Living off the land and being self-sufficient is a dream for many. I remember watching the 70’s British sitcom ‘The Good Life’ in which the main characters ditch their day jobs to turn their suburban house into a hobby farm. More recently TV show’s such as River Cottage are doing what the fictional Tom & Barbara did for real. It is achievable and I’m all over the idea.
My partner, who is a horticulturist by trade, set up a vegetable garden a few years ago in our back yard. We are super blessed to live on a property so space & equipment were not a challenge. Gardening is his yoga. He’s a total earth boy spending hours with his hands in the dirt. All the planting is done in conjunction with the moon cycles for optimum production and universal balance.
I introduced you to ‘our girls’ the chooks a few months back in this post. The feather kid family has now expanded to turkeys in preparation for Christmas. (Despite being a vego I’m okay with this as our meat birds are living a happy, free range life & gratitude will be given highly for their sacrifice) The egg production has slowed down for winter & I’m finding it hard to fill the demand. It’s a very rewarding to be able to offer ethically and organically produced eggs from happy chickens.
The veggie garden has grown and expanded too, so much we now have surplus supply. In the past we gave most of it away that we couldn’t use ourselves. After watching an episode of River Cottage Australia my partner was inspired by a local community event called a ‘Food Swap.’ The Eastern states have got this down. You rock up with your excess produce & put it on one of the swap tables. Then you go off and pick out what you need from what others have brought. It all seemed to run smoothly and the exchanges worked out fairly. Sadly this is yet to take off properly in WA. Watch this space!
To fill the gap my partner came up with this idea ‘take what you want, pay what you want.’ He kitted out the back of his ute to resemble a vegetable market stall, complete with a home made shelf. Then each Friday he takes his ‘stall’ to his workplace to offer his suburban colleagues a chance to purchase fresh, organic veg at a price they can afford. After posting this picture on Facebook a few of our neighbours dropped by in the evening ‘to shop’ too.
I’m getting the most delight in this by watching how a passionate past time may well turn into something of a grander scale.
With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere. C. S. Lewis
Love Seren xx
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©Seren Holistic Lifestyles Blog 2013
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