How to be Self Sufficient

make your own


WELCOME TO HOME-GROWN HARVESTS

How to Make Your Own and Keep Your Own

If you've grown a few vegetables or herbs, you might have been bitten by the 'Good Life' bug - and see more on Grow Your Own Food.

In Make Your Own, try making your own bread or cheese. In Keep Your Own, we look at rearing a hens for eggs, bee keeping and smallholding courses for keeping your own pigs and goats and much more.
 


MAKE YOUR OWN

making your own bread


One of the easiest places to start in the bid to be more self-sufficient is making your own bread. Browse FoodFinds for bread-making courses to get you started and see Our Little Green Book - Our Daily Bread for further inspiration.

making your own cheese


Making your own cheese is good fun and so simple. If you want to learn how to make it, browse FoodFinds for a selection of FoodLoversBritain.com Approved cheese-making courses

make your own charcoal

Making your own charcoal has to be one of the greenest ways to start the Barbecue season. Browse FoodFinds for charcoal-making courses.


BUILDING A SMOKER

Building a smoker is a relatively simple affair - you can even use a kettle BBQ if it has a lid. If you want to build a hot smoker, you simply need a chamber with four walls and a lid and a grill to sit the food on. Even a good-sized biscuit tin will suffice.

To build a cold smoker, it's the same principle but you do need a flue for the smoke. The trick is to brine your food before you smoke it.


KEEP YOUR OWN

bee keeping title

There are lots of reasons to start keeping bees, not least the startling decline in the honey bee population. If the honey bee disappears, so does life on Earth as we know it - and we're not exaggerating. But there's also the added advantages of there always being honey for tea (you can expect 20-40 lbs a year on average) as well as beeswax to make your own candles or furniture polish.

You can start a colony pretty much anywhere - even on your roof or on a balcony - but do check with your neighbours first. Otherwise you might know of a small area of wasteland near you or on a farm.

You'll need a few basics to start. Make sure, most importantly, that you get British bees - Queen bees imported from sunnier climes will find it difficult to adjust to our weather. You'll need bee-proof clothing, a hive tool, feeder and a smoker and fuel - and join a Bee Keeping Association.

Browse FoodFinds for FoodLoversBritain.com Approved Bee Keeping courses

keeping hens for eggs


Learn how to keep hens and buy all the equipment - from houses and runs to incubators - in  FoodFinds


Keeping pigs title


You don't have to have a farm to raise livestock - browse FoodFinds for smallholding and animal husbandry courses from keeping pigs and sheep to butchery

 


Learn more about foraging in Our Little Green Book of Foraging - Uncover the Wild

Learn more about Grow Your Own Food