Beets, beetroot, whatever you want to call them, when you have too many…. well, you have too many. Yet with the price of food these days, none of us wants to be wasting anything home-grown, especially a seasonal crop like beetroot. Our self-sufficiency journey isn’t just about growing the food; we need to know how
Keeping a flock of chickens in your backyard is a great step towards self-sufficiency. A supply of fresh, organically-produced, free-range eggs is a big plus…but what if you get too many at once? Sure, you can boil, poach, fry, and scramble- but what else can you do to make the most of your eggs? Here’s
Are you worried about the rising cost of food? Or even worse, a food crisis? We’ve seen unprecedented pressure on our food supply these past couple of years- things like extreme weather events, a shortage of fertiliser, logistical delays, rising energy prices and even a lack of fruit & veggie pickers are affecting us like
‘As easy as shelling peas’- well that’s how the saying goes- but is growing snow peas really that easy? Well yes, it can be easy, if you follow my 5 top tips on how to grow a ton of snow peas! Snow peas are usually grown to eat whole, and they’re remarkably similar to sugar
I don’t think there’s a vegetable gardener in the world that doesn’t love tomatoes- and rightly so! They are one of the most tasty, versatile and all-round fabulous food plants to grow. With the main growing season coming up here in the subtropics and the northern hemisphere, it’s time to think about what to sow.
Summer in Australia is supposedly the prime growing season. Plants grow the quickest in summer. In theory, they produce better, are healthier, and are easier to look after. Watering is required less often because there is good rain. All we have to do is arrive in the garden with a harvest basket & cutting implement
There are so many interesting varieties of vegetables to tempt us- many more than we have garden space for. It can be really hard to narrow it down, especially when you’re a beginner gardener. This is my top ten list of vegetables you should always grow. I have chosen these 10 veggies based on a
I was going to create a YouTube video to thank my subscribers for their wonderful and generous support over 2021 but I thought that this year I would write a short article on Christmas Eve instead. I’ll be 53 early next year and I often (during a quiet pondering moment) think about how I’m now
So, you are thinking of taking that idealistic step away from the modern mainstream, and moving towards self sufficiency. It’s a term we’ve heard a lot this past year, but it’s not always clear what it really means. And is it realistic these days? We all have work, families, responsibilities, vehicles and modern technology that
From the mid-20th century, mankind started to realise the great impact of our industrial activities on the environment. The relationship between industrialization and environmental degradation is one that is hard to ignore. In as much as mankind needs to grow industrially and economically, we also need to preserve our resources and the environment in
Make a winner out of your kitchen dinner by adding some easy to grow Asian herbs and spices and turn bland into YUM. In this article, I'm going to give you seven of my favourite easy to grow herbs and spices we grow at home and you can as well to use in your own
Humans fermenting food to change/improve the taste, preserve it, or make it healthier is not a 1000 years old… it's more like 1000's of years old. Indeed, over 2000 years ago Jesus would have eaten his fair share of olives. These delicious fruits would have been fermented in brine for several months to remove the
I often get asked the question, is it safe to eat vegetables/fruit grown in garden beds made from treated wood/treated pine. Or, how do I know if my vegetable garden soil is contaminated or not and if so will my crops take-up these contaminants/chemicals thereby making them dangerous for my family and me to ingest.
Thinking about buying a lifestyle property to grow your own organic produce but aren't sure what to look for? Well, you're not the only one and I receive questions about lifestyle acreage living (similar to the one from Fred below) all the time asking for advice on where to start and what to buy and it's totally
Before I get into other points of interest regarding cat runs and enclosures, we'll first detail our own build so that those who are visiting this article after watching my How to build a cat run video on YouTube can read the relevant information they are after. If you haven't seen the video you can
I remember clearly how my wife and I mulled over the decision 10 years ago to buy a treadmill. We weighed up the pros and cons with the main one being, will we use it enough to warrant the purchase? For many people considering buying a treadmill (or any other exercise machine for that matter), wondering if this
I've literally only had my Pickle Pipes for 3 days and they're working for me already by helping me lacto ferment some organic, heirloom, homegrown rainbow carrots. How these silicone fermentation airlocks perform over the next several weeks will determine whether I decide to purchase more Pickle Pipes or not. Fermenting rainbow carrots (image above)
Preserving jars (the really good ones) are expensive to buy; however, if you keep an eye out you can still find excellent quality preserving jars for "free" scavenged from products we use. The pic (above) shows this free jar in action used to preserve cucumber, Jerusalem artichoke root, and mustard stems Now, most standard jars
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.
