Your Outside Space

‘When we are at home in the garden, tending and nurturing all its plants, animals and minerals, living with them through all the seasons and days, then healing comes upon us like a gift and makes us whole.’ 

~ Christopher Bamford. 

In 1854 Henry David Thoreau published his book Walden, or a Live in the Woods. Thoreau, a Unitarian and transcendentalist, spent two years two months and two days living alone in the woods near Concord in Massachusetts in a self-made wooden house, foraging for and growing his own food. The book has been influential, both as a pioneer work of self-sufficiency, but also as a work of literature. Critics of Thoreau will always point out that his experience was not quite as ‘back-to-earth’ as might be believed, Concord was no too far away from ‘civilization’ and he did ‘send home the washing’ to his mother each week, and he had a steady stream of literary and philosophical visitors, but criticisms aside it is a wonderfully documented experiment. Thoreau did simplify his life and did use the experience to shape a philosophy of self-sufficiency which helps those of us attempting the same thing today.

Few of us have the means to do as Thoreau did and go out into the woods and ‘do our own thing’, but any of us with some land can have a pretty good attempt at a degree of self-sufficiency. Growing food is not just a process of producing food to avoid having to buy it, growing your own food is a way of connecting yourself with the land and with the seasons, it is as much a spiritual thing as a practical exercise and the  fulfilment of harvest is a rich one even if your crop is small. Even those without land can share in this bounty (Simple Gathering)

"I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green" 

~ Henry David Thoreau 

How to Grow Food 

Growing food changed humans from nomadic hunter gatherers into agriculturalists, so you could argue that it was the very beginning of what we call civilization. As you start on the process of growing your own food you may think that the deciding factor in success is how much land you have, this is very far from the truth. Geography, climate, weather, sunlight, soil, water and luck all exert a powerful influence on what you can grow on your land, and how effectively you grow your food. My old house stood on one acre of land which is about 130metres above sea level on the border between Wales and England, on moving here from the Thames Valley my first growing year was an education in what I could no longer grow and it took me a couple of years to realize that, early first frost, and late last frost, combined with a wet and windy climate and a vast rabbit population, would dictate many of my crop choices. It will be the same for you, wherever you grow your food you must take into account the constraints offered by nature; gardening books and television gardening advice can give you the rough direction, but you need to travel the roads and byways of your land yourself. Whatever land you are blessed with, it will give you food and that food will be good, give it time. Since moving to Sweden the new challenges involved with growing food in a shorter growing season have been many.

Of course it could be that your land is greater than a garden, you may have a smallholding or even a farm. Again success is not won easily and having the land is only the first hurdle in feeding yourself and your family. 

What to Grow

The answer to this is simple, it just may take some time to uncover the answer. Firstly, look at your area and see what others are growing successfully. If your neighbour can grow asparagus well then it should be a crop that you can consider, if you can walk for miles before coming across a decent soft fruit crop, then perhaps it is just not the area. This should not stop you trying to grow what you want, but it should be considered.  

Your local climate may be difficult, late frosts, early frosts, dry summers wet summers, slugs, deer, rabbits! Climate change is adding to the unpredictability of the whole process of growing food. This is one good reason for growing a wide range of crops, whatever the weather some things will succeed, and other things fail, monoculture is never the right path to self-sufficiency. 

If you have limited land you may want to consider not growing crops because they are available to you at low cost elsewhere. If you live a potato growing area; I would be foolish to give over great areas of your vegetable plot to grow potatoes if the farmer down the road will sell them to me at minimal cost. Likewise, if you have the taste for an expensive crop, like asparagus or globe artichokes, then growing them in your plot might save you more money over the years than growing crops that can usually be obtained cheaply like carrots or swede. 

Keep careful notes, nothing is more fun than using an ‘appointment diary’ to keep a record of what you sow, you can also smile to yourself that you have no appointments to keep! In this way you can keep a record of your successes and failures over the years and eventually have a good selection of reliable varieties that do well for you, this will help prevent you from being seduced by the descriptions offered in seed catalogues that are, at best highly ‘imaginative’. Whatever you grow determine to try two of three new things each year, in this way you're growing will never lack interest nor will you miss out on exciting new crops. 

“The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only ten percent of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.” 

― Bill Mollison 

Vegetables 

Obviously the first thing that you will want to consider is growing vegetables, these are not the only crops that you will want to grow so don’t use all of your land up for them without some careful thought first. Summer vegetables are fine, but don’t fall into the trap of growing more than you can eat, preserve, or freeze. Give over a good proportion of your growing area to those crops that produce a harvest at other times of the year particularly winter and early spring. Unless you live in a very cold area you should be able to find varieties of sprouts, kale, cabbage, and leek that will ensure your plot is productive throughout the year. Digging and the correct use of manure and lime are important for your crops, so plan your year as well as your space carefully. Seed catalogues will frequently tell you that a new variety is better than all its predecessors, however, this is rarely true and, as far as I know only time will tell. 

Trees with edible fruit and nuts

Apples, pears, plums, damsons, cherries, hazelnuts and walnuts are all worth growing if you have the space. In addition to the food they may provide you with sticks for growing peas and beans and perhaps some firewood. Trees can also provide you with useful windbreaks which have a very important role in your growing area. While all of these trees take a few years to become productive the investment is worth it, an apple tree can repay you its original cost in its first two years of apple production. If you do not have fruit trees growing near you then you will have to plant more than one of each species to provide a pollination partner. If you live in an area where spring can come late, then choose late flowering varieties where possible. 

Soft Fruit 

One of the best things to grow in any garden is soft fruit like raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants, red-currants, gooseberries, blueberries, wine berries, etc. Not only are they much less time consuming than vegetables, but they can be easily reserved, in a number of ways so overproduction is rarely a problem. Again the cost of the plants is soon covered by fruit production and careful planning will provide you with years of cropping. The different species of plant listed above all, have some special growing requirements so do your research well before planting. In almost every garden you will need to protect your crop from birds, I like to keep mine under netting and then, when I have harvested all I need I remove the net and let the wild birds move in for a feast! 

Herbs 

You can grow herbs in any sized garden and it proves to be very profitable indeed, not only do you have fresh herbs to cook with when you want them, but you can also grow some to treat minor ailments With a few notable exceptions (like bay for instance) dried herbs are very disappointing, so preserve them by freezing or making herb pesto’s which can be then be used in cooking throughout the year. Some herbs are perennial and need a sheltered spot in the garden, but others can be grown annually very easily. When I first moved to my current house I carefully planned an herb garden, but now I have planted herbs all over the place, in vegetable plots, containers and flower beds, you can find clumps of chives, sage and various mints in all kinds of corners. Plant some of your favourite herbs close to the house in pots so that you can pop out and harvest them while cooking (and find them in the dark). Pots can be moved into a polytunnel or conservatory in the winter to prolong the growing season and protect them from frosts. You should certainly consider chives, mint, sage, thyme, oregano/marjoram, parsley, rosemary, winter and summer savoury and, if you have the space and your winters are no too harsh, bay. 

Decorative Plants 

However large or small your growing area is, please don’t forget to grow flowers, shrubs and trees which are beautiful, but not necessarily edible. Flowers will do much to encourage valuable pollinators to your garden so please choose those that have open structures which allow for nectar and pollen to be taken. Flowers can make your garden more beautiful and can also provide you with cut flowers for the house and dried flowers for the winter months. Some flowers are very useful to grow in your vegetable plot because they either smell so strongly they put pests off the scent of your crops, or they act as a breeding ground for friendly predators, or they act as a decoy for predators. Pot marigolds and nasturtiums are very useful and, self-sown, germinating nasturtium seeds is a very good indicator that the soil is warm enough to sow many vegetables.  

Shrubs, bushes and trees all have a use in providing hedging, windbreaks, hiding the unsightly and protecting your privacy. Most importantly a garden which finds room for beauty, as well as food production, will be a wonderful environment for you and your family to work and relax in. 

Protected Growing 

For most of us the biggest problem we have in growing food is the shortness of the growing season. This can be extended by a number of means, for instance starting seedling off on a windowsill indoors will have your plants off to a rapid start when the weather is warm enough for them to go outside. If you are lucky enough to have a conservatory, or greenhouse attached to your home, you can take full advantage of lighter and warmer conditions than outdoors environment for much of the year.  

Polythene is a cheap, easily recycled, and very useful material for making protected areas outside, either on its own over metal hoops, or shaped into a polytunnel. Polytunnels are not as effective as conventional greenhouses, but are very useful for protecting crops. The night time temperature in my tunnel is never less than four degrees above the outside temperature, so in spring and autumn you can extend the growing season by up to four weeks, and in summer you can raise crops, like tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers which may not grow well outside in your area. 

Take care to choose your tunnel and its position carefully and be aware that in some areas they require planning permission, so please check with your local authority before you get building.  Every few years you will need to change the polythene on your tunnel so be sure to recycle the old cover and fit in with your obligation to recycle wherever possible. 

Organic or Not? 

Obviously a simple grower will want to use the soil in a way that does not contaminate it for future generations, and will want to protect animals that have as much right to the land as you do. On the other hand, if you do nothing all your crops will be lost and your work in vain. The answer is to select a form of growing that has minimum impact on the environment. For most of us organic gardening is the way, but before we fully accept the concept we might like to consider a few points. Firstly ‘the organic movement’ has had a tendency to go back in time to the agricultural methods of a time before World War II. If you read books on growing written before that time you will find it quite common to kill weeds with concentrated sulphuric acid and to spray fruit with terrible substances like arsenate of lead, because something used to be done doesn’t mean the environmental impact was not significant, it was just unmeasured. I have also seen organic gardeners widely accept volcanic ash as a fertilizer because it is ‘natural’ whereas in fact, it contains dangerous levels of selenium compounds, very toxic substances. Err on the side of caution before using a product just because it is labelled as ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ both words are widely used in advertising and seldom have much meaning.  The ‘real way’ of organic gardening is to use any way you can come up with without resorting to harmful chemicals. 

In my garden I apply the following rules to help conserve the environment and get a reasonable crop; 

• If crops seem to be doing fine then don’t use any pesticide on them at all! 
• If you have leaves attacked by insect pests like then try spraying with water to remove them, or a solution of soft-soap applied regularly. If you are driven to use something more powerful use a spray that is biodegradable and non-toxic to humans like pyrethrums of a suspension of rape oil in water. 
• Net, cover and protect your crops as effectively as you can. 
• Make a scarecrow, but be careful they can give you a terrible shock if you look up from your work to see them standing above you! 
• If slugs are a problem, then try trapping them in beer traps, or collecting them at night. You may have some success with biological controls like nematodes, but these can prove very expensive with a large area to treat. If you have to use other manufactured remedies ensure that you use well tested, biologically friendly, products and use them very sparingly. A pet duck, if you can tolerate the mess, will eat itself silly on slugs and happily spend the day finding them. 
• Encourage wildlife to your garden that feed on pests; hedgehogs, frogs and toads get looked after very well in my garden, it’s the least I can do! 
• Ginger cats are excellent at getting your garden free of rabbits, rats and mice; in my experience they are better than any other shade of cat at doing this. 
• Homemade compost is the best way to feed your plants. 
• Growing plants can benefit from regular spaying with a seaweed solution. 
• Proprietary organic fertilizers are, in my opinion, very useful on occasions and I do use them to boost growth on plants that will not succeed otherwise. 
• Weeds are kept under control by hand weeding and hoeing. Clearing grassland to convert into food growing areas is very difficult without the one-off use of a biodegradable weed killer, but success can be had if you cover the area with black polythene for about six months prior to digging. Perhaps the best approach to weeds is to find those that are good to eat, and those that chickens like to eat and tolerate them to some extent. Other weeds of the perennial kind need to be dug out. It is wrong to expect a weed free garden, but it is bad gardening to let the weeds take over. 
• The golden rule is that whatever substances you use on your garden, don’t use them more often than necessary, and store them safely. If you can avoid using them altogether, then that is the simple way. 

The Large Plot 

If your plot is large the best way to manage it is by conventional growing using crop rotation. For instance divide you plot into four and use them as 1 Potatoes, 2 Brassica (cabbage family), 3 green leafy vegetable and beans, 4 roots. Every year you chance the order of plots that no crop grows in the same place for four years. You will need to also find space for fruit trees, soft fruit, and herbs, but these generally don’t get included in the rotation. You might also like to consider a polytunnel. Large plots do require a lot of work, especially if your locality has unpredictable weather and you find yourself with late frosts and summer droughts.  Larger plots do not allow the kind of micro-management that smaller plots allow so you have to space crops very generously to allow for hoeing, smaller plots allow for more hand weeding. If a large space is available to you, but your time or energy is limited, consider fencing a smaller area off for food production and leaving some of you

The Medium Sized Plot

For any medium sized plot of land the best and simplest way to use it is a traditional kitchen garden. Vegetable plots are positioned with some suitable paving, or gravel, paths to separate them. Crop rotation should be used and flowers and fruit bushes incorporated into the general design. Intensive cultivation is much more manageable than on a larger plot so plants can be spaced a little closer and crops can be raised by sequential cropping; as soon as one crop is harvested the next crop goes in (autumn/winter crops like leeks are quickly followed by summer cabbages, or sprouts followed by potatoes). If your soil is poor, or you are unable to dig easily, then you should consider the use of raised beds, these are expensive to set up, but are very effective ways of maximizing your food production. 

The Small Plot 

To my mind any realistic ideas of crop rotation are inappropriate for a small area, though you should still avoid growing things in exactly the same place as last year. A better way is to start a potager style garden. Here vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers are grown together in a way that both produces good crops and looks beautiful. This does mean that your garden does not need to have separate flower beds, the flowers are simply mixed in with the vegetables. Even large gardens can gainfully introduce a potager style for the area close to the hose with large scale vegetable production in the main plots. 

A potager needs to be looked after well and the gardener needs a lot of time on hands and knees, but such a beautiful result is possible in the first year. You can make your potager very ornate and geometric if you want, but keep in mind that it’s a simple life you want! 

A Wok Garden 

If the space for you to grow vegetables is very small consider starting a ‘wok garden’. Simply grow very small numbers of vegetable plants by successional sowings. Every evening, in the summer months just visit your garden and collect the small amounts of vegetables ready for eating; this might be just a few pea pods, half a handful of green beans, a pepper, spring onions, some spinach leaves and a few radishes, whatever is just right to eat. Back in the kitchen chop the vegetables and cook them, with rice or noodles in a wok. You simply don’t need large harvests to do this and you can carry on cropping all season. Salads can also be grown this way, everyday just take what is ready to crop and eat it. If you live alone, or as a couple, this method of gardening and eating will provide you with really fresh food for a good part of the year, in winter months you can grow many vegetables indoors in pots. It may not be self-sufficient, but it is a way of growing and eating your own food. 

Stocking your Plot 

You can buy seeds for your garden or you can buy young plants, but both of these are increasingly expensive. If you are in a community of growers then the sharing of plants can work wonderfully well, you simply sow a tray of cabbage, transplant as many as you need to your neighbour. Don’t ask for or expect, anything back in return, but after a while a community of ‘plant passers’ will be established. Saving your own seed it an excellent way of saving money, just leave a plant or two go to seed, collect and dry them for sowing next year. You can save seeds from most plants, but be warned, you will not get what you expect by saving the seeds of F1 plants, and even if your plants are not F1 you can expect the occasional surprise. Beans, peas, sweet peas, all members of the onion family and beetroot are especially easy to collect seeds from. I leave parsnips to seed themselves in the garden and look for self-sown plants the next year. 

As an experienced grower, you will find that it gets easier to spot self-sown plants in your garden. To the inexperienced eye, these are weeds, but once you can recognize them simply transplant them to a more convenient spot, you will be surprised how effective the collection of these free plants can be. 

Compost 

Whatever the size of your garden you will need to make a compost heap. Ideally, your compost will be a wonderful and nutritious supplement to your soil, but in reality it will vary in composition and quality. This is not a terrible problem, whatever the quality of your compost as long as it is well decomposed and fibrous it will be of use to you in the garden. Uses weeds, animal manure, grass-clippings and biodegradable waste from your kitchen, try to layer the heap carefully and don’t include large items without chopping them first. In summer your heap will be useable quite quickly, but in cold weather it may take some months. If you are unhappy with the quality of your finished product then layer it with fresh material in a new heap. You can add wood ashes, but not ashes from coal fires, if you add too much of one thing, then mixing the heap up will help material to decompose. You may need to cover your compost heap in very wet weather. 

(C) Ray Lovegrove 2016 2022

Books that Influence my Simple Life

As nobody has ever asked me, and possibly will never ask me, to select a list of books that have a deep influence on my daily life, I have decided to do just that! Well, I can't wait for ever, and I really do want to talk about these things. When I say ‘Influence on my daily life’ I mean just that ´, I'm always reaching for these books, have them heavily bookmarked. It's no coincidence that each of these books, however obliquely, relate to simple living, that’s what my life has been about for the last twenty years! I've limited myself to five books in this post, but that doesn't mean I won't be back!


Beyond The Rat Race – Arthur Gish

To start with, a book by Art Gish, that gives clear advice on how to introduce radical simplicity into your life. Gish was no lifestyle guru, but a dedicated man who lived a life of radical simplicity himself. It was published in 1973 which only goes to prove that he well ahead of his time, in his thinking, and his actions.

I don't think it has ever been published here in Europe, (various editions available in North America), but you can buy used copies, or a PDF, on the internet. Read it if you can but be warned it is life changing!

A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf

 

This book has been with me since adolescence and even if I'm not reading it, something from it is never far from my thoughts.

Virginia Woolf hasn't so much written a book for you to read, but let you spend some time within her thought process. The book is often said to be about feminism, which it is, but it is also a glimpse into a time of vast change at every social level and why such change was very necessary. The book still makes me angry in several places. Virginia was influenced by the likes of her predecessors William Morris and John Ruskin, but also by the writing, and presumably the conversations that she had, with her Quaker aunt Caroline Stephens. If you have never read any Virginia Woolf, this is the best place to start. The book is out of copyright, so you can find free copies in various formats on the internet. Don't be afraid :^)

It's true to say that a lifetime of exposure to this book has made me think differently about many things, but Virginia and Leonard Woolf have had an even bigger influence on my ideas about gardening and interior decoration. Just feast your eyes on the third picture which is of Virginia's bedroom at her home Monk's House. To see more of her home and garden follow the link below.

Virginia Woolf's Home


Essential Guide to Radical Self-reliant Gardening – Will Bonsall

This is not in the line of your average gardening book, it is the considered account of an experienced, and truly radical grower! If you garden under 'nice' conditions, then this book is not required reading, but if like me you struggle with winters that are too cold, soil that is too stony, soil that is too acidic, and summers that are too dry, etc., then give this book a try. It is written with insight, understanding of the problems and setbacks involved, wisdom and much humour.

 

Will does his growing in Maine, so his conditions are not dissimilar to those here in southern Sweden. He is vegan, so works without animal produced composting material, something many of us have to do. He grows to produce organic food on a level, and range, which is truly impressive.

Some may find his 'growing food to survive Armageddon style' a little hard to take, but it might make a good read for anyone nowadays! This book has been my constant companion since moving to live in a Nordic Forest but would be of use to anyone serious about growing food in a way that complements the natural environment.

 
Published in the States, but seemingly available in Europe without problems.

Thoreau’s Country – Edited by David R. Foster


Thoreau, yes, but not the 'Walden' that you may have been expecting. This book, the fourth in the list of books influencing my everyday life, is edited items from Thoreau's journal, together with some background writing from David R. Foster. Foster, an ecologist, repeated Thoreau's experiment of living in the woods in 1977 and has provided both insight to Thoreau's work and an impression of how the landscape has changed over the century.

The book is perfect for picking up, reading a sentence or two, and then mulling it over while you get on with some ‘Waldenesque’ task for yourself. At your bedside, when you are too tired from much Thoreau like exertion to read very much, this is just what you need to dip into before sleep takes control

The book is an American publication, and you might have to order it as an import if you live elsewhere. If of course you haven't read 'Walden' itself, or want to reread it, then that book is out of copyright and freely available.


The New Complete guide to Self-Sufficiency – John Seymour


For my fifth book that influences my daily life, the one that started me on looking for a different lifestyle in the first place is John Seymour's wonderful book (which unfortunately is published under many slightly different titles). Basically, he wrote a book on self-sufficiency, which then became the 'new' guide to self-sufficiency, and eventually had words like 'complete' and then 'new complete' added to increase the confusion. The later editions of the book have writings from his other books added to it, so if you buy it get the latest edition you can find, but second-hand copies of older editions are also about.

           


Seymour was what in the U.K. people would call a 'cantankerous old know-it-all'; much of the book seems not to have been "written" at all, rather spun off verbally and jotted down by some family member or disciple. It is full of the kind of advice that publishers like to publish a disclaimer about, such as shooting bullfinches, or defecating directly into your compost heap!

Given all this, no book is more inspiring, encouraging or helpful, no aspect of self-sufficiency is not covered, and you could use it as your guide to a whole new way of life. Even if you live in circumstances which make this kind of life nothing more than a daydream, then reading it would make you a better-informed daydreamer.

I am currently using my third edition of the book, and I could honestly pick it up now and devote an hour or two just to the joy of losing myself in the pages. Originally a U.K. publication, but editions available in many languages around the world.

(C) Ray Lovegrove 2022

Radically Change How you Live

 

Basic Changes you can Start Today

• Think carefully about where you live and decide if it meets your needs
• De-clutter your house fully to start with then maintain a low clutter tolerance into the future. Give unwanted items to charity
• Recycle any materials that you cannot give away and make recycling part of your everyday routine
• Reuse items and materials in creative ways (save money
• Reduce the amount of noise in your home by turning of music, radio and television only when you need to use them
• Make no background noise the rule in your home
• Assess the available space outside your house and consider how it is used
• Insulate your house as well as you can (save money)
• Keep yourself warm rather than heating every room in the house (save money)
• Buy a scrubbing brush and use it
• Always investigate second-hand furniture before looking at buying new (save money)
• Learn to clean not as a chore, but as an important job of work you do for home and family

Some Changes you might like to consider for the Future

• Change your living room from a place where family members watch television to a place where a variety of activities can take place
• Use wood flooring and furniture as you come to replace your current items 
• Refresh your house by painting walls and using simple fabrics
• Consider changing the function of rooms
• Dig up your lawn and grow vegetables instead (save money)
• Consider the viability of electricity generation for your home using wind or solar power (save money)
• Consider learning basic carpentry, plumbing or needlework skills (save money)
• Consider becoming a one car family (save money)
• Consider sharing car journeys to work (save money)
• Consider using public transport to get to work (save money)

Some big radical changes you may want to move towards

• Sell up and move to the country
• Give up your car (save money)
• If you have the resources, land and skills then build your own house (save money - perhaps)

How do I learn new skills?

Ask neighbours, friends, family. In particular elderly people may have lots of skills they are willing to pass on to anyone interested. In your area you may find evening or weekend courses you can attend. YouTube can provide easy free access to experts! 

(C) Ray Lovegrove 2022

See Also;

Reject Technology?

A Simple Place

What you Own

Changes at Home 

Radically Change how you Dress

Simplicity when Cooking

"Happy and successful cooking doesn't rely only on know-how; it comes from the heart, makes great demands on the palate and needs enthusiasm and a deep love of food to bring it to life." 

~Georges Blanc 

Cooking is at the very centre of a simple life.  Whether you live alone, in a family or a larger community, cooking food is a major interaction with the environment around you; it gives you the chance to cook healthy, environmentally sustainable and ethically produced meals in your own home. Cooking uses many skills and effectively done, will save you money, and allow you to have a major input into the health, happiness and well-being of those you cook for. 

Not to cook food is not to be connected with what grows, and worse still, to lose a very strong point of connection with your loved ones. Cook well for them and they will carry those memories with them forever and you will define for them the very basic ideas of home, being part of a family and peace as a concept that starts at the meal table. 

Cooking at home should not be so different now as it was in the days of your grandparents, in fact it should be even better, given that we have a wider range of ingredients and better technology. Unfortunately, many have given up real cooking in favour of something that resembles science fiction home economics ~ the simple fact is that cooking real food takes time.  It does not save time to go for the ‘instant’ alternative because the end product is nothing like the real thing! 

The Kitchen 

Perhaps it is a matter of matching your aspirations to the facilities you find yourself with; it can be hard to cook meals in a kitchen that isn’t designed for serious cooking and radical self-sufficiency. If your kitchen is too small, then consider swapping its function with another larger room in your house, or less dramatically, try to get everything out of your kitchen which is not associated with the cooking, storing and consumption of food. . It is great to enjoy family meals in the kitchen, but if you really don’t have the room you will have to content yourself with a dining table in another room.  There is only one thing worse than eating around a table that is too small and too low ~ that is eating without any table at all! Simple living demands a table to eat at in comfort! 

Appliances, although helpful and possibly timesaving, also take up room, so limit yourself to what your basic needs are in terms of a cooking range and a refrigerator and, if you can banish washing machines and dishwasher to another room, so much the better. If you can’t do these things then you will cope, with careful planning.

“Good kitchens are not about size; they are about ergonomics and light.” 

- Nigel Slater 

Take a good look around your kitchen and see what you can do to make things better; the centre of any simple home is the kitchen, so spend time making it a place of light, a place of joy and a place of shalom. 

The ‘Kosher’ Kitchen 

Unless you are Jewish you might not see the significance of a Kosher kitchen, but the idea is a sound one for Jews and Gentiles alike. Have rules for your kitchen and be clear about what is allowed in it and what is not allowed.  This usually has to do with cleanliness but can also fit in with your own dietary rules. For instance, ours is a vegetarian house, so we have no meat or fish in the kitchen, neither would we want any utensils, pots, pans or crockery in the kitchen that has come into contact with meat or fish. Pet foods are not kept in the kitchen, nor are pets fed on meat products in the kitchen. You might want to run a similar routine if someone in your family has an allergy to nuts or strawberries; keep the kitchen absolutely free of these foods.  

Before you dismiss this idea out of hand, consider that it only relates to your kitchen, your family and your food; you make your own rules as they apply to you. 

"Happy is said to be the family which can eat onions together. They are, for the time being, separate, from the world, and have a harmony of aspiration." 

-Charles Dudley Warner 

The Store Cupboard 

A store cupboard should be large enough to hold the ingredients for tasty meals between your normal visits to the shops. It may also contain extra provisions to see you over periods of very bad weather, or short periods of illness. Apart from this it may also contain larger amounts of food that you have preserved from your garden or from foraging. There is a tendency, which I willingly admit to being guilty of, of storing a little too much in the way of provisions in case of catastrophe.  This should be resisted; it probably won’t happen! Food that you preserve yourself will be dealt with later, but for now we will consider the main classes of provisions that you will want to keep. 

• Flours for the making of pastries, cakes and bread. Consider using wholemeal flour as your default; wholemeal wheat flour is available widely as plain, self-raising and strong. You may also wish to stock rye, spelt and other flours for bread making, as well as oats and breakfast cereals. Of course, if you have problems with wheat/gluten, the items in your store cupboard will be very different from this. Avoid bleached flour at all costs. Why add a chemical that reduces the nutritional content of your food? 
• Dried goods including various beans and lentils, rice, pasta, yeast.  You will also need noodles and the like, as well as tea, coffee and sugar if you use them. 
• Canned goods; you should be able to eliminate many processed canned foods from your kitchen but canned plum tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, pasata, and baked beans are good. Canned chickpeas and one or two other varieties of legume are good for when you forget to put beans in to soak the night before. 
• Jars and bottles of ketchup, soy sauce, mustard, peanut butter etc. (If you are British or Australian, you will probably want to add yeast extract to this list.) 
• Salt, spices and herbs. Don’t use dried herbs unless you really have no option, grow your own. 
• Cooking oils of your choice; I keep sunflower oil, extra virgin olive oil and extra virgin ape oil. Don’t buy oils that have been heat treated as the important fatty acids will be lost. 
• If you live in an isolated area you may wish to keep a few items in case you are unable to shop for some time, such as dried milk. 

The Refrigerator 

Exactly how much refrigerator space you need depends on the size of your family and how far you are from the shops. To save on refrigerator space, avoid keeping things in there that don’t need to be kept cold, such as open jars of pickles and, for most of the year, fruit and vegetables. Some fresh vegetables keep much better in a refrigerator, but others definitely do not! Tomatoes are much better brought out of the cold to room temperature the day before you are going to eat them. Avocadoes soon develop a king of stringy brownness when kept too cold; it seems that the ripening process is upset in some way. Operate some kind of system in your fridge so you don’t have to be constantly rummaging and searching for things. If you eat meat, fish and dairy produce, this is the place to keep those things. 

Keep your refrigerator clean, but you don’t need to use chemical sprays.  You can just wipe down the insides and the shelves regularly with a damp cloth; you can use some washing soda (sodium carbonate) in the water if necessary. You also need to keep cooked foods at the top and raw foods at the bottom, especially if you keep meat, fish and dairy in your refrigerator.  This prevents any drips from the raw food contaminating the cooked food below. 

Freezers can be incorporated into the refrigerator or be “stand alone”. In my early days of self-sufficiency, I would have recommended the largest freezer you could accommodate, but I have changed my mind over time. Freezers are expensive to run and do encourage hoarding of items that would be better consumed soon after they are prepared. A good refrigerator and a careful planning of menus to use up leftovers is a better idea. To further reduce the need for freezer space, learn some more traditional methods of preserving foods. 

The Range 

The simple life requires of us that we do without unnecessary complexity in our lives.  If you are halfway serious about simplicity you will want to cook as much as you can from scratch and leave prepared foods at the supermarket! A good oven plus hob, or a good kitchen range is essential for this. You can select a range that uses wood, coal, gas, electricity or any combination of those and you need to make your decision carefully. A good range may well be the most expensive item in your house so look after what you buy, and you should never need to replace it! If you don’t have a piped-in gas supply, you may want to consider using bottled gas (LPG) as an alternative; many Amish families do this. The ‘dark green’ solution is to use gas produced from a methane digester using waste materials.  However, if you find yourself in a small kitchen and unable to buy new equipment, then you should find that the equipment on hand can still be used effectively to produce home cooked meals. 

Remember that whatever cooking facilities you have, they must be used effectively and with one eye on the environment. Don’t have the heat up higher than you need to; learn the gentle art of simmering. You can often turn off the heat for the last few minutes of cooking with the heat from the pan finishing the job. Use an oven just big enough for what you have to cook and, if you have empty space in the oven, cook something else for later in the week and then just reheat it.  For example, putting a cake in to bake after removing the roast from the oven is the sort of thing that you can do very easily – it just requires a little thinking ahead.  

Work Surfaces 

Whatever your work surfaces are made from, always aim to keep them as clear of clutter as possible.  Cooking takes space and the more clutter you have, the less working space is left. Modern kitchen work surfaces often get filled with toasters, microwave ovens, coffee makers, kettles etc.; consider which of these you can do without or consider keeping them in a cupboard when not in use. 

Work surfaces need to be kept clean, but again, powerful chemicals are not the way.  A clean damp cloth with some washing soda on hand is all you need. If you have wooden surfaces you will need to keep them regularly oiled. Wooden chopping boards or plastic chopping/preparing mats are a much better thing to use than preparing foodstuffs directly onto the work surface.

Who does the cooking? 

Real cooking from fresh ingredients needs planning and preparation time, so it does not matter who does the cooking as long as everyone knows in advance who has responsibility for getting a meal on the table. In some households one person can be in charge of cooking the majority of meals, either because of ability or availability, but if this is not the case then some kind of rota needs to be drawn up. The worst thing is for meals to be badly planned and rushed because of not being sure who should do the cooking on any particular day. 

In terms of who should be able to cook, the answer is very simple ~ everybody. Children need to be introduced to the process of food preparation as soon as they are able, and adults who claim not to be able to cook need to learn.  It’s not that difficult and nobody should abdicate responsibility by claiming they ‘can’t’. If you have a big family or live in a community then for every meal you can appoint someone to be a ‘cook’s aid’, so the uninitiated can eventually become the experienced. 

What to Cook 

In Britain, it seems, we buy more cookbooks and watch more cookery programs on television than any other nation on earth, and yet when it comes to cooking, we have a limited repertoire.  The average family seems to limit itself to between ten and fifteen different meals! Before you decide what to cook, consider the following points. 

• A meal must be balanced; it should contain portions of protein-rich food, some oils and some complex carbohydrates. If the meal is of more than one course, these portions can be spread between the courses. 
• At least two meals a day should contain fresh vegetables; try to go for differing colours to ensure a good mix of nutrients. The rule ‘something red with something green’ is a good one as long as you remember that orange is as good as red. Vegetables, for the main part, are essential in the diet to provide fibre, minerals, and vitamins; eat enough of them and you will reap the long-term health benefits. 
• The meal should not contain too much salt, sugar or fat and wherever possible would contain wholemeal grains instead of white refined products (pasta being a good case in point). 
• It should take account of various likes and dislikes around the table but should not go as far as any individual getting an entirely different meal unless for ethical or medical reasons. (The vegan at a vegetarian meal or the person who has a wheat or dairy allergy for instance, will need separate consideration.) 
• The choice of food should be based around availability and seasonality. If it is summer and your garden is full of carrots and French beans, then it’s a dish with carrots and French beans for supper! 
• Meals on the same day should not repeat what was had earlier, try to be different. 
• Throughout the week try to vary meals as much as possible; use cookbooks to help you but don’t be intimidated by them, and don’t be afraid to experiment.  
• Try to take into account how hungry everyone is going to be; a very cold day or everyone working outside will result in some pretty impressive appetites. 

How to Cook 

Know, at least roughly, what you are going to cook tomorrow.  Avoid having to shop for one or two missing ingredients; if you don’t have what you need for a meal, then cook something else! Some foods need longer planning times ~ if you want to cook beans from a dried state this normally involves some overnight soaking. (You can reduce this time by cooking the dried beans boiling, unsalted water for about five minutes, then leaving them to soak for about twelve hours). You may also need to bake bread in advance. Many meals benefit from a long slow cook and this may have the beneficial effect of heating up your kitchen in cold weather.  Whatever you cook, always aim to bring things to the table in a freshly cooked state.  In particular, vegetables need dishing up at the very last minute. When cooking, always keep a close eye on energy consumption.  Don’t boil things on the top heat setting, just bring them to the boil then gently simmer.  

Plan your week so that food cooked in the oven doesn’t waste energy.  If you can fill up the shelves with dishes for later in the week so much the better! 

Bread Making 

However busy you may be, always find a little time each week to bake bread. If you are busy being self-sufficient in the summer you may have to designate a weekend day for making bread, but in winter months try to bake bread regularly.  You’ll warm your house and give it that wonderful smell whenever you do so.  You need to experiment at first, but you can soon develop a range of recipes to keep you and those you live with happy; these can be everything from rustic sourdoughs and soda breads to everyday loaves for making sandwiches. While many prefer oven cooked bread, I think that a bread-maker, if you have the room, is an especially useful item of technology.  It saves you having to be involved at every stage and ‘frees up’ time for other things; perhaps most useful of all, the timer setting allows those who are out all day to come home to home baked bread. The choice of flour is important, the stronger the better for most purposes.  Natural flour improvers like soya and vitamin C can help you in producing excellent loaves. 

If you have problems with digesting conventional bread, do experiment with sourdoughs. A bubbling sourdough starter will soon become a important part of your kitchen and your routine. 

“I would say to housewives, be not daunted by one failure, nor by twenty. Resolve that you will have good bread, and never cease striving after this result till you have effected it.” 

- Marion Cabell Tyree (Housekeeping in Old Virginia) 

Waste in the Kitchen 

This is a suitable time to remind ourselves that to aim for simplicity is good but if it does not match up to the highest standards of environmental sustainability, then attaining it will be a hollow victory. The job of all in the kitchen is to provide good, wholesome healthy food for all, without creating lots of waste. The following points should help you consider what you can do to avoid waste. 

Don’t buy more than you need; if the shops are selling fresh produce at a reduced rate, buy only as much as you can use and then preserve the rest. If you can’t see how to use it, or don’t have the time to process it, then don’t buy it. 

Don’t cook more than you need. Get so good at estimating amounts eaten at mealtime that there are few leftovers. If you get it wrong and people are still hungry, have bread and butter and some fruit at hand to fill them. 

If you do have leftovers, store them safely for use in a day or two. Remember that if you have leftovers at the end of the day, plan mealtimes so that they are used up. Don’t add leftovers to more leftovers!  

If you keep chickens or have friends in the neighborhood who keeps chickens, keep a small covered bucket of scraps to feed them.  Scraps for chickens cannot contain very salty foods, and very ‘stringy’ food may need cutting up, but apart from that, they are not too fussy. Don’t keep the scraps longer than a day before you use them as chicken food. 

If you have plants growing outside, you can collect waste for compost. Again, a small bucket with a lid on it to keep out flies should be always at hand in the kitchen. Any vegetable peelings (those not suitable for chickens), tea bags, coffee grounds, crushed eggshell, banana, and citrus peel etc. can go in. You can add a reasonable amount of used kitchen paper as long as you have not used it with cleaning chemicals. 

At table you should consider using serving dishes; this means that leftovers are in a fit state to use in other meals. This also stops ‘loading up plates ‘and prevents people from eating more that they want or need. 

Monitor carefully the energy you use in cooking; constantly try to arrange your cooking so that the best possible use is made of hot ovens. 

Make Notes 

If you have ideas and they work out well, then make a note to remind you next time. Also keep notes on recipes and the modifications you make to them. Don’t spend so much time doing this that it takes time away from the cooking itself; a small hardbound notebook that has a home in a drawer is enough. Also keep your annotated recipes clipped out of magazines and newspapers in a scrapbook. 

Preserving Food 

If you are growing your food or doing some foraging, then you should have excess food ready for preserving. The point of preserving is to make good use of excess crops and to provide food for the winter months when fresh food is scarcer. It is easy to get carried away and preserve more food that you need, so take care. 

“Preserving was almost a mania ….....When there was nothing to preserve, she began to pickle." 

-Willa Cather 

Bottling (Canning) 

Bottling fruit and vegetables was once an essential part of kitchen work and has always remained popular in rural areas of Europe and North America (where it is called ‘canning’). You probably need a good guide to do this and some are recommended at the end of this chapter. Above all, you must use fresh foods at the start of the process and take meticulous care during bottling, to make sure you are not contaminating your food or jars. The only way to start on this process is to use acidic foods only (most fruits and tomato based foods), and to use jars with ‘click’ indicators to show that you have a good seal. When you come to eating the food, please reject any that come from ‘blown’ jars on which the metal depression of the lid sticks out. The internet is full of people telling you how to bottle all sorts of foods, but you needed to be very experienced before you can feel confident enough to do this; stick to fruits and tomatoes, then no problems should occur. You can add citric acid to improve the acidity and therefore the safety of your produce. Avoid bottling food with very low acidity such as French beans, unless you have attended a class on how to do it safely. 

Pickles and Chutneys 

The high acidity of these foods makes them very safe indeed for home production. In fact, you can use pre-used jars with lids that have been very well cleaned to make pickles, but you need to watch metal lids for signs or corrosion. The basic idea is to remove as much water as possible from the fresh produce by soaking in brine for about twenty-four hours. Following this, you rinse the produce careful, but quickly, and then cover with vinegar which replaces the water. Don’t pickle too much at once; while they do keep for a long time the quality, taste and crispness start to fade after a few months in the jar. Chutneys are really just savoury jams, perhaps not quite as sweet, but watch out for over-consumption if you are trying to avoid sugar in your diet. 

It is easy to get carried away with pickling and chutney making following a good harvest; if you produce far more than you can eat, consider using excess jars as gifts while they’re at their best. 

Jams and Conserves (that’s Jellies in North America) 

It’s nice to think of jam making as a link with the past, but until the 19th century when sugar became mass produced and reasonably cheap, it probably was rarity in most households. The idea behind jam is simple; boil fresh fruit with sugar until enough pectin (a natural gelling agent in the fruit) is released and reacts with the sugar, causing the mixture to ‘set’. In theory this sounds easy, but in practice many fruits do not contain enough pectin for this to happen and the jam never sets properly. You can add pectin during the cooking process to improve the setting of the jam – either purchase it or use the juice of a high-pectin fruit such as crab-apples or redcurrants.  Conserves (sometimes called by the very silly name ‘extra jam’ in the UK) use less sugar than regular jams and the result is a fruitier and runnier product. You can also strain the fruit juice before boiling with sugar - even in Britain, the result is called a ‘jelly’.  

A few points to remember when jam/jelly/conserve making; 

• If you add the sugar before you have heated the fruit then that fruit will remain firm and solid in a way that makes the final product difficult to spread. 
• The whole process involves a fairly long ‘rolling boil’ of very hot fruit and sugar mixture. Keep young children well out of the way as you do this. Some people like to use a jam-making thermometer to help them decide whether the ‘setting point’ has been reached. 
• Put your hot jam into jars that have been sterilized in a hot oven. You can use all kinds of paper and wax sealing for your jars, but I prefer the metal lid with a ‘safety button’. 
• Jam will last a long time, and generally, the flavor improves over a year or two. If jam is ‘goes off’ it is usually just a mould growing on the surface.  Scrape it off and tuck in! 
• The fruits with lowest pectin include strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. Those with good pectin levels include blackcurrant, gooseberry, redcurrant and anything using apple juice. 
• You can make excellent jams by mixing low pectin fruits with higher pectin content fruits, or the juices thereof. For instance, raspberry jam made with redcurrant juice; helpfully, both fruits are in season at the same time. 
• Jam is a very high sugar content food, even the ‘low sugar’ kinds. Eat it sparingly and if you want to avoid sugar, then cut it out of your diet altogether. 

Home Made Drinks 

Excess produce can be made into wine, ciders and beers by those who drink alcohol. Please note that the alcohol content of these drinks can be very high ~ so take care. In most countries it is illegal to distill the products of fermentation to make spirit. Home winemaking and brewing is very popular, and you should be able to source ingredients locally. 

Very low, or no alcohol drinks can also be made and, if they are acidic enough, will keep for a month or two. The best way to store these drinks is in bottles with a wired stopper; you can use soda bottles but take care when you open them.  

Try lemonade, ginger beer and other ideas, but remember, don’t make too much otherwise you will be wasting ingredients and time. Again, sugar is an ingredient of these drinks so avoid if you need to. 

Freezing 

Freezing was once considered the best way to preserve produce and it still has its uses, but the drawbacks are many.  The most important drawbacks are that freezers take up space and use up energy. Anyone who has defrosted the freezer and found uncomfortable looking bags of material that presumably used to be food, or those plastic tubs that have lost any labeling and result in some very unusual suppers will realize the limitations. As far as produce from the garden goes, freezers are best use for storing peas, beans and occasional asparagus spears. Be very tight on the management of your freezer and do not allow a buildup of forgotten meals. If you have cooked too much of a meal and want to freeze the rest that’s fine, but make a note on the calendar to eat it up in a week or so, a month at the longest, otherwise it will become a lost cause.  

Perhaps the best use of a freezer is for those who are at work, or otherwise away from home all week.  You can bake bread at the weekend and still enjoy it all week long. 

The Amish generally do not use fridges or freezers, but they are famed for canning all summer and enjoying all winter. The more you get into bottling food, the less attractive freezing seems;  the finding, defrosting and reheating process all take longer than taking a jar from the shelf and opening it! 

Drying 

Drying is an excellent way to store apples, pears and other fruits as well as mushrooms and some herbs. I say “some” herbs, because with the exception of bay, sage and thyme, very few others are worth the effort.  It’s better to try and grow them fresh through the winter. You can dry them in the sun if you are lucky enough to have sunshine in abundance, or you can use a drying oven or an ordinary oven at low heat. Fruits can also be turned into the ominously named ‘fruit leather’ which is very good. 

“The keynote to happiness within the four walls that make any home is plain, wholesome, well-cooked

food, attractively served.” 

-Louis P. De Gouy 

Simple Ideas

The simple answer is from the past, before much modern technology had been developed. It is wrong to look too fondly on things that we imagine came from some kind of ‘golden age’ because such an age never occurred. The distant past had a number of advocates of the simple life, Socrates, Jesus, Buddha, and others, but it is the not-too-distant past that this blog will draw most heavily upon. In the last fifty to one hundred years, we have seen probably the most dramatic changes to everyday life that have ever been witnessed, so we are not far removed from a way of living that seems strange to us now, but almost within our grasp. Like ‘the day before yesterday’ those times have gone, but if we work at it, we can capture the essence of them and select those things which have been lost which should have been cherished and nurtured.  

We gather most of our impressions of how things were done in the past from books, films, paintings and photographs, but these can give artificially simplistic ideas about what the past was like. We may be able to see a reconstruction of an 1850s kitchen, but we can never be aware of the levels of light, the smells, the noise etc. … we are left with a fairly ‘rosy’ impression of what it would have been like. Life has always been very hard for the vast majority of people on the planet; what seems to us to be a nice or even a fashionable little pastime, like making bread or growing potatoes, was just another part of the great drudgery of living and ‘making ends meet’.  We do not want to return to simple drudgery to live however; we want to live simply, but happily.  We want our simplicity to be a joy, not a burden; to achieve this we need to use technology carefully. We need to look at technical advancements and, whilst never accepting them merely because they exist, we need to evaluate them carefully to see whether they can help us live the way we aim to live; that is what technology is for!  

Various movements and individuals have tried to develop a simple approach to life developed from spiritual/philosophical ideals.  Among them are many Buddhist groups, and those following the monastic lifestyle in the Celtic, Catholic and Orthodox Christian traditions. In more modern times various religious groups such as the Mennonites and Amish, the Quakers and the Shakers have all developed a simple approach to life from which all of us can learn. More recently still, secular ideas of minimalism have made an impact on the lives of many. Tolstoy, Thoreau, Gandhi, and others have written of simplicity and those writings have influenced countless numbers of individuals, and persuaded many to change their lives, some a little, others vastly.  

‘Minimalism’ isn't the same as ‘simple living’, though some overlap of ideas is common. It may be a minimalist that sits at a table in a white room eating an apple, but it’s the simple life that gets you outside growing those apples, harvesting those apples, cooking those apples. A simple kitchen will have lots of tools for doing the job, the kind of thing that a minimalist wouldn't want. I'm not against minimalism in any way, and we could all look at minimising things in our lives, but this blog is about radical simple living, and that’s very different! 

  

One often-overlooked source of ‘modern’ simplicity comes from Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid. Reid was a key member of the Scottish Enlightenment and a founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, which argued that the feelings and actions of humans were governed by basic principles of common sense. This may have been a strong influence on Samuel Smiles, another Scot, who wrote several Victorian best sellers including Self Help (1859), which provided the English-speaking world with hundreds of easy-to-remember quotes on self-improvement. One can sum up Smiles’ philosophy as “keep clean, and work hard”. It is surprising how often Smiles is quoted (usually unaccredited) in self-sufficiency books and websites. Much of the ‘homespun’ advice to families up to the middle of the twentieth century comes from Smiles. I have also found Smiles quoted in a political setting where his words are used to promote that kind of ‘rugged individualism’ which usually boils down to the idea that we all need to look after ourselves and the state should not be involved. I don’t think that was what Smiles was saying at all, but feel free to disagree with me on that! 

 “The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.”  

“A place for everything and everything in its place.” 

“The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning, whereas the experience gained from actual life is of the nature of wisdom.”  

-Samuel Smiles 

Common sense still has to be at the heart of our simple life.  We need to do things because they are the common sense way to achieve our goals. Cooking, housekeeping, growing food and bringing up children all require a ‘common sense’ approach, otherwise they are not simple at all.  

‘Victorian’ homes were traditional places where people from all classes tried to display as many material possessions as possible. Wallpaper, curtains, potted plants, pianos, vases, plates, framed pictures and other artefacts filled drawing-rooms and front parlours. To our eyes these look like rooms full of clutter, a mishmash of styles and functions. William Morris (1834 –96) and others led a movement towards a more simple way of furnishing homes, using well-designed craftsman-made items.  This became known as the ‘Arts and Crafts Movement’. To be honest, it still looks a bit cluttered at times to our modern eyes, but the move towards less items of better quality was an important one and one we should aim to learn from.  

Morris very openly drew on medieval ideas to develop his style and that led him to the use of traditional materials and craftsmanship, sometimes producing a monastic feel to his work. He did come up with a famous maxim for all those who seek a simple, yet beautiful space to live.  

also need to note that Morris was concerned for the wellbeing of the craftsmen who made the objects and materials he used, and in this we see the start of some kind of realization that the goods that we use need to be ethically sourced. 

 “If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it:  Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” ~ William Morris 

Homesteading  

Homesteading is a familiar lifestyle for many in North America.  Use of the term in the United States dates back to the Homestead Act (1862) and hit its heyday in the period between the end of the American Civil War and the start of the Twentieth century. Perhaps most of us get our concept of homesteading from the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ and its companion books, written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This view of a homesteading family as seen through the eyes of Laura as a girl, has had a potent effect on many who read it as children. In my experience any conversation with a self-sufficient homesteader gets back to the influence of these books very quickly.  I have heard all kinds of theories about the alleged ghost writing, or at least the heavy editing, of these books (by her daughter), but nothing distracts from their charm.   

It is a little known fact that many African-American families were given plots of land to start up homesteading after the Civil War in an initiative developed by Abraham Lincoln himself.  Homesteading is still an important way of life for many in America and it is interesting to note how strongly those who adopt it believe they are the inheritors of that pioneer spirit which drove their great grandparents ever farther westwards.  

Homesteading has its followers among those on the liberal left who see it as an expression of political disobedience and a way of avoiding corporate interference, whilst those homesteaders on the right regard it as a stand against ‘big government’ and see it as the last refuge of individualism in modern America. Perhaps it is just that most homesteaders see it as a way of life which allows them to develop strong family and community ties and lets them become self-sufficient, free to make their own decisions.   

In Western Europe the homesteading movement has never gained momentum, with most self-sufficient growers and farmers calling themselves ‘small holders’ and less likely to see their choice of occupation as being a political or philosophical statement.  

Counter Culture  

Hippies are not normally considered as the inspiration for a simple lifestyle, but they did have a profound effect on western society. Starting famously in 1967, “the summer of love” in San Francisco, they developed the spirit that was to lead many to live an alternative lifestyle. So many alternative lifestyles were developed, that by the 1970s, a whole range of “counter cultures” were on offer. Most significant of these to our cause were the “green movement” (not yet to become a political force) and the related movement towards self-sufficiency. This was helped by some influential books of the time; “Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World” by Helen and Scott Nearing (1970) in the US and “Farming for Self-Sufficiency - Independence on a Five Acre Farm” by John Seymour (1973) in the UK, followed by his “The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency” (1976). A great deal of attention was also given to the publication of “Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as If People Mattered” (1973) a collection of essays by British economist E. F. Schumacher.  These books changed many peoples’ lives by convincing them that they do have the ability to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on modern industrial and agricultural techniques. These movements may have started without the development of the ‘Hippy Movement’, but the general sprit of the age led to new ideas about how to live taking root more quickly than might have been thought possible.  

What ideas support Simple Living today ? 

• Just three things are important; 
• The desire to live more simply and avoid a life that is more complicated than necessary  
• The need to care for and cherish the environment   
• The belief that simplicity is a gateway to greater understanding of the true values of life and/or a more spiritual approach to life. 

Throughout this blog I will work on the assumption that simple living, environmentally ‘green’ living and ethical living are all so connected that one cannot truly be doing one without having given some attention to the other two! To me, these ideas are encapsulated by the American Quaker John Woolman, a man who thought hard about the consequences of his everyday actions and took steps to live in a way that was compatible with his beliefs.  

“The produce of the earth is a gift from our gracious creator to the inhabitants, and to impoverish the earth to support outward greatness appears to be an injury to the succeeding age.” 

~ John Woolman 

(C) Ray Lovegrove 2015 2022