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- Herausgeber: IMM Lifestyle Books
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
With frequent warnings about water and energy shortages, or the potential dangers of pesticides and genetically modified foods, many people nurture a dream of living a self-sufficient life. This comprehensive yet easy-to-read addition to the Specialist series explains what it really takes to live off the fat of the land. It answers all the fundamental questions anyone considering a lifestyle change might ask, from the best way to warm your home off the grid to how much time and effort it takes to grow your own food and raise your own animals. Both the most fulfilling aspects and the hard work of self-sufficient living are revealed in full. Packed with informative illustrations and diagrams, this manual offers a wealth of useful advice for prospective small farm owners.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2008
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Reprinted in 2011
First published in 2007 by New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd
London • Cape Town • Sydney • Auckland
Garfield House, 86–88 Edgware Road, London W2 2EA, United Kingdom
www.newhollandpublishers.com
80 McKenzie Street, Cape Town 8001, South Africa
Unit 1, 66 Gibbes Street, Chatswood, NSW 2067, Australia
218 Lake Road, Northcote, Auckland, New Zealand
Copyright © 2007 text AG&G Books
Copyright © 2007 illustrations and photographs New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd
Copyright © 2007 New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.
ISBN 978 184537 9254
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
Editorial Direction: Rosemary Wilkinson Editor: Naomi Waters Production: Hema Gohil
Designed and created for New Holland by AG&G Books Copyright © 2004 “Specialist” AG&G Books
Design: Glyn Bridgewater Illustrations: Dawn Brend, Gill Bridgewater, Coral Mula and Ann Winterbotham
Editor: Alison Copland Photographs: see page 80
Reproduction by Pica Digital Pte Ltd, Singapore
Printed and bound in Malaysia by Times Offset (M) Sdn. Bhd.
The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the authors and the publishers. The authors and publishers disclaim any liability for damages or injury resulting from the use of this information.
Contents
Author’s foreword
GETTING STARTED
What is self-sufficiency?
The benefits of self-sufficiency
Considering your options
A place in the town
A place in the country
THE SELF-SUFFICIENT SET-UP
The self-sufficient town house
The self-sufficient village cottage
The self-sufficient smallholding
Off-grid water
Recycling water
Cookers and stoves
Solar collectors and Trombe walls
Solar or photovoltaic cells
Wind turbines
Geothermal heating
Water or hydro turbines
Inverters and batteries
Super-insulating your home
Recycling your household waste
Growing organic vegetables
Growing organic fruit
Growing herbs
KEEPING ANIMALS
Keeping chickens
Keeping ducks
Keeping geese
Keeping goats
Keeping sheep
Keeping a cow
Keeping pigs
Keeping bees
USING YOUR PRODUCE
Storing food
Making jam
Making chutney
Drying food
Smoking food
Making beer
Making cider
Making wine
Making vegetarian soap
Making candles
Glossary
Index
Author’s foreword
We were warned. We knew that we were poisoning our environment, so it had to happen. Our once green and bounteous Mother Earth is sick. This is not a hidden sickness; the physical symptoms are clear for all of us to see. The air is thick with pollution, our forests are shrinking, carbon emissions are rising, global warning is a measurable fact, our food contains so much rubbish that it is making us ill, the fish are dying, ocean levels are rising and there is climate chaos. The good news is that self-sufficiency offers exciting, dynamic, practical, down-to-earth solutions to the problem of how to live in a leaner, greener, cleaner way. No more sitting around being a victim and complaining about how the problem is so monumental that it can only be solved by people in power.
Self-sufficiency offers practical and detailed solutions to the problems of living in a way that will invigorate the planet. Imagine an off-grid home independent of mains services, clean wholesome organic food, fresh air, growing your own produce, more exercise, less pollution, you and your children working and playing in a world humming with healthy wildlife. Self-sufficiency offers you a real, practical, pioneering, hands-on way forward.
Measurements
Both metric and imperial measurements are given in this book – for example, 1.8 m (6 ft).
SEASONS
Throughout this book, advice is given about seasonal tasks. Because of global and even regional variations in climate and temperature, the four main seasons have been used, with each subdivided into ‘early’, ‘mid-’ and ‘late’ – for example, early spring, mid-spring and late spring. These 12 divisions of the year can be applied to the appropriate calendar months in your local area, if you find this helps.
What is self-sufficiency?
What will it involve?
Self-sufficiency is an eco-friendly way of living that involves being self-contained in terms of energy, food and shelter. To put it another way, if you grow your own organic food, keep some livestock, cut back on your use of electricity and fossil fuels (natural gas, petroleum and coal), if you store away your produce, and generally spend a good part of your time working on the land, then you are well on the way to being self-sufficient.
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
You may have dreamed about going self-sufficient but how do you put your ideas into practice? The following list of questions may help towards planning for a self-sufficient lifestyle that is tailored to your needs.
LIFESTYLE
Do you want your self-sufficient lifestyle to be an all-encompassing philosophy for living – something that touches every aspect of your life – or are you simply going to change some aspects for the better?
Do you want to change everything at a stroke, or are you going for a little-by-little approach?
If you have a partner – and this is of vital importance – is she/he totally with you on this?
Do you want your particular dream plot to be in the city or in the country?
Can you make your dream happen by staying in your present home and renting fields and allotments?
Do you want a smallholding of, say, half a hectare (around 1 acre) or a hectare (around 2 acres)?
Are you going to try to be organic?
Are you going to try to be eco-green in all things – housing, food, clothing, possessions?
Do you want to put all your time into self-sufficiency, or are you going to opt for a compromise and work for, say, half the week to supplement your needs?
Do you either need or want to completely change your career for one that backs up and/or makes your self-sufficiency possible?
Could you perhaps sell up your city home and use the money to buy a home in a less expensive area, such as the countryside or abroad?
Could you join forces with like-minded people – friends, family or a commune?
FOOD
Are you aiming for a traditional smallholding set-up with, say, chickens for meat and eggs, a cow or goat for meat, milk and cheese, and crops to feed you and the stock?
Are you a vegetarian, and if so how will this impact on your lifestyle?
Are you going to try to be organic?
Are you going to attempt to be completely self-sufficient in food?
A small wind turbine will produce enough electricity to light the average home with 3–4 bedrooms.
ENERGY
Are you aiming to go off-grid and do without mains water, gas and electricity?
Are you going to look to the past and manage without electricity? Or are you going to look to the future and go for high-tech solutions?
Are you going to have a wind turbine?
Are you going to have a geothermal plant?
Are you going to super-insulate your home?
Are you going to give up your car in favour of some other transport, or perhaps downgrade your present vehicle for something less fuel-guzzling?
Are you going to have a borehole or well?
ANIMALS
Are you going to keep livestock such as chickens, pigs or bees?
If you are not going to keep stock, how will you nourish your land?
Are you going to keep the stock primarily for your food – eggs, milk and meat – or do you want to sell any surplus?
Do you have enough space for stock?
If you are aiming to keep stock (say a cow for milk), have you considered the implications – feeding, animal welfare, milking, 24-hour care?
The benefits of self-sufficiency
What is in it for me?
The benefits are so all-encompassing that they will touch every aspect of your life. You will eat better food, with no chemicals, preservatives, taste enhancers, artificial colours, herbicides or pesticides. You will feel more in tune with nature. You will use less (non-renewable) fossil fuel. Your fuel bills will go down, your stress levels will go down, and generally you will be living a healthier, more exciting, more enriched, more satisfying and more caring life.
ENERGY SAVINGS
One look at the average home will demonstrate that not only are most of us incredibly greedy in terms of energy – we want bigger homes, bigger vehicles, bigger appetites, bigger everything – but, even more illogically, a good part of the energy that we do use is wasted. Our homes and lives are leaking energy at every seam. If we did no more than look at self-sufficiency from a very narrow money-saving viewpoint, it is pretty obvious that most of us could quite easily and dramatically reduce our spending on energy, simply by bunging up a few of the leaks.
If we look carefully at our spending – heating, cooling, lighting, water, waste, transport and so on – and then apply the self-sufficiency mantra ‘little in and little out’, it is plain to see that the best way forward would be to minutely examine our energy needs, and see if we can attack the problem from both ends – meaning reduce both the initial need and the resultant waste. It would be wonderful if we could afford to make huge dramatic high-cost changes, but for most of us the best way of saving energy is to make lots of small modifications. You should not try to change everything at a stroke, either; it is much better to tackle one problem – say lighting – and then to move on to the next one.
So, for example, we could all cut our heating costs at a stroke simply by wearing more clothes, having thicker curtains, settling for a slightly lower level of heating, and living a more active lifestyle. Of course, this advice is rather simplistic, but I am sure you get the point.
ENERGY STATISTICS
Energy costs will of course vary depending upon your individual needs.
THE ENVIRONMENT
The average person in a developed country throws away about 450 kg (1,000 lb) of rubbish every year. The easiest way for us to make a difference to the amount of energy used and the amount of pollution produced would be to cut both consumption and waste. If we buy fewer throwaway items – short-life goods and packaging – and if we recycle goods, we will take weight off both ends of the consumption-pollution seesaw. With efficiency and conservation being key components of energy sustainability, the best advice for us as individuals is to tackle the problem by nibbling away at our initial need for grid energy. The truth is that if we all did a little the problem would be well on the way to being solved.
Many people who are new to self-sufficiency find it difficult to stay focused and balanced. For example, I know of one couple who are doing their best to be self-sufficient; they keep chickens for eggs and bees for honey, they grow fruit, they run courses, and so on. Yet, while they are so desperately concerned about every aspect of the environment – cars, fossil fuels, organic food – their neighbours drive huge, fuel-guzzling cars, and are champions of unrestrained consumption. The question is what to do? The answer is beautifully simple. We live in a free society where each one of us is entitled to do what we like within the law. These neighbours are perfectly entitled to lead their lives as they think fit. My advice to this young couple would be to quietly lead their own lives – certainly they should not preach or in any way start telling the neighbours how they should lead their lives. The best that they can hope for is that things will slowly change around them – smaller cars, incentives to recycle rubbish, and so on.
ORGANIC FOOD
Even the most ardent anti-organic growers and producers – those people and organizations who were once pulling up hedges, spreading artificial fertilizers and spraying chemicals and pesticides everywhere – are now coming around to the fact that the future has to be organic. The reason for this huge U-turn on the part of governments is that, for growers who once advocated factory farming, facts, figures and reports have shown that the dangers of agrochemicals and pesticides are all too real. The endless food scares have shown that ‘what goes around comes around’. The simple fact is that, if we spread poisons on the land today, these self-same poisons will be back on our plates tomorrow.
All that said, while we do have to look at the negatives in farming – if only to see how not to do it – it is so much more exciting and upbeat to look at the positives. Perhaps it is enough to say that, from a self-sufficiency viewpoint, organic gardening and organic food can be equated with tastier food, healthier eating, more exercise, improved nutrition, a healthier environment, better soil conditions, better wildlife and geneally a healthier lifestyle.
Home-grown organic food is the best option on many counts – it is tastier, healthier and all-round good fun to grow.
LIFESTYLE
Being self-sufficient will eventually have an impact on every aspect of your life – where you live, how you live, the work you do, the car you drive, the food you eat, and all your activities. In this respect, it is very difficult to dabble with self-sufficiency, or settle for half measures. For example, it would be strange to become interested in off-grid energy and then buy a car that has a very high fuel consumption – the two just would not go together. So it is for food, entertainment, clothes, everything. Once you start out on self-sufficiency it is very difficult to be anything other than totally committed. Being committed does have its problems, and it can be hard work, but the positive aspects will by far outweigh the negative ones. You will be eating better food, your appetite will be better, your stress levels will go down, you will know what it is that you are eating, you will get more physical exercise, you will be fitter, you might well be able to give up your car, and you will be presented with a whole range of interesting food-producing options – chickens, pigs, bees, organic gardening. You may be able to say that you are physically tired and exhausted, and doing so much exercise that you are losing weight, but you will not be able to say that you are bored or stressed, or have difficulty sleeping.
If nothing else, digging the garden will make you fitter, and you won't have trouble sleeping.
Considering your options
How can I get started?
To become self-sufficient, there are many ways to begin. You could stay as you are and make lots of small modifications to your life; you could go for one massive life-changing upheaval and move house and career; you could make it work in the town, or in the countryside, or abroad. There will almost certainly be an option to suit your specific needs. There are lots of ways of reaching the same destination.
MAKING SMALL CHANGES
You could turn your garden over to producing food, change your diet, adopt different shopping habits, change the way the house is heated, change your use of electricity, gas, oil or solid fuel, change your vehicle, walk to work, only work half of the week, and so on. You could run an allotment, rent a piece of land, keep chickens and sell the eggs, or keep bees, for example.
A good solar heater will help reduce your water-heating costs.
MAKING A MAJOR CHANGE
We are all very different – different ages, and with different family and financial commitments – but in my opinion the best, and perhaps even the easiest, method of going self-sufficient is to move to a plot in the countryside. Certainly, such a major change would involve a lot of forward planning, and you would have to build in all sorts of safety nets, but it would be a great goal to aim for. Of course, you could in the mean time prepare the way by making lots of small changes as described above.
GATHERING INFORMATION
As with any great journey or scheme, it is vital that you prepare by gathering as much information as possible. You must talk to your friends and family, visit possible locations, look at your assets, talk to people who are self-sufficient. You must consider every aspect of what is possible, and then research all the implications. If you want to move to the countryside, you should have an extended visit. If you want to keep animals, you should try working on a farm. You must base your dreams and subsequent plans on good, solid, reliable information.
Questions to ask yourself
If you do want land – how much do you need?Could you make it all work in the town or city, or do you need to move to the countryside where the land and property are often less expensive?Could you make it work by moving abroad?If you do have plans to move to another country, can you speak the language?If you have children, how will your plans affect their lives? Are they at a critical stage in their schooling?Do you want to go off-grid – no mains electricity, water or gas?Do you have practical skills in woodworking, electrics, plumbing, cooking, gardening or animal husbandry?Can you make it happen by staying put and renting fields and allotments?Do you want/need the support of a like-minded group – a community?Do you want/have to make a complete career change, or can you make it happen by adopting a career that backs up the self-sufficient set-up?Do you have enough assets to make your plans possible?Could you join forces with your parents, your partner’s parents, friends or family? If yes, have you ever lived and/or worked together?If you go in with parents or friends – how will such an arrangement affect other members of the family?If you go in with friends, partner or family, what happens if one party wants to pull out?Could you form a co-operative with friends and neighbours, with you all clubbing together to buy land?Could you join forces with family members to purchase a good-sized country house complete with land?Do you want to go the whole hog – move house, grow your own food, keep livestock – or would you be content to stay put, concentrate on beekeeping perhaps, and sell your produce in order to buy in other goods and services?GETTING DOWN TO DETAILS
Once you have decided in broad terms that you want to be in the town or the countryside, you must start looking at the fine details of what is possible. The following will point you in the right direction.
Town
In the UK, allotments are low-cost, sometimes even free for people who are on a small income.Lots of allotment associations traditionally allow chickens, rabbits, goats and other stock.A large garden could be turned over to food production – you could have one or more greenhouses.You could rent ground – from neighbours, private individuals and local councils.Keeping livestock in town can be a problem – people will complain about smells and noise.Town-based self-sufficiency has to be tightly controlled because space is at a premium.There will be local restrictions – how many chickens, how much noise, and so on.You might not be allowed to have a wind turbine, but you could insulate your house and fit solar collectors.You will be able to draw inspiration from cultural activities such as visiting museums, art galleries and theatres and attending lectures.You could bring public transport into the overall equation.You will easily be able to do part-time paid work to support your go-green activities.You could sell produce like goat’s milk, cheese and fresh vegetables at the garden gate.There are a growing number of inner-city community farms; perhaps you could join such a set-up.Your children will easily be able to get to school.A large number of allotment holders are already completely self-sufficient in organic fruit and vegetables.
For some people the off-grid option complete with a wind turbine is at the heart of the dream.
Countryside
The feeling of space can be spiritually uplifting – you will be very aware of the changing seasons.In the context of self-sufficiency, living in the country equates with more space, which in turn equates with more choice.If you have a large garden – 0.2 hectare (half an acre) or more – you will be able to keep livestock – anything from chickens through to a cow.Living in the country will give you greater access to tools and materials – all the things that you need to set your self-sufficiency dreams in motion.Noise pollution is low, which is very important. You will be able to hear yourself think, the birds singing, your animals calling, the wind in the trees, and so on.Light pollution is low. You will be able to see the stars at night – perfect if communing with nature is important to you.Land costs, meaning those of agricultural land, are low. You can rent whole fields, spreads or woods.Rural activities are good fun and relatively low-cost, but more importantly many of them will relate to your go-green endeavours. For example, not only will the various county shows feature old tractors, crafts and eco-products, but perhaps more importantly they might offer you an outlet for your goods or produce.
