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Self-Sufficiency in Style

quick start self-sufficiency

 

Takes time!

 Life is too short to want to hang about.

So you need to cut a few corners?

You know it takes a long time to grow a tree, to raise a herd from scratch, to establish a new garden.

Let's see, if we can help.
Let's go back to when man first emerged from the cave.

You can be sure that he did not start from scratch. He probably had caring parents that had thoughtfully provided him with a few flints, an animal skin or two and the skills and intelligence to make the most of the world.

He probably had a pile of roots, some dried berries and the odd bison carcass in the corner, some salted fish and a reliable mate to tend the fire.

The truth is that nobody ever starts from scratch and there is nothing wrong with trying to make some headway fast.

There are some disadvantages to taking the quick route, but anything is better than unfulfilled ambitions - ambitions left aside because the task looks too difficult.

Grandpa's Club.

Animal instincts

Left hand down a bit.

 It is infinitely satisfying to buy an orphan lamb, a tiny calf or a piglet, raise them to adulthood, mate them and raise the offspring.

They will know you and the holding.

But there is no doubt it takes time, energy and know-how.

The solution is easy: buy a pregnant animal. Whilst you have the birth to cope with, you get instant results.

You could, for example be milking your own cow in days - and if she is an old-timer, she will be almost telling you how to do it, if you are lucky!
An introduction to animal husbandry like that, would frighten the life out of many people. It probably would not do the animals much good either.

So you could try buying lambs, piglets, calves and fattening them for eventual slaughter. Very easy, but not, I suspect to a newcomer's taste.

They will rightly guess that they will become far too attached to want to let any go to slaughter.

There are exceptions - last year's bull calf?

Starting simple.

 Right, let's make the animal side really easy - almost too easy.

Buy a few "point of lay" pullets (young hens) and you will get eggs within days and a soft start to animal rearing.

You don't even need a cockerel to get eggs, although if you add one, you will have an alarm clock and the possibility of raising your own chicks and replacement hens.

All you need is a hen house and some wire and posts to make a run.

Fruit is tricky too
It takes five years to establish an orchard and get a worthwhile crop, although you will get a taste earlier than this.

You can cut a couple of years off by buying pot grown trees and maybe growing in the protection of a walled garden, but it is still a slow process.

Pot grown trees are also more expensive, although they can be planted at any time of year, unlike the cheaper "bare root" stock, which must be planted in winter.

        

Orchards take time.

Rhubarb needs patience.

 Gooseberries, currants and blueberries are quicker, but still take more than a season to produce anything worthwhile.

Even the humble rhubarb needs two years before you should pull any stalks.
But there are some crops that, with care, can produce in a single year.

One of the big winners is the autumn fruiting raspberry.  Plant in winter, follow the instructions, and you will have fruit by September in the temperate northern hemisphere. A bed, 20 feet by five feet, will produce ample fruit for six people for an entire year. It also can tolerate colder damper climates than almost any other fruit.

Physalis or Cape Gooseberry will produce a worthwhile crop in a single year either outside or in a pot in a tunnel (for England.)

Strawberries either from seed (Alpine varieties) or bare rooted will also produce quickly...

and don't forget the freebees: blackberries and elderberries.

A bed like this will fill the freezer with raspberries in less than a year.

Vegetables are easy

Asparagus is one of the few vegetables that take more than a year.

 Most vegetables are sown and produce within a twelve month period. Some produce a worthwhile crop within a few weeks.

If you have any land at all it should be possible to produce much of your daily needs
To produce really good crops does take considerable skill and knowledge.

If you are a real beginner or very short of land, a few pots of herbs and some basic salad crops are still well worthwhile.

You can also buy some plants at the garden centre or nursery to get a head start. You don't have to grow everything from seed.

But the kitchen remains the place to start

A determined attempt at cooking using the most basic ingredients is always the place to get the maximum impact.

You can save money, gain skills and family support simply by making an effort.

Family approval is pretty necessary and it is surprising what a pint of home brew or a genuine bread and butter pudding can do for a dreamer bent on taking the rest of the family along new paths.
Self-sufficiency remains a dream until you take the first steps.

It is quite right and necessary that the first steps are small ones.

Small steps and quick results?

Why not?

You can see how much can be achieved in five years - on Five Years On or you can return to Making a Start.

It is not always a question of choosing between the tortoise and the hare.

not hanging about

at

 the oddly named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner.

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