five minutes of fame

I finally got my self-sufficiency article in the local paper today, there are some cheesy photos of me too but I’ll spare you them, http://www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=153005&command=displayContent&sourceNode=152831&contentPK=16663677&folderPk=86735&pNodeId=152562here is a copy of it.

GOING WILD IN NATURE’S BARGAIN LARDER

09:45 - 17 February 2007
If You go down to the woods today, you are bound to find a feast of free food, according to one man who is pioneering the Good Life ethos.

Now Antony Jones (29), of Asterby Road, Scunthorpe, is urging other families to follow his lead and start foraging for tasty morsels in the region’s woodlands.The father of three explained: “My aim is to be able to live as simply as possible.

“Although where we live can never sustain us totally, I want to make the most of what we have.

“I would love to live on a small holding and become completely self-sufficient.

“But I also believe it is just as important to be able to produce some of your own food and supplement that with ethical shopping when in an urban environment.”

At present, Antony is a registered carer for his disabled mother, but he is working to become a permaculture designer.

He explained a permaculturist is someone who uses the ethic of caring for the earth to create sustainable human environments, including planning gardens, allotments and small-holdings for people.

“We also forage locally for fruit and mushrooms,” he said.

“Bottesford Beck is a goldmine. I’ve found wild hops, sloe, haw, elder and rowan berries, brambles, crab apples, rosehips and nettles.

“Most of the woods around Scunthorpe are good, but it depends on what you are after.

“Normanby Hall has a big mulberry and chestnut tree. If you look alongside roadsides you often find wild and crab apple trees. My mushroom sites, however, are a secret.”

Antony, his wife Ursula and their three children, moved into their four-bedroom council home eight years ago.

Today, they produce around half of their own fruit and vegetables and hope to expand this by getting another adjacent plot of land.

Keeping up with the Joneses means making your own bread, chutneys, jam, lemonade, ginger beer, nettle beer and even a cider - nicknamed Sunny Scunny Scrumpy!

But the lifestyle does sometimes get tricky in the busy hub of modern life.

Antony said: “Sometimes I find it hard to keep up my ethics and motivation because amongst my friends, I am still the pioneer.

“Luckily, I have a very understanding wife who supports me.”

For more information look on Antony’s blog on http://welcome to voluntarysimplicity.wordpress.com/

are you local ?

Buying local is not just about supporting your community it’s about reducing food miles and eating seasonally. Many people don’t buy local or organic produce because of the price but to me it’s no contest, I’d rather pay more money than have the environment pay for it through chemicals and carbon emissions. Tomatoes from south Africa may be cheap but think about all the systems that have to be in place to simply get them to you.

Ditch the supermarket and get to know your local butcher and grocer, there produce is not only better they know where it came from and you might even become friends.

Local produce is as important as growing your own, many people don’t have the room or time to garden so buying local means you are still supporting your community and eating ethically.

Many places now do veg box schemes so there’s no excuse even if you are a busy workaholic. Find yours here http://vegboxschemes.co.uk/find_local_vegbox.php or here http://www.bigbarn.co.uk/

If you have the great pleasure of living in Scunthorpe then this is yours http://fenellasgarden.co.uk/index.htm it’s a veg box scheme near Gaisborough with quite reasonable prices.