really old style living?

NualaBuala

rhiwfield wrote: »

Hi all, lovely thread!

I guess nowadays living in the little house on the prairie isnt really feasible, not sure I'd want it anyhow as its nice having the dentist and doctor close by rather than rabid raccoons!

But its great to wean yourself away from a dependence on the supermarket's just in time mentality by only buying the basics you cant grow or make for yourself and in sufficient quantity to avoid unplanned trips to stock up.

DW loves mushy peas so every month or two, its several packets of leos dried peas cooked in HM chicken stock and frozen in margarine tubs. This joins the cartons of home grown raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrant pie filling and gooseberry granita. The blackcurrant, jostaberry and gooseberry jams should last until next year's crop, like the onions and garlic drying on racks in the garden. Its chutneys next

Its not just food though, making do and mending saves an awful lot of clothes shopping!

I find I really hate being in supermarkets now. In fact I hate advertising and any environment designed to make me feel I don't have enough, or what I have isn't good enough. I've started doing most of my shopping in our local organic food co-op - a much nicer environment. It's dearer but worth every cent to me. They do great discounts for bulk ordering so I'm planning to stick up on non-perishables (just got to figure out where I'll put it all!).

I love the sound of what you are doing and I aspire to that. I don't have much growing in my garden but I hope that I will have some fruit in the autumn to preserve (crab apples, and maybe some blackberries).

hex2

The bread came out of the oven twenty minutes ago. The children have already eaten most of it! It was 9 inches by 1 inch, and I used a round cake tin with a removable base because I hadn't anything else suitable.

I would bother again because it was very little effort for a reasonable result.

wigglebeena

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

This is what DH and I plan to do, starting in about 3 years' time We plan:

1. to grow all our fruit and veg (we do some already)
2. keep hens for meat and eggs (we do this now)
3. keep other birds - ducks, geese, turkey, guinea fowl, quail
4. keep pigs for meat (we have done this, and would do it again if we could get land)
5. keep goats for milk and meat
6. keep sheep for meat and wool
7. keep bees for honey
8. keep a cow for milk (and calves for meat)
9. to have access to shooting game and wild fowl (we do this already)
10. to have a wind turbine, solar panels for energy
11. composting toilet (my personal favourite )
12. it would be great if we could have our own water system, with reed beds for wast :T

What we won;t be able to have is

1. chocolate
2. nice wine
3. coffee
4. tea
5. citrus fruits
6. wheat

I found some physalis seeds in a pound shop the other day: these are berries from the citrus family, very tangy. I have planted them, they haven't come up yet but I have my fingers crossed!

mardatha

I wish we had an organic co-op And I too have started to really hate supermarkets.

noynoy

ooh im sooo up for this ! what a lovely thread and so lovely to find like minded people..im not self sufficant far from it in an ideal world i would be! i do grow some veg so im only just beggining.
ive been spurred on recently to keep chickens..im currently building a coop but its all from free/trash stuff so its taking a little while! also i have at the bottom of my garden a huge honeysuckle "tree" far too big to be a shrub lol..well it doesnt really have very preety flowers on it..so ive decided thats going and im putting in raspberrys, loganberrys and maybe one type of current or a gosberry if someone can recommend a good one..i do love gooseberrys! My mum still lives int he countryside so a few times a year we have a family picking day collecting sloes, damsons, elderberrys and blackberrys and we pick all her rubarb then it all gets frozen then bottled or jammed later on..shes not so good at jamming and im not so good at wine so we make enough to gift each other lol

ooh and today i realised we have no food in the house we normally go on a sunday but didnt last week..so insetad of doing a big shop today im doing a tiny tiny shop of essentials..pasta, eggs and potaotes ..and thats all ..the rest i will eak out till sunday..wish me luck lol

ooh today i put in a load of sprouted potaotes as i forgot i had them (says shamed faced) so i planted them for later in the year and hacked backed my lettuce as id forgotton to cut it to eat ..i need to set myself little goals i think!

so question is if i cut down my honeysuckle and planted my berrys almost immediatly whould it be next year they are ready for eating?

ginnyknit

I went (by chance) to a farmers market on Sunday, it was lovely but there wasn't much I needed. A loaf was 2.50 and though the veg was lovely I didnt really need any. I couldn't afford the meat so it was just nice to look around. I to am avoiding supermarkets as Im getting very fed up with them. Dd nips down for essentials but am living on what I have got in the cupboard,and garden at the moment. Am off to Mums on Friday so may well nip on Bolton Market for some cheap fish.

Marmalade is bubbling away right now and its a lovely pale golden colour instead of fake orange. Corned beef hash slow cooking itself ready for tea and overnight bread is ready to go with it - light wholemeal today. Must say though the foccacia has been the biggest success to date and Im sure I have some olives knocking about for the next one.

Am feeling more satisfied today and am going to spend a peaceful afternoon knitting for the C word. I like this life most days and I dont have any bl**dy choice do I :rotfl:

Cait

Sorry for butting in here all, but I have been lurking for some months now, with interest...getting lots of ideas and tips and I feel like I am v.e.r.y. slowly getting there.

Nuala, I to, live in Dublin, can you tell me where you find your local organic food co-op? I have looked and cannot find one where I live and I am willing to travel to bulk buy. I would really love not to have to depend on the supermarket. Thanks a mil.

NualaBuala

Cait wrote: »

Sorry for butting in here all, but I have been lurking for some months now, with interest...getting lots of ideas and tips and I feel like I am v.e.r.y. slowly getting there.

Nuala, I to, live in Dublin, can you tell me where you find your local organic food co-op? I have looked and cannot find one where I live and I am willing to travel to bulk buy. I would really love not to have to depend on the supermarket. Thanks a mil.

Hi Cait :wave: Lovely to "meet" a fellow Dub here!
Here's the link to the food co-op http://www.dublinfoodcoop.com/index.html They're in Newmarket Square, not far from St Patrick's Cathedral. It's a lovely place, really friendly with sense of community. You meet all sorts there. I'm a member but you don't have to join, lots of people just pop in now and then. it only does vegetarian foods - no meat or fish.

There's also a place on Pearse St on Saturdays - has a meat and fish stand http://www.supernatural.ie/ but when I went, they didn't have much on their shelves. I might have got them on a bad week though and they were very nice. And they did a discount (10% I think) for unemployed or students.

parsonswife8

OMG, I am so jealous.:eek:
That looks like a lovely place to shop.:)

mardatha

Does anybody in here spin wool ? That was one of things further down my list to do. I'm sitting up here with no money for wool and there are half a million woolly efforts in the field at the back fence..... Hmmmmm!