How self sufficient are you?

[noviceveggrower]

Hi,
I was reading past threads and picked up on the thread on John Seymour and his self sufficient ideas and books.
So I was wondering how self sufficient are vine members.

My dad decided that he wanted to do The Good Life and moved us to the other side of Aberdeen. We had 3/4 of an acres of land put down to fruit and veg. Then we had chickens for eggs and meat. My dad was also looking into breeding rabbits for meat but never got round to it.

Do you just save seeds or buy fresh every year?
Do you have chickens or other poultry for just eggs or do you eat them as well?
How much do people forage for things?
What about jamming and pickling stuff?

My mom use to jam and pickle everything. Think the only thing she tried to make which was awful was her yoghurt and her bread.
Think the most expensive thing they had to pay out for each month was car petrol and electric. The heating was an open fire and they only bought wood and coal every so often.

Anyone got solar panels?

Thanks

[Alison]

Self sufficient in veggies, can't get there with fruit all year round but doing better each year. Never buy chutneys, jams or pickles as home made are much nicer, also loads of cordials and infusions (alcoholic and non). Forage berries, apples, some leaves and mushrooms. Buy meat and fish but a lot less than we did.

Oh and generate leccy through our solar panels.

[roitelet]

Pretty self sufficient in veg and soft fruit, jam, chutney, pickles and rabbit also chicken when we have cocks. We do buy meat from time to time but try to get from a farm where possible. Even with quite a large space to grow things etc it's not possible to be entirely self sufficient we just do our best.

[veggiechicken]

Eggs from the chooks - wouldn't eat them.
Don't eat meat anyway.
Don't buy fruit or veg unless its yellow stickered, apart from mushrooms and some potatoes.
Make jam and some pickles.
Still have a store of honey from when we kept bees.
Save, swap and buy seeds.
Woodburning stove using own wood, supplements central heating.

My other little house has solar panels for electric and hot water. Toilets flushed with rain water and 2 wood burners. It doesn't really count though, as I'm intending to sell it next year, having decided to stay in this house and not move.

[Aberdeenplotter]

My dad decided that he wanted to do The Good Life and moved us to the other side of Aberdeen.

Whereabouts were you?

It's one of my biggest pleasures going round the supermarket vegetable section at the back end of the year saying to myself, I'm self sufficient in that and that and that and that. Of course, it's only self sufficient for part of the year, but that part makes all the hard work worthwhile.

[Thelma Sanders]

Only a very small plot so can't be self sufficient on veg, let alone meat and dairy.

Veg-wise I buy carrots, potatoes and onions, that's about it.

I usually manage to bottle enough tomatoes to last me through the winter, and make jams and chutney and pickle veg.
I do make most of my own bread and buns and cakes

[Small pumpkin]

Good thread noviceveggrower
I'm not self-sufficient yet but working on it.
Obviously I do the fruit and veg growing thing ( I do try to make a bit of pocket money by selling veg plants and excess veg ). Do a small amount of seed saving. Always save pumpkin seeds, for roast caramelised seed. Will be growing the variety of poppy with the edible seeds next year so will be saving all those.
Foraging a bit but not a lot, but I am counting cockles & razor clams in that , no need to collect mussels because they are so cheap.
The other half occasionally gets paid in salmon, venison or lamb for doing odd jobs for people. Or get them at very discounted prices. All sourced within a 2 mile radius.
We catch our own rabbits, with a little help from our ferrets.
Have my chickens for eggs. Occasionally raise a few birds for meat. Raise turkeys for meat.
Make our own, jams, chutneys, pickles, bread, biltong, beer & larger.
We do home smoked salmon, mackerel, cheese and other stuff when we're inspired.
We catch all our own fish, crabs & lobsters ( only keep what we need, & never anything smaller than the minimum landing size).
Heating and water heating is the log burner. We brought an artic load of wood that we are slowly cutting and splitting. We estaminet it should last us 4 years. Water is free. It comes straight off the hill behind the house.
So like I said not there yet but working on it.
Geese and pigs are next on my wish list.

[noviceveggrower]

Wow very impressed with your life style SP. I was offered a hunting hawk once and some land to go hunting on but my mom put her food down and said no.
Do you have a blog SP?

We were in Peterhead AP. We were out in the sticks a bit over a mile from the main road.

Your second house sounds pretty interesting VC Is it in the middle of no where or are their similar houses round it?

[veggiechicken]

Its in a little coastal village in West Wales. Some photos of the garden in http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...27s+album.html

[noviceveggrower]

Its in a little coastal village in West Wales. Some photos of the garden in http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...27s+album.html

I love it Lovely garden and views

[Bill HH]

I am completely self sufficient in mackerel, the only problem being i dont particularly like them. Everything else i am only self sufficient for brief periods in the year apart from onions and leeks which see us right through.. Its all down to available space and slugs.

[Bren In Pots]

Lettuce, jam and chutney I've not need to buy any of those since I joined the vine.

[Guest]

I am not really self sufficient - I just have more awareness of things and eat better. However, I am vastly improving on previous years

[Small pumpkin]

Wow very impressed with your life style SP. I was offered a hunting hawk once and some land to go hunting on but my mom put her food down and said no.
Do you have a blog SP?

I hope you have learned mother isn't always right
I love my life style, I'm very very lucky.
I don't have a blog. No one could cope with that much swearing . I'm very well behaved on here

[noviceveggrower]

I hope you have learned mother isn't always right
I love my life style, I'm very very lucky.
I don't have a blog. No one could cope with that much swearing . I'm very well behaved on here

I did have my dad on my side but my mom totally put her foot down. Bit of a kill joy I would love to have your life style think kids would love it to.
I think you doing a blog would be great. It would be interesting to see what you find and how you are doing things.