Selfsufficientish.com

Our land is clay, boggy, full of reeds and generally a bit rubbish. We spent the weekend with the petrol strimmer and cleared a big space so that now in this glorious weather the boys have somewhere to run around but I'm sure it could be better. I'm looking for a book on how to improve land. We woul...

It was an elder, I am very pleased. Thanks to all you experts out there who helped identify it. We made some elderflower champagne from this recipe: http://www.farminmypocket.co.uk/growing/wild-food/elderflower-champagne-recipe Its still fermenting, has taken weeks to get started but seems to be goi...

Thanks so much for all the positive replies on the elder front. I gathered together my cordial making ingredients and waited for a dry spell to harvest the flowers. This small window of opportunity came this morning (clouds are gathering again now) so I bunged the flowerheads in with the fruit rind ...

As a townie who has lived in the country for all of eight weeks I am surprised every day by the creatures we are sharing our lives with. The bees only get into the bedroom occasionally which is ok but when the bats started coming in that was a bit of a shock. We think we have blocked up their entry,...

I guess it probably is, like tripe if you grow up eating it you love it. The steeping tablet is sodium bicarbonate I think. I'm guessing you don't have then in the States...

They are perfect with faggots too, do you have those?

The net seems to help the peas keep their shape while making them mushy at the same time. And yes, helps with draining. For me its just how its always been and I like the ritual of it all. I'm sure fishnets would work just as well!

Thanks for the suggestions, I did think about a stocking. Luckily I found another box lurking in the back of the cupboard complete with bag. So I've used that but obviously I am a bag short for next time. I will have to keep buying boxes until I hit the jackpot and get a doubler. I think it might fe...

Its Saturday night, its our turn to cook Sunday dinner tomorrow for the family and so, of course, the Leo peas have to be steeped. All going ok...I've poured the peas into the pan (I did like it better when they were sitting happily in the box and not in an unecessary plastic bag), I've unwrapped th...

All good news.... I've been looking round on the internet and I have found it hard to tell the difference between the elder and rowan leaves and flowers. We had a sniff of the flowers today and they smelled very nice and I read that Rowan flowers smell of rotting meat to attract flies which pollinat...

Hope this picture makes it....
What do you think? Not sure if the picture is good enough for a proper id.

It does have more than one trunk. The flowers are coming out now. Fingers crossed for elderflower!

Brilliant, will have a go when we finally get our chickens.

The sand filter looks interesting, I think we need to do a little more investigating as to what is in place already. But we have been drinking the water without a problem and, as you say, many people have been doing so for many years. The indemnity policy is a great idea, we're still in the mortgage...

I'm working on replacing all those bad things in our house, its trial and error at the moment. Pitrok is probably the greatest success. Our Pitrok is coming up to its first birthday (me and other half share, is that gross??) and still going strong. Works much better for me than antiperspirants and d...

Quite right, not very environmentally friendly in terms of the disposable sticks but no worse than condoms I guess and it felt better than being on the pill.

Still trying to upload a picture, found the attachment place, thanks Tony but my image is too big. Just got a new computer with new software and its taking a while to get used to. The tree is probably about 20 ft but the bark looks quite rough. Hmmmm.. I will persevere with the pics, best way to get...