recently!

So we are really pleased to have lots of meals and easy to prepare food in the freezers, as well as a good store of food in the cupboards.

Living where we do ( a fair few miles from the nearest shop) we tend to keep a good stock of food in, and even though we have had a pretty disasterous harvest this year we still have a good supple of home grown veg to chose from and there are lots of potatoes and onions in the veg store. We are also lucky to have large freezers well stocked with good quality sausages, chops and a selection of home grown, prepared veg open frozen for easy use ( as well as oven chips, pizzas and suchlike :-)   ).

There are also lots of home made cake portions in the freezer - Compostman makes several tray bakes and we portion them up, usually so Compostgirl can have a sweet treat, but the fruit/chocolate slices make VERY acceptable puddings with cream or custard :-)

Add in a plentiful supply of eggs from the feathery ladies, flour, cereals, dried fruit and home made wine, cider and fruit juices, home made bread etc , and we are managing just fine without as many trips to the shops as normal.

I am so glad we do this as trying to get to the shops as normal would have been a bit of a struggle, tbh.

So, we have been eating into our stores in October and spending less than normal as a result.

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