Grow Your Own: Sorting Out Step 1

Alright, I’ve made the decision to try to produce some of my own food. Now what? Seems step one should be to do a bit of research.

The root of this decision comes from a British television series called River Cottage. It’s basically about a guy who leaves his life in London to start a small farm to feed himself. This is not what my intention is really; I want to feed myself but I don’t want to leave my job or support myself off of the surplus. Not today at least. The show was hosted/created by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall so I figure that it’s to him I should look for some advice.

In that vein i’ve ordered two books from Amazon, The River Cottage Year and, The River Cottage Meat Book. The first one is about eating seasonally and the reasons for it, the second one is about understanding meat (it seems). It’s a little out of my range at the moment but if I’m going to be serious about this stuff the more information I can get now the better. If growing some of my own animals is something I actually want to try to do I don’t want to go into it under a false pretense.

Interestingly enough, The River Cottage Year is not being sold in the US. Amazon is actually listing a UK based company that is selling the book. I didn’t know that when I bought it so it’s going to take a long while to get here. I got a message from the shipper shortly after I placed the order that said basically, ‘It’s been shipped, if you don’t see it in two weeks let us know’. I laughed when I read it. I guess it can get caught in customs plus I did the cheapest shipping Amazon offered. I won’t really start planting anything until late winter anyways so there is no rush right now.

Hopefully these books will help get me started or at least point me in the right direction. I’ll post more information about them once I’ve had a chance to look them over. It’s been a long time since I’ve written a book report….

Next step will be to find a place to plant. I don’t own a house and with the current market it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to buy one in the near future so we’ll see. Perhaps I can poach some unused garden space from friends…

Topslakr

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