[Lottie Mary]

Hi All,

I'm reading "The Fat of the Land" by John Seymour and absolutely loving it!  I have many dreams of growing all my own veg - but I was wondering how many on the forum are either nearly or fully self suffcient in veg (or more)?

[Jamie Butterworth]

Unfortunatley not, hopefully someday

[Fisherman]

I manage April through to November but December through to March is difficult. I don't freeze any veg but if id did I would get close to full self sufficiency on the veg front. Unfortunately the OH doesn't like frozen veg, unlike me who will eat anything

[azubah]

I don't have to buy spuds from June-March-ish. When the spuds are getting old I roast and freeze them.
I haven't bought carrots, cabbage, tomatoes since June, lettuces for a couple of months, the sprouts are of an eatable size, but don't taste right as the weather is too warm. We will be eating them until Feb or March. Also the parsnips are ready, and will last the whole year as I freeze them for the summer months.
I still have to buy bananas, oranges, cakes, milk, meat etc so I could not call myself self sufficient, but I like to feel that I have a good try.

[solway cropper]

We are more or less self-sufficient in veg apart from maincrop potatoes which we don't have enough room for. The second earlies last till October but after that we get them from the farm down the road. A large chest freezer helps us cover the 'hungry gap' but fruit is the big problem. We do freeze some to use in pies and crumbles but only have fresh fruit for about 6 months of the year.

[nipper31]

Nowhere near, but it's always a great feeling to grow something and take it home to the dinner table instead of having to buy from the supermarket

[kevinp]

I am planning to be next year once the plot gets going, I should think that I have enough jams and chutneys now to last until next year by using hedgerow fruits and veg what I have been given from the plots ( mine is not producing yet) Next year I plan to bottle, dry pickle jam, preserve and freeze enough for the rest of the year and into the next, the only thing I will struggle on is apples and I do like the odd banana or two.

I am also looking into buying 1/2 pig, with the pheasants and rabbits that I can get from the local shooters I should be ok for meat as well.

We will see

[shokkyy]

I certainly never buy jam any more. I make plenty to last all year, and some to give away, from our blackberries, strawberries, apples and gages. I don't buy fruit for puddings either because I've always got gooseberries, apples, blackberries and gages in the freezer, ready to pop into a crumble or pie. And this year I've managed enough garlic and chilli to last us all year as well. We haven't bought potatoes for several months now, though we'll need to buy a sack for the winter. Not sure about the tomatoes until I've converted them into passata, sundried, pasta sauce, etc, but we've got enough of them for several months' cooking, obviously not for salads.

I think the other benefit I've had from growing my own fruit and veg is that it's changed the way I cook. You have to be more creative when you've got a glut of something. Our meals have gone from being focused around the meat to being focused around the veg, if you see what I mean.

[GrannieAnnie]

I don't grow as much veg as I used to since we got more chickens, but we are self sufficient in chicken and turkey all year.

The biggest question is......   What to have for Christmas dinner???   

[mumofstig]

Nut roast?   

[Snoop]

We are pretty well self-sufficient in veg. We buy potatoes when ours have run out and carrots, because I've given up growing them. The quantity I grow in tubs isn't worth the effort or the compost. We occasionally buy courgettes in winter, because I love them. Bought some salad toms last winter, but won't bother again. They're more like red golf balls than tomatoes, not worth eating.

That said, we might go short of greens this winter as I planted the sprouts out very late. And we eat a heck of a lot of overwintered peas and broad beans in late spring because there's not much else!

I should add that we don't have a freezer.

[GrannieAnnie]

Nut roast?   

Actually I was thinking of a bit of Dexter Mum!!!   

[mumofstig]

drool..................funny chicken was an Christmas treat when I was little..........now we (specially you! ) get fed up with it

[JayG]

I'm self-insufficient in things I haven't got enough space to grow enough of (like spuds) and self-oversufficient in some other things which I quite like but can't eat enough of or give away all at once (like runner beans, courgettes and raspberries.)

I freeze what I think is worth freezing, but that excludes several things, especially runner beans which I think are a very poor imitation of the fresh version! 

[Spana]

We are fairly close.
  I buy main crop potatoes, bread and enough Seville oranges to make marmalade to last a year and I have to buy onions this year
I store apples, cookers and eaters in an old apple rack.  I grow quite a lot of other  fruits which are stored in several different ways.  Carrots and beets in sand.   Bags of runners, swiss chard and mixed veg are frozen in 2 portion packs.  I make all our own jams, chutney and pickles. But i use lots of different storage methods depending on what it is .

We have our own beef, chickens and eggs, ducks and get given lots of wild game.
I sometimes swap beef for pork or lamb or a goose.
I bake all our cakes but have to buy butter and flour.  We have had are own milk in the past and its still possible but i'm getting to old for all that lark now.
I spend very little money on food, just hours of my time and sometimes i feel my life has been taken over but i'm not complaining