What are you selfsufficient in?

[Milims]

Cornelians post set me thinking. He/she (sorry don't actually know ) said that they were selfsufficient in several areas and aiming to be more so in the near future. It made me stop and think about all the things that we as a family provide for ourselves.
So far we don't buy:
Eggs - 6 chickens keep us more than supplied!
Jam - forraging and some homegrown fruit keep us supplied
Tomato ketchup
Bread - yes we buy the ingredients but we make our own
Bakery stuff - cakes & scones etc
Lettuce - copious amounts thanks to the alpaca poo fertilizer!
This year we'll also have various kinds of beans, jerusalem artichokes, sweetcorn, and peas
Cleaning products - make own laundry liquid (still need to master the art of soap making tho) and it's lemon juice, vinegar, bicarb and borax for the rest
Granted we do have to buy the ingredients to make stuff - but a little goes a long way

Obviously we have a very long way to go and a lot to work on, but sometimes it is nice to stop and look at how much we've incorporated into everyday living without missing the other stuff!

So how are you doing?

[Cornelian]

People often don't realise how close they are to being self-sufficient in some area of their lives. It really helps to have a good hard look at what you are doing, and often you realise that you are, indeed, no longer reliant on the dreaded supermarket for a large chunk of your life. Just as often, you realise that with only a little more effort you can become self-sufficient in several more areas.

Over the past few years I have gone from a HUGE trolley full of stuff for my fortnightly shop to now only a few small items once a week (often my weekly grocery shop involves the purchase of only some milk and some ginger ale).

I belong to an Australian forum called Simple Savings and, while not orientated toward self-sufficiency as such, it none-the-less encourages it by encouraging self-reliance and non-dependence on shops. I have learned some amazing stuff there.

PS. 'she'.

[StripyPixieSocks]

Not alot at the moment but...

Herbs
Spring Onions
Spice Mixes (curry blends, BBQ seasonings etc)
Shake and Bake coatings
Beverage mixes (Mocha, Instant Hot Chocolate, Mint Hot Chocolate etc)
Yoghurt
Cream Cheese
Paneer
Take Away type meals
Bread
Jewellery (lol)
Brewing (Cyberpaddy66 is about to go all grain)

Hopefully soon:

Chilli Peppers
Bell Peppers
Tomatoes

I'd like to be ALOT more self sufficient than that though!

[lazyspice]

So much of what I read on this forum makes me feel very inadequate in terms of self sufficiency, as we are still in the early stages, but I find so much inspiration in the threads I read. In the last 2 or 3 years I have made a conscious effort to recycle, reuse, make do and spend less. So, whilst I can't contribute much at the moment I'm learning lots and would like to say thank you to everyone on here

[Millymollymandy]

Ah that's a nice post Lazyspice. Thank you!

I guess I'm self sufficient in jam and would be in chutney except OH likes Branston occasionally!

Eggs too.

Coriander which self seeds all over the place and can be harvested in mid winter as long as the temps aren't freezing.

Everything else is seasonal and rather glut dependant - I'm certainly self sufficient in frozen stewed apples from last year's harvest but as there's next to no apples this year I won't be next!

[Rosendula]

I have to buy flour and I buy things like milk, sugar and butter, (I have made my own butter, but had to buy the cream so it worked out a lot of work for no savings, so I stopped), so although I don't buy a lot of the things on my list, I'm still not fully self sufficient in them because I buy the ingredients.

Bread - I buy flour for it and the water comes out of the tap. Don't buy yeast
jam - homegrown fruit
some herbs - I used to be fully SS in all herbs, but some didn't recover being relocated. Will be SS again soon I hope
yoghurt
soft cheese
wine-ish - currently from kits, but have one just started from scratch. Don't think I'll have enough fruit to be SS in wine all year
potatoes - didn't manage more than a few months supply last year but have grown loads more this year, so keeping my fingers crossed
pasta
pasta sauces - currently buying ingredients, but hoping when the tomatoes ripen I'll be totally SS. Tried last year but tomatoes got blight
other sauces - like cheese sauce and white sauce and that sort of stuff
bakery stuff - sausage rolls, cakes, etc.
biscuits
ready meals - I always try to make too much so I can freeze some in single portions and call them 'ready meals'.
soup
toothpaste for me, but I buy it for the others

[Rosendula]

I was thinking only about growing and making things. We're also self sufficient in some 'services', some of which we used to pay for, some which we've always been SS in. I've included some that I never used to think of as 'doing for myself', I just did them. Then I met people who paid other people to do these things for them.

hair cuts
window cleaning
car washing
child care (except older kids went to school)
cleaning -
gardening
many repair jobs - like washing machine, bicycles,
car maintenance
computer maintenance and repairs

Also, another one to add to my last post
garden canes - I don't buy bamboos and things, I use my own from elder and hazel

[Milims]

Yay! To all! Isn't it amazing how much we don't need to buy. You are an inspiration! On of the reasons I posted this was so I could be inspired by you all - is that cheating??

[Gert]

This is a great thread.

I can add:

Lamb
Veg: for about 9 months of the year (except tomatoes, can't grow nearly enough of them)
Eggs
Soft Fruit
Wool (although I'm not sure how far that one really counts)

All we need now is to be a little closer and we could swap enough stuff to keep each other going.

I would have Ketchup off Milims and Bread from Rosendula.

I would love to be ss in bread etc but at the end of the day there are only so many hours you can work.

[wolfsong]

its all to the good!
We grow all our own veg, except for the occasional crate of apricots and other jamming fruit (origin France, and cheap so don't feel toooo guilty ), don't buy pickle, jam or chutneys.
Eggs too.
After discussion, we are also going to get the well tested for nasties, but since when we first came here we were drinking it without realising, I don't think it'll be a problem, thats the water sorted!

And I'm giving the oldies a boot up the derriere ("no mum please don't thwack me!"), so if we get a large amount of money from an impending divorce settlement, 4000->16000 will go on a medium output electricity turbine.
And then there's the car, haven't worked out how to get rid of that yet.
And a goat or two is in the pipeline as-well, thats the cheese sorted.
So, we're getting there
Oh yes, and the horse paddock (the old gal died last year ) is going to be plowed up in acre sections and planted with oats/wheat etc.

[Stonehead]

Where to begin?

The past 12 months would be something like this:

Potatoes: 40 hundredweight (2,000kg) last year, still eating them from storage.
Carrots: About 500 maincrop, oodles of baby ones.
Parsnips: About 50.
Onions: 600 main crop, 150 pickling, oddles of bunching/scallions
Shallots: 250-300
Leeks: 40
Garlic: 40 heads
Cabbages: 150
Purple sprouting broccoli: 40
Cauliflower: 10 (not a success!)
Peas: 20kg
Broad beans: 15kg
Lettuces: Hundreds (we often eat three different ones a day)
Spinach: Six weeks of fresh
Mangels: 5 hundredweight
Neeps: 5 hundredweight
Beets: 5 hundredweight
Radishes: Too many to count
Tomatoes: Eight weeks fresh, 10 bottles of sauce, 20 jars of relishes, pickles and chutneys
Cucumber: 20-30
Sorrel: Vast amounts (the boys nibble it constantly so I have no idea how much)
Apples: Enough to make 6 gallons of cider, 10 jars of apple jelly, eat fresh for six weeks (they don't store well), and add to about 20 jars of jam.
Plums: Two weeks of fresh, 10 jars of jam (with apples)
Raspberries (domestic & wild): Two weeks of fresh ones, 25 jars of jam
Goosberries: Two meals of fresh ones, 10 jars of jam (caterpillars got to them)
Blackcurrants: Two meals of fresh ones, 10 jars of jam (blackbirds got to them)
Strawberries: Six weeks of fresh ones, 15 jars of jam
Rhubarb: Six weeks of fresh, 20 jars of jam, 20 jars of chutney
Elderflower: 20 litres of cordial
Elderberries: 2 gallons of wine
Nettles: Weeks of fresh, 6 gallons of nettle ale
Dandelions: 10 litres of cordial
Herbs: Sage, oregano, marjoram, mint (three types), French parsley, curly parsley, thyme (five types), chives, borage, bay, fennel, dill, lavender, lemon balm, rosemary, summer savory,

Pork: 2 half pigs
Mutton: 1 sheep
Lamb: 2 lambs
Rabbits: 30-40
Pigeons: 10
Chickens: 12 cockerels, 1 hen
Eggs: 10-24 per day (and no I don't do a Paul Newman, we sell the surplus)

6 gallons cider
6 gallons nettle ale
6 gallons stout
2 gallons elderflower wine
1 gallon parsnip wine
2 gallons treacle ale
2 gallons ginger beer
20 litres elderflower cordial
10 litres dandelion cordial

Bake our own breads, buns, rolls, biscuits, cakes, pies etc. Have to buy in flour as I just don't have the time/labour/tools to produce large quantities of wheat/barley/oats/buckwheat/rye.

Water: 4,500 litres of rainwater storage, plus our borehole

Solar hot water

Compost/muck: 6-8 tonnes a year (yes, a lot of turning)

The cargo bike instead of a car.

And more, but I'm out of time.

Don't forget, I do this full-time as I've swapped money/capital for time and hard manual labour. It suits me doing it to this level, but it wouldn't suit most people—despite what many dream of/aspire to. It's back-breaking, unrelenting, disappointing, frustrating and, at times, bloody and painful. And I love it.


PS: Does DIY dentistry count as self-sufficiency?

[mrsflibble]

jam; nearly. i use locally gathered apples for pectin and lcoally gathered fruit for the jam.
marmalade is a different story.

i make pizzas from scratch.

i dont have enough sopace to grow enough food to make us self sufficient.

[Siena]

Well I suppose I'm self sufficient in eggs and chicken, because the surplus eggs pay for the food for the layers and the growers.
Also have pigs we're fattening but they're not old enough to slaughter yet in a few months we should be sorted pork and bacon wise.
We have potatoes - which seem to have gotten that mosiac virus thing so they're not doing so well.
We also have cabbage, carrots and the usual basic veggies but this is the first year we've done veg in a long time so I doubt we'll have enough for anything to be self sufficient.

Anyway, we'll get there eventually.

I can make my own pasta, bread etc, but I have to say I can't find the time!

[boboff]

Stonehead, that is an amazing list, I bet it was exhilarating putting pen to paper on that, you living the dream!

I am self sufficient in Radishes.

Oh and dock leaves!

[Gert]

Stonehead, that is an amazing list, I bet it was exhilarating putting pen to paper on that, you living the dream!

I am self sufficient in Radishes.

Oh and dock leaves!

I bet they are bloody good radishes though