a year without a shop

[fumanchu]

Just finished reading Fiona Houston's The Garden & Cottage Diaries. She went back in time to 1790, and lived for a whole year in a cottage with tallow candles, a box bed, and using her garden to feed her. She gives recipes, how to make candles, a rush lamp, do the laundry, make ink, and she walked everywhere. Interesting reading, esp when you think she didnt go into a shop or open a tin for a whole year !

[Green Rosie]

That does sound good - especially if she gives recipes etc.

[homegrown]

Sounds great, I'll try to find a copy down here

[Green Aura]

If you google the garden cottage diaries it comes up with a couple of clips on you tube. She and the house look great. Although I know it must have been bloody hard work, I'd love to try it.

[fumanchu]

She lives in Traquair, near my son and 25 miles from me. What bugs me is how she grew all that stuff in her garden and I CANT!!!

[Green Aura]

There must have been a huge amount of preparation. She presumably didn't just decide and start the next day. So she's probably been growing a lot for a good while.

I'm not sure I'd want to dress like that though - I'd look like my Grandmother (actually come to think of it I probably already do ).

[fumanchu]

Well yes that's true. My son knows her and says she is very rich, very posh, and lives in a huge house - the "cottage" in the book is in the garden of the big house, so she must have used her own veg garden.
But I am still miffed If it ever stops snowing then I might get out to START MINE!

[homegrown]

Just started reading through the book and haven't been able to put it down, even her own house is much older than the cottage she lives in and she has cheated once so far, after spending a hard morning scrubbing her sheets to hang them out, one of them kept flapping against a molehill and ended up all dirty again so she growls and goes and rewashes it in her machine, but I believe it adds to the experiment after all howmany consumerists could just instantly give up allmodern conveniences unless forced to by circumstance

[LyssaM]

I'll have to have a look out for this one... wonder if my library might have it... An online friend of mine lived a year without money tho this sounds a bit different in that she's grown everything where as he foraged alot and used some waste he found in skips and stuff.

[Sally Jane]

I have a feeling I saw this on a Book People sale leaflet for about £7, probably the paperback version. It was quite recently, so may still be on offer, though I don't think £7 is Particularly cheap. I will see if my library has it, but I may be sorely tempted to pay for it if they don't have it...!