Yes, as you can tell I have gone a little preserve crazy. But hey if there is spare food around we should do something with it. Here’s how to make piccalilli. As ever there are no fancy skills or equipment required and the end result is vibrant and tasty so go on have a go yourself! As with most pickles and chutneys this one adores strong cheese but personally I think its fab with jacket potatoes and cottage cheese. Easy Peasy Piccalilli Recipe A traditional pickle from the days of the British rule in India this is exotic looking but […]
How To Save On Electricity
Living totally off grid we are very conservative with our energy usage. This was not always the case though. When we lived in the UK with all the modern conveniences that town living brings, we never really thought about the electricity we were using in the home. Now it is a completely different matter. When the Sun shines we get electricity which is stored in a bank of batteries, but no sun equals no power to store. We have a generator as a backup but we would rather be ultra conservative in our energy usage and keep the use of […]
Beetroot And Orange Chutney Recipe
Simple Pink Beetroot And Orange Chutney A great way to preserve the beetroot glut and a bit more interesting than just pickling the roots in vinegar which can get a bit repetitive. This is great with bread and cheese or to liven up a salad with some feta too. The salty cheese is balanced brilliantly by the sweet chutney. Ingredients for Beetroot And Orange Chutney Recipe 350g raw beetroot, scrubbed and cut into 1cm dice 350g eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm dice 300ml red wine vinegar 200g sugar 225g onion finely chopped 1 garlic clove crushed finely […]
Spicy Eggplant / Aubergine Pickle
Simple Spicy Indian Eggplant Pickle This is a great way to deal with a glut of Aubergines (Eggplant) in the summer. Scale the recipe up or down depending on how much of a glut you’ve got! We love this as a chutney side served with curry and poppadoms but is also good (perhaps surprisingly) with cheese sandwiches too. Ingredients for Aubergine Pickle 2kg aubergine / eggplant cut into 2cm dice 125g green chillies chopped 2 garlic cloves crushed 600ml white wine or cider vinegar 2 tbsp chilli powder 2 tsp ground turmeric 310ml sesame oil 1 tbsp cumin seeds 1tbsp […]
We Cannot Waste Food and be Self Sufficient.
One of the underlying principles when aiming for a self sufficient life is not to waste resources. One of our most important resources is food, so please do NOT waste any, ever, at all! That’s the shouty bit over for now… I know there are always exceptions, but, as a general principle, we should all be aiming to ensure we waste no food. I won’t bore you with the figures – we all know a massive volume of food goes to landfill which is completely unforgivable. However you get your food; hunt it, buy it, grow it, find it, please […]
Build Chicken Houses Plans How To Build A Chicken Coop Or House
Part of a more Self Sufficient lifestyle is all about getting certain things done for as little expense as possible. We spend money on certain things, such as Solar Panels and other construction stuff but if we can get something done for next to nothing then you can bet we will take that option. Now, i’m not saying this is for everyone. Not all of us have the time or the skills to build Chicken Houses from scratch. Indeed there are some great ready made Chicken Coops on the market. If you fancy keeping Chickens though, and they should definitely […]
Orange Egg Yolk-Tastic
Part of any Self Sufficient lifestyle, if at all possible, should be the keeping of Chickens. They are cheap to keep and you have the advantage of having the freshest, most fantastic tasting eggs imaginable. Many of us feed our Chickens on a mixed feed that is readily available and fairly cheap, but with added greens their yolks turn an amazing deep Orange. We have three Dogs and it is just not practical to let our Chickens roam free. Our Dogs would be pestering them, or a stray would most certainly be picking up a free snack at our expense. […]