How self sufficient are you ?

[Deleted member 26715]

@Phaeton
@Chromatic
Been back in touch with ex DiL......she told me that they moved at the end of last year. They now live "near the ocean" in Washington.
Shows how much I know about America

FYI @Dave7 that will be Washington state, not Washington DC which is also landlocked

 

[vickster]

FYI @Dave7 that will be Washington state, not Washington DC which is also landlocked

But not as far from the sea as Montana (the use near in the US is rather different distance wise than here)

 

[Dave7]

FYI @Dave7 that will be Washington state, not Washington DC which is also landlocked

Yes, I googled that and assumed it must be State.

 

[Ripple]

I would love to forage for mushrooms but I read a detailed account of the stages of dying from eating Death Caps.

When I was a child my family used to go for mushroom foraging every autumn. Neverending supply. One year we found so many mushrooms that we fully filled car's boot, 5 big buckets and we even made "bags" from our jackets and filled them too. And that was in the forest which was widely used by other people and we still left loads of mushrooms for the others. It was simply impossible to pick all mushrooms that used to grow in that forest.

We have never had poisoning because we only used to pick mushrooms that my grandma knew which was 3 or 4 species out of hundreds that are edible and grow in my country. And we marinated them so one trip to the forest normally provided us with at least 1 year supply. Surplus used to go to my uncle's family (they lived in a town), neighbours (they provided us with honey) etc.

Good times it were ...

 

[Dave7]

A friend of mine decided to try foraging for mushrooms. Before he did he read several books on the subject so he was confident.

I must say, it was a nice funeral

 

[Ripple]

We had a small pocket book with most common mushrooms growing in my country. Edible and poisonous. I often read it and it amazed me how many species of mushrooms grow in Lithuania.

There used to be and is few deaths every year but only because people forage poisonous mushrooms that look like edible ones. E.g. some species of amanita muscaria* look like russulas* so unless you are a pro you won't tell the difference. We had never picked them so we were ok.

* I had to google English names for these mushrooms so apologies if I made a mistake.

 

[PaulSB]

Same in thi household but every Saturday, only downside is that Tesco want to take out £200-£230 from my bank account a week for the privilege!

I think it's been a big shop if we spend £50 in Aldi!!!

Only two of us mind.

 

[welsh dragon]

We could be. We have the land to do it. However it's a lot easier to just go to morrisons

 

[presta]

Not very, I need a packet of Flecainide & Diltiazem every month.

Tesco want to take out £200-£230 from my bank account a week

How many of you are there, that's 10 times what I spend for just myself.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Not self-sufficient at all. We are totally dependent on the capitalist food production system - and long may it continue.

Nor are the pair of us interested in growing stuff. All that digging, sowing and fretting about bugs spoiling the crops is hardly the epitome of excitement.

 

[mistyoptic]

Not self-sufficient at all. We are totally dependent on the capitalist food production system - and long may it continue.

Nor are the pair of us interested in growing stuff. All that digging, sowing and fretting about bugs spoiling the crops is hardly the epitome of excitement.

Mrs Optic would disagree with your last sentence. I have to admit that home grown veg is lovely but it does seem to occupy a lot of her time

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Not self sufficient, but working on it, for some food stuff at least.
Last summer I didn't have to buy any green veg or salad stuff (apart from tomatoes) for a good 3 months.
I had some spare for friends too.
A warmer climate would help immensely
As this chap often says, you don't have to be self sufficient in everything, just in some things.
I watch him just for the entertainment value: he's growing veg in Australia, most of his tips are not applicable to my zone
If you like gardening and growing veg, and live in Scotland, I recommend not to watch gardening channels from hot countries, doesn't do any good to one's morale

 

[oldwheels]

Not self sufficient, but working on it, for some food stuff at least.
Last summer I didn't have to buy any green veg or salad stuff (apart from tomatoes) for a good 3 months.
I had some spare for friends too.
A warmer climate would help immensely
As this chap often says, you don't have to be self sufficient in everything, just in some things.
I watch him just for the entertainment value: he's growing veg in Australia, most of his tips are not applicable to my zone
If you like gardening and growing veg, and live in Scotland, I recommend not to watch gardening channels from hot countries, doesn't do any good to one's morale

My father’s advice was to add a month to any dates given on seed packets or in gardening books as they were all written from a southern English viewpoint. We were mostly central Scotland and it worked out well.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

My father’s advice was to add a month to any dates given on seed packets or in gardening books as they were all written from a southern English viewpoint. We were mostly central Scotland and it worked out well.

Does not work with tomatoes though: those I find we must plant earlier, under cover of course, to give the tomatoes a chance to ripen before our days get shorter (from August onwards here).
The amount of green tomatoes in gardens and allotments I see at the end of August in my area is plentiful

 

[biggs682]

We try , most years we have a good crop from the 2 blueberry bushes and our one small apple tree.

The rhubarb is enough for a bi weekly crumble if I am lucky.

Then we always have 10 sticks with runner beans growing up them and this year purple sprouting broccoli.

Not enough to rely on but it's all home grown and fresh .