Self sufficiency

apprentice_tycoon

sounds great! - a few ideas

Have a look at the River Cottage website there are lots of good pieces of info there
Do you have the John Seymour book on self sufficiency?
Will you have a spare room for bed and breakfast or summer school letting (where we live they are crying out for rooms for students at summer language schools)
Are you prepared to grow and cook and go down the Environmental Health route? I'm thinking about jams, chutnets etc, you can bend this a leeeetle bit by selling your surplus produce at car boot sales and just have a few jars for sale, I've seen this done lots of times and it looks to have been done on a very casual home made basis
Could you made soap or lavender bags
Strawberries are the most prolific crop I can think of as each plant multiplies themselves 10 fold in a year, jam suggestion again


I've ground to a halt at the moment but may be back!

Ruby_Pudding

You could try here for a start - http://www.downsizer.net/

The forums are very good and may prove helpful

se999

Thanks for ideas so far :T

We've done rent-a-room scheme before, and I've also done intensive one to one english courses for people staying with us. So will consider that, also thinking about http://www.wwoof.org/ for busy times and initial set up, where people help out for an agreed number of hours in exchange for board & keep & language lessons if available.

Treated myself to the John Seymour book last Christmas.

Watched a few episode of River Cottage, and the consistent thing I heard was you made money by processing your produce yourself, I'd wondered about Health regulations, is there any more information please? It sounds like this way I'd get better returns, but I need to get an idea of what they want so that I can work out time/effort/expenses involved.

Was also hoping to accumulate Craft type items through the year and probably do a few pre-christmas craft fairs, maybe sharing a stall to split the time and the costs. I thought this way I'd probably get the best prices. But also considering a website and Ebay.

I'm going to try strawberries again, but for some reason never had much luck to date, but will try it small scale in the new place and see if they like it there If they do I'll probably grow more.

From a previous post it looks like bees are back on the no-brainer goodies list; so honey and candlemaking are in the plan.

I'm doing a carboot in September, and fishing tackle is on the shopping list, fortunately OH is willing to give it a try as he likes eating fish, he can't see the point in fishing unless you can eat them :j Hope he's a natural fisherman.

Currently working my way through https://www.downsizer.net articles, but hadn't tried the forums yet, hope they're not as addictive as MSE

Thanks again :T

apprentice_tycoon

Do you actually know where you are going, do you have a property in mind? if you have a barn or outbuilding what about antique /brocante stuff - you would ebay the smaller items but at the same time have them on display on nice old pine funiture and the crafts could be on sale too? I'm currently gathering old embroidered linens to make into patchwork cushions......

Ruby_Pudding

se999 wrote:

Currently working my way through https://www.downsizer.net articles, but hadn't tried the forums yet, hope they're not as addictive as MSE

They are

se999

Hi again,

Hoping for SW UK, as will be easier to be England based for language reasons!

The idea of this research is also to work out what is essential in the house purchase, having too much/too little land, how many outbuildings do we need for what we want to do etc., are apparently the big disaster areas for people. Also maybe have some variations on the main plan for properties that don't quite fit 100%.

We've always been very organised and logical in house purchasing, and done a list of essentials and the nice if's, and it's very good for getting over the heart over head, so this information is to help us draw up the house purchase list too!

e.g. The small shop idea ideally means near some passing trade, but houses may be cheaper further from the main roads, so there we could get more land and a quieter lifestyle, but spend more time selling and transporting.

The patchwork cushions sound really good too, especially using the old embroidered linens, hope the idea sells well

apprentice_tycoon

se999 wrote:

e.g. The small shop idea ideally means near some passing trade, but houses may be cheaper further from the main roads, so there we could get more land and a quieter lifestyle, but spend more time selling and transporting.

I really had in mind a country property (I'm really talking about me and my dreams now!) on a little lane with a board up on the roadside inticing passing trade so that you don't have to be 'in the shop' you just become the shopkeeper when you hear a car coming down the drive

se999

Hi,

We're hoping with local advertising and website and local mailing lists that maybe we won't have to go the busier road route too. Website to keep people informed so that they know a trips worthwhile or can email an order, and maybe drop off local emailled orders once or twice a week for fresh produce.

Maybe a bigger shop type thing for seasonal stuff a few times a year, as don't like the idea of someone having to be near the entrance all the time just incase someone decides to stop. Also, if you're in the middle of dealling with something you can't always just stop e.g. dealling with a hive of bees. :eek:

competitionscafe

se999 wrote:

Currently between houses, but planning to get the 'dream' this time, well OK it's the dream that probably needs a lot of work else we won't be able to afford it

Is this in France or in the UK? If it's in France (lucky you!) then this site has some useful ideas, articles and info:

http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-downshifting/

http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-smallholdings/

They have a forum and a newsletter too.

se999

First choice is UK SW, but second choice is SE France south of Carcassone towards the Pyrennees/foothills of Pyrenees. We do want nice scenery too