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 Corky
How big is the sloe? I’ve seen them as big as pound coins in the past.
Hi FN.
Just found your site while looking for sloe vodka/gin recipes, think it’s a cracking site, just wondering if you can help me identify a fruit that looks like a sloe apart from it’s size, tastes like a sloe but everyone is saying it’s too big to be a sloe, once again, thanks for the great web site.
Hi WG and Stephen
I’m lucky as I have access to sloes in someone’s garden so I can wait until the first frosts.
The freezer route is OK but we have found that waiting until after the first frosts is better.
Hi
I found your site by chance when looking for a sloe gin recipe.
My son is in Hungary and the Sloes were abundant.
We tried the freezer route but without great success, we only had the weekend to do it all, but perhaps I ought to have left them a little longer. On the whole I’d say leave it until the frost has been.
My son has your aspirations so will I’m sure visit your site often!
Nigel Hannant: Big Mistake! don’t pick your sloes until AFTER the first frost – it makes all the difference. Picking them prior and then freezing them is NOT the same. Let Nature do it for you!
WG.
Hello Vanessa
Great that you are enjoying the site. How marvellous that Agatha Christie led you here!
Sloe generally are not sold in the UK. Damsons are sometimes sold here but all the commercial growers seem to be fizzling out – early frosts and the cost of picking the fruit are bid factors.
We make a lot of different fruit gins – which I much prefer. Strawberry, raspberry and lemon gin are great to make at home. Kumquats work very well too.
Just ran across your site. Very fun to read all the recipes & comments.
I happened on your site by accident I suppose. I was re-reading Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder With Mirrors’ & Miss Marple talked about making damson gin. I wondered what the heck is that & headed for the internet to do some searching. Et, voila! Here you are.
Can damsons & sloes be purchased? There’s not a lot of them growing in the American Southwest (New Mexico to be precise).
Hello Iain
Best of luck with the raspberry vodka. I’ve just made some myself with the first of the autumn raspberries.
Not sure how the apples and mango will turn out – I’d love to hear how you get on.
Great that you are enjoying the site.
Hi Toni
Thanks for dropping by and for all your tips and suggestions. I tend not to use plastic as it can impart a taint over time. I keep lots of empty bottles in the barn for grog and cordials.
I’ve just done a search of all the comments on the blog and found this recipe from Peter:
“add the ginned sloes to a good medium farmhouse cider then add a good shot of gin this is called SLIDER it is probably the most potent drink there is but tastes lovely!!!!”
And from Douglas:
“LEFT OVER GINNED SLOES- add cheap cider to bottle- drink next day, then add more cider- drink next week!! Gets most of alcohol out and is lovely.”
It would be worth posting on the forum for slider recipes.
Hi just stumbled across this site. FANTASTIC!!! Just thought i’d say that you dont need kilner jars or glass jars. I use old lemonade or any fizzy drink plastic bottle to make all my soft fruit gins. And reusable over and over. Have to say I made blueberry and damson about 3 weeks ago and although blueberrys are expensive, WOW, stunning colour and verrrrry drinkable. Also I am looking for the recipe for used gin soaked sloes and cider! Can anyone help me out here please? Keep up the fab work here and I for one will be a very regular visitor. Toni
Fiona,
Just found your site whilst looking for fruit flavoured vodka recipes and have now got kilner jar, vodka, raspberries and sugar at the ready! I am hoping that if I start it off over this weekend it may be drinkable by the Xmas holidays.
Have also bought some apples and couple of mango to give them a try with vodka – but fear that this could end up in absolute failure….
Am loving the site – just found it and am very impressed! Will be visiting frequently in future and have just sent a link to my wife.
Iain.