Make your own safran

The most expensive spice on earth: safran. Why not try to make it myself, just in the spirit of living self sufficient. It's not like I want to start a production to sell safran, but I want to grow it for own use and mostly for fun, just to be able to say with pride:" safran, yes of course we have it :-)".

Safran crocus (sativus) differs from the normal crocus (the kind I know and love). Safran Crocus flowers in the fall. 

You plant the flower bulbs in August-September, and the flowers bloom October-November. 

So in a well prepared area with a lot of chicken manure, I planted my bulbs and cant wait to see the result and how difficult it is to harvest and dry the safran. Its going to be a new experience.

Herbs in the freezer

When I know, that I'm not going to use all my herbs, I cut and wash them and stuff them in the freezer.
Actually we strive to do this with anything we grow: we freeze all the stuff, we don't use. Also in order to be self sufficient, you of course have to grow a huge surplus, to feed yourself and the animals thru the winter.

As you can see from this tiny area of my garden, it's time to harvest herbs. Here the price for fresh herbs is approximately 1,5€ when it's cheap, so freezing herbs is a good way to save some money.
Further more, like all the tasks we do to be self sufficient, it's a satisfying feeling to have grown it yourself

Winter garden

We dont have a winter garden or alike. But even though the temperature is getting low outside, we can still grow a bit indoors.
I don't want to just "clean out" the garden. I select some plants to take indoors.

I have a low cayenne and bush tomato, that can easily be nice in the kitchen. Also a jalapeno and herbs could be nice to have in the window.
It's not like I think these plants will get us through winter, but it's nice to have a little homemade stuff to nibble on. So I dig them up and plant them in a pot indoors as a reminder of the summer and a little self sufficient like production.

Make your own Pomegranate for free

I love pomegranate, the taste is wonderful and the pips can be very decorative in salads, desserts, drinks etc.
It would be lovely to have my own plant...

So let's see what we can do ourselves to get a pomegranate plant for free, just by using the seeds of a fresh fruit we had anyway.

Peaches and nectarines for free

Remember we got the seeds from the fruits some time ago, cause it could be fun as well as it could be great to harvest our own fresh fruit. I cleaned them and put them in water, and now I have just rinsed the stones again.

So it's time for planting, quite easy really. It's big stones, I'm going to plant, so I use one pot for each stone.
Now we just wait and see, if we are lucky and something starts to grow.
If so, well have our own nectarine and peach plants for free. There's nothing boring about self sufficiency. The bigger your imagination, the better ideas.

Make your own wine for free

It's not like I want you to perform miracles like Jesus, but it should be easy to make your own wine plants for free.
We have a wine plant with blue sweet grapes, that tastes delicious. I don't know the exact name though, since the plant came with the buildings. But since it's able to grow and give delicious fruit in our climate, I would love to have more plants in the garden. So as a self sufficient household, I cut some branches, when I was harvesting grapes anyway.

Let's face it... I have absolutely no idea of what I'm doing. I have read everything I could, but didn't find a well described explanation.
But we'll, what's the worst that could happen(?)

Chickpeas sprouts

As normal procedure, I put the seeds in plenty of water and let it sit for 12 hours, rinse the seeds and change the water, and let it sit for 12 hours more.

Now we just rinse the sprouts each 12 hours (morning and evening), and pour out the water.

This kind of sprouts however, you have to cook for 5 minutes because if natural toxins. So put it in a dish, where you eat them cooked.

Get dates for free

Oh my, if only real dates were so easy to get 
After eating through a whole box of dates (NOT!), I have finally got some stones to plant.

First procedure as often with large stones; plunk it into a glass of water and let it rest for a few days, but remember to change the water each day.

WIP

Pictures of our hobby farm

So many people have asked of an overview of our farm, so lets have a tiny look at what we're working with here..
When I arrive in the garden the entertainment has arrived.

Our dog, the puppy and even the cat has come to have a look at what the two legged is doing.

All over the garden it's always a little mix of entertainment, relaxation and production.
The black dirt shows, where the pool were during the summer. The grey round concrete us a grill for many people, and chairs and tables are normally "shattered" over the property, where ever we need them.

Homemade Mung Bean Sprouts - WIP

Mung bean sprouts is made in the exact same way as Azuki Bean Sprouts.

Here I have 2 tablespoons, just to get an idea of how much, we as a family, eat here.

I soak the beans in water for 12 hours.

Then I rinse the beans and soak in water for another 12 hours.

And then lets see what happends further in the test.

Male your own free Blackcurrant plants

When harvest is over, it's a good time to make more blackcurrant bushes.

You want to cut the bushes anyway, and I find it most easy to cut, when I pick the berries anyway.

Actually I do, what you are not really supposed to.
I just clean the cut off branches from leaves at the buttom, and plunk it into water.
A couple of months later, I have all the bushes I need. They look dead at the picture, right(?)

Mushrooms grow kit - WIP

There's a lot of different types of grow kits from different suppliers and several types of mushrooms to grow.

The package is pretty self explanatory, and since the process can vary a bit, I'll refer to the description on the package.

But as an example of how easy it in fact is, I started a grow kit to show you. I'll keep explanations short...

Day 1:

The package contains a black bag of dirt, which I soak I water in a closed box over night.

Homemade azuki sprouts - WIP

Sprouts come in many types and taste.
It's easy to make your own sprouts, and if you want to take it to a level of  total self sufficiency, you grow your own plants and harvest seeds during the summer. Store the seeds until you want to use them during winter, and the cycle is closed.

Day 1

Today I'll make my own azuki sprouts from some Azuki Beans.

It's the first time I sprout azuki, I don't know exactly how much space they need.
So to be on the safe side, I take a large glass with lid, so I'm sure the sprouts have the space they need.

Small Scale Self Sufficiet

What if you live in apartment. Or in a house with a very small garden, You don't have a huge field for animals and for growing a lot of fruit and vegetables.
Well, let's introduce a new term: "Small Scale Self Suffiency".
You can still do a lot to save money and spare nature. You can re use materials and grow plants - just use your imagination, look at some pictures to find inspiration for places to grow plants.
Also by changing habits for energy use can make your electricity, water and heat bills.
To make it more efficient to find options for the small scale self sufficient, I'll start to use this term in the labels of posts.

Find free mushrooms in nature

It's still rainy weather here, the desire to work with dirt is non existent, since the glowes quickly turn wet and you end up ruining your hands.

But with a lot of moist comes the mushrooms. And just before the weekend arrives, it's the best time to find them.

Most people with "nomal" work hours and transportation don't have time for mushroom hunting during the week.

So out there we went in search for delicious free food from nature. Picking them I was thinking of the forests ecosystem. How amazing it is, that we can get mushrooms without planting seeds, watering and caring for the plant at all.

Let's have fun with an orange

It's raining a lot, the sky is dark, I think lightening will soon begin.
So I decide to stay indoors for the sake of the dogs.
Inspired a bit from Masterchef, where they cook for instance a potatoes in 100 different ways, I want to see how much I can get out of an orange.

First I wash the orange with a hard brush and soap to get any toxins that the orange may have been sprayed with, off the zest.

Make your own Rhubarb plants

Rhubarb comes in several different sorts. 
I have 3 different types of rhubarb, but this is not about sort, but rhubarb in general.
When you go self sufficient, this gives an idea of the concept. Use every possible way to make your own homemade plants for free.

Make your own free Horseradish plants

Horseradish can be a bit of a challenge to tame in the garden. If not careful, you can end up with horseradish all over the area.

This is why I plant theese in their own container. Not to be able to take it inside during the winter, but to make sure it won't spread.

The container I chose this spring is already too small, so it's time to replant and shave the root sort of speak.
If I don't shave the root, the plant will grow and make the rootsystem into a lot of little thin hairy / spaghetti roots, that we can't use. We want it in size of a small carrot at least, to be able to grate.

Free Elderberries

The elderberries... What can I say(?)
It's just not a good year this year.
I picked a lot of bunches, sadly they were all the same bad quality.
Some berries dried out like black peppercorn. Others not even ripe.
So sad...

August, the most busy month

Plans change quickly when living selfsufficient.
I was in the middle of moving new strawberry plants, when my neighbour called me up to hear, if I could use some apples.
Our own apples is not yet ripe, so of course we went there - also to say hello.

He had hurt his arm yesterday at work, so he was home and a lot of apples had fallen from the tree to the ground.
Fallen fruit goes bad very fast, so after the visit, the dogs and I returned home.

Here's a little stupid idea... When doing the same (boring) job for a long time, bring it to a table and sit down while watching whatever on the tv or listening to the radio.

The closed up henhouse

The fence is down, the doors are closed, and there's no chickens to light up the life in the garden. I have decided to wait until spring to get new chickens though.
Hopefully the uninvited guests has forgot everything about them at that point, and I'll have time to build an even stronger fence.

For life in the garden, and in the house as well, we "ordered" a puppy a year ago at a breeder.
So now we are fortunate to share our lives with 2 schipperkes, with all their fn an unconditional love.

Make your own tomato seeds (2018)

It's late August, so it's time to think of what plants we want to take indoors, and for other plants time to take seeds for next year's harvest.
Seeds we make from own plants are free, and we know the taste of the fruit.
It's goes hand in hand with beeing selfsufficient.

I've found another more easy way to save money on tomato seeds.
It's not the first time I try this, but the other years it was much more time demanding.

Use some tomatoes you can't eat anyway. But select "the best of the bad".
Referring to the picture, I throw away all the tomatoes to the right.

Prepare a large bowl of water (approximately room temperature)
Squeeze the tomatoes into the water, remove as much as you can.

Next day remove the zest and whatever you are able to remove. 

Sift the water from the bowl.
Now slam the sift hard onto a piece of kitchen towel, and remove potential leftovers of tomato fruit.

There you go:
Free tomato seeds, no waste, just the spirit of self sufficiency.