To think that this is the time to become as self sufficient as possible?

[letsgetplanning]

Just as the title says really??
Anyone else aiming to get more sufficient?
Buying some land, living as eco friendly as possible?
Growing your own as much as you can??
Using local shops that are more eco friendly too??
I'm just starting on my journey and I'm so excited!! Land/house bought, just working on the garden and growing all the while being as eco friendly as I can and buying plastic free etc.
Anyone else doing this or wanting too? Any more hints, tips or ideas??

this is the time to think about how we can change our socio-economic system from imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy into something more suitable for people and other creatures inhabiting the planet, and not to indulge into privileged middle-class fantasies.

Spot on!

"Lets all buy some land" yeah, right.

La Hameau de la Reine

I grow salads and it is hands down better than supermarket stuff. I waste less too because I just pick what I need and the rest just left to keep on growing.

It's quite satisfying growing you own.

Just to add a strip of say spinach costs me roughly £2.50 and that would last me for a good at least two months so very cheap compared to buying spinach even at £1 a bag it adds up and in say 2 months I'd have spent £6 almost a bag a week.

@ThrowingGoodAfterBad yes I know, but will I be able to buy wheat?

good for you op, dh and me have been doing a '40's life style for years, it's great fun and it's amazing what you can achieve, we love it.

Tomatoes are profitable to grow and sell. Ditto peppers, as they're both quite pricey per kg

So they had the Internet in the 40s did they, recycled?

Gosh.

I recommend that you get some chard and a few courgette plants. Sow some in june as well to prolong the season. They give a lot of produce. (For the people living in a flat: you can grow a courgetteplant in a big container or a bucket).

Well our local shops that are open are a handful of small supermarket/convenience stores and the chemist, plus a few takeaways, but do crack on with your dream of the good life.

I don't think my housing association would be impressed if I had a big bucket in my flat, growing courgettes. Let alone where I'm supposed to put the plant after it dies, given that no green waste is permitted in our rubbish bins.

I am all set for local small shops though. So that's nice.

I tried chard, once. It's worse than kale.

krakowdawn butnif it a dead courgette surely you just put it in food waste

The plant can go in food waste, I put all my teabags and food and plant waste back into my soil as a compost, so should be no issue putting vegetable plant into food waste.

I have aloe vera plants and feed them with my eggshells.

@minettechatouette

We love chard one this family. I didn't know that it can be cut and will grown back.

Have you got any good interesting recipes or ideas?

Not all areas collect food waste. I've never lived anywhere that does.

I’ve enlarged my veggie border and I’m seriously considering turning part of my lawn over to veg.

But hopefully this pandemic has changed attitudes and made people value the simple things more.

I'm into bread baking and have had an allotment for a decade. However, due to the recent flour shortages I might have to consider putting my plot to wheat and constructing some form of windmill.

Errr - how many acres is your allotment??

I have fruit trees I planted 2 years ago. Small crop of pears last year but loads currently forming. Only a couple of apples last year so hopeful of some more this year. I had loads of plums & rhubarb last year so ended up stewing & freezing a fair bit. I’m still waiting for my pea and lettuce seeds to arrive, there are usually planted by now! This year I have added potatoes.

We grew some fab corn on the cob when DS was a toddler, must try that again. I do recycle everything & have a compost bin & DH does do the diy. He absolutely refuses to let me have chickens, muttered something about a covenant on the deeds but he might have made that up!

I put my dead plants in my compost btw, but totally understand why a flat dweller would be sceptical of the potential for self sufficiency. A lot of people on here assume that their own experience (buy some land! put it in your compost! Surely everyone has space for a shed to store allotment tools?) is universal when that couldn't be further from the truth.

one acre of wheat, producing 50 bushels in a year (assuming only 1 crop season), could sustain about 2,250 people for a day (eating only bread), or 6.2 people for a year. If you assume a lower caloric requirement, or higher output per loaf of bread, you might be able to sustain 10 people on an acre of wheat.

No harm in wanting to become more self sufficient OP. My parents grew the majority of our vegetables and we were by no means rich. They both left school aged 14 and were the children of working class farmhands. They had enough plants and produce left over to gift to friends and neighbours. However, they were quite the imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist patriarchs now I come to think of it . Seriously though, you don't need acres of land to grow enough veg for a small family, just a little time and interest. Lots of videos on youtube showing what you can achieve with only a small outdoor space., it can be a fun inexpensive hobby and a way to keep fit.

Even in a flat you throw out general waste what are they doing going through your rubbish? Bag up a dead plant that will decompose is far better than bagging up a load of plastic packaging.

Nothing wrong with wanting to be self sufficient but there's just something about the smug privilege of your post that seems tone deaf. 'It's such jolly good fun to buy a house and land' as if you are just indulging a new hobby.