self sufficient veg plotter

Custard or icecream?

Dave...are you on a 'good for your heart' diet?? Just wondering you understand

We are about 10 months self sufficient, we are still eating spuds, just about peas, broad beans, runner beans, beetroot, fruit, shallots, leeks have been made into gallons of soup which have been frozen, swedes.
On the plot I Have PSB which is about to sprout and will feed us for around 6-8weeks.
But we still buy some veg otherwise it will be to boring, life is for living not being misserable.

Oh soon to be growing our own eggs 

We are about 10 months self sufficient, we are still eating spuds, just about peas, broad beans, runner beans, beetroot, fruit, shallots, leeks have been made into gallons of soup which have been frozen, swedes.
On the plot I Have PSB which is about to sprout and will feed us for around 6-8weeks.
But we still buy some veg otherwise it will be to boring, life is for living not being misserable.

Oh soon to be growing our own eggs 

Why is self sufficiency miserable...Is buying veg exciting?

We were self sufficient in veg for years (family of four  ) but did get a little tired of PSB, kale and end of parsnips and leeks about now. And hated salted beans with a vengeance 

Had to be careful to make sure onions were not rotten, and winter sqaushes always lasted well.

Once we had a freezer though, life picked up no end.

Never had enough space for wheat, had lambs though, eggs and chicken from a friend and the occasional bartered beef.

Mr Sunny worked full time and me part time (4 hrs a day)

Loved it 

We are 80% self sufficient, at a guess. We still have Butternut squash, potatoes, leeks, parsnips, Brussels, Jerusalem artichokes at present, and chard, pak choi, lettuce and chinese cabbage in the (cold greenhouse). Plus what is in the freezer (but we are a bit too lazy about that in the Summer to have enough).

We have stopped buying high air-miles vegetables, I just think it is wrong (apart from the fact that most don't travel well enough to taste good, and the horrific price).

But to achieve my harvest I use a high labour input system, starting almost everything off in pots. So I grow just a couple of cauliflowers every week or two - rather than a whole row, which would go to waste. I am also lucky to have a large plot, and a large greenhouse - and a large conservatory that I am allowed to use for plant rearing in the early part of the year.

I can't see the mass importing continuing ad infinitum, "peak oil" / increasing oil price will put paid to that (unless some other cheap-enough fuel emerges)

Not quite there but almost self-sufficient -  the only veg I have bought since about May last year when the first harvesting came are a handful of onions and a bag of spuds (just the other week - as I hadn't planted quite enough spuds and onions last year)

I will buy veg again if I need to of course, but I what I do not do is buy from the shops "fresh" veg out of season. Or veg that has been imported from far far away. But I am more than happy to live off the frozen veg I have prepared many months back from the allotment, or those in storage and dipping into a pantry shelf jam-packed with preserves from the produce.

But the main reason for growing veg is not the self-sufficiency issue (that is merely a bonus for me): it is the flavour first and foremost.  And it always will be. Followed by the cost savings. And the sheer enjoyment of it permeates all of those benefits of course.

more power to you