Self Sufficiency or what?

wayland · Self Sufficiency or what?

Since the sixties I have wanted to be self sufficient in food stuffs etc. It is only now that we have been able to get enough land to make this possible. John Seymore was our guru and after all these years, I still find myself reaching for one of his books for reference from time to time. Allotment plots were put to good use but trying to be self sufficient is a full time job me thinks. So do we have to be rich to follow the dream?. It would be interesting to hear from others their views on this subject Smile

phil

If we go back a couple of generations people grew and ate much more basic food.It was grown in season, you only had strawberries for a short period of time,fruits were grown that kept well in winter,now you can get all sorts of fruit and veg all year round,maybe people expect too much these days.
It costs more to keep your own house cow than buying milk,butter,cheese,but lifestyle is much more important than money.

greentree

IMO - Everything has become so relatively cheap nowadays. I mean 1 euro for a bag of carrots that would take 4 months to grow and tend. It really is about lifestyle and not about money.

quarryman

For me, it is a lifestyle choice. It's about the pure joy of going out to your garden and picking food for your table, starting from seeds or eggs to meat and veg for your family.

Having said that, who of us can totally rely on what we produce to make enough to provide electricity, petrol, spare parts for machinery that breaks down, broadband, etc. etc. We all need cash from some source, be it Government Welfare, EU Subsidies, savings or a wages cheque.

I would love to live off the grid but the setup costs of say a wind turbine and solar panels would pay for electricity for the next 30 years. If I was in my 20s I would try it but I am 52 and will be dead and composting slowly before an off grid system would pay for it's self.

So back out to the garden to tend my willow for next years fires and to fend off the slugs and wood pigeon.

wayland

Interesting points. We try to supplement our income to pay for other incidentals buy adding value and selling produce at the local Country Market. There is a will to pay a bit extra for fresh quality product and not necessarily organic. There was great demand for our spring cabbage which was over wintered in the poly tunnel. A tip for those who have not tried it. After harvesting our early cabbage crop I planted out the stems, and by picking off all the new shoots except one we are now cutting and come again as much spring greens as we can eat. Being mature plants we can pick more greens in just 2/3 weeks. Wink

Phil sums it up by saying " It costs more to keep a cow than to buy dairy products". The pleasure of keeping a house cow is more important than the cash. We would also get the value of her calf for the freezer of course. So are super markets making us soft?

blowin

FWIW the opening comment in the talk given by the lecturer at an organic centre on the subject of being self-sufficient on one acre a few years ago was something like " You can't " .
He did go on to say that he made a living ( which his wife called subsistence ) by working 18 hrs a day , 7 days a week .
If I recall correctly the course cost us something like 100 euro per head for the day .
But we did get carrot soup for lunch .
That was nice .
If you like carrots .

As others have said . it has to be about lifestyle , the meaning of what you do and the quality of what you get to eat . And meeting nice people like those on this little forum , of course Wink

.

wayland

I dont think that you can compare "Making a living" and being self sufficient. I am sure that a farmer with forty acres could not make a living let alone me with my one and a half. We can produce all our food from this small holding and barter our surplus for what I cant produce. Like beef for instance. As I said, Its a full time job and so other incomes would be needed to pay for all else. I have a company pension which helps. If I needed to work for wages I would not be able to work my plot as intensive as I do. A bit of a paradox me thinks, We have to be financially secure before we can work an 18 hour day 7 days a week to be self sufficient. Confused

blowin

Very profound observation !
I have moved on to a stage further than that . No longer financially secure and can't manage an 18 hr day but continue to spend an awful lot of time doing things which make the local wildlife self sufficient . Breeding chickens for the fox , planting shrubs for the deer , cabbage for the caterpillars . Stuff like that . Still better than being in the office . It might all get rather boring without a little challenge , eh ? Laughing

admin

So, how do you judge your performance in this lifestyle ?

quarryman

I could be totally self sufficient as long as the international financial markets hold up, how else could I afford that type of lifestyle?

wayland

I judge my performance in this lifestyle by what my OH puts in the shopping trolley Crying or Very sad

I dont tell her this as I am sure that she would use this as another windup weapon Rolling Eyes

. HFW addresses the cash flow problem to an extent with his one off adding value market. My smallholding could not produce sufficient salable foodstuffs to do this seriously unless I grew just one type of veg. Probably herbs. However the occasional glut could be processed thus we hope. One market per week would make us up to 100euro profit on a good week. We sell eggs, seasonal veg, out of season veg with the poly tunnels help, Turkeys at xmas, my OH sells teas coffees and home made cakes. This set up inevitably ends up like a coffee morning with the regulars spending hours chatting and drinking one cup of tea. Ho Hum. Fun though Smile

wayland

Hectic week this week. What with pigeons, caterpillars, rabbits and potato blight. It seems that everything wants a piece of the action Evil or Very Mad

Still the blight seems to be under control <touch wood, spin around three times and invoking the name of a friendly saint>. Hows your year been ?

MrsL

I think it's unrealistic to talk about self-sufficiency in today's world; I prefer the term I use - "self-reliance". Make your own life to suit yourself and rely on yourself/ves to do as much as you can. Other people let you down. The odler I get, the more I find this to be so.
We are constantly striving to be as self-reliant as we cn, but this does invoolve some buying of materials and supplies from which to make various things, but we are getting there. One day we will have more land and no electricity and can really go for it then. Until then, we're doing our bit in small steps, relying less and less on others. Can make you a bit insular and oddball, but there you go Confused

blowin

MrsL

I'd be happy to help out - although I live some distance away. After reading through, I was actually going to ask if any of you have actually managed a meet up of any sort at all? Laughing

wayland

We do get to meet on the odd occasion, but as a majority of the membership live in the west/northwest it probably happens more often up there. We did have a great weekend at Camiles and Blowins putting up a poly tunnel and I got to meet some great people. I think we all are odd balls Wink

. Anyone going to the ploughing this year?

MrsL

Don't think I'll be, but I have broached the subject of an Irish meet with a load of oddballs from Ireland and MrL not *too* Shocked

at the idea. Will watch for details of meet ups, you never know!

blowin

Anyone got any land which is ploughable ? Even a boat would sink in mine at the moment .

Graney

tractorpunk

its so wet up here, all the animals are queing up in pairs waiting for a passing ark. cept the ducks, smug gits

blowin

Just hope the mink don't take the smiles off their faces as they did with ours . Crying or Very sad

The word around here is that very few people have got any apples this year .
Wild blackberries were looking good a couple of days ago but need a bit of sun before they will be worth picking . I wish !!

phil

The Jersey has had to go inside already,the animals are destroying more grass than they are eating,its going to be a long winter.
Seriously thinking of getting rid of the bigger animals.

wayland

Thats a bummer Phil. If some of the predictions are right we are in for two more years of wet summers. This was based on past records so is a bit subjective. Was there much hay made in your area in June?. There should be some decent stuff about. Its all haylige over here. Good luck.

phil

Its mostly silage up this way and looking at the bales in the fields around here its been a good enough year.There's a lot of cattle inside already so bales are going to get scarce.I don't fancy the idea of feeding them inside for up to six month, it may well be more depending on next years weather.