Self Sufficient Living is Great For Any Lifestyle

Self sufficient living has so many benefits to it, it is a wonder we do not live like this already. One of the greatest benefits of living self sufficiently is the free power we get as well as the organic food and clothing.

Self sufficient living works because we do everything ourselves or at least we do most of the work ourselves, we grow our own food organically, without pesticides, we grow our own cotton, hemp and make our own clothes.

Organic Fruit

We make water, solar or wind generators to power all our electronics, we build our houses out of the earth, stone and wood and we drive high efficiency, high economical cars.

The idea behind self sufficient living is that we cut down as much dependency as we can on outside sources, so if something goes wrong in the world we are not so bad off. If the world economy crashed and we were practicing self-sufficiency, we would be much better off.

We would have plenty of organic food, water and clothing, we would have land and free energy to power all our electronics. The only thing we might have problems with would be our vehicle if the price of gas went up very high.

Take for example, wind powered generators, if you live in a part of the country that has a lot of wind, then investing in a wind powered generator would be excellent. You could be producing enough energy for all your electric applications such as your TV, refrigerator, stove, lights, stereo, computer, hot water heater and more.

Another great energy system is solar power. If you live in an area that gets lots of sun, say like a tropical place or somewhere down south, then a solar generator might be better. These generators create electricity directly from the sun and can power many home applications, cutting the energy bill significantly.

Finely we have water-power, this type of energy generator works by using the energy of a stream or waterfall. Not everyone has running water nearby, but if you do have a stream, creek or waterfall on your property, you could use one of these generators to produce power. These small generators are very efficient and a few of them can power a full home.

Another great aspect of self sufficient living is organic gardening. There is nothing to compare with tasting food grown by yourself, food picked strait from your own garden has the most flavorful taste, is the best for our health and it is almost free.

If, however you cannot grow your own garden, then buying organic food is the next best thing. Organic food grown by someone else tastes just as good and is just as healthy for you as growing it yourself.

Self Sufficient Living is Great For Any Lifestyle

Acharya D Hargreaves, is a published author of two health books, Digest Alive Lose Weight and build a great body Naturally, Digest Alive The Natural Cure to Heartburn and the owner of [http://www.natural-way-to-lose-weight-fast.com] a website dedicated to helping overweight and obese people with their weight problems.

"Obesity and Overweight issues are signs that our bodies are unbalanced, to naturally Lose weight quickly and keep it off, we need to make our bodies feel the need to balance themselves out, when this happens we will lose weight fast and keep it off." He says.

In his spare time he likes to do 3D modeling and work with Art and writing, Acharya D Hargreaves lives on an Organic fruit orchard with his wonderful family.

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Planting Berries and Grapes - Make Your Homestead More Self Sufficient

One of my projects this past week was planting new berry vines and bushes and putting in an arbor of grape vines. With the colder nights, I up-end a bucket over them just in case we might get a little frost and then uncover them for the day. By getting them in the ground now they will have time to 'settle in' and I should be able to pick some fruit off of them this year.

The dream is to make the farm as self-sufficient as possible for its size and fresh fruit is necessary for a healthy diet. These plants will be raised organically and pollinated by honey bees raised here on the farm. Most of the plants put in were at least two year old vines with a few being a little older. Select varieties that suit your needs and purchase vines or canes within your budget.

The berries planted included blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries but several different varieties of each. By planting several varieties, the harvest time will vary from early in the season to late stretching out the availability of fresh fruit straight off of the vine. It also allows for a variance in flavor for some of the jams, jellies, and wines that are made on the farm.

The varieties of blueberries include: Spartan, Bluecrop, and Blueray.

The Spartan has very large light blue fruit with a tangy sweet flavor and it ripens early in the season. The Blueray bushes produce large fruit with an outstanding dessert flavor which will ripen in early to mid season. Bluecrop are large and sweet berries available to harvest mid-season.

As with the blueberries, several varieties of raspberry canes were planted including: Brandywine, Royalty, and a Cumberland Black Raspberry.

The Brandywine is considered a Purple Raspberry with a pleasantly tangy flavor. It's fruit is large, round and firm available to harvest in late summer. Royalty raspberries are also a purple fruit that are full-sized and sweet, excellent for jelly or jam ready for use in mid-July. Cumberland raspberries are black never seedy, ready in mid-season for pies, cobblers, jams, or jellies.

We will be putting in more varieties that will include the red and gold varieties. Some of these will be ever-bearing so we will have berries starting in mid-season going on into fall. The ideas behind this are simple. If everything ripens at the same time, we would only have berries or grapes available to eat for a short period of time and there simply would not be enough time in the day to process all the fruit into juice, wines, jams, or jellies.

The blackberry vines planted were all thorn-less varieties. This makes it easier to work with the vines and harvest the fruit. The varieties of blackberries planted include: Arapaho Thorn-less, Chester Thorn-less, and the Triple Crown Thorn-less.

The Arapaho ripens earlier than any other thorn-less variety ready for harvest the last of May. The berries are large, tasty and firm. Chester Thorn-less blackberries are large and very sweet ready to harvest in July. The Triple Crown berries are almost as large as the Apache with a complex, sweet flavor. This berry ripens in late July.

The grape varieties vary not only in taste but color and include: Concord Seedless, Canadice Seedless, Himrod Seedless, Black Monukka Seedless, and Fredonia.

Concord grapes are a late seedless grape with dark blue slip-skin that is excellent for juice. These grapes ripen in September. Canadice Seedless grapes are a red grape and have a slightly spicy flavor and give a different taste when added into juice for wine-making available to harvest in mid-season. Himrod grapes are hardy and white with an excellent sweet juicy fruit. They are great for juice, wine, jams, or to dry for sweet raisins.

The Black Monukka Bunch grape is a medium sized black seedless grape with a tender skin and a crisp sweet flavor. It is good fresh or for raisins ready to harvest in August on into September. Fredonia grapes have a thick black skin that can be separated from the pulp easily growing in large bunches. They are sweet and excellent for snaking, juice or wine ready to harvest in August.

Many of these varieties can be purchased in two to four year stock and will produce some fruit the first year they are planted. With proper care, some of the vines could produce up to 50 years. By planting such a variety, the farm will not be limited in the use of the fruit harvested. Also, any surplus fruit can be sold to offset farm costs. This is just another way of making the farm more self-sufficient.

Children would like and could help you make fruit rollups. A couple of these varieties will make nice raisins for snacking or for baking. Then of course, there is a multitude of juices, wines, jams and jellies that can be made as well as syrups. Imagine fresh blueberry, blackberry, or raspberry syrup on your waffles one morning.

All of this of course is bringing you back to basics. You'll be eating healthier, organic fruit that hasn't been imported from a foreign country or trucked across country sitting in one warehouse after another, handled by who knows how many people and that hasn't been treated with harsh chemicals. Your carbon footprint will grow smaller, your health better, and you'll be helping the environment with each delectable morsel.

Lynda M. Lacroix is an accomplished writer with over 40 years working in areas of homesteading, animal husbandry, and conservation. She is an avid homesteader and conservationist as well as a Wildlife Biologist. It is her belief that we live in a time that neighbor must look after neighbor. No longer can each person go through the day thinking of themselves first. People must think about the consequences of their actions. By going back to basics and becoming more self-sufficient, using alternative energy sources, and eating organic grown foods, we can help ourselves and the planet. For more information please visit: http://goinggreenenvironmentalconservation.com/ and also http://alternativehomesteading.com/ for more information.

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