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Monday, July 14, 2008

Interested in becoming more self-sufficient

but live in an apartment? or don't have time to make that commitment? How about trying self-sufficientish living?
The idea behind self-sufficientish-ism is although many of us would love to live on a farm, grow all our own food, brew pea pod wine, live the 'Good-Life'. Not all of us have the means the space or are perhaps unwilling to give it all up and suffer the highs and lows of going it alone on a smallholding.

Although total self-sufficiency is appealing the thought of giving up the little luxuries in life may not be. I grow a lot of my own food eat wild foods and when I have the money buy organic fruit and vegetables but I still enjoy beer in a pub and like to go to the cinema or eat out occasionally.

Self Sufficientish-ism was created for these reasons. It is for all those who have limited time, space or money but would like to have a go at growing their own food or brewing their own alcohol or want to know which wild foods are good to eat. We also aim to offer advice on a whole host of other subjects from a low-ecological impact perspective.


Benefits include saving money, sustainability, good healthy eating, a chance to play farmer in the city, and it's kinda fun!

You'll find tips like 66 uses for a bread bag, natural pest control, flat dwellers guide to being self-sufficientish, lots of recipes, and how to brew. I want to try making sage and seed bread. mmmm

Via eco worrier

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome find, Red Jenny! Thanks for the link. I've been trying to be self-sufficientish and this is a gold mine of ideas.

Anonymous said...

Total self-sufficiency is too insular anyway, isn't it?
It's good to interact with other human beings.

Some of the people seeking total self-sufficiency are scary survivalists. I've had contact with a few of them. Three survivalists I've had contact with around here (around London, Ontario) have mentioned their guns. They want to protect what's 'theirs.'

Red Jenny said...

I completely agree, Toban. I think more localized community production, and small scale societies are really important - but not in either an antisocial survivalist way, nor in an insular forget-the-rest-of-the-world way, either. I just get annoyed at the commercialization of so many products that therefore also cause the loss of certain skills, all in the name of efficiency and profit.

For instance, I wish we cooked for ourselves (and each other) more and purchased less of the highly processed, expensive value-added foods. Or that we grew more of our own food. I dig urban agriculture and community gardens, especially. :-)

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that there should be some sort of balancing of private (personal or family or group) self-sufficiency and the self-sufficiency of a broader locality; and I think that there should be a balancing of the autonomy of a locality and its solidarity with the world at large.

But commerce doesn't have to be part of any of that, of course. There are a lot of other ways to interrelate with people. (Socioeconomics always will be part of societies, but commerce -- let alone capitalist commerce -- doesn't have to be.)

(I didn't think that complete private self-sufficiency would be a goal of yours, by the way.)