Photo: Fiona in a bee suit with smoker
My name is Fiona Nevile. I want to share our journey towards our goal of partial self sufficiency. It is such a satisfying, old fashioned endeavour, that provides moments of glowing pride alongside the occasional smelly disaster.
I started this blog after we decided to invest in our future. Retirement looms in a few years time. Before I fell ill I often worked in houses where people had recently retired. Usually they were testing the water. They had plans that they had dreamt about and tweaked for years:
- Raising a few chickens
- A small vegetable patch
- Bees
- Homemade wine and liqueurs
- And the individual extras which could include stock car racing, dabbling on the Stock Exchange, breeding terrapins, planning the trip of a lifetime and dreaming about a lottery win that would finance the lot.
Watching from the sidelines, I realised that often the first four of these interests can take years to get up and running. So I decided to start early. These activities are so satisfying that within months I was peering over the parapet. Why not cure and smoke our own bacon and make salami? How about making sausages and homemade butter? And where could we find food for free?
Six years later we are investing in now as well as our future retirement.
Why just plan for the future? Investing in now can be a bumpy ride but generally we’ve found that it’s fun and our quality of life is so much better than before. Each week our horizons expand.
This website charts our journey towards deluxe self sufficiency and beyond. Our aim is to live like kings on the lowest possible budget. Visit our new forum for inspiration and ideas from our readers.
My articles have appeared online in the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Chicago Sun Times and many other publications. Use the ‘contact us’ tab to speak to me. Writing commissions are always welcome.
Some people like to visit us here at the Cottage Smallholder.
Because I have been ill and unable to work since July 09 we decided to host advertising on the Cottage Smallholder site from December 09. Click here for more details.
a brief potted history of Fiona’s career, which has ended up in our attempt at partial self-sufficiency.
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FD
hi i wonder if anyone could give me some chicken advice ? I’ve been keping chucks for just over a year and haven’t had any problems until now. however, the last couple of weeks we think peggy has gone broody. we keep taking her off the nest but she returns straight away but she’s stopped layng so she’s not actually sitting on anything. is this usual ? If you shut the door to the house she just sits behind it and isn’t really interacting with the other chickens who seem to be taking a dislike to her. I don’t know if this because she is always on the nest and they dont get a look in, but the others dont seem to be laying much either. The other worrying thing is that she has lost most of the feathers to her chest and some under the wings since all this has started, it doesn’t seem to be moulting, could it be that shes losing them because she’s sat in the same position for such long periods of time ? She doesn’t seem to be ill and eats when you take her off the nest. any advice would be useful thanks.
Hi – just discovered you via 60goingon16 and the elderflower champagne saga. Lovely site and most inspiring. I’m a slightly distant East Anglian neighbour!
Hi Elise
Many apologies, I missed your comment.
As you have discovered, you can do loads with a courtyard garden but I am impressed with the amount of stuff that you are growing! Hope that you are picking peas soon!
Hi Ulrike
Thanks so much for dropping by and apologies for the belated response. I am on a work overdrive at the moment!
Love your blog, you have a beautiful garden and even though I don’t knit at the moment I do enjoy reading about the nuts and bolts of knitting. Superb rainbow wool!
Hi Julia
I would always include a quince tree. With these you can make a good quince vodka, quince jam (wonderful) and membrillo (quince paste). A greengage tree would be a great addition too – wonderful wine and jam and British greengages are the best in the world. A damson tree would be good too – again good wine and liqueurs but also superb jam, chutney and jelly.
How about an Elder tree for cordial – they flourish anywhere even in a shady corner. The flowers and berries make superb wine too.
Sloes are best grown as hedging.
Hi,
We have a field which we are thinking of keeping bees on, and also planting some fruit trees and wild flowers to provide something to keep the bees busy with! I was initially thinking of a couple of apple trees, cherry trees and something else – I have been reading with interest about the sloe gin/vodka – I may be tempted as I have been known to make rhubarb schnapps and elderflower cordial in the past – but do you have any suggestions on what other fruit trees may be useful for general food/cordial/alcohol recipes?? Many thanks – love the site!
Julia
Hi,
just found your site and love it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and recipes!
Many greetings from Southern Germany,
Ulrike
Hi, I just stumbled across your brilliant site and am hooked already! I was looking for a good elderflower cordial recipe as they’re out in full bloom now and i want to make some of my own bottled sunshine! I have a tiny courtyard garden, and am gleefully waiting for my peas, beans, tomatoes and squashes to start producing!
Wonderful site, i look forward to the next installment. I may even attempt my own mayonaise at the weekend *gasp*!
Hi Chris
The sounds like good news, fingers crossed.
We have a sycamore problem too. But we are in a conservation area that looks after trees – even self seeded sycamores!
Well that’s certainly good news! Heavy rain overnight, first for ages, and spuds looking OK on the whole, the leaves that have gone are withering now but there SEEMS to be some new growth around on some, and all are flowering happily. Fingers crossed! We are hoping to dispose of some of these self-seeded sycamores this year from the property which surrounds ours on three sides. I counted 15 last time (most over 40ft high) and 3 oak trees have now been discovered too. Sometimes wonder why I bother with a garden when it is a woodland glade in full summer!
Hi Chris
The French use Bordeaux mixture on their grape vines so your fruit should be fine – washed after picking!
Glad to here that the pots are looking better.