Self-Sufficiency in Style
making a start
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Self-Sufficiency in Style making a start
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A new herb garden
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You can start a self-sufficient life today without the need to buy a small-holding or move to the country. Lots of gardening and self-sufficiency articles start with the suggestion that you can keep a few herbs on a town balcony......and indeed you can. I've just put in a new and posh herb garden and they are a valuable and versatile crop. That's not quite what I had in mind though. |
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The kitchen is the heart and soul of a self-sufficient life.
Much of the work, the social life and the pleasures come from the art and craft of preparing and cooking the produce of the holding. Without a kitchen and a cook, there is no point in the herb garden or the jersey cow. So we start in the kitchen. |
The heart of the holding |
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A simple start |
Cooking
today has largely degenerated into heating an already fully prepared
industrial product.
True, from time to time, we may mix a few items together, but again this is largely just mixing and heating pre-prepared items. It wasn't always like this. The self-sufficient cook aims to get back to the basic ingredients and start from there. |
| You need the three things: time, skill and
the ingredients.
You can start creating the time by putting aside an hour or so occasionally during the week, as time allows. Start with fairly simple items building up to more complicated concoctions. If you have no garden supply, buy the basic ingredients in their simplest form. You don't have to start with your own produce. |
Handling the hob |
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No value judgements |
Don't be concerned as to whether the dish is "worth it" or not.
You may well be able to buy many dishes more cheaply than you can make
them.
Some dishes seem to take more time than seems sensible too - don't worry about it. Concentrate on preparing items that taste better than the store bought alternative. Expect a few failures. Take it all in your stride. You will have started on a journey that may well take you to the land of your dreams. |
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A simple favourite of the writer is home-made sage and onion stuffing. The home produced product is infinitely superior to the packet mix and the perfect accompaniment to pork or poultry. You can use your own fresh produce, or the supermarket will sell you some dried sage Go on to Sage and Onion Stuffing to find a simple recipe or on to the Good Life to find how this all started. Come to think of it, we are having guinea fowl tonight and we have a nice new herb garden. If you think you can't afford to live like this try Finding the Money. You may find that you can. You can also leap five years - and find out how it all worked out Five Years On If you need to make some progress now Quick Start Self-sufficiency might help. |
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"valuing the kitchen" at the fascinatingly named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
