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
Found you when I googled for Game recipes, going to try your “Beastley” casserole tomorrow night.
I too love this time of year, warming foods, wonderful colours (we are in the Scottish Borders)even the chore of hauling wood to cut is OK when the log burner is blazing. Looking forward to Christmas when Mrs Aga gets going and I have to fight off the cats and dog to get near the oven. Thank God for “townies” who make room for the remainder of us to live in such wonderful surroundings!
Found you when I was searching for chicken arks, you sound just like us, we are in North wales and have been growing organically and learning to be cottagers for the last 25 years. I have really enjoyed some of the recipes and plan to have a go at some of the chutneys this being the “seasons of mist and mellow fruitlessness”
Cheers
Stumbled on your site while Googling for a recipe to use up a load of cheap and very ripe bananas – the banana and date chutney recipe was just the job, although quite a lot of it got eaten before it made it into a bottle! I’ve never posted on a blog before but just wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed rummaging round and I will definitely be back. We moved to the Welsh Borders about 3 years ago from the South East, acquired a dog and a vegetable patch and just wish we’d had the nerve to do it years ago.
Last year used your recipe for Japanese Quince jelly. It worked really well and we gave quite alot of it away at Christmas as people were really impressed. I just came to check it for this years crop and noticed you had a place for comments. Many Thanks for the recipe.
Hello Fiona,
Just popped in to let you know that we have successfully used your rosehip syrup recipe and its lovely.
Reading your blog just now I noticed your comments about planting garlic and have always wanted to grow garlic so I’ll try it this year.
How are your chickens? Mine are losing feathers everyday now but thankfully still laying so I don’t mind picking up the feathers.
Keep up the good work, will call again. Thankx
I love your site…have tried two of your recipes so far, for apple chutney and the apple and chilli jelly. I left a comment on that page….delicious stuff. Gave it to my husband the next day on his sandwiches, with ham and cheese, and he said it was absolutely fantastic.
We am from South Africa (have been here for 7 years) where there is not the same abundance of berries and apples to make all these chutneys and jams, so I’m learning a lot. I’ve found that our friends love getting home made gifts and the jams, jellies and chutneys don’t last long. I’ve already got a stock of apple chutney, apple and chilli jelly, and blackberry jam for Christmas gifts. I have quite the little home industry going here. Thank you again for these great recipes.
Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know how glad I am I found your site!
My many Google searches for recipes every time I found a new foraging delight persistently turned up Cottage Smallholder pages so i finally decided fate was trying to tell me something and settled down for a good browse.
Your wild plum chutney has gone down well and we had that cheesy welsh rarebit type thing tonight for tea but the biggest success has been the belgian pears, except I used wild ornamental quince, they are unspeakably good. I’m in the process of bottling 3kilos for Xmas prezzies
Thanks again! (and I’m sure my friends and family will also thank you after Xmas)
Wow! Who would have realised that a 10 minute stretch on my pc looking for recipes on sloe gin and bramble jams would end up in hours of reading through your blogs and recipes. Will be making plenty of pit stops to your site for advice and recipes in the future.
The gin will have to wait till tomorrow now 🙂
Hi Fiona,
I stumbled on your site today whilst looking for an apple chutney recipe. I have spent almost the whole day in front of the computer reading your excellent blog, and now I have a sore neck! 🙂 The chutney didn’t get made, either!
Like you, I enjoy foraging and cooking, and you have given me some interesting new ideas.
I’ll be back,
Judith
Hi
Enjoyed the visit to the site and have bookmarked it already. I was looking for Gin recipes and found some,also advice from yourself, thanks again.
Just finished browsing the site, not gone everywhere yet; I like the recipes and will be trying some.
Regards Tony