If only I did more.....

[Flo]

The if only I did more does seem to take some strange twists and turns. There was me took on an allotment for something to do after retiring and now produce an awful lot of vegetables and fruit for self and local family. We aren't self sufficient all year but we were for 7 months last year in second year on plot. This has led me into doing more cooking and preserving at home to the profit of all parts of the family both local and further afield.

There's Andy with his shop and his group, here's me giving a hand down the gardeners association hut on a Saturday morning dealing with allotment rents and taking the money for the seeds/growing requirements that are sold in the shop side. Just another way of helping self sufficient people.

I won't say that it has kept me out of the supermarket but it has cut down the visits because a lot of the cooking items for vegans don't come out of yer average supermarket. As a result of not shopping there (admittedly at the slightly more ethical Co-op down road) very much, I've picked up environmentally friendly cleaning products from elsewhere and supported independent businesses in some cases - having tested out the products in small quantities from Oxfam of all places (charitable donation then). That's not Ish so much as supporting other shops than supermarkets. But quite often I find that being Ish can be environmentally friendly too. Not sure I could go down the road of producing herbs for cleaning - maybe a step too far at the moment.

The not buying anything new has been difficult but those items which have had to be bought were only sourced new because they weren't available otherwise. This has led me to jump off the consumer bandwagon rather than worry about the source of goods - but looking around the flat, most of the contents have come from small, local businesses over the last few years since I moved in rather than from larger chains.

It would just be nice to have a residence where the heating could be more Ish (I remember the days not so long ago of coal off the beach and wood from work for heating but those days are well gone) but it's not to be with social housing.

But overall, a lot more Ish than a few years ago when working but not as Ish as when living at home as a child when the farm provided most things other than clothes, electricity and furniture.