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The Self Sufficient Vegetable Garden

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This year in the huerto where all our organic vegetable growing, is going on,  we’re self sufficient in… Chillies! Okay, so this is not the most useful thing to be self sufficient in.  But, they are packed with vitamin C, so we’re feeling pretty healthy.  And, it got me to thinking…  I thought about how the vegetable plot is very different every year.  We’re learning all the time and trying out new things.  But, with the best will in the world, a lot of our successes and failures in the vegetable growing department, are left down to the weather. Weather […]

Compost Toilet Month

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Mr DirtyBoots is still AWOL at the moment.  He will be back  soon with lots of ideas to earn a living without ‘Working for the Man’.  In the meantime I’m butching up to bring you a serious on the humble (and not so humble compost toilet). We have a fairly basic model constructed by himself years ago.  Initially our sawdust toilet was created through necessity rather than choice.  We had no running water so it seemed the sensible option for dealing with the DirtyBoots poo.  Now though, we are complete converts to the waterless toilet.  It is great not to […]

What to do With a Tree-full of Cherries?

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I have shared the delights of Cherry Clafoutis and passed on a Cherry Jam Recipe.  I am planning on making some Cherry Vodka/Schnapps (always  a wonderful treat) and bottling some cherries.  None of this will make a significant dent in the volume of ripe cherries burdening one particularly good old cherry tree at the bottom of our land. Last year storms ruined the cherry harvest, all the fruits split and rotted on the trees which was very distressing.  I do not want to waste this years bounty.  Cherries are big business in these parts, our village is famous for them […]

Spare Cabbage? Make Sauerkraut

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I have long had a love affair with Sauerkraut but always thought you needed to live in Eastern Europe and have a tonne of cabbage to make it yourself.   I was wrong.  It is simple to make sauerkraut at home with very basic implements.  Best of all homemade sauerkraut is full of goodness most bought products have lost.  And, if the spare cabbage you have is not the white hearting cabbage usually recommended for krauting worry ye not! What is Sauerkraut? First of all, sauerkraut is not pickled cabbage.  Sauerkraut is a fermented food.  The vegetables are tightly packed into […]

Self Sufficient Skin with Homemade Soap

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Homemade Cold Pressed Vegetable Oil Soap Homemade soap needs fat or oil.  You can use animal fat or vegetable oil.  In our case the vegetable oil is, as always olive oil, as that is the one oil we are self sufficient in.  So far we have only made 100% olive oil homemade soap  (Castille soap) but other oils could be added.  Coconut oil would be a particularly good oil to include in your homemade soap.  In moderation it would improve the lathering qualities of this homemade olive oil  soap. If you are new to soap-making I highly recommend trying the […]

Foraging for Free Food

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Wherever you live try to get to know the free food you can forage locally.  In the modern world we tend to forget that food occurs naturally pretty much everywhere.  Nature supplies lots of edible goodies if you only get out their and look for them. Perhaps the best place to start is to track down a book on plants native to wherever you live.  Or even better a book on local wild foods. Then get talking to people.  Vegetable Gardeners are often great scavengers too, and the older they are the more they may know what your locality has […]

Homemade Lye From Wood Ash

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What is Lye? Lye is a key ingredient in soap making.  It is a strong alkali or base substance which reacts with fat to form soap.  You can buy lye in the form of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) or you can make your own homemade lye in the form of caustic potash (potassium hydroxide). Firstly lets get the health and safety stuff out of the way.  All lye is extremely corrosive.  Keep your skin covered, wear goggles to avoid splashes to eyes and definitely keep all lye out of the reach of children and pets.  It can be fatal if […]