I’m already spending regular time now in the garden whenever I can getting rid of the dense web [...]]]> I intend to spend much more time in the garden than I did last year (I blame endless unpacking and house sorting on that) and aim to get a higher vegetable yield this year (weather permitting!).

I’m already spending regular time now in the garden whenever I can getting rid of the dense web of nettle roots, liberally spreading well rotted horse manure, fresh chicken manure and straw from their housing and home made compost around and mulching heavily with cardboard to reduce the number of weeds. My aim is to spend about an hour each afternoon outside after the day’s indoor jobs have been done.

We’re planning to create small designated raised beds for growing and mulched pathways for walking on all as near to the house as possible recognising that the further away the growing areas are from where we naturally spend time (near the washing line, the large pond, the workshop) the less likely we are to notice when plants need weeding, harvesting or watering.

Runner Bean seeds

Most of my seeds came again from the Real Seed Company who are so lovely and give explicit instructions on how to carry out one’s own seed saving.

They say on their website ‘WE DO NOT SUPPLY HYBRID SEED OR GM SEED,
We only supply Real, Open Pollinated seed. Here’s why:
Real Seed breeds true, so you can save your own seed.
But that’s not the only reason . . . real vegetable seed is better:

You will be told that these new leeks are ‘more uniform’, ‘straighter’ and so on. But what about flavour and adaptability? People seem to forget that we want to eat & enjoy these things – food is not just a commodity!

For all those local to us here this is reposted from the Cwm Harry Community Garden Blog which our permaculture tutor Steve Jones is involved with:

There is a great UK network: Seedy Sunday that encourages gardeners and growers to save seed and to swap them, and it is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Of course it doesn’t have to be a Sunday, and we are holding the first Newtown community seed swap event on a Saturday, 19th Feb, as Cwm Harry Land Trust, from 10.30 am – 3.00 pm.

For all sorts of reasons SELLING saved seed is against the law, but swapping saved seed is encouraged, and even if you have none to swap yourself, you can always make a small donation, or agree to volunteer on our garden project in return for any you do take.

There is a UK national Heritage Seed Library, managed by Garden Organic which exists to conserve rare varieties of vegetables, but it is really important that all gardeners get involved in saving at least some of their own seed.

Why save seed? Lot of reasons really, here are a few good ones..

Saving money is an obvious reason – its all FREE!
Promoting biodiversity and local strains of seed
Conserving older varieties
Building links between local growers in the area
Building local food security
This informal event is free to enter, (donations accepted but not expected), we will be offering some talks on seed saving and growing techniques and offering tours of our community garden. There is lots to know about seed saving, some plants are really easy to save seed from and grow on the next year, whereas others need some specialist skill or attention for success.

If you would like to help organise or contribute to this event in any way please get in touch. Otherwise, just come along on the day, no need to book!

[NB: Look out for a local seed swap event near to you in the coming weeks prior to the beginning of the busy spring planting time. If you can't find one perhaps organise one yourself...]

I have put off writing this post for ages as I’ve not been able to put it concisely enough that I’m moving off BD and onto a new joint [...]]]> EDIT Jan 2011: Please note that the blog mentioned below no longer exists. Any traffic to it will redirect back to a page on this site.

I have put off writing this post for ages as I’ve not been able to put it concisely enough that I’m moving off BD and onto a new joint blog written with my blessed soulmate Bealers. We’ve called it Becoming Self Sufficient but it’s more than that, it is our path away from the hideousness of western society’s ridiculous addiction and dependence on all things nonrenewable and the terrible unpredictable side effects of the rapid change of global climates.

We’re moving house (yet again) but to a very exciting place which is a newly established eco-village in Cornwall. We will be joining forces with people who share our outlook and have a desire to be less reliant on the just-in-time food delivery systems we have become so used to in supermarkets with oil that is cheaper than bottled water enabling  foodstuffs to reach us from far and wide.

We hope to live lightly enough on the land so that when our children and grandchildren implore us with questions like ‘What did you do to try and prevent this hideous barely habitable mess of our Earth’s environment?’we will not have to look away shame faced remembering airplane flights, leisure, pleasure, indulgence and lack of foresight. Luckily for us the shared farm we are moving to is a beautiful place, by the sea, the children run free all day long in the woods with no cars to worry about and the grown ups talk over shared dinners about exciting projects (an eco hostel, a huge children’s playground, a forest garden, shared workshops and farm shop planning).

We will have our own home and privacy when we need it, with a kitchen and personal facilities but the idea of a community working and enjoying life together is really appealing to us now.

Since October last year when we first visited our soon-to-be new home out of sheer curiosity about what communal living might look like my eyes have been opened wide to the monumental task of ceasing the runaway oil burning lifestyles our countries have had for the past 100 years and frankly I haven’t been able to think of much else. I feel a bit like I haven’t got a single moment to lose.

We’ve read as many books as we can lay our hands on which explore the argument for our having rapidly depleted so much oil in such a short space of time (this amazing substance could have powered and heated many many generations but instead we’ve squandered it on crap plastic toys which get broken within an instant, wealthy lifestyle only a few oil-rich nations have been able to emulate AND – this is the best bit – we’ve built a food production industry which is 100% reliant on the oil being plentiful and cheap forever. Most farms are so big they can only be tended by huge machines, the soil has been wrecked so that to make it possible to grow crops farms are needing to add industrial strength fertilizers derived from guess what – OIL  products.

According to many many knowledgeable sources we have already used up our US & UK reserves of oil and both nations now import huge quantities oil from Middle Eastern states who aren’t actually that fond of our wicked ways.

We do not know what will happen to stop all this madness but at some point stop it must. It may be that prices set by OPEC make road haulage unprofitable, petrol/gas unavailable, flying all over the world several times a year something only the super rich can do. It may be that more wars will break out as governments try to secure enough fossil fuel energy for their never-ending growth economies.

As a couple we have decided that it is almost certain that things cannot continue the way they currently are (it is said that if we in the West continue to use resources at the rate we are now we will need at least another three planet Earth’s to supply us). We have a wish to tool-up with skills, knowledge (and hand tools) and raise our kids in a way that prepares them for a very uncertain future.

We hope very much that they will, by the time they are adult, know how to grow food, manage woodland as a source of fuel and building supplies, look after our precious water resources, harness the plentiful free wind and solar energy we have all around us, work with others who have skills they do not, be able to sew, cook, mend.

For the short term I shall continue to look after the children and the household as my main role but with a bit of luck I shall be able to team up with some of the other mum’s at the farm and find time to garden, organize, learn how to look after livestock and in the longer term I’d like to establish myself as a Permaculture teacher (maximizing small scale food production with minimal energy) as it is said that this is one of the viable solutions to the problems we have created.

My Bealers has decided to transition himself towards a new career and has just this week been accepted to study for a two year MSc in Renewable Technologies. He is also enjoying reskilling as a carpenter and green woodworker by attending evening classes and workshops.

I’d like to thank any of you out there wholeheartedly for reading my blog up to this point – I’ve really enjoyed the comments you’ve provided and the writing itself has been a very interesting path for me. Please follow our progress on our new blog becomingselfsufficient.org.uk

Cathie Ackroyd – June 2009

What Can You Do?

• Grow some food
• Get a bike
• Keep some chickens
• Cook food from scratch instead of take-outs, ready meals
• Support local producers by buying their products in season instead of getting stuff from far-flung places
• Begin to wean your family of cheap, plentiful fossil fuel energy (drive less, have air-con/heating on less, use a washing line not drier, don’t fly, reuse, reduce & recycle wherever you can)
• Teach your children to wear clothes until they grow out of them or wear them out
• Join your nearest transition group (or start your own)
• Campaign for government reaction against climate change

Further Reading

• The Long Emergency – James Kunstler
• Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-carbon Society – Richard Heinberg
• The Transition Handbook – Rob Hopkins

Films

• A Farm for the Future – Rebecca Hosking
• How Cuba survived Peak Oil
• The End of Suburbia
• The Age of Stupid

We’re looking for anyone who has decided to [...]]]> An independent television production company are currently developing a television series and are searching for families or individuals who have decided to downshift or make a career change and set up on their own. Are you about to embark on a new life and a new venture?

We’re looking for anyone who has decided to escape the rat race, change their lives and set up their own dream business. You may have taken redundancy and are using your financial package to start up on your own, or simply decided to follow your dreams, get a better life and start that business you’ve always wanted to. It may be setting up a small holding or a B+B, a restaurant, a shop or a farm and cafe – whatever the business, whatever the industry, we’re interested to hear.

Whether your setting up in the UK or abroad – we’re looking to contact anyone who is just about to start their life change and are in the very early stages are setting up.

For further information please email: becky.morris@ninelivesmedia.co.uk
Please include some detail about your planned move/business.

I’ve been given two great thrifty money saving Christmas ideas from the wonderful newsletter produced by Sue at www.nomoreclutter.co.uk

1. My favourite idea is to use a pretty basket and pile it high with newish things you have around the house and can easily can say goodbye [...]]]>

Free gifts in a pretty Christmas basket

I’ve been given two great thrifty money saving Christmas ideas from the wonderful newsletter produced by Sue at www.nomoreclutter.co.uk

1. My favourite idea is to use a pretty basket and pile it high with newish things you have around the house and can easily can say goodbye to (eg. paperbacks, unopened makeup, booze, newish DVDs, computer games, toys, pretty jewelry, scarves etc) perhaps tying a bit of pretty ribbon around each thing. When a Christmas guest arrives you are able to invite them to chose a gift for themselves from the selections. Apparently the official name for this is re-gifting. I love it.

2. Like many people who find it hard to let go of stuffI have a ‘present box’ which always seems to be full as I buy little bits and pieces throughout the year from charity shops or special offers and also add to it the things we are given but are unlikely to use. This year I shall attempt to empty the box by giving the things as presents or by adding to the open re-gifting basket. Some of the things in my present box have moved house with me once already and have just been packed again for our next house move this week. I’ll be darned if I’m moving any of those same treasures a third time when we move house again!

3. Another thrifty idea for gifts came to me in our beloved local library this afternoon when the children and I were looking through the Usbourne Treasury of Christmas. It has recipes for heart shaped peppermint creams (which are even easier to make than my ever popular playdough recipe). I’m not sure who will get the most joy – the kids while making them or their grandma when receiving them and eating them… I shall be making the smallest token nods towards christmas present making afew jars of pink grapefruit curd (like lemon curd only more original and prettier in colour) for our extended family members.

Peppermint Creams Recipe

Ingredients:
White from one large egg or two small eggs
8 oz icing sugar (one cup of confectioners’ sugar or frosting if you live in the US)
Small amount of peppermint essence
Food coloring (optional)

Beat the egg white in a bowl with a fork and sieve (sift) in 6oz of icing sugar (frosting). Add pink, green or blue food colouring (a very steady, adult hand is required for this, and the tiniest sprinkle of food coloring will do the job). Mix well with a wooden spoon and then sieve in more icing sugar, a little at a time, until you have made a stiff paste. Shake a little icing sugar on the work surface and empty the paste onto this.

Add 3 – 4 drops of peppermint essence and gently knead until you have a smooth paste. Have a taste of a small piece and if the flavour is not strong enough, add a few more drops of peppermint essence.

Sprinkle icing sugar over a rolling pin to prevent sticking, and roll the paste to a quarter of an inch (0.5cm) thick. Cut out individual peppermint creams with a star, circle or heart shaped cutter, or, if pressed for time, cut out small squares with a knife.

Cover a plate with non-stick parchment or greaseproof paper and place the peppermint creams on the paper. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave overnight in a cool place (but not the fridge). Store in an airtight tin or jar.

We have rented a house in the countryside between three English [...]]]> I’ve just read another attitude-changing book, again borrowed from the library but like other inspiring reads this too will be bought for the home bookshelves and most probably as a Christmas present for other similarly minded friends or family.

We have rented a house in the countryside between three English towns for two years now we are in the process of thinking ahead and wondering what sort of environment we would like to raise the kids in when/if we buy a place of our own.

It is well documented that we do love living in the the countryside (the space, the sounds, the quiet, the ability to produce our own food) and have felt until reading Ian Walthew’s account of his move to a small village in the Cotswolds that we should probably not move too far away from a commerical centre and the so called benefits they bring (namely shops, leisure centres, cinemas and according to my five year old son the constant lure of fast food establishments offering ‘free’ toys). Reading his book has radically changed my mind and has helped me to realise that I have no real affinity to large towns any more and actually the small town we live in has the few things we need/like as a family (a lovely village school, a playground, a doctor, a chemist, a butcher, a greengrocer and a charity shop). If we were to move further away from such things it may mean we have opportunity to experience the pleasures of other things we haven’t even dreamt of yet.

A Place In My Country has opened my eyes further to the turmoil modern farmers are in.

I feel I’ve learned so much about his neighbour’s small old fashioned farm, the hard, hard relentless physical labour he has put in day in and day out since he was a small boy and now only to earn a few pounds per animal or per quantity of grain but despite this there is no question that his neighbour would ever consider farming another way or  selling up.

Modern farming methods are rapidly destroying our soil structures (with their heavy reliance on chemical fertilisers instead of spreading manure to enrich soil structures), our wildlife (most modern farms comprise of huge swathes of land managed by one person with enormous machines, many hundreds of acres without hedges, dry stone walls where wildlife would have once resided) and these smaller farms are now a minority which are disappearing fast along with the knowledge, skills, experience and the wide variety of crop and animal breeds which once meant we enjoyed a diverse range of products instead of the monoculture governments are turning this country towards.

Throughout the book there is a sense that no-one in a position of power is thinking rationally about the future of our land and what will happen to future generations of people wishing to live and work in a rural environment. The people who are struggling to maintain a living from the land are continually up against legislation and the push for producing cheap food on a huge scale (as well as the weather, poverty and people with more wealth wishing to build housing estates on their land). It’s a really well written book which manages to be both informative, moving and hugely entertaining too.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Place-My-Country-Search-Rural/

NB: While I’m waxing lyrical about books I’ve recently read about life in the English countryside I also read another moving and inspirational account called ‘The Fight for Fordhall Farm’ by Charlotte and Ben Hollins.

It is their story of how they saved their fathers delapidated organic farm in Shroshire, UK from being bought by property developers and turned it into a community ventre by sheer determination, hard work and positively refusing to give up when it looked like they would never be in a position to raise the £800,000 required. Given that they were only 19 and 21 when the events unfolded it is an incredible tale.

Both these books give us non-farming readers a tiny window through which to peep through into a world where people are giving their whole lives’ effort to  work with nature not because it will earn them a fast car or a foreign holiday, new fashionable clothes or the latest gadget but because it is something they love from the core and would not give up without a lengthy fight.

Both have made me want to do more in the way of producing our own food and aiming towards an even more simple and self-sufficient way of life before our nation is forced to re-examine our unhelthy dependence on oil.

My poor little head is too full of too many things to do (an exciting dot com project with my beloved, administrative work for our small internet business, a small babe and two little kids on summer holidays to look after, a house to keep in order, tummies to feed, this blog to [...]]]>

My poor little head is too full of too many things to do (an exciting dot com project with my beloved, administrative work for our small internet business, a small babe and two little kids on summer holidays to look after, a house to keep in order, tummies to feed, this blog to write AND its so hot!) but I’ve got a tiny moment to share the fantastic book I’ve borrowed from the library.

Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – Our Year of Seasonal Eating’ is an insiprational and educational account of the author and her family’s decision to leave Arizona where the population generally doesn’t know that potatoes grow in the ground and are 100% dependent on the petroleum industry to bring them food to their supermarkets all year round to a farm in Virginia where they spend a year only eating what’s in season and grown locally (their own gardens and those of small local farmers). The kids and the husband all write essays, facts and recipes which are inserted into the main narrative. Its a fantastic read.

It has made me determined to eat less food which has traveled a long way. Food which is grown to be transported thousands of miles is generally bred to travel well and not to taste good, and for each 10 calories provided by a vegetable or animal when eaten many more calories are spent producing it (fertiliser chemicals, insecticides) and transporting it. Each time I put the book down I’m even more fired up to continue our quest to live a simpler life in which food is not just grabbed as a pre-prepared product at the supermarket and wolfed down but instead lovingly planned, grown, shopped for, perpared and enjoyed with no hidden preservatives, flavourings, transfatty oils, or meat from poorly treated animals hiding within.

I’ve learnt so much and am only a third of the way through the book (eg. why hybrid seeds are a bad thing – because they don’t produce viable seeds for next time; making cheese at home is easy and fun with normal pasteurised milk; how supporting local farmers and buying their produce at a farmers market can have a huge impact on the local economy and environment) but the main thing I’m going to try to do more of from now on is resist the temptation to buy food out of season (because it will have been shipped halfway around the world to meet my desire for it) and to buy food produced in the UK, locally if possible from small enterprises rather than the huge food suppliers.

When one decides to be more of a locovore (someone who eats only locally and ethically produced food) one needs to be prepared to be inventive and creative with making dinners with only what is seasonably available (but not hard if you start being a ‘locovore’ in the middle of bountiful summer!) storing some of the glut of fresh foods harvested during July-October helps.

It was only a generation ago that out of season vegetables (shipped by train in ice-boxes from California to colder states) where a rich person’s party-piece, now they have become the norm and so unfortunately have all the questionable processes which bring these flavourless, travel-hardy cousins to our table.

The book is on loan to me from my local library but I’ve just bought myself a copy (a rare thing these days for me to actually buy a book instead of just borrowing it until I’ve read) as I know I will want to use the recipes time and again, lend it to like-minded friends and to re-read for more ideas of what to grow in our garden.

There is an accompanying website written by the family where the recipes can be found.
http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/