Self-Sufficiency Made Simple

When I first heard the word permaculture & heard that there were 12 principles it conjured up all sorts of complicated concepts that my new gardening brain just couldn’t fathom.  I was flat out working out how to keep a few pots of herb alive let alone applying 12 principles to my gardening. I mean, come on!! Who has time for that? What I came to understand is that we all do. Permaculture is something we can all use to help guide our food growing journey and so much more.  I want to demystify permaculture for the newbie gardener a little but. Take out some of the unfamiliar language that can some times cause us to think what the fuck does that even mean.  Let's start from the beginning.. Back in the 70’s when I was born 2 coworkers and friends Bill Mollinson and David Holgren from Tasmania Australia developed a sustainable agriculture system. It was a system that took it’s concepts and methods from the natural environment and the word Permaculture is a combination of the words Permanent Agriculture.  The system is designed to have closed energy cycles. What that means in simple terms is that the gardens or farms don't need a bunch of external energies like chemical fertilizers, irrigation and human work like plowing fields for it to produce a great harvest.  The waste from one would feed the other like cutting and dropping the unused portions of the plants so that it becomes mulch that helps retain moisture and breaks down adding nutrients back into the earth. Just like trees do with leaves and bark.  It means growing different types of plants together or in a sequence so they help each other out with nutrient needs and help to keep moisture held in the soil.  It also means carefully observing nature so that our gardens and farms mimic the local ecology. Designing also takes into account the ease of use. No point having something that is great in theory but is too hard to implement and use.  Full show notes at www.sohfarmlet.com.au/podcast

Here in the Hunter Valley winter is definitely on it’s way. Our nights are getting down to under 10 deg c and even though the days are stunning, there is a definite chill. This means that many of our warmer loving plants have packed it up for the season.  The cucumber vine died back almost overnight even though we hadn’t had a frost. The cherry and cherry roma tomatoes plants are covered in green tomatoes but they are starting to get attacked by bugs and the basil is all but done.  On the plus side our eggplants and zucchinis are still going strong and of all things, the pumpkins have decided to give a last hoorah putting on some last minute growth and baby pumpkins too. I will let them do their thing until we have a frost due then I will pick them like a woman possessed the day before. This is totally reliant of course, on me getting my timing right. But that is part of the fun of gardening.  We had about 5 kgs of cucumbers and about 1 kilo of small green tomatoes that needed to be picked.  I love cucumbers but if I ate 7kg of fresh cucumbers I think I would end up looking like one so I needed to do something with them to make them last longer.  Hmm I wonder what I could do.  Pickles of course! And as much as I love cucumbers I love pickles even more. I found a recipe years ago for a quick easy cucumber pickle that you store in the fridge. This means no fancy canning equipment needed just some basic ingredients, a pot and some sterilized jars.  This is the best recipe I have used to make sweet pickle cucumber and it’s quite forgiving. My cucumbers this year were from last year's saved seeds that I let cross pollinate. The result was a super yummy cucumber but with lots of seeds. Not ideal for making pickles but they still turned out great.  I will put the full recipe and instructions below, but as an overview this is what I did. Boil jars and lids for about 15-20 mins to sterilize. Only use either pickling jars or thick glass jars. Thinner jars don’t handle being boiled and will crack.  The die hard preservers may argue that you can’t use old jars you’ve saved but using this method I haven’t lost one yet. Make sure you also put the jars and water in together at room temperature and bring to the boil together or you will definitely crack your jars. You also want to keep the jar off the bottom of the pot if you can. In a pinch you can put in some all stainless steel cutlery to act as a trivet.  I boil up all the ingredients which is white vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seeds, celery seeds or whatever pickling seed I have… I have even used coriander seeds for a different flavour. Turmeric and fresh dill.  Fresh dill is a non-negotiable in my opinion. The upside is that when your cucumbers are coming to their end your dill will be exploding. I have plants popping up everywhere.  You can also add in chilli with your cucumber slices if you like.  I put all the ingredients except for the cucumbers and dill in a pot and bring to the boil.  I take out my boiling jars and put my sliced cucumbers and dill fronds in, layering as I go. I put them in pretty tight without squishing them too much and pour in the hot liquid. Your jars should still be quite hot so the hot liquid won’t shouldn’t crack them.  Fill all the way to the top to cover cucumbers and pop the lid on. Refrigerate as soon as it’s cool to the touch. They are ready within a few hours and will last a few weeks in your fridge.  This is the easy and fast way. If you want to preserve them for longer then you will have to go through a full canning process process like a water bath or pressure canning process.  This process isn’t that much harder but you do need some knowledge and equipment to do it right.  Water bath canning is what I did for my green tomato relish aka piccalilli. Relish or chutneys are a great way of using up just about anything sort of non leafy vegetable.  On a side note. What’s the difference between relish and chutney? A relish has a hero vegetable that is quite crisp and fresh and a chutney has a combination of vegetables and often fruit and is also saucier and thicker with deeper flavours.   Back to the green tomato relish. The recipe and instructions are below, but what I wanted to highlight the water bathing method I used.  By water bathing your relish, what you're doing is ‘cooking’ the bacteria out of the relish while also sealing the jar to stop bacteria from entering. This allows the relish to become shelf stable meaning you can store it in the cupboard for up to a year. This method is great if you have lots to make and store or if you don’t have much refrigeration room.  To do this you need to have a big stock pot that is big enough to cover your jars by at least 3 cm, you will also need a rack or trivet to keep the jars off the bottom of the pot and you don’t want your jars touching each other. You will need a way or removing the jars out of the water once processed and you will of course need jars with lids.  There are purpose designed canning jars that have a 2 part lid. These are ideal as they have a much higher success rate of sealing and you can easily test if they have been successfully sealed by removing the outer ring and testing that the sealed piece stays in place.  However, you can use a single lid method as long as it has a good seal and button in the middle.  If you are a first timer then I would recommend getting yourself a canning kit. I don’t want to endorse any particular brand but Ball is one of the biggest, most cost effective and most available. In Australia you can buy it online or at BigW. The kit will give you the pot, the rack, jar lifter and air bubble remover tool with a measure. It won’t include jars or the preserving book, these are sold separately. And really, you don’t need the book, there are 1000’s of recipes for free online.  Once you have your kit you are set. There are special ingredients or additives you need. And no special skills, if you can follow instructions, you can preserve food.  My green tomato relish recipe was a combination of about 3 recipes I have. This was purely because of the ingredients I had available to me on the day.  This year I had 1 kg of green tomatoes, a quarter of an old red cabbage that needed to get used up, 1 sad looking ripe tomato that I chopped out the bits the grubs ate. 1 large capsicum, 2 onions, several small garlic cloves, the end of what I had from last season's garlic harvest and pickling seed mix. I think the seeds were dill, celery and mustard. I put all of this into my Thermomix and blitz it until it was fine bits but note a paste. You can do the same by chopping it up into little pieces.  I then put in the mix into a sieve and added a little sprinkle of salt and let this sit for about an hour while the liquid drained out. I then put it in a cotton tea towel and pressed the remaining excess liquid out. I kept the liquid in case I needed to add some back in during cooking.  I then put in 1 cup of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of white sugar and ¼ teaspoon of turmeric powder in a pot and boiled. Add the drained vegetables and enough liquid to make it juicy but not swimming. Simmered for about 5 mins then put into sterilized jars.  I put the jars in the canning pot or large stock pot and processed them in a rolling boil for 15 mins then turned off the heat and removed the lid. I left them for another 10 mins before removing them and placing them on a towel on the bench. Left them to cool overnight and then tested the seals. Labeled and dated them. The leftover juice went into the freezer ready to be added into a future minestrone soup. No wasting anything.  The first time I tried this I didn’t have all the equipment and I just made do. It worked great but it was a bit more fiddly. I like to upcycle everything I can but sometimes you just need to invest in purpose made equipment, especially when it means you can better ensure your food health.  No one wants botulism on the menu so be sure to educate yourself well about how to preserve food at home safely.  My ultimate goal is to grow and preserve enough food for our whole family to live on for a year. This will help us to keep eating organically, reduce our food carbon footprint and show others that with a little effort and planning they too can enjoy their food harvest all year long.    Quick Sweet Pickles  Makes just just under 4 cups of liquid   Ingredients   3 & 1/2 cups white vinegar  1 & 3/4 cups sugar  3 teaspoons cooking salt  1 teaspoon mustard seed  1 teaspoon celery seed  1 large bunch of fresh dill (enough to fill about 2 cups loosely packed) 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric  Sliced cucumbers (or any other vegetable of your choice) Chillies (optional)   Directions In a medium saucepan, combine white vinegar, sugar, salt, seeds, chillies if using, and ground turmeric.  Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve salt & sugar.  Layer sliced cucumbers and dill fronds in one large or a few medium sterilized and still hot jars.  Pour or ladle in hot brine to completely cover the cucumbers and seal jar. Leave to cool on the bench until only warm to the touch then refrigerate until consumed.  Lasts up to 2 weeks but I have eaten them for a month without issue.    Green Tomato Relish or Piccalilli Ingredients   Brine 1 cup white vinegar 1 tablespoon salt 2 tablespoons white sugar ¼ teaspoon of turmeric powder   Vegetables 1 kg of green tomatoes 1 quarter red cabbage 1 large capsicum 2 large onions 3 cloves garlic  2 teaspoons of mixed pickling seeds of your choice I use dill, celery and mustard.   Directions Put vegetables into a food processor, Thermomix or chop into small pieces.  Put the mix into a sieve and add a little sprinkle of salt and let this sit for about an hour while the liquid drains out.  Then put it in a cotton tea towel or cheesecloth and press the remaining excess liquid out. Keep the liquid to add some back in during cooking as needed. Put brine ingredients into a pot and simmer u

Gardeners have been saving seeds for thousands of years. First for food security, then to preserve the best varieties and more recently to ensure biodiversity.  Seed saving is something that was a given for our great grandparents but is a practice that has petered out over the last few generations. Why?  Because of the advent of commercialisation of the gardening industry. We can pop down to the shops and buy seeds for almost anything a home gardener may want to grow. You can even buy seeds in a well-known discount and seconds store here in Australia so the need for saving your own seeds has nearly disappeared.  I say nearly because last year for the first time in my and my parents' lifetime a pandemic that saw all seedlings and seeds fly off the shelves in a flurry of panic buying along with the much-coveted loo paper.   Full show notes at www.sohfarmlet.com.au/podcast

I am excited This week I had my very first podcast interviewee on the Podcast, and it was AWESOME. Rachelle Winter from Two Muddy Boots blog joined me and we had an amazing conversation. We went down some cool rabbit holes together, talked about the fun stuff, talked about the hard stuff and touched on some home truths.  We talked about Connecting with nature Growing food Imperfect gardens  Soil health and compost ‍Farming practices Passion for saving the world & more! I had been 'stalking' Rachelle for some time on Instagram and her blog, taking inspiration, learning and loving what she stands for.  When I reached out and asked her if she would be interested in being on the podcast her response was 'Sure, but I don't know what I really have to share'. Talk about make me giggle because this lady is on a mission to change the world, one person at a time. And, HAS SO MUCH TO SHARE. I know because we could've talked for hours and not even scraped the sides.  So grab a cuppa or a wine, if it's that time, settle in for about an hour and enjoy a conversation that I know you will love. More information Connect with Rachelle and her Two Muddy Boots  Blog - www.twomuddyboots.com Instagram - @twomuddybootz Facebook - 2muddyboots Full show notes at www.sohfarmlet.com.au/podcast Blogs – www.sohfarmlet.com.au/blog Download Free – Chicken Keepers ‘Chicklist’ For Beginners Download Free Guide Getting Started With Composting Newsletter sign up  This Episode Sponsored by This episode is sponsored by my soon to be released Self-Sufficiency Made Simple Composting Masterclass. This masterclass will help you go from wasting food and money to creating your own gold star garden soil system without mess, cost or hard work. The masterclass will show you how to choose, create and get started with your own simple system, all in your backyard. Register your interest via email [email protected]   Reach me Instagram http://www.instagram.com/sohfarmlet/ Facebook http://www.facebook.com/sohfarmlet [email protected]   Subscribe Have you hit the subscribe button yet? If not click subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Review I would be eternally grateful if you could give me a review as this will push the podcast out to more people, and it would make my heart sing, I’d love to hear what you have to say and what’s your favourite bit (and I will be giving a few shout outs each week). For apple listeners, you can review HERE. For other players follow the review link (if available) and leave a review on FaceBook or Instagram.     Share I would also love it if you could share this podcast with anyone you feel would enjoy conversations about growing food, keeping chickens, bees, rescue animals, making homemade products and all things self-sufficiency related. I am so pleased and feel very privileged that you chose to join me this week. Thank you!   Let’s do it again next Wednesday. xx

This episode is going to be a little bit 'Woo'. I am all about the Woo and anyone who knows me understands that I make decisions and take actions based on my intuition. If you are thinking what the hell is Woo and what the F does it have to do with growing your own food and being self-sufficient let me share. I know for many gardeners that their garden is their sanctuary, their happy place. It is the space they go to when they feel out of kilter or when they need to not people any more.  Woo, as I see it is just energy. The energy we have in our bodies, the energy we feel when we see someone we love or the opposite, that feeling when you know there is tension between people. It’s also the energy of your garden, the feeling you feel when you step into your garden and all the stress and tension just takes a backseat.  This energy comes from the vibration that everything on this earth has. The tree in your yard, the device you are reading or listening to this on, the chair under your bum or the floor under your feet. Now to go one step deeper, these vibrations have different frequencies.  Like the song good vibrations, we can pick up on good vibrations. That means we can also feel those heavy dark vibrations and lots of variations in between.  Take a moment to feel what vibe you might be in right now? Are you feeling loved and warm all over and are giving off vibes that say to those around you ‘hey, I am an open person who loves life’ or are you currently feeling annoyed or meh and giving off vibes that say to the world ‘stay away’? Think about how you feel in these situations and what energetic message you are sending out into the world… When you receive an acknowledgement from someone When things aren’t going right When your dog comes over to you for a pat When watching the news When your friend or partner gives you a hug When you're tired And when you are in your garden.  Being in your garden or any place in nature can help to increase your happiness and help you feel more at peace than you may think.  There have been various studies done that show being in nature for even a short amount of time can improve your mood and overall feeling of well-being. It’s a positive vibe, something that gardeners have known for forever.  Why do you think we all get out there as much as we can? Good vibes. Even this week in the crazy rain I got out there in my gumboots and raincoat and planted seeds, harvested veggies and talked to my plants.  Yes, I talk to my plants, more on that in a minute.  You see, for me being outside in my garden, with my animals and connecting with nature on any level is a must. My body and soul feel like they wither away like that bit of ginger in the back of your fridge crisper draw that has been there for months. I feel drained of all goodness.  Being in my garden, even the overgrown totally overtaken by weeds section fills my energy levels back up again. I observe the bugs, I talk to the frogs, listen to the birds, I even ask the red-bellied black snake we named Cecil if he is feeling good today, even if I can’t see him or her. This morning in the rain I just watched the droplets running down along the branches of the big gum tree in my garden. I noticed how they all formed perfect individual droplets but how they are all part of all the water on the planet. This made me smile. It helped me feel connected to something bigger than me and it allowed me to focus on all the possibilities, opportunities and positive things that exist in my world and the world as a whole.  So why is this relevant to actually growing food? Well, when we feel connected and inspired we take action. We don the boots and get started on things that would otherwise seem impossible or at least overwhelming because we can see how we are part of the bigger picture. Taking time to connect ourselves to what we are growing, to water our garden, to touch a plant or to just be with our thoughts in nature helps perspective enter our consciousness, and when we have perspective the things that seem like big scary things don't seem so big or scary anymore. It's then that we can see the possibilities available to us.   I mentioned earlier that I talk to my plants, and I totally do. It makes me feel good and I am sure it makes them happier too.  There have been studies done where people have spoken to plants in different ways and have seen marked differences in how they grew.  I am generalising here but the studies had 3 groups of the same plants. Group A, B and C. All plants had the same soil, same amount of light and same watering regime. Group A was exposed to positive words throughout the day. They were told they are loved, beautiful, appreciated, wanted, valued etc  Group B was exposed to negative words at the same rate throughout the day. They were told they were stupid, useless, ugly, waste of space, hated, disgusting etc. Group C was the control so had all the same growing conditions but were left alone and not spoken to.    Many of the studies showed that plant A grew taller, faster and looked more healthy overall than the control and that plant B looked stunted, had less growth and looked a little worse for wear.  Can I say that I felt sorry for plant B.. No one wants that kind of negativity thrown their way on a daily basis.  I am sure there are a heap of scientists out there who would have a counter-argument to this finding, but for me, it was no surprise that these plants reacted the way they did.  I have started to interact with my rose geranium plants whenever I go by.  I tell them they are lovely and smell so beautiful and they have responded in kind by increasing growth.  Plus I then smell like rose geranium which I lurve.  I also planted loofa late in the season and I started to tell it that I loved it no matter if it had time to produce fruit or not. It is valued and looks amazing and just a week later I have fruit. Could be my impeccable timing but I feel that my kind words and thoughts helped just a little. And, even if they didn’t, it makes me feel good.  When I feel good vibes I want to do more good things. That means I want to grow more yummy food and try things that I haven’t tried before. So my message for this episode is to get out of your head, get into your garden or if you don’t have a garden, start one. Or, just go and be in nature. Visit a park or go for a walk down a trail whatever you can do where you are to connect with nature.  I know this will help to boost your happy vibes and lift your mood just a bit more. I know we all currently need a little more of the good stuff in our world. More information Full show notes at www.sohfarmlet.com.au/podcast Blogs – www.sohfarmlet.com.au/blog Download Free – Chicken Keepers ‘Chicklist’ For Beginners Download Free Guide Getting Started With Composting Newsletter sign up  This Episode Sponsored by This episode is sponsored by my soon to be released Self-Sufficiency Made Simple Composting Masterclass. This masterclass will help you go from wasting food and money to creating your own gold star garden soil system without mess, cost or hard work. The masterclass will show you how to choose, create and get started with your own simple system, all in your backyard. Register your interest via email [email protected]   Reach me Instagram http://www.instagram.com/sohfarmlet/ Facebook http://www.facebook.com/sohfarmlet [email protected]   Subscribe Have you hit the subscribe button yet? If not click subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Review I would be eternally grateful if you could give me a review as this will push the podcast out to more people, and it would make my heart sing, I’d love to hear what you have to say and what’s your favourite bit (and I will be giving a few shout outs each week). For apple listeners, you can review HERE. For other players follow the review link (if available) and leave a review on FaceBook or Instagram.     Share I would also love it if you could share this podcast with anyone you feel would enjoy conversations about growing food, keeping chickens, bees, rescue animals, making homemade products and all things self-sufficiency related. I am so pleased and feel very privileged that you chose to join me this week. Thank you!  Let’s do it again next Wednesday. xx