The attack of the mushrooms

2 days ago they were not ready to harvest.

Then I forget about them for 2 days, and bam, as you see, they've become huge.
Also a bit bigger, than I prefer.

If you managed to get a lot, I hope you have success and fun with it.

Who stole the sun?

OMG sometimes I think I'm going crazy, if I don't see the sun soon. Just for 10 minutes to feel the warmth on my face for once in a long time.

Well I definately understand totally, why so many people gets depressed during winter time. I miss the sun too.

Free avocado the self suffient way - update

Update.

I made the try out with the peeled avocado stone  in a previous blog. Just to try it, it didn't work out.

Free pomegranate self sufficient style- update

Honestly I didn't know, that the pomegranate seeds we made some time ago, would work out so well.

All those little plants, what to do...

OMG the champions exploded

Look at that...

This is how fast mushrooms grow, isn't it impressive?

I don't keep them in the window, it was just to get light enough to get a decent picture. 

Brown champions self sufficient style

Well, you can't very well call this self sufficient, but if you don't have the time and outdoor space to make the process of homemade mushrooms, this is a fun option.

Dust off the pepper corns: organize your spices

A big part of the fall cleaning is the kitchen, and in this case spices.

In some areas of spices we are self sufficient, and we get our herbs for free from the garden.
Spices, we don't (can't) grow ourselves, we have to buy in the store like everybody else.

Weekly shopping saves on driving

Google Keep

Even though we try to live self sufficient, we cant do that totally. For instance we do not have any livestock besides chickens (yet).

I tried to make homemade cheese once, but that's a task so difficult, that before I learn, i will have wasted way too much. So I rely on the stores for that.

Furthermore we are not fanatics, as you watch in some tv-shows. We don't burn our own bricks, and we don't produce our own tools, we buy them. 

Today we have spent the time shopping for the week, in that way we don't use the cars as much. The "shopping" car is a Hybrid, so when we do have to drive, we don't use an obscene amount of gasoline.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

Make your own Nectarines and Peaches

Many people see the nectarines and the peaches as the same fruit, no wonder, since they are so much alike.
There's a difference though. Take a look at the picture.

The Nectarine is to the left.
It has a shiny surface, and feels smooth on the surface.

On the right we have the peach. It feels more like welvet in the hands, like it has itsy bitsy tiny hair.

We want to enjoy eating them, and then planting the stone inside.

The most easy way to get to the core, is to put your knife through the fruit until you feel the stone, then cut around the stone by rolling your knife around the fruit.

Twist the 2 parts, one will easily let go of the meat, and we got 2 parts, one with the stone attached.

As you see at the picture, the first try was unsuccessful, I've actually never seen a bad stone before. 

But the second one is great. We remove the stone and put it in a glass of water over night (not necessary, but I have other plants right now)

Mango- make your own plant

Since we are currently out of chickens, totally, I'll focus on my plants.

Let's have a look at the mango seed I try to grow.
This is not a success either.
As you see, the huge seed coloured the wrapping brown. This has happened before, however this time, I don't think I'll succeed. Cause when unwrapping it, it showed that the seed now has visible spots from being attacked by disease.

I'll let it dry a bit, but don't expect much else, than I need to try again.

Everything about selfsufficiency is trying, sometimes you succeed, sometimes not.

No reason to give up. Nothing is really wasted in a household that's living by selfsufficient possibilities.

Make your own Avocado plant

This is a new method for me, but let's try it.

Remove the stone from the Avocado. Peel, yes that what I said, very gently peel the brown thin hard layer of the seed with a sharp vegetable knife or alike.

Put 3 toothpicks into the stone, not more than 2 mm, that way you can place it over a glass.

Fill up the glass with water until the stone just touches the surface of the water.
And now we wait...