Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => Locations and Sites => Topic started by: North Country Boy on March 05, 2005, 03:04:23
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Just wondered how self sufficient you all are. More out of interest than scientific research. I would love to go the whole hog but my current lifestyle will not, at this moment allow, wife thinks im a bit eccentric but admires my passion. Are you just in it for the veg or do you go the whole hog?
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I'm just in it for stress relief :) The by-product is just a bonus ;D
Just being on the plot, even if doing nothing is particular, is relaxing. I don't even mind the rabbits (picture Watership Down and you're there). It's surprising how the hours just fly by :)
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Ncb - there's going to be a TV programme about a group of people who are going to live the life of self sufficiency for a year. Three families have been chosen and the programme charts their progress over the year. the prog will be in 8 parts and it's called The Real Good Life
The producer is Tom Gould, but unfortunately the article I read didn't say what channel the programme will be on or when so we'll have to keep our eyes peeled
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Tried it for about 3 years but had to go to work as well because of the morgage, grew all my own veg, had chickens, goats, rabbits, geese and ducks. Used to sell the surplus but it was not enough to support us financially. The children were really healthy and still drink goats milk when they can get it. The big drawback is you need a 25 hour day.
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We can dream! I would say 95% veg and a fair whack of our fruit, if only I could get my banana palms to produce! Make all my own jams, pickles, chutneys and relishes, along with cakes and pies all from my own produce. I can't claim self sufficiency, but we do try and buy what we can from local growers and suppliers.
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Ncb - there's going to be a TV programme about a group of people who are going to live the life of self sufficiency for a year. Three families have been chosen and the programme charts their progress over the year. the prog will be in 8 parts and it's called The Real Good Life
The producer is Tom Gould, but unfortunately the article I read didn't say what channel the programme will be on or when so we'll have to keep our eyes peeled
I actually applied to go on the programme, replied to an advert in our local paper but never got through, left all my details on the answer phone but no-one got back to me. I'd imagine thousands of people applied to go on it.
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aw shucks ncb - very sorry to hear that. You'd have been great so you would ;D
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Thanks for that, i think my food growing naivety would have made for a good laugh. Where's your allotment based?
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NCB I have an allotment in Boza ;D
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Hi
I'm just starting on my allotment, but it will be just to have home grown fruit and veg that is tasty and fresh, plus free from goodness-knows-what. I adore all veg & fruit, and we do a lot of home cooking - we never by packet meals. I'll still be buying the more exotic fuits - mangos, pineapples & bananas, for example - unless global warming speeds up a bit.
I'm also a meat eater. While i love to eat many vegetarian meals, i couldn't survive without meat at all. I know I could keep chickens, etc., but am also a hypocritical softie. I couldn't 'do the deed' when it came to gathering the Sunday lunch, yet am quite OK about buying meat from a butchers (although not so keen on preparing meat - my partner does that), and I LOVE a rare piece of roast beef. Confession over. Doesn't make sense, I know, but that's me.
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I'd love to be self sufficient but I think we'd need more land and a lot more time, and I'd need better health than I've got at the moment. Last year we didn't buy a single vegetable all Summer - I'm really proud of that! Only thing is it was such a let down when we had to start buying again!
We do have chickens, which give us lovely eggs and two of the toughest ones kept going over the Winter, just one egg or so a week. We haven't had to buy eggs for two years now. They've all started to lay now, they must think it's Spring! (It certainly doesn't feel like it! Weather's still freezing ::))
This year, the aim is to grow as much as possible so that I can fill the freezer. We had loads of courgettes last year and there's still a few bags of those left but everything else is finished, now.
I've spent half the afternoon unloading a trailer load of manure and really enjoying it. (So nice to be outside). Is this when you know you're a gardener, when doing this sort of job becomes fun?!! ;D
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Dawn, you made me chuckle. A family story/myth reads my great great someone or the other kept pigs, along with his neighbour, but they couldn't stand to eat their animals, so come slaughter time they would swap! Perfectly happy to eat their neighbours beast.
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Mmmm. It's when you start naming them the trouble starts. Who could give little Percy and Petunia Piglet the chop? Not me. Even my frogs are named (giscard and mitterand, since you ask).
Just re-read my post - am thinking of having myself certified...
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Excuse my ignorance wardy but where is Boza? sounds reet foriegn.
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how do you define self-sufficiency though? only in terms of food?
what about clothes, materials that things are made from, electricity etc etc
actually, bizarrely (or not so bizarrely) since i have taken on the allotment i have also been thinking about this a lot more. why do we throw away clothes that have a hole in them? why cant we patch them and wear them for longer? why do we ditch clothes altogether (unless of course they no longer fit ;)) - give to the charity shop, for sure, but still. here, it's fashion, right? trousers with patches are not to be seen dead in. flares are in this year, and out for the next 6 or 7. it's this whole throwaway culture we live in.
do we really need a bigger TV? a faster car?
then, on the other hand, i think wouldn't it be nice to know how to make your own soap and cremes? how to make various food things from scratch? and yet again - no! i am the child of a spoilt generation - i use a washing machine, not wash by hand. i use stock cubes, not make my own stock and freeze/dry it. i buy clothes, not make them. ok, i knit, and i can sew on a button, but that's about all. i am sure my grandma was a dab hand with her foot-powered sewing machine. she knows how to mend a large rip in a dress or shirt. i don't.
self sufficiency - where does it stop?
i find the idea of looking after myself and living simpler and yet more content very appealing - yet i dont want to spend hours working on what is readily available to buy in shops. i would need to be at home full time, and work hard every day, to achieve self sufficiency at such a scale.
and then this is how trade evolved - i make lots of jam, and my neighbour makes lots of soap. so we trade for the other, rather than having to make our own in a painstaking and time consuming way.
ok, i realise i am going round in circles here, but anyways, i am kind of trying to figure all this stuff out to see what my interpretation of a 'modern' self-sufficiency is. how i can repect nature, not be wasteful, yet not want for anything?
it's a very tough call.
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then, on the other hand, i think wouldn't it be nice to know how to make your own soap and cremes? how to make various food things from scratch? and yet again - no! i am the child of a spoilt generation - i use a washing machine, not wash by hand. i use stock cubes, not make my own stock and freeze/dry it. i buy clothes, not make them. ok, i knit, and i can sew on a button, but that's about all. i am sure my grandma was a dab hand with her foot-powered sewing machine. she knows how to mend a large rip in a dress or shirt. i don't.
it's a very tough call.
I have a book called Better Basics for the Home - every recipe for cremes soaps cleaning liquids lotions and potions, from car cleaning, to brick motar and paints you could ever want. I try and avoid chemicals in the home.
I never throw away clothes they either get patched up, torn up for rags, passed on to someone else that might need them or charity shopped.
Not wanting for anything is a tough one, I truely belive I don't want for much at all, I could do without the TV and so could the kids (husband disagrees) the only luxuries I would want to hold onto are the pC and internet, cooker, and washing machine.
Anyway - self sufficiency, a distant ideological whimsical dream, reality hopefully one day will be enough fruit and veg that I won't need to buy any.
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NCB Boza is reyt exotic. It's up yon, rarnd corner from t'arn. That one wi crooked spire in it. ;D
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Heritage- goats milk is great innit? I drink it for health reasons (my crohns stays at bay if i avoid cows milk). Would love to keep goats and chooks but no space at home and not allowed on the lottie. :(
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I tried a carton of Goats milk as my puppy decided he didn't like it much and neither did I arrgh! poured it down the sink :-\
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I am very proud when I make a huge meal that I grew the ingredients for. I am still eating last years blackberries, the spuds only just ran out. I re-use and recycle tons of stuff, including sheds.
Col
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I tried a carton of Goats milk as my puppy decided he didn't like it much and neither did I arrgh! poured it down the sink :-\
Roy, you could have used it for making bread.
I use goats milk for making soap, makes the most wonderful moisturising soap when combined with olive oil and other ingredients.
We're not self sufficient but would like to become more that way, don't think we could ever be totally self sufficient. This year with the allotment giving us so much more space than in our garden I hope to be able to supply most of our veg and fruit. What does need to be bought in will be bought from the local farm shop. We have hens so no more buying eggs and one of the hens has gone broody (yesterday) so hopefully roast chicken will be home grown as well once the chicks hatch and grow bigger. I have a smallholder raising a pig for me, it's a weaner at the moment buy hopefully come November we will have lots of bacon, roast pork and we are going to try our hand at sausage and ham making.
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National Downshifting Week 23rd April http://www.downshiftingweek.com/index.htm - Perfect excuse to take time off work and spend a day in the garden/allotment ;D
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National Downshifting Week 23rd April http://www.downshiftingweek.com/index.htm - Perfect excuse to take time off work and spend a day in the garden/allotment ;D
Great im off work from Thurs 21st, bet you cant guess where im gonna be all weekend, and the kids are going to a friends wedding and the wifes at work all weekend, whooooooo hoooooo - outstretch's arms and gyrate's them in time with gyrating botttom.
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Sounds idyllic. What's the weather forecast?
NCB - Ttt :)
My OH (suited type with briefcase, company car) loves the allotment and fiddling with his old shed (no, not me!!!), and he'd like to chuck his job and keep chickens etc.
He's scrounging pallets to use as decking round his shed so he can put out his deckchair and listen to the footy on the wind up radio (which he bought ME for Christmas) ;D Roll on 23rd April
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Roy Bham- I find avoiding cows milk keeps my crohns at bay so i guess i am lucky that i like it. Its very good for you in itself though- drink it straight for two weeks and youll acquire the taste for it.
John
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I tried a carton of Goats milk as my puppy decided he didn't like it much and neither did I arrgh! poured it down the sink :-\
It must have been off. It is really only a full fat milk, remember the old bottles with the cream at the top, well this cream would come at least a third down the bottle. But if you are a green top wimp :D this is not for you.
goats milk does pick up the flavour of what they have been eating, as I found out when they nicked the ivy off the wall. they also ate some of my reliant robin van when I used to transport them to work.
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I had a guest who could only drink goats milk (?) so I got him some and me and my OH tried it. I thought it was fine. Couldn't tell much difference :)
Sorry for losing the thread but everyone else seems to have veered off self sufficiency. Praps we're not very good at that, but goats milk info spot on ;D
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Hi all,
My name is Tracey Smith and I am spearheading National Downshifting Week, which runs from the 23rd to the 29th April.
I am delighted to see you talking about it and making plans for it too!
I hope that it encourages you to look at the many different aspects and benefits of living a simpler life and I am on a countrywide tour at the moment, giving interviews en route.
The media and public response to the 'Week' has been fantastic and I am always inspired to hear people talking about.
It is a non-profits campaign and if you can help spread the word, I would be very grateful for your help.
Have a look at www.DownshiftingWeek.com (http://www.DownshiftingWeek.com) and see if anything makes you go "Hmmmm...." ;D
See you around and drop me a note with your progress via the contact form on the site.
With kind regards,
Tracey Smith
Creator
National Downshifting Week.com
www.DownshiftingWeek.com (http://www.DownshiftingWeek.com)
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Sounds idyllic. What's the weather forecast?
NCB - Ttt :)
My OH (suited type with briefcase, company car) loves the allotment and fiddling with his old shed (no, not me!!!), and he'd like to chuck his job and keep chickens etc.
He's scrounging pallets to use as decking round his shed so he can put out his deckchair and listen to the footy on the wind up radio (which he bought ME for Christmas) ;D Roll on 23rd April
Me too, would love to give up the day job, burn the suits and chuck the mobile in the nearest canal and spend all my time doing something that i loved rather than something i had to do, but with another NCB junior on the way its a long and distant dream. Had come up with a veg box scheme idea by using local produce and allotment leftovers, possibly incorporating some home made jams, chutneys and soups etc. but like all my ideas they never seem to materialise.
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I tried a carton of Goats milk as my puppy decided he didn't like it much and neither did I arrgh! poured it down the sink :-\
It must have been off. It is really only a full fat milk, remember the old bottles with the cream at the top, well this cream would come at least a third down the bottle. But if you are a green top wimp :D this is not for you.
goats milk does pick up the flavour of what they have been eating, as I found out when they nicked the ivy off the wall. they also ate some of my reliant robin van when I used to transport them to work.
The goats milk shouldn't have been off as it was well within the sell by date, maybe the goat had ate a rat before it was milked ::) I did like full fat milk until I was advised to reduce fat intake, I'm pleased I turned into a wimp as I now love semi skimmed (Green Top) and wouldn't go back as my cholesterol is now 3.5 ;D
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NCB I never thought I would end up running a B & B but I did. Your veggie box scheme sounds fab. You could even take baby with you on the deliveries. When our in bloom group got an allotment we got talking to a pub landlord who said he would take off our hands all our asparagus, broccoli, bulb fennel, carrots etc. Specially wanted pumpkins, squash, courgette and herbs. Same with our local deli. Also we have been approached by the local council about a food co-operative whereby our veg is bought off us and collected by van and sold cheaply to Sure Start types of organisations for low income families. There might be an opening like that near you.
If you hate your job then a dream is worth chasing. Good luck :)
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Roy do you eat porridge to lower your cholesterol? I do, made with water which I thought would be yuk but is lovely. My cholesterol is still too high though. Expect I'll have to give up the drink ;D
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;D ;D Wardy I have my Oates regularly with semi wimp green top ;D not sure I'd like it with water same goes for the beer ;D
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C'MON THE GOATS MILK- everyone try it its soooooooooo good for you and soooooooomuch creamier with same calorie content as cows milk. Roy- you can get green top too ;D ;D :D
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I used to milk the goats on the farm but the milk is disgusting :-\
I do LOVE gold top which I drink every day. cant stand all this watery mik and lo-cal rubbish ;D
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I just grabbed 10 beds a local hotel was putting in a skip, stripped them down for the wood. was gonna use as edging but in the end I have made a double size (posh) compo heap for down the lottie. ;D
Recycle & be tight till you squeak :-X
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Goat's milk is like a lot of foods that you're not used to. It's an acquired taste...drink it regularly and you get used to it and it tastes just fine. I don't suppose you remember your first taste of beer....that probably tasted pretty foul but now.....!
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Downshifting week..................
MMMmmmmm think I will take thurs & fri off as its my birthday ;D
Mmmmmmm this wee I will take Friday off and ooopppsss! Monday is bank hol! Not worth working if self employed as no double time and day in loo etc
Hard life aint it :-X
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I'm self employed, but seem to lose all my bank holidays as I have both english + scottish clients - one lot are usualy off when the others aren't.
I'd love to do the whole self sufficient thing, but I think there's a compromise in there somewhere. Say 3-4 units (families/partners/one person etc) with half the unit taking care of the growing etc while the other half works to bring in money for the luxuries (holidays, cars etc)
D
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EJ re story of pigs.. we kept about 300 pigs in varying sizes for nine years. When I wanted one to be slaughtered for the freezer had to tell the kids it was one of Harrys' (friend over the road) otherwise they wouldn't eat pork.
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;D Lorna.