What have you learned?

[prison break fan]

I was thinking about all the different things I have learned since I discovered this forum, so many lovely recipes, knitting and crochet patterns, MKG's tea wine, loads of money saving tips and gardening advice. What is the best thing you have learned here? pbf.

[Gem]

Wow, this is a really good topic. I have learned so much from this site I barely know where to start.

I know I certainly learnt enough about chickens to finally feel confident to take the plunge and get a couple in spite of my fairly tiny garden.

I'm sure it was someone on here who mentioned nettle brew as a fertilizer which has also worked fantastically well for my toms and other nitro lovers. I have also expanded my foraging range and got some fantastic ideas to improve my xmas hampers (or xmas home made cloth bags as it was last year!).

If I find enough demijons to get brewing this year then I can finally make use of my ish-aquired knowledge on that front as well.

Gem

[MKG]

Not to be too anal about gardening. That the world really does have its fair share of lovely people. That some of those people are complete nutters. That bread CAN be made with cheapo supermarket flour.

Oh - and not to be sassy with MMM when she's in a bad mood

Mike

[Catalysthere]

I have learned to never ever ever Pick Nettles again without gardening gloves!!

[Millymollymandy]

To ignore MKG's recommendations as to how many runner beans to grow for a family of 2.

To make elderflower cordial, courgette cake, rosemary syrup and that I must this year try beetroot and chocolate cake.

How to grow various veg I've never tried before.

Really overall I've just learned gazillions of little things and hints and tips and stuff that just make me THINK, that I'd never thought about before.

Oh and that you can actually tell Andy and Dave apart, so long as one of them has long sideboards and the other has shorter hair!

[citizentwiglet]

So much stuff.......I wouldn't know where to start, but using diluted widdle on my French beans seems as good a place as any...

[JulieSherris]

Well, more important than any of the gardening/fowl keeping/money saving tips that I've learned through the website & forum, the biggest thing that I've learnt is that you CAN have a large forum & member base & that it CAN be harmonious and a pleasant place to be.

To be perfectly honest, this is no mean feat on the internet today, & therefore much credit must go to Andy, Dave, John & every moderator - and the other members, of course!!

[Susie]

I've learned that there actually are people who try to be ish + non-consumerist and do all these exciting things, because I don't know anybody quite like that in real life. So now when I tell people about something or other I'm doing and they say, good grief why would you do that/ is it safe/ why don't you buy one etc etc I don't listen so much, it's great! I've been inspired to try loads of stuff since finding ish & I've got a list as long as my arm of things I want to try next. I love ish

[MuddyWitch]

That the RoI is Europe's best kept secet. With-out ISH, I would never have become friends with Julie Sherris, who then nagged us to visit. I am SO glad she did!


MW

[JulieSherris]

[JessieMac]

I have to agree with Julie as I was on another forum and left because some of the people seemed to enjoy being nasty as a hobby and it made me very wary of joining another but in the months that I have been reading ish I have seen many differences of opinions but a great spirit of live and let live, I'm not sure that you are all aware of how rare and special that is.

[Annpan]

You are never alone when you are an Isher

That is something I have been realy greatful of over the past few weeks/months

[Helsbells]

The best thing I learnt is how to make a good loaf of bread, I have learnt the recipe off by heart now and it's something I will never forget.

[mrsflibble]

it's not so much what I've learnt as what i've absorbed and come to accept in myself.

I have found out that I'm surprisingly good at gardening; if it's veg.

I've learned a lot about forraging and have begun passing the information on to my darling daughter.

I could sew before I came on here but found out it's not all about perfectly made, looks-the-same as shopbought items; some people are more happy with a home-dyed shopping bag or a patchwork scraps bag made from your left over bits because making it shows you care.

Friends don't have to be people you've actually met (waves to muddywitch and pbf lol!)

I can give and take advice and not be admonished for not turning up in weeks. a little explanation and I'm welcomed back to the fold :D

that you don't have to be completely eco friendly to be a hippy and vice versa. I'm better than I used to be with regards to econess, but I do it more to ave money than the planet. saving the planet is just a rather handy sideline. like the pigfeed you get when making cheese lol.

that it's not bad to not be able to be totally self sufficient, but it's ok to grow a lot of what you find tastes different from shop bought, and ignore a lot of other things. hence why I have 12 purple sprouting brocolli plants, a load of carrots and not much else hahaha.

the support from this site has given me so much confidence in my own abilities that I'm readily willing to explore things; especially in the craft or cooking fields. for instance if it wasn't for the support of ishers, I'd never have learned to crochet and I'd have completely ignored the tutorial I was given on how to do "sharpie dye".

it's ok to have a takeaway sometimes. it's ok to buy bread, but it's also ok to be a bit of a snob about your sugar, coffee, tea, bread etc.

it's ok to drive, but it's also ok to own a bike too. having one does not cancel out the other. especially when you live as close to the town centre as I do.

and finally in a roundabout way, it's my ish confidence which made me happy to take a pot of betty crocker frosting back to asda and demand my money back... the vanilla stuff, I thought skim reading the pack "oh, nothing nasty". paid my £1.72 and went ahppily on my way. I was about the open it and ice jim's birthday cake when I caught sight of the icelandic ingredients and saw the numbering system I recognise, and also saw that if I'd eaten the stuff I'd have lost a day to being completely wiped out by a massive allergic reaction to E102 and E110. Aparently in america they're "yellow 5&6"; but being someone who looks for Es or chemical names, I didn't see them. I told asda this and they happily refunded me and appologised. I'm aparently not the first to complain about the labelling on one of their american "walmart" items.

[fran]

I have learnt that I can only try my best to be ish, some things work and others don't, but I don't have to beat myself over the head when things go wrong. I have also had my faith in people reaffirmed. I would never have met such a kind and caring bunch of people who come from all over the world, if I had not joined this forum. Here's to friendship