Good for you is beetroot but too much turns your urine a little red.

The trouble with blandness is rather like carrots, I think. It all depends on how they are grown. Too much watering and they end up bland. The best ones are most likely going to be home grown. There's nothing to add to the basic boiling process which will rectify a beetroot grown in a way likely to make it bland.

We do grow our own. They are generally one of our most successful veggies and we eat them in lots of ways. We love borscht though and the profusion of Polish shops popping up means we can always get a decent smoked sausage to go in the soup.

Lesley

Well I've solved carrots

Every few days I cook an electric pressure cooker of chicken for the hound , skin on

I add whole carrots some for him

Ok I know he's spoilt but he's still alive

Some for us or the kids if it's a Friday meal

They are fantastic coated in just enough chicken fat to be tasty but not greasy

Then I strain and remove all fat from the stock to cook his rice, which we often share

Sandra

Lucky hound, Sandra. Our two get only the carrot peelings, added to their raw meat (minced butcher's scraps). Though they also get cheese rinds and bacon fat, and my husband calls that spoiling them!

Lesley

Nowt wrong with that Lesley

He is mollycoddled , but I don't know what would harm him

With most of his intestines missing

Chicken brown rice and veg , carrots , green beans
And some leftovers

Half a tin of dog tripe and a smal cup of of rice all in one for breakfast

He's 8 stone

So I guess it's working

Sandra

So obviously thriving

When I was in the MN in the 60s, "supper" was a loaf of bread and a couple of enamel trays of raw onion rings, slices of pickled beetroot and pilchards, left out in the mess room to feed everyone through the night. If you were on the 12-4 or the 4-8 there would be little left, and if there was it had shrivelled to some "mystery" bits and pieces.

No scrimping on the food budget by the big shipowners back then

Don't think I've every had pilchards
I buy tinned sardines and mackerel, must look out for pilchards
Sandra

Oh yes you have;

Are pilchards the same as sardines?
The terms "sardine" and "pilchard" are not precise, and what is meant depends on the region. The United Kingdom's Sea Fish Industry Authority, for example, classifies sardines as young pilchards. One criterion suggests fish shorter in length than 15 cm (6 in) are sardines, and larger fish are pilchards.

They are the same fish; Clupea harenges to a biologist

they grow up to 30cm in length and change their name depending on their size, according to the EU Fisheries Commission, they are also least endangered. As small one they are sardines, then thy grow into pilchards, then as adults (and they live for up to 12 years) they are herrings - and of course can then be converted into kippers, or bloaters,,,,

They are NOT the same fish as mackeral or anchovies.

Marine biology was my life for 40+ years through diving and at Uni.

Well there you go Dave

You learn something every day, I love sardines unless they have been tinned in tomato sauce

Do sardines and pilchards taste the same?, if so I wonder why the name change

Salmon is salmon big or small

Sandra

"Salmon is salmon big or small

Sandra"


It takes about four years for a salmon to reach maturity since it must go through many stages of growth before it can swim in salt water.

When a salmon egg hatches, the young is called an alevin and still depends on the yolk sac for nutrition.

After 5 or 10 weeks, the salmon is called a fry and begins to look like a typical fish.

After several months, when the fish has developed its tiger-like markings, it is known as a parr.

Finally, after about 3 years, the parr ages into a smolt, which is the last stage of life before adulthood.