Stonehead - More Weekend Reading

I've been reading a few smallholding blogs this afternoon and a couple of them are certainly worth a visit. First up is:

Musings from a Stonehead: The trials and tribulations of a modern crofter

A transplant from down under living in the frozen north or Insch, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland as it's more commonly known. He lives on a croft (Scottish for very small farm) and tries to live the lifestyle my friend MCP (middle class peasant) is always espousing.
"We’re trying to lead a more traditional lifestyle while also minimising our impact on the environment around us. Our life is hard, but it’s ours and it’s a lot more fun than being a wage slave tied to the consumerist treadmill. So while the croft once supported four families and their livestock and is not likely to do that again, it’s a real pleasure to have one foot in the past and another in the future."
He has a great 'how to' section of neat tutorials. The one showing how he skins the rabbits he shoots, is linked here.

I enjoyed the tutorial and thought some interesting blogs might be found by perusing the comments left by other readers. What a world of delights awaited me! Some of the people who write in are like me interested in wild food, some smallholding, and some just small minded.

Funny chap, have a read of this discourse from his comments page

Chanel writes in to say "Eating rabbit is pointless. They are generally such a small animal that hardly enough mean to justify a killing is consumed. It really sickens me that you would post pictures like this. I have two rabbits as pets and I love them more than my annoying pomeranian. They are peaceful and quiet animals. Please, if anything, state your response in an intelligent manner unlike the mocking manner in which you replied to Jenna and Cayla."

Stonehead doesn't take any prisoners "You choose to exploit animals by keeping them as pets to satisfy your emotional needs. I choose to exploit rabbits by killing and eating them to satisfy my dietary needs. The rabbits I exploit roam free until the moment they’re killed, the ones you exploit are kept in some sort of confinement. Don’t pretend you’re somehow morally better simply because you choose a different form of exploitation.This is my blog and I choose to share some of what I do with like-minded or interested people. If what I post sickens you, then go somewhere else. (Did you not read the disclaimer?) I shall also choose to state my reply in whatever manner I choose, in this case pointing out that it is not possible to mock without possessing a reasonable degree of intelligence. On the other hand, it does not require a reasonable degree of intelligence to come out with an unintended oxymoron such as yours."

Do read his linked disclaimer it's hilarious!

If you stay home and read his site this weekend you'll be consuming less, learning a thing or two and the laughs'll make you feel better.

Well that's my plan anyway
As ever your pal
The bushwacker

Pride Of The Sarf

I was at the end of the garden wondering whether it was time to give up my 'fruitless' gardening and start using the space for fires again when I was shocked, surprised and delighted to see that I had actually grown more than slug food this summer. Yes! A real life actual cucumber! Well who'd-a-thought-it!

On the other side of the hill the trees are heaving with unripe Chestnuts, so maybe I'm more a forager than a farmer.

Cheers
SBW

PS No Rex, I haven't forgotten, they're just aren't any worthy examples to send you yet.

Digging That Victory

Since I put up that post about suburban homesteading it seems that; either the great and the good of English journalism are reading my witterings or (more likely) I had my finger on the pulse of the weeks Zeitgeist. According to this weeks papers there are now as many people growing their own foodstuff as did during WW2!

If like me you've been thinking about getting started here's some food for thought.

If we were all to follow the advice of eating five portions of fruit and veg a day, we would probably spend at least £1 every day, or around £400 a year, at supermarket prices. But seeds for vegetables to keep a family going for a year usually cost less than you would pay for one kilo of the same product in a shop.

You can pay £1.29 for two beef tomatoes in Sainsbury's [This should be a joke surely - I checked it's true!]while a packet of 30 seeds from costs £1.25.

A Sainsbury's shopper buying a kilo each of courgettes (AKA Zucchini), beetroot and radish this autumn would have paid around £8 while packets of each of these seeds from costs a total of £3.75. And if you have neighbours with vegetable patches, you can always swap packets, as they always contain more seeds than you need.

If your aim is to save money, then you should grow more exotic produce

'Growing main crop potatoes is insane if you look at it economically,I don't think there is any more lucrative crop than hot peppers. Garlic is very expensive to buy. Rocket is quick and easy to grow but can be expensive to buy. Herbs are good. Rosemary and thyme - you can't have too much of those.'

Young apple, cherry and other fruit trees or berry plants can be bought for under £20 each, while organic raspberries, for example, cost more than £23 a kilo in Sainsbury's this year.

Richard Murphy has been growing vegetables for 18 years. This year, he has included pumpkin, salad crops, beetroot and carrots in his vegetable patch.

'For the price of one bag of salad you could grow 50,' he says. His main aims are eating well and introducing his two young sons to this part of the natural world. 'The skill level you need is pretty low. My six-year-old can quite happily plant seeds.'

All sourced from http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/dec/30/food.ethicalliving

Thanks for reading
SBW

PS for picture credit and loads more cool home front posters

James' New Bloggers

James has been up to his old tricks ferreting out fascinating new voices for the bloggersphere and they are up to his usual high standard.

Well I would say that wouldn't I, he discovered me!!

The latest addition to his sporting shooter blog network is a chap called Andy Richardson with two blogs; one about the hunting outfit he runs north of the border, and for the other, when not afield he's writing up his adventures as a smallholder raising, growing, cooking and pickling his own foods.

As the wild fowling season has come to and end on both sides of the pond Andy has an interesting post on shooting pigeons with an over the counter air rifle and turning them into a goulash, and on the west coast Hank (HAGC) has been cooking up some barn pigeons he shot at the start of the year.

Like most city dwellers i loathe 'flying rats' unless they're on my plate, so while i was looking for a picture from 'Stop The Pigeon' I found kill the pigeons, as you'll see it's a remarkable website!

Well worth a look
Thanks for reading
Your pal the bushwacker.