So as the New Year hits us square in the face like the rising sun of a new day, I wonder how many people are considering self-sufficiency as their New Year’s resolution.
Last night I cooked up a sensational meal for the family (even if I do say so myself) I named it Rooster soup with kidney beans, rice, and spinach and here’s the recipe but the reason I mentioned this dish (apart from the free plug) is to highlight how routine self-sufficiency can be in everyday life. It’s not difficult to grow your own chickens or other poultry for meat and eggs, it doesn’t take a big effort to maintain a vegetable garden, and a few fruit trees generally look after themselves.
My home-made rooster soup yum yum yum… (image above)
Therefore, we don’t all need to live on a farm or ranch to be more self-sufficient actually the main thing we need is the right mindset which happens to be what anyone really requires for just about any New Year’s resolution they undertake if they are serious about achieving it.
Common New Year’s resolutions are to lose weight, get fit, eat healthy, etc but many look at these tasks individually like they are a single problem and mistakenly think solving one aspect of a poor lifestyle choice will make it all better. In fact, focusing on just one aspect (such as losing weight) is like servicing a car and telling the mechanic to just make sure the tyres are 100% but don’t worry about fixing anything else.
Self-sufficiency is a lifestyle and it’s not difficult to become more self-sufficient all it takes is a holistic focus rather than a narrow or singular one. Instead of buying healthy vegetables to help lose weight the mindset of a self-sufficient person is to grow them so they get exercise, fresh chemical free produce, and the satisfaction of knowing they grew it.
Appreciation of fresh food is essential to healthy living and it happens to be the easiest way to become more self-sufficient. Fruit and vegetable gardens don’t need a lot of space and they don’t upset neighbours. It amazes me how poorly some people use (or don’t use) their backyards for food production. I know some people who whinge about paying $2.10 a lime from the shop and they hate it when I say my Tahitian lime tree produces so much fruit they fall on the ground and turn into compost cause we can’t possibly eat them all! It’s true though, and the truth is I fertilise the tree once a year, maybe give it prune occasionally, and apart from that it just grows and keeps giving…
There’s a growing belief that many people have forgotten how good real healthy food tastes. Much of the fast grown crap stuff sold in our supermarkets have little flavour and that’s a pity, but worse still it’s giving a new generation the false sense fruit and veg are boring and tasteless. Growing fruit and vegetables at home not only rejuvenates our own taste buds it also shows others around us, like kids, how exciting and flavourful home-grown produce can be.
So after the celebrations for New Years is over why not make a lifestyle New Year’s resolution to become more self-sufficient and over the next 12 months watch all those other resolutions follow behind and fall into place without you even trying.
Tonight, I’m going to celebrate New Year’s with friends in the city and I’ll be sure to take them a few limes for their Coronas hey…
Mark Valencia – Editor SSM
Look, and see the Earth through her eyes…
