The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Womble on December 31, 2011, 06:28:09 pm
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OK, so this has been our first year of smallholding, and boy have we learned a load - mostly the hard way! However, amongst all the mouldy courgettes, bolted lettuce, and endless cockerels, we did manage to produce a load of our own food this year. So, let's celebrate our successes - I'll start!......
This year, we have been self sufficient in:
- Eggs
- Garlic
- Strawberries
- French Beans
- Turkey ;D
- and very nearly chicken
your turn now!............... :thumbsup:
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lamb
veggies (until Xmas) except for carrots as the Border Terrier liked to eat the home grown ones :-))
eggs until a couple of weeks ago
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milk, until about November - waiting for kidding now
eggs (of course)
beans, cabbage/kale, onions,
pears, just cos I refuse to buy them - didn't get many off our little tree, but they were delicious. Ditto apples
almost potatoes (well, not really - but they were so nice!)
chicken meat
pork - from the begining of December!
fodder beet, spinach beet, parsnips.
oh, and chicks! all our own-hatched stock, or a free gift of three hens and two cockerels who we've eaten!!
still had to suppliment:
cauliflower,
potatoes,
brussel sprouts,
carrots
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Eggs, poultry meat, lamb, pork (thanks to Andrew), runner beans , rocket, herbs, garlic, blueberries, bananas, kale and cabbage, carrots, parsnips (I think). We'll never be self sufficient in potatoes unless we turn most of the garden over to spuds. We can buy a 25kg sack of main crop locally for £5, so that's good enough ;D
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Rosemary,
How do you get self sufficient in bananas? I didn't think they would grow in the UK
Sally
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eggs, chicken, (rabbit and pheasent and squirrel) new pots (not maincrop), salads, carrots, parsnips,strawberries, runners, french beans, mangetout, leeks, onions, shallots and garlic, sweetcorn mmmmm,
but most of all i learnt how to rely on myself 8)
next year im growing my own tea, i bought an 'assam' camellia sinensis for my xmas pressy to me!!
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All hail Rosemary the Banana Baroness? ;D :thumbsup: :trophy:
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Meat, eggs and dairy, raspberries, currants and goseberries, polytunnel veg and broad beans. carrot (tops) got eaten by squatting hare, so miniature ones only and potatoes got eaten by slugs (but again we are buying 25kg bags for 6 pounds), I also buy horse carrots (that feed the goats and us)..., cabbages and parsnips failed again
Lots of Shetland and some Gotland fleece for spinning and dyeing.
Need to do more vegetable gardening next summer.... and not sit and admire/play and chat with my goats...
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Raspberries. Need to spend some more time getting the veggie beds more prolific. Been self-sufficient in goat's milk for the last two weeks since the gannet was weaned. Next year will be self sufficient in goat meat and milk and hopefully soft cheeswe and yoghurt.
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Just pork & firewood for me :-\ Eggs most of the year and Xmas turkey :thumbsup:
Polytunnel cover got ditched in favour of more pigs ::) :D but I've got the cash set aside, so 2012's going to be the year I finally get growing on a grand scale (hopefully that is, if I get a minute, in between everything else ;) :D)
Ask me again next year ;D Or better still, leave it 3 ! :o
Karen :wave:
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Woooooohooo 2011 Self sufficient in
wine,
chicken, eggs, turkey, duck, roadkill pheasant and rabbit,
leeks, spuds, onions, carrots, parsnips, beans, chives, garlic, kale and sprouting beans,
apples, plumbs, raspberries and pears
pork - choritzo, salami, bacon, sausage, black puddin,
lamb (hoggart)
Here's to hoping 2021 brings new adventures in cheese, milk, butter and yogurt.
Also that the walnut and sweet chestnut trees that I have planted make progress and grow strong.
Sending my best wishes and love to everyone for the new year. xxxxx :love:
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Self-sufficient in milk, butter, cream, soft cheese, curd cheese, cottage cheese, buttermilk... well, you get the picture! :love: :cow:
Hopefully self-sufficient in pork from hereon, just bought in one half-a-pig from a similar setup on a friend's farm this year. Really need to get practicing so I can cure my own bacon, my one attempt so far was not a success (but the gammon ham was superb.) :pig: :pig:
Eggs is a target; the divils will have to be penned, they find too many hidey places amongst the hay etc when they're allowed total free range. :chook: (Thanks for the top-up jaykay - yours are yummy! :yum:)
A neighbour's terrier has found a dead mink, so maybe I'll get Muscovy duck eggs and (drake) meat going again this year. :&>
Hopefully the wee moorits will gain condition and we'll like the meat, then we'll be s/s in hogget / mutton. :sheep: :sheep:
Not growing country here, we had a total crop failure of turnips and cabbages again. :-[ :'( So I'll keep buying the veg box.
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Soap! ;D
oh and potatoes
plums
wine
goats milk
eggs
runner beans
jam
chutney
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Mud.
Moles.
Crows.
Magpies.
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Pork, Ham, Sausages
Eggs - up until that dratted fox decimated all our girls >:(
Potatoes
Tomato chutney (!)
Chilis
Pickled onions
Oh and mud, rain, rocks......
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Milk, some cheese
All veg
Eggs
Lamb
Turkey,s chooks, geese and duck
Beef as a barter for grazing
Fuel , we dig three peat banks and collect wood . This gives us heat, water and cooking power.
Preserves
Fish
Hay and of course fertiliser!
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Cider ( just 15 litres left)
Onions,shallots,garlic,leeks
Salad,peppers,toms ( Cues were pants)
Sprouts,spinnach,cabbage,cauliflowers
Early and main crops spuds still in cellar
Butternut Squash by the barrow loads - pigs still get one a day!!!!
Swede,parsnips,turnips ( pigs get the turnips as I can'yt stand em)
Duck ( 1 male muscovey gives us 3 meals).
Rasperries ( soddin freezer full)
Kiwi, Apples,Cherries,pears and apples and apples and apples
plums ditto apples
Eggs and Coqs for pot
Jam jars!!! They cost a fortune but we filled all we had with chutney,pickles and jams and did not buy any.
Should start on the pork in March and we are itching to cure and smoke what we can ( like others above).
Firewood - I used a hand saw and axe to cut vertical dead wood then dragged it home- fatigue got me in mid August but I still have my own wood for about another week.
Exhausted thinkung about summer fruit and veg but like everyone else we are enjoying gathering winter veg and the relative rest.
I bet nobody opts to take things off their list for 2012 !!
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Forgot the manure. More than self sufficient in manure. ;D
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Gosh; you lot make me feel very inadequate - I've just about been self sufficient in:-
eggs ('til they went off-lay last month),
heating,
and about 80% of my electricity - so not yet self sufficient.
m
Oh, and an abundance of horse poo
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Just wish we could supply all our own water ( grey waste water goes into the garden and we have a septic tank)! Although it seems to have rained for 2 weeks non stop the summer was a challenge.
Most mornings from early April I would use 2 buckets to collect water from our stream - I planted the squash and courgettes nearby but the rest of the garden was some walk from the stream. It dried up in July !!
I am reluctant to pay for metered water and have large tanks for roof run off.
Apparently we have a well below an ancient hot water tank in a cellar ( some walk from the house). Unfortunately I bought the wrong pump as it needs to be primed with water. When I work out how to prime (fill with water) a 20 feet vertical tube dipped into a well I will let you all know !!
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OK, so this has been our first year of smallholding, and boy have we learned a load - mostly the hard way! However, amongst all the mouldy courgettes, bolted lettuce, and endless cockerels, we did manage to produce a load of our own food this year. So, let's celebrate our successes - I'll start!......
This year, we have been self sufficient in:
- Eggs
- Garlic
- French Beans
- Turkey ;D
- and very nearly chicken
your turn now!............... :thumbsup:
Cut old pallets up to give you a small platform and grow your cucumbers , melons & marrows on these to keep them off the ground and aired, add a bit of clean straw for packing if you feel like it.
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So jealous of your fruit supplies folks, Shetland Spring winds dont allow blossom! I do have a meagre supply of blackcurrants, raspberries, rosehips and gooseberries but only if conditions allow.
We also have a well ,apparently a barter the last occupier made was that if the waterboard built the pumphouse they wanted on the land they had to build a solid track, cattlegrid and block out his spring into a well. It is still there but a bit crumbled in places. We bought the pumphouse off them for £50.00 when it was redundant so we got a good deal in the end from them when all done.
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was that including the pump hermit :farmer:
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Rosemary,
How do you get self sufficient in bananas? I didn't think they would grow in the UK
Sally
It was just a joke ;D
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Rosemary,
How do you get self sufficient in bananas? I didn't think they would grow in the UK
Sally
It was just a joke ;D
Owwwwwwwww!! I was really hoping that you did and that you could tell me how to - we love bananas!!! Naughty Rosemary LOL!!! ;D
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theyve successfully grown bananas at the eden project, i believe. and pineapples at heligan, the manure pits are quite amazing considering its 100yr old technology.
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oh, do I feel inadequate now ....but I have an excuse for the last year, a desk job ::)
so only eggs, lettuce, rocket, kale, currants (black and red),, brambles due to untidy garden, sloes for X-mas 2012, potatoes, chicken and duck manure, some electricity.... :&>
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Hi Robert, no it did not include the pump but the turkeys had a good leccy supply and a telephone point!
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I bet you could grow bananas if you installed a rocket mass heater in your polytunnel. Anyone interested in super efficient heating might be interested in this. Ohhh what about growing Theobroma cacao ( chocolate ) mmmmmm.
12 rocket stove mass heaters - efficient wood heat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfKHVoCY2so#)
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Milk, butter, cottage cheese, yogurt, ice cream, cream.
Pork, sausages, ham, chicken, duck, pheasant, mutton, lamb.
Raspberries, gooseberries, black currants, loganberries, rhubarb
All veg bar onions
Hay and silage
Muck
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Lamb, bunny,eggs,beans,onions,spuds, butternut squash,courgettes,leeks,apples,nuts,jams,quail, duck,chutneys, fodder beet(enough for the bunnys...(I buy in sugar beet pellets for the horse he doesnt like the real stuff anyway!)
Theres only the two of us so its not that hard...
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Well done all. :thumbsup: It is actually a really good exercise to list what you have achieved, makes you realise how much you have achieved. Certainly worth all the hard work. Hope to add honey, chicken, bacon, ham and strawberries to next years.
This years achievements
Pork, sausages, Lamb
Eggs
Apples Pears Plums cherries
Lettuce Tomato Cucumber
Potatoes Leeks Beetroot spring onions
Cabbage Runner beans broad beans
Black currrants Redcurrants raspberries blue berries gooseberries
Brocolli Onions rhubarb courgette
Garlic chilli peppers
Compost
water for animals firewood
:thumbsup:
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Raspberries,
Shallots,
Garlic,
Squash,
Leeks,
Carrots,
Parsnips,
Tomatoes,
Walnuts,
Kale,
Cabbage
Herbs
It's a difficult balance to grow enough to sell and still have enough for us, the customers usually get the best stuff! ::) Here's to the new year with more stuff for us and hopefully some :pig: :pig:!
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It's a difficult balance to grow enough to sell and still have enough for us, the customers usually get the best stuff! ::) Here's to the new year with more stuff for us and hopefully some :pig: :pig:!
I hope you get the pigs ! Let them have some walnuts when you have visitors - the noise is great! Good for your weight loss too as I think they are pretty calorific. I'm trying to gain weight after loosing too much over the busy spring/summer and autumn.
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It's a difficult balance to grow enough to sell and still have enough for us, the customers usually get the best stuff! ::) Here's to the new year with more stuff for us and hopefully some :pig: :pig:!
I hope you get the pigs ! Let them have some walnuts when you have visitors - the noise is great! Good for your weight loss too as I think they are pretty calorific. I'm trying to gain weight after loosing too much over the busy spring/summer and autumn.
You are welcome to some of mine. ;D
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..cobwebs, rats, pig poo, rain, mud, rabbits, pheasants, pork, sausages & bacon, raspberries, tomatoes, courgettes, lettuce, herbs, spinach, beetroot, apples, pears and plums. Potaotoes but not for all year.
Hopefully next year we will have more veg back & north yorks weather permitting and i have invested in some strawberry plants and if they survivie the winter will be getting them put in a high security area away from the pigs (escapees always make for the rasps and decimate them!!)
Mandy :pig: