really old style living?

ceridwen

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I love kale Orpine is a type of sedum - never tried it myself.

Take my word for it Penny - you don't want to...unless your tastes are VERY different to mine...:rotfl:

ceridwen

smileyt wrote: »

I like kale too. Unfortunately I left my little seedlings in their pots on the ground last night instead of lifting them up and the slugs ate it all overnight:mad:

I have an allotment so I'm trying to grow as much as I can, but it's hard because I have depression and sometimes can't drag myself down there. But each year I manage more, so there's hope. I couldn't be totally selfsufficient though as I live in the inner city and need dog food for my dogs (they wouldn't survive on what they could hunt around here!)

I am going to start stocking up, though. I'm doing a carboot soon, so will be shifting a load of stuff. That hopefully will make room for some stores of flour etc.

Re the slugs - I came across a little video-ette about homemade slug collars for plants made from plastic water bottles - and am now collecting some to have a go:

http://myzerowaste.com/2009/06/plastic-bottles-slug/

mardatha

The reason for the kale is that in the old days, it was the mainstay of the Scots diet. its tough and indestructible and grows anywhere...so I thought it made sense. It must be good for you, because I have been sneaking it into all soups and stews, just to get rid of the bloody stuff - and I had bloods done last week & the doc said " and you're CERTAINLY not anaemic !"
I did plant swiss chard somewhere but it seems to have got lost in the jungle. If I knew what it looked like it might be easier to find ...LOL!

frosty

We live in Aberdeenshire,we use to have a smallholding but sold up and moved into a town.I miss my own space and plan to move back to country living in a few years.Because I am use to bad winters when we lived in the counrty I still stock up and could survive for about a year easily.I have two freezers full of meat,veg ect.10 calor gas bottles/3 fires.A multi-fuel stove which we can cook on,heaps of candles and a food stockpile to last a very long time.We grow our own fruit and veg,which I preserve and freeze.I dont tell people about our food storage(apart from here)because they would think we were mad,but its saved us alot of money so far.

zarazara

WHAT A FANTASTIC THREAD.
I think the thing about growing food is not to stress about it. Plant more than you think you'll need. Its NEVER wasted. Plants can be eaten small,/partly grown,they dont have to look like they do in the supermarket. And any that go to seed [collect the seed!] or are just left behind go on the compost heap,and so help fertilise next years crops,so ,zero waste. Grow what grows easily in your area before trying for more difficult things,DO NOT SET YOURSELF UP FOR FAILURE in other words. Look at the successes every day.
Recently we;ve eaten 80% HM and home grown meals,and I'm saying but we didnt grow the beetroot [or whatever the 20% is]. Then I stoped and thought, Dont be Daft, you've done brilliantly doing what you've done. Tonights dinner was HG salad leaves and eggs from a neighbour omlette with HG basil. But the bread was shop bought. I WILL make bread at some point but just not this week. It doesnt matter. Just ENJOY what you can do,when you can do it.

zarazara

ceridwen wrote: »

Re the slugs - I came across a little video-ette about homemade slug collars for plants made from plastic water bottles - and am now collecting some to have a go:

http://myzerowaste.com/2009/06/plastic-bottles-slug/

I'm going to try this. Seems like a good idea.

DawnW

OH, kids and I did the self sufficiency thing (or big bits of it) back in the late 70s /80s. It was very trendy then, though that didn't really figure much with us. It might well get trendy again though!

We wanted a good life, and healthy diet for our children. We were pretty skint, unlike many who had money available to buy houses / land etc, I was a SAHM mum- as you tended to be in those days, if in a rural area without lots of money to pay for childcare, and OH was in a low paid job. We kept goats, made cheese, yogurt etc from the milk, sheep, rabbits,chickens, ducks and geese for eggs/meat (not rabbit or sheep eggs though obviously ) and grew fruit, herbs and veg. I did lots of preserving, and OH had permission to shoot game birds, rabbits etc, and gather firewood. We were also part of a like-minded community/ group (although we were the skintest members) which was really nice - my kids have great memories of our 'work days' when we would take it in turns to help each other out and have a great lunch / tea party which the host organised, but to which all families contributed. The kids had a great time and made loads of friends they wouldn't otherwise have met.

OH also made wine / beer :eek: (I was teetotal then :rotfl:)

Now, kids are grown, I went to uni (several years on and off), and now have a job that is often a nightmare :eek: but pretty well paid. We still live in accommodation tied to OH's job, which is a run down house with a big garden. We have also paid off our debts from bringing up the kids, and since been very careful with money though, to enable us to buy somewhere we can afford, not a country cottage unfortunately but a decent size terraced cottage in a country town with a garden and outbuildings.

This is currently rented out, whicxh is more hassle than it is worth . My tenants are nice enough, but I do not buy the 'buy to let will make a fortune' etc rubbish - you don't, at least not with one property if you comply with the law, are a decent human being etc

Despite job nightmares, we still grow veg and fruit, bake cakes, pies, biscuits, make yogurt (though not bread at the moment, job too full-on :eek:), keep chooks for eggs only (I am a bit soft these days), OH still shoots game birds and rabbits though. And yes, you too can make bacon - see Hugh Fearnley wotsit's River Cottage everyday cookery book. Anyone can do it, so long as they have a plastic box

We buy meat from farm shops or directly from farmers, make yogurt, though from cows milk these days - cheapest supermarket UHT works pretty well (though I do miss my goats ), make jams, jellies, pickles and chutneys. My daughters and daughter in law can also do this, to a standard where people ask to buy them.

However, I cannot make the following:
decent chardonnay or champagne
high cocoa solids chocolate
grapes, bananas, citrus fruit and other exotic fruit
etc


and other things. But I also love kale - and leeks, they are always there as well

I would really urge people to take a step along this route, even if it is limited to just growing a few herbs on your windowsill and/or cooking from scratch. The sense of satisfaction will be immense, and I cannot recommend it enough

A great thread, thanks, brought back lots of good memories

[Deleted User]

My late ma-in-law lived a very similar life to this .Mainly because she was widowed at 28 with two very small boys and moved back to the Isle of Wight from London to where her family lived.With her late husbands insurance money ,all £580.00 odd she bought her house and three quarters of an acre of garden for £550.Mind you this was in 1937. She had no electricity in the house for several years, which was in fact two small cottages knocked into one.She grew virually everything her and the boys ate and bottled fruit and even made her own pickles for the winter.Her runner beans were sold to the local grrengrocer in Cowes and the money paid for her rates ( council tax) for the year.There was very little that she didn't grow in the garden and she also had chickens as well.The boys grew up fishing for their mum and had a .22 rifle that their grandpa gave them and the shot rabbits for the pot.During WW2 she managed to get hold of a couple of pigs and locals who helped feed the pigs with their left overs had a share when the pig was slaughtered.As she lived in Northwood which was a good half hours walk from Cowes there wasn't a lot of choice it was grow it ,eat it or go hungry.She knew the best places to find mushrooms in the local fields .
She cleaned her teeth with salt and never had a filling in her life.My two little girls thought she was magical as if they were not feeling well she always had some sort of cure for thier ailments.Her own Mum was the local midwife /layer out and brought many of the local children into the world as Dr.s cost money which few folk had in those days .I remember her telling me once that the local vicar had come calling one day to see if she needed any help.She sent him off with a flea in his ear as she said there was no way either her or her sons were going to 'go on the parish' and she would feed and raise her kids without anyones help.Her Dad did a bit of building work on the cottages to help her out but that was family so to her it was different.She had a very tiny widows pension to bring her boys up on and I always had the greatest of admiration for her as she was a very proud lady who dug her garden until she was in her 80s and really didn't need to be quite so self sufficient anymore. By the way my late husband hated gardening as he said he had dug his mums so much when a little boy that he never wanted to see another spade again,it also put him right off of fresh veg and he would only eat processed peas after we were married as he absolutely loved them

Patchwork_Quilt

This is an incredibly interesting thread, thank you all. By the way Ceridwen, you can pickle nastertium seeds. I just get some of my really tiny jars (ask the local cafe to save the individual portion jars for you) and some white vinegar. Then, I pour boiling water over the seeds (my allotment had goats on it and you never know) then put them in the jars and cover them with vinegar. Quite nice scattered over a salad.

Well, I have an allotment and I taught myself to bottle produce last year. Not that you'd want to eat most of it as the texture is a little odd but I do have the skills to preserve and store without a fridge for some things. I pickle, jam and chutney and am experimenting with cordials this year. We do swap some produce for eggs with another allotmenteer but I'm not sure I can commit to keeping animals just yet. I read something about keeping chickens and this poor chicken had to have its foot put in a jam jar with some disinfectant and scrubbed and I just turned my stomach. However, I have planted five fruit trees in the garden, in addition to the rhubarb patch and our old apple tree. Fruit bushes are going in when nobody notices and I am currently making a veg patch in the garden too. (The bottom half. A good half. In fact, as much as I can get away with.)

I don't hope to live in the country with a patch of land but I do hope to have a productive garden and allotment so that we can eat organic food that has not travelled across the world to reach us.

mardatha

So really, when you think of it, all of us who have gardens should just plant whatever we can in it. otherwise it's a shameful waste of our resources. Older generations would be shocked at us and would get stuck in and provide for their families - so we should as well.
Frosty, I'm doing the same as you but on a much smaller scale. Multi-fuel stove, Calor gas cooker- (we get loads of powercuts so they're really needed)- loads of candles and a small stash of food, but I need to be more organised.
I think a menu plan is the place to start for me, maybe a fortnight then double it. Work in as much home made or grown produce as I can. Then work out how much porridge, how much lentils & barley for soups, how much flour for bread, that we would use in that month. And TRY and take it from there. We always eat simple plain food so it makes life easier.
I would be lost without this forum.