Selfsufficientish.com

Dear Tom, Just signed on the grounds that:- *fossil fuels have precipitated climate change, more fossil fuel use will exacerbate this. *extraction will cause pollution of water tables and surface environments. *the equation doesn't balance, ie energy input compared to energy output. *valuing vested ...

Dear Mithril, Me too, although there are many clips on youtube if you feel nostalgic. Alys has two other books, "The thrifty forager" and "The thrifty gardener", both of which would be interesting series, come to think of it there was the idea about Plotlands we had on here a whi...

Dear Oldjerry,
"Feed your head!
Feed your head!
Feed your head!"
Glad to see someone else remembers Grace ....

Learn to think independently, everything else follows from it

Love and Peace
jim

Dear SDA, For a few years, in my previous incarnation as a primary teacher, we'd regularly get gypsy children in school for the winter. They told me their mothers would use an open fire as heat source and when the embers were glowing hot they'd stand a metal, lidded bucket in them. In the bottom of ...

Dear gdb, Like you I've heard that the misalignment of the jetstream is causing the current, chaotic weather - floods in Europe, heatwaves in the US - and wondered just how long it would be before people started making the connection between the unsustainable, Western lifestyle and the weather pheno...

Plenty of home-built ones here

http://www.permies.com/

and video instructions too!

Love and Peace
Jim

Is it just my way of doing it, or do other people find unsprouted, tooth-cracking mungs turning a useful salad crop into a visit to the dentist?

Love and Peace
Jim

Dear Greenaura,

Yes it is,

Love and Peace
Jim

Dear Safronsue,

Don't know if you've tried these but they're pretty sensible and have links to lots of other permaculture sites,

http://www.spiralseed.co.uk/

Love and Peace
Jim

Wow!!!

Love and Peace
Jim

Just saw a threesome, skimming the surface of the River Hamble along the Warsash bank of the Solent Way, using the gusts to speed them onwards.

Love and Peace
jim

Dear Mrs Moustair,

That'd be about right, the 1st of April is the earliest I've ever seen them here and we're only 70 miles across the channel from Brittany. Roll on Spring!!

Love and Peace
Jim

Haven't seen any yet but I'm looking forward to first sighting. We usually have a watch for their arrival and departure on here. So, has anyone from further south caught sight of one yet?

Love and Peace
Jim

Dear Biscombe, Yes, salt them. You'll need a big jar -like they used to have in sweet shops - put in an inch-thick layer of salt, an inch-thick layer of sliced runners, another layer of salt and so on until the jar is full. Make sure you soak them for a couple of hours in several changes of water be...

Dear Pumpy, Have tried salted runners and they're ok if you soak them well before cooking. This year, when picking the last of the runners to use for next years seed, I found I had about 3 pound dryweight of them. Far too many for next season. I gave lots to friends but still had plenty left, so mad...