A life in lists

A preserving update

First, here's (pretty much) the sum total of last week's work:

 It might not look a lot, but I reckon I've preserved near enough a bushel of apples (about 42lb), and over 20lb of plums, as well as using several pints of vinegar and a good 20lb of sugar. The top left hand jar in the picture is dried apple pieces, which are such a success I'm going to do even more of (luckily I snatched a couple of extra apples as we left to come home yesterday). I'm also going to make some apple and loganberry curd as soon as Teddy gives me a decent break.

I'm really pleased with the amount we managed to preserve. I know it's a long long way from the kind of harvest we'll be dealing with when we're growing a larger percentage of our own food, but it felt like a nice warm up act.

Now here's a good reason to be self sufficient...

The oil has almost run out! I know it's a bit of a scaremongery, worst-case-scenario article, but it's still quite interesting, no? (Incidentally, I only came across this article because someone on another website pointed it out, hopefully he won't mind me stealing his link).

I think it's interesting that as the next new crisis comes along, we forget all about the old one. How often do we read about the hole in the ozone layer now? Do you know, without googling, whether it is getting smaller, larger, or staying the same? Ten years ago I was being taught in school that we needed to find alternatives to fossil fuels because they will run out, now it's all about alternatives because of climate change.

I think it's interesting to be reminded that whether we like it or not, fossil fuels are running out. Whether we find alternatives before we have to turn to dirtier and, more pertinantly to the non-eco-worriers, much more expensive methods, depends on both government choices and consumer demand. So I say, get demanding!

It's another one to add to the list of reasons to be self sufficient though - the more expensive energy gets, the more financial viable (and logical) it becomes to invest in one or more of the host of domestic renewable energy generators.

So what's your five year plan?

I think I need a plan. Of course, we all know what my general five year plan is (see the 'Self sufficiency' link above), but it seems a shame that I, with a love of list making that verges on the obsessive (I have yet to meet anyone outside of my family that writes 'make list' at the start of the list, just so they can cross something off), have yet to make a list of specific goals that I can cross off on our route to self sufficiency apart from the very vague one in the introduction.

I suspect this list will get jumbled up, added to and subtracted from in the coming 1,770 days (oh god, that counter was a lot higher than that when I began!), but I think it will be useful for me and anyone who wants to know where this rambling is actually going to have a more precise list to tick off as we go.

I like to think that efficient sufficient will mean something for everyone reading this blog, but in general I see it as self sufficiency with whatever compromises an individual finds necessary to live a nice life. So for us, the list of targets (in approximate order of expected completion) is:
1) Forage all year round for as much of our food as possible, preserving what we find where practical (such as blackberries)
2) Bake all of our bread and treats
3) Make gifts and cards for families and friends for all birthdays and christmas
4) Knit any woolies that we need, including socks and winter jumpers
5) Become self sufficient in vegetables (except a couple of treats)
6) Grow a couple of fruit trees, and some berries and soft fruit (I'm sure I've read you can grow a small apple tree in a massive pot. Maybe)
7) Buy a house/land to build on
8) Keep a couple of chickens
9) Get beehive/s and start beekeeping
10) Convert/build said house to be more energy saving and sustainable
11) Go onto a water meter and reduce our water usage as far as possible, including saving as much rainwater as possible for the garden
12) Generate at least some of our own power or heating (depending on circumstances)

I don't think I've missed anything, except the optional extras like keeping another animal or two (probably not practical any time soon, as we probably won't be able to afford the land we'd need). Each point on this list practically deserves a sublist all of its own, but I think the phrase 'too much of a good thing' might be appropriate at this stage.

Number seven is the obvious sticking point. We are saving as much as we can (hopefully a bit more now I've got some more regular freelancing work), and crossing our fingers that house prices will continue to fall, or at least not start rising again, and eventually we might catch up with them. 

Foraging: The time is ripe (and so is the fruit)

We've entered the best time of year for foraging beginners, like me. This is because not only is wild food at its most abundant in late summer/early autumn, it's also the time when all the easily identifiable stuff, like blackberries, are ripening, instead of random spring greens that need half an hour to identify each leaf.

My tip for the day is take a tupperware or a ziplock bag with you every single time you leave the house. I've got into the habit of chucking an empty tupperware into the basket under the pram every day (even easier now that I am Monday-Challenging myself to new heights of organisation), but keeping a ziplock bag in your handbag or pocket is doable even for the busiest of souls.

As I'm out and about, I just grab anything that's ripe, from blackberries on the footpath I walk up practically daily with Teddy to the windfall apples from the tree in the park. Rather than trying to persuade myself to go to all the effort of making one small pot of jam at a time, I'm storing the fruit in the (little, still on) freezer, so when I finally have a sensible amount I can start with the recipes.

 I already have getting on for a kilo of blackberries, which (when I've got more) I'm planning to turn into blackberry syrup/cordial, and lots of blackberry jam. Possibly some blackberry ice cream, but I'm thinking I can just mix the syrup with some leftover frozen blackberries for making ice cream at a later date if I want.

 I'm a bit scared of the rosehips, as you need to deal with them carefully to prevent getting any of the hair from the seeds into whatever you make, but apparently you can make yummy syrup, jams and all sorts. Will be good to experiment. I'm also wondering whether I can use the hips in the garden to similar effect, or if they won't have as strong a flavour as the wild dog rose and rosa rugosa.

 I'm also chopping apples and freezing them every time I get a couple more. I've got absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with them (all cookers), but if all else fails they can either get chucked into a christmas chutney or I can make some herby apple jelly to go with roasts. Seems a shame to let them go to waste!

 I've also found a cherry tree, but due to only getting a tiny handful at a time, and being too lazy to stone them, I just keep them in the fruit bowl for snacking on rather than making cherry pie or something ambitious like that. Possibly it's time to think about a smaller fruit bowl though.

I've also (I think) found walnut, hazelnut and sweet chestnut trees. I'm not a massive fan of nuts, but I'm thinking I might be able to create some kind of sugar roasted nut thing for christmas.

What's the buzz?

Saw this in the news yesterday, quite interesting reading. There's lots of research that shows that bees are very important for pollination of crops, as well as producing honey, and even more research that shows their numbers are dwindling.

As some of my friends may be aware (I mention it on average every other day, according to my sister), I would love to keep bees. It's something of a preoccupation of mine, despite a fairly major fear of things buzzing round my head and a complete lack of bravery about being stung.

Honey can replace sugar in lots of recipes, from cakes and deserts to chutneys and salad dressing, and bees don't cost a fortune (so I'm told) apart from the initial investment in hives and safety gear, so beekeeping seems like the perfect step in our self sufficient lifestyle.

Unfortunately, we are planning on moving next year, and even if we weren't, only have a miniscule little courtyard garden which is already filled to bursting with pots and growbags, so beekeeping is off the cards for the moment. As soon as we move somewhere more permanent though (or if I ever get to the top of the allotment waiting list, and if they allow hives), it's top of my To Do list.

However, I'm not planning on one of those nasty ugly plastic hives. I haven't done an awful lot of research, but I read an interesting article in Permaculture magazine (good magazine, must think about subscribing) on Warre hives, and quite like the look of them. Plenty more reading to do on the subject though.

(Roller)balls to it

I am desperately trying to use up all my pens. It is not going well - apparently, despite being a writer, I write almost nothing down in real life, except my daily To Do list.

You see, I have promised myself that in the spirit of being efficient sufficient I will never again buy crappy disposable pens. Instead, when I have finally used up every last pen in this house, I will treat myself to a lovely fancy fountain pen with a refillable ink cartridge thingymabob (I suspect there's a proper name for it). And I will use it forever and ever and never lose it or stand on it or break the nib or anything.

Before deciding this, I would probably have estimated that we have three, perhaps four, working biros of one form or another in this house. There is never ever one around when I need it, so there can't be that many, right?

No.

I started actually putting all the pens in one place so that I could track my usage and get progressively more excited about buying a proper pen, sad bastard that I am, and I found not three, not four, but nearly a dozen pens! Plus a whole load of pencils (why? I swear I haven't bought any HBs since I was about 14), which really I ought to use up in the spirit of the thing.

So as well as counting down to self sufficiency, I can probably also assume that I'm on approximately a five year countdown before I use up enough bloody biros to justify a nice fountain pen.

Maybe I'll start drafting my blogs on paper first...

Quick, turn off your freezer!

It saves a crapload of energy.

I have always convinced myself that a chest freezer would make us more, not less, green, as I figured we could bulk buy meat, freeze summer fruits and make our own ice cream. We do all of these things occasionally, but there was certainly plenty of time when the freezer was languishing almost empty.

After thee shock results of last week's Monday Challenge I'm going to have to weigh that one up a little more carefully now, and at least make sure we're getting maximum use from our freezer if it is on.

For the seven days prior to turning off the freezer, our average daily energy usage was 10.78KWH per day, according to the Wattson. I have no idea if that's good or bad, but I imagine it's reasonable. However, for the six days since turning off the freezer (I only turned it off on the Tuesday evening, which this average includes, and obviously I don't have today's data yet), we have used an average of only 7.70KWH per day. This is a pretty massive cut, almost 30%. I suppose there's probably other factors in play - we've been out and about a fair bit, so perhaps have used a shade less electricity than normal, for instance - but even accounting for that, it's a pretty impressive saving.

I'm determined not to turn the freezer back on until we really need to, and I'll definitely investigate other preserving options for things like the fruit we'll probably pick in the coming weeks. I'll keep an eye on our average usage and see if it remains consistently below last week's, which will prove that the energy saving is from the freezer rather than coincidence.

Now what?

So, the freezer is off, the little one is chock full of goodies, the veggies are doing their thing in the garden, the bread would be rising in the oven if I'd remembered to make it this morning... Life is pretty good, and getting on with being self sufficient.

So how do I get us closer to the efficient sufficient dream? I am trying to come up with some new ideas that will (a) increase our level of self sufficiency in the short term and/or (b) help us move towards the eventual house/landowner aim. It's frustrating, as really the main thing that there is for me to do is sit back and watch the savings mount up - which will hopefully happen much faster now that I'm actually bringing in some money, but I want to do things to help it along! I have a few things on the To Do list though, which will help a bit, and hopefully alleviate the frustration:
1) Ebay the last box of bits and bobs that we don't need and stick the money in the Compost Bin
2) Smile winningly at all our friends and relatives and see if we can Ebay anything for them for a bit of commission
3) Re-evaluate the £1 a day Monday Challenge, and reinstate it in a couple of weeks time, perhaps as a month long super-challenge, to be slightly more realistic about it
4) Plant some seeds for some winter veg - I think I can still put in some kohlrabi (weird looking things), perhaps some beets, and some herbs on the windowsill

Really it's just a question of waiting for time to pass. There's so many big projects that I'd like to get on with, like keeping bees (despite a really quite significant fear of buzzing things) and chickens, and investigating some form of eco energy production. I suppose I could start the research for that, but things change so quickly in technology that everything I learn will probably be out of date by the time we're in a position to implement it. Oh, and growing food on a larger scale. Everything really.

Any ideas for how I can move things along?

Free stuff makes good stuff

I have just made another batch of vegetable stock. This one is lacking the lentils and the crucial half a lemon so might be a bit less interesting, but will doubtless be useful for something.

I have also made foraged crumble! Well, almost foraged. Free, anyway. My lovely friend brought this for me when she came over for dinner the other night:

 You see, it pays to let everyone know you're a cheapskate.

I was, at the time, trying to think what to do with the windfall cooking apples I snaffled while walking through the park the other day:

 So I cooked the apples up with some sugar, the handful of blackberries I picked the other day while out for a walk (always take a tupperware when you go walking - you never know what you'll find) and about three tablespoons of already cooked rhubarb I found while emptying out the freezer. Et voila

 Pink vomit! But it's tasty, I promise. Three minutes work with the topping, filling and a load of glass ramekins saved from the numerous times we've splashed out on yummy Gu puddings from Waitrose, and I had eight portions of crumble, just like that:

 It took me perhaps 15 minutes, and cost the price of two tablespoons of sugar and a bit of ground ginger chucked into the crumble topping.

I'm going to pick up more cookers next time I'm out walking and see what else I can do with them. I fancy trying some kind of apple syrup/cordial, but have no idea where to start. Google, here I come.

Some musings on freeganism

Freeganism - what a great concept, eh? You go through rubbish bins, take out what others (supermarkets, mostly, it seems) throw away and eat/use it. Et voila, good stuff for free!

No, actually. I have decided I have issues with freeganism.

One of my relatives avid blog followers sent me this link, about a chappie who has written a book on freeganism. Apart from the fact that a book on freeganism that requires you to spend money on it is a bit of an anachronism (but very convenient, no doubt, for the author, a Mr Tristram Stuart), I don't like the ideology of the whole thing.

You see, freeganism relies on our western, consumerist lifestyle continuing. The only way freegans can continue to remove stuff from bins is if other people continue to put it there. So freegans are, in a way, perpetuating this lifestyle by spending their time rooting through rubbish bins rather than either growing their own food (and showing their friends and families how to do so too) or spending their money at local greengrocers, butchers and other businesses, who actually use up their produce, and only throw away food that genuinely is past its best before. Creating a demand for these kinds of businesses would allow them to lower their prices, encourage other small local businesses to open and gradually (and I appreciate we're not talking a ground breaking movement here) begin to draw a bit of the business away from the supermarkets.

I also know people who feel just that little bit better about their supermarket shop at, for example, Sainsburys rather than Tescos because Sainsburys doesn't lock up its bins, therefore the homeless and the freegans can take the waste, which makes the whole supermarket thing better, right?

In conclusion, I'm sorry Mr Stuart, but in the true spirit of freeganism, I won't be buying your book. I will, however, be recommending that you go and find some trees and pick some of the astonishing quantity of food that's growing wild, or buy a fishing rod and go catch something rather than fishing through the processed food chucked out by supermarkets.