Self-sufficiency

What do we mean by self-sufficiency?

Food

Self-sufficiency is not just about growing food, although that is an important element, financially, but also in terms of health. Being able to control the way our food is produced means knowing that it’s grown without chemicals which could harm us and the environment and without harming the creatures that keep the soil healthy with whom we share our space. In other words, working in balance with the natural world. The food we grow tastes good and we can eat more of it than we could afford to buy.

Grow-your-own fuel

Self-sufficiency is also about doing things for yourself, using your own resources where possible. For us that means growing and harvesting as much of our own firewood as we can for heating and cooking. (We can’t provide all the wood we need but everything we do produce cuts down what we need to buy in.) We also grow bamboo which gives us home-grown bamboo canes.

Re-use & recycling

Self-sufficiency is also about re-use and recycling. Being creative about problem solving before resorting to buying something new.

Pictured here is our cold frame made from timber left over from having the house extended in 1994! The lids are made with polycarbonate rescued from the old lean-to conservatory and the whole thing rests on pallets covered in plastic from the old polytunnel cover and supported on car tyres donated by a local garage.

Renewable Energy

We’ve also harnessed the natural resource of the sun to heat our water and power our home so we have solar thermal panels for water heating which are surprisingly efficient even in the winter. We also have solar PV to provide electricity and more recently have added battery storage with “whole home back-up” which means that, in the event of a power cut (of which we have many) we still have power and if it’s during the day both the thermal and PV panels continue to charge. The battery has proved to be an extremely worthwhile investment and means that between early March and - probably - late October we use no power at all from the grid. Obviously there is quite a sizable capital cost to retro-fitting renewable technology but it is an investment in the future and each step helps us to be more self-reliant.

Total self-sufficiency isn’t the only way

These are some of the things we do. We don’t pretend to have achieved total self-sufficiency and we aren’t really trying to. But everything we manage to do reduces our impact on the planet a little and gives us a measure of independence and a great sense of achievement.