Homesteading reality - in a picture

[mrcharly]

That's a really good post, Haggis.

Takes a lot of land, and constant hard work to actually farm enough food to eat and have a surplus to sell. Usually it is easier to specialise in one type of produce and barter your excess for other types.

The UK is in (in most regions) incredibly productive for growing veg and fruit. I came here from Australia and couldn't believe how plants just explode out of the ground come spring. Mild autumns make for a long growing season.

I used to grow veg, had a garden about 80ft long, 50ft of it to veg. Most summers we ended up selling crates of excess produce in a local shop. More beans, potatoes, corgette, strawberries and apples than we could eat. Got chickens and was giving eggs away, 8 months of the year.

 

[santaman2000]

.......We are trying to get by on as little money as possible and do as much for ourselves as possible. But we can't do everything - in the photo above, I can grow the onions and make the vinegar, but I can't make the jars......

Or could you?

 

[British Red]

Oh I could without a doubt - and I would like to as well - but currently I lack the know how and the equipment - I also don't have clay on the land.

None of that should stop me - nor will it eventually.

 

[bigbear]

Thats quite inspiring, we are stunned by how much food we have had off our allotmentbinour first year, but as BR points out you need a lot to feed just two people for a year........
Felt like a cheat yesterday when I bought some carrots !
But we are strting to think about how many days a year we need to work if we grow more, and if we get a second allotment and or keep chickens how that changes things. Shame land is so prohibitively expensive round here.

 

[British Red]

But we are strting to think about how many days a year we need to work if we grow more, and if we get a second allotment and or keep chickens how that changes things.

Oh you'll work every day - it just doesn't feel like it

I know exactly what you mean though - and I think its important to reflect on how, if it doesn't feel like "work" to dig manure, then "work" must be a pretty miserable thing!

 

[Clouston98]

Nicely done Hugh! I like those jars too .

 

[British Red]

I like those jars too .

Second hand jars - the big ones are Sarson vinegar the rest are a mix. The lids are new but were 66% off because they were printed in the wrong colour

Is it sad to admit that I consciously save jars that take a 63mm lid? Its the easiest to get cheap replacement lids for - and glass is glass.

 

[Clouston98]

Second hand jars - the big ones are Sarson vinegar the rest are a mix. The lids are new but were 66% off because they were printed in the wrong colour

Great idea that, I reckon I'll definitely get some new lids for old jars.

 

[British Red]

Keep a test lid in the kitchen and give one to your friends - ask them to keep any jar that fits the lid. Lids are cheap!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Replacement...T6/ref=sr_1_43?ie=UTF8&qid=1411585643&sr=8-43

 

[crowman]

Them look good pickled onions British red pickled eggs are my favourite though ,I've been trying to think of something that could be used as a word for homesteader but all I could think of was the good life and that's been used, I think homesteader sums it up great and however much or however little you do to be self sufficient you can't beat the feeling of producing something for free or cheaply to enhance your life, its a feeling you just can't get from handing over money for something,

 

[Laurentius]

All that I have pickled this year is 4 litres of onion and broad bean pickle. I shall be pickling huge amounts of beetroot soon, if the slugs have not ruined them too. It has been a very bad year for slugs and other pests. Leek moths destroyed all but a few of my leeks, potatoes were riddled through by slugs, and it seems that they have been at my turnips too. I expect I will be pickling some red cabbage as well.

I expect to have enough beetroot to make beetroot wine as well.

 

[EdS]

Also goes to show how much space us needed - just for storage let alone small scale growing.

 

[rancid badger]

I hope may posts didn't come across wrong lads.
just about the only other time I hear the word "homestead" is in cowboy films.....forums and groups in general tend to have a vernacular of their own so I was just wondering if homesteading meant something more specific on here than the general use of the word


Teedee, agreed mate, but it may still have a specific name

I'd suspect that "homesteading" could potentially, easily cover just as many different subjects/skills/pastimes and activities as the term "bushcraft"

 

[British Red]

I'd suspect that "homesteading" could potentially, easily cover just as many different subjects/skills/pastimes and activities as the term "bushcraft"

I suspect more - everything from animal husbandry through pottery to building your own home

 

[CLEM]

I've not pickled onions for years, I bet they are right tasted Mr Red mate. Iam feeling inspired now! I love a nice pickled onion with a good extra mature cheddar. Bostin!

 

[mousey]

Is it sad to admit that I consciously save jars that take a 63mm lid? Its the easiest to get cheap replacement lids for - and glass is glass.

I've never thought to measure the jar lids/necks - that is a useful bit of knowledge I'll have to remember - I do have a lot of jars [my missus likes jams chutneys and pickling various things] but they are all different shapes and sizes - I've been meaning to standardise them for a while i.e. only start keeping the size that I have most of - I never thought keeping the most prevalent size!

I think that's the most useful thing I'll learn today...

 

[Laurentius]

Its something that lacks a good word I think

To me I want a word for "more than house". A place where I grow things, make things, cut wood, maybe keep a few animals.

Homestead is as good as any I think - but it really doesn't have much of a specific meaning. I use the term here because its the term Tony chose for the sub forum. Something to evoke those interesting and perhaps old fashioned things one does at home - soap making, beekeeping, all that stuff.

Is there a better term?

It does rather evoke the idea of 40 acres and a mule, whereas all I have is ten rods and a balcony. No livestock (unless you count raising slugs) and no beekeeping either. I don't think I could cope with much more, unless I had a mule of course.

 

[milius2]

It does rather evoke the idea of 40 acres and a mule, whereas all I have is ten rods and a balcony. No livestock (unless you count raising slugs) and no beekeeping either. I don't think I could cope with much more, unless I had a mule of course.

There is plenty of help these days. Tillers, tractors and such, I think the question is: have you got the time for all it takes to keep it all up. Only battling the weeds is a huge challenge for me, but I will get some sheep to solve that. When I have the sheep I have to house them during the winters and feed them, so in reality my problems only worsen. UNLESS I make it somewhat efficient. That means keeping more to sell that would pay for all the time and effort, in other case I can just keep cutting the weeds and let them rot.... Lets say you have slugs. If you had some space you could keep a duck or two for the summers. They would pick the slugs and then you could pluck the duck and have it for dinner. how about that?

 

[bigbear]

Well said Red, like you I find shifting muck or weeding for a morning to be enjoyable and theraputic, teaching however....still, ones life is a work in progress I hope, and we are making some headway. I just resent not being able to do it more. Comes of being brought up on a farm, not afraod of hard work, more like enjoy hard work !

 

[Nemesis]

Red, on the name for the 'more than house' To my mind the name you're looking for is just 'home' all the rest of us should be working out a name for 'less than' (maybe just 'house I live in')
I aspire to get closer to where you are. First step is that I've managed to work out doing my ostensibly office/city job from home. My employers were pleased to hear that I was set up with a 'home office' little do they know that I meant 'work bench in my shed with tools pushed to one side to give enough room to fit a laptop' . Being able to be on the phone to clients in London and reach out of the window to pick one of this years bumper crop of raspberries is a delight. The few times I get suited up and commute in are made all the sweeter in the knowledge that it's an occasional thing.

On a side note,if we're talking cocktails, my own favourite (though with this one I'm always in a minority) is a Dirty Martini: Vodka or Gin, a generous splash of brine from a jar of olives and a tiny amount of vermouth stirred with ice then strained. Yum.