Selfsufficientish.com

I used lures once and they worked pretty well in combination with extensive cleaning (a cat got into an unused part of the house and then died and went unnoticed for months. The fleas took over that part of the house, there were so many when we opened the door that you could see them leaping about i...

Thanks for your input everyone. I'm going to try it anyway because I'm curious. It does sound rather outlandish but I'm interested in what will happen.

Can anyone help me with this please? I'd like to try this recipe that I've found in a book called 'Country Wines' by Mary Aylett. The recipe says to take three or four pounds of morello cherries, prick each one with a needle and put them in an earthenware tub. Sprinkle them over with sugar, two or t...

Maykal: I've been to your country and I liked it very very much. I think it's a fine choice. KeithBC: My husnband and I are always talking about moving to your part of Canada, I think that's a fine choice too. We also quite fancy an island or outpost type place where I imagine there's a sense of the...

I'm amazed at how critical some of the other allotmenters are on our site. The allotment coordinator came to ask me about them one day, asked me what they were for. I told her they were raised beds and she said, with a look I haven't seen since I was at school without my homework, "Well yes, yo...

I had a similar experience with the co-op years ago. I wanted to open my student account with them and they lost the application and took eons with the second application and didn't seem to give a damn.

I'm afraid I can't offer an alternative but I do sympathise.

From where can you get raw milk delivered? I've only been able to find 'local delivery' places. That's local to them, not local to me.

Please don't eat margarine. I don't worry about cholesterol at all. I buy 3 packets of butter each week (i put it on vegetables or use it to cook with), have 2 or 3 eggs almost every day for breakfast, I eat cream with my fruit if I want to. I eat cheese as a snack or with meals. I fry potatoes in b...

Our local butcher sells ox heart (for the dog) at £2 per kilo. I don't have a dog. It's £6 per kilo if it's not for the dog. I do have a dog. When I make bacon (from belly pork) I can then make masses and masses of tasty meals for almost nothing. If I also make bread then I can do things like savour...

Funny you should say that Crastney, we have always used the same wine yeast as it's the only one our homebrew shop sells for making wine. I don't have any at the moment to look at, but from memory it's called 'super wine yeast' or something. It comes in a little thin white pot. It's hard to narrow t...

Thanks everyone. I will certainly start to keep records of what I make, that makes good sense. I'm glad I'm not alone in finding it hard, I'm also glad that there are things I can do to improve. I'll have another go at orange wine, I really believe that that should be very tasty. So far it's been pr...

I make good bread and I make good bacon and I get a lot of satisfaction from those but my wine is really not very good. We drink it and it's ok but I dream of making wine that friends and family are delighted to share with us, rather than all visitors bringing their own for fear of having to drink o...

Great. Thanks, I'll have a look at both of those now.

When we moved into our house 3 years ago one of the first things I did was to rush out and buy 2 sweet (small root stock but I can't remember which rootstock specifically) cherry trees. I envisaged them growing into a beautiful fence in the garden and fan trained them accordingly. I didn't really do...

Hello, I've been away for a while but I return with a new allotment. I'd like to put 3 little (the allotment rules say they must be dwarf trees) apple trees on our plot. I've been researching and researching types of apple and I'm finding it very hard to just choose 3. Does anyone have a variety (or...