My Thai Red Chilli Paste can be used as a flavour base for laksas, soups, curries, noodles, and to add some extra bite to stir-fries. This summer I had a bumper crop of chillies and they are still going strong even as winter approaches. An abundance of chillies is a good thing because they are
Most of us know how much fun (and useful) gardening can be, especially things like: raising or planting-out seedlings and facilitating the beginnings of life, harvesting those crisp vegetable and fruit crops fresh from the backyard, selecting those fragrant herbs, or pruning and admiring those ornamentals strategically positioned around our home. However, gardening isn't all
Introducing Jane Wilks – Guest Article Writer Self sufficiency is made up of many disciplines and almost every day I see another great example of clever and inventive ways how people can make better use of the natural resources around them. That's what makes self sufficiency special and there's no better example of responsible use
Introduction Freshly harvested ginger from the garden is amazing! Even just removing the rhizome from the soil fills the nostrils with such beautiful fragrance it's almost impossible not to hold the ginger root close to the face for several seconds to appreciate this gift from nature. So often, it's the scent of food which subconsciously
Introduction Article updated 30 Sep 2019 Provide a spot or box with some straw and your hens will happily lay eggs it's that simple, jobs done – sad to say it isn't quite that simple. After much trial and error, open-eyed surprises, shaking head disappointments, wasted money, wasted eggs, and lost time, I have evolved
Frog reminiscing When I was a kid visiting my uncle Ernie out on his farm, frogs were everywhere to be found; and 9 out of 10 times, a big fat green frog could be located within the elbow joint at the top of a rainwater tank where the pipe met the guttering. Frogs are such
Introduction Cauliflower belongs to the brassica (botanical) family, which happens to be the largest vegetable family in the world and includes other vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, and even bok choy. I sometimes think about the origins of vegetables (I'm a Pisces) and wonder who was the first person to find and try this vegetable? I'm
Introduction With the risk of pure contradiction and justifying someone's slackening off for no good reason, this article is about getting back into exercising and turning the motivational cog again. Understanding the mindset and persuading ourselves to not only know regular exercise is good but to want to exercise regularly is what I explain in
Now, I know I have already covered another yellow variety (yellow beefsteak) but this variety though the same colour is quite different. A few years ago, my brother (Phil) and I were taking a stroll around my garden and we came across my tomato patch; in this patch, I happened to be growing several varieties
Article updated on 13th Jan 2016 Dragon fruit or called by its proper name Pitaya is one of the lessor known fruiting plants in the Western world (perhaps the whole world). The name “dragon fruit” has its origins in Asia and probably was formed as a way to describe the bright coloured fruit with a chunky scaled
Through SSM, I'm always advocating sharing information between people and organisations freely for the benefit of all; especially, "how-to" information and further to that, "how-to information about anything to do with self sufficiency." Videojug is a video/blog site which specialises in "how-to" and has over 60,000 short videos free to watch about all sorts of
Introduction (this article was revised Feb 2013) Tamarillos are currently in-season in my part of the world (as at the writing of this article) and I've been experimenting with different ways to eat them. If you are not sure what a tamarillo actually is then you can read more about the plant and its fruit
Fruit trees are arguably the best and most important plants people can grow in their garden. These trees provide us with good healthy food, fantastic scenery, habitat for animals, and an excellent excuse to wander out through the orchard (or garden). Most fruit trees have similar sighting considerations, and whilst there are some exceptions, trees
Introduction This article was edited in April 2015 In this post, I want to introduce the readers of SSM to a tennis mate of mine Brett Adams who is the Queensland State Manager of Green and Gold Solar, which is an Australian national solar installation company. Brett has been kind enough to answer a number of
Introduction Honestly, I'd be lost without my Excalibur dehydrator because we use it all the time in our household. The money our dehydrator has saved us alone has well and truly paid for the initial purchase of the appliance and I could have used “money” as one of the 10 reasons below on its own;
Introduction I want to share two methods I use for making this hot chilli sauce similar to the famous Tabasco sauce and they are: the simple fast sauce method and (the much slower) fermentation sauce method. Any chilli is suitable for this sauce; however, a hot chilli works best. I use small Thai chillies which
Introduction When you think about great moments in time, human achievement, or an event which changed the world, most people would consider the wheel, electricity, war, medicine, moon landing, internet, Jesus, or Michael Jackson, but very few people give any credit to the domesticated fowl. Therefore, in this article I would like to be the
Introduction “As easy as shelling peas,” as the saying goes, but is actually growing peas really that easy? The short answer is no, and the reason I think this, is because to grow peas successfully some prior preparation, mid-growth maintenance, and good timing is required. To grow the best peas and plenty of them there
September means spring in my part of the world and at spring time no matter where in the world you are one of the best plants to grow is the strawberry. As we all know, strawberries are a divine and decadent fruit but they can be pricey to buy from the markets so I grow
Introduction When running we should always have a plan in mind of how to escape an unexpected, potentially life threatening situation and evasive action means taking an immediate measure (like diving to avoid a collision with another vehicle or person) to evade the possible consequences of an incident. This article explains how to turn
Self Sufficient Me is a blog about self-sustainment by growing our own produce (plant/animal), and self-fulfilment by looking after our health (physical/mental) through exercise and slowing life down a little.
