Selfsufficientish.com

I have a niece who regularly changes everything as she wants a new colour scheme - I just can't fathom that mentality. It makes more sense to me to buy something second hand that will last rather than a fashion gadget set that might all just last long enough before you get bored of it.

A good nut mill is a treasure. Can it grind them finely enough for nut butters? I struggle to get them fine enough in my old magimix.

Thanks guys - it's good to see you've not all given up the self-sufficientish lifestyle to become merchant bankers or something daft like that.

It happened to my brother's hens and the vet said it was a common occurrence after they eat acorns. As they were foraged, I guess they must eat them whole

Mine feast on olives - thankfully their yolks are bright orange not black or purple

I love the photo of Winnifred and her much loved cooker http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/20/household-appliances-cooker-oven-kettle-white-goods I feel pretty much the same way about my beautiful 1961 Necchi Julia Supernova, which I bought a few years back from a scrapyard for €30 and is an ...

...or feed your hens acorns if you want vivid green yolks , which might look a bit odd, but are perfectly safe to eat.

Ciao everyone,

I hope you are all well. I thought I'd check to see if my login still worked, as I gave up when the site went down a couple of years ago. Glad to see that it's back up and running, so I'm just going to have a browse to catch up whilst sipping my tea.

I always come via new posts and still have to loggin each time.

I'm still having to sign in each visit (it's not remembering the remember me option). Just thought I'd mention it, in case it's a common problem you are not aware of .

Most of the new models (Singer included) are cheaply made in the far east, and very old ones require a lot of maintenance, so I'd look for second-hand ones from the 60s to the mid-80s, when they were built to last, with no plastic parts. If you see one advertised, you can check the make and model nu...

I'm with MarcherLady. It sounds to me as these were things you've held back from saying for a while and, although it's a cliche, you really do have to be cruel to be kind sometimes, especially when someone has given up and makes no effort to help themselves. Hopefully this will pave the way for some...

When you consider the health problems brought on by processed foods, what could possibly go wrong? I still believe that moving away from factory processes in the food industry and changing peoples consumption habits a better option. Also, I believe it's another epic fail by PETA, who are happily fun...

I'm not keen on milk kefir grains (way too funky for my taste-buds) but absolutely love water kefir. As has been mentioned, by adding ginger and fruit (the yeast feed on this) you can make a really refreshing summer's drink, not unlike ginger beer.

Dried fava beans are brilliant and as Juzamum suggests can be used to make an Egyptian-style falafel. Down here in Italy's heel, re-hydrated and skinned fava beans are cooked with a little bit of potato and pureed. Add lots of olive oil and salt and serve with either peperonata or bitter greens. I w...

This is a tried and tested Yotam Ottolenghi recipe. I make big batches of these every spring to pop in the freezer. Spiced broad bean and spinach burgers (makes 12, so increase as per the amount of beans) ½ tsp each whole cumin, coriander and fennel seeds 25g spinach (beetroot leaves, or chard work ...