What Inspired You?

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What Inspired You?
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otatop

Joined: 01 Jun 2005
Posts: 1425
Location: North London

Posted: Wed May 10, 06 9:57 pm Post subject: What Inspired You?

This has probably been done before, but I'd be interested to hear how you all started.
For my part, I've always been interested in re-cycling - passing on children's clothes, rummaging through skips, rescuing old chairs, making patchwork quilts, using up leftover food etc etc. All part of being poor. And I've always hated the takeover of small businesses by the likes of Tesburies.
But last year, after a really good crop of whitecurrants and loganberries, and having picked up a book called Urban Eden by Adam and James Caplin, I realised that I could grow an amazing amount of stuff in my small North London garden.
I found Downsizers while looking for soft fruit pruning advice - and very helpful and friendly you all were! Thank you.

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 6:59 am Post subject:
A trip to CAT when I was about 16 or 17 with my big sister inspired me.

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 7:26 am Post subject:

I've always liked making things, and like many people here my parents were of the post war rationing generation, so we never wasted much. Also, several years in Saudi as a child made me really appreciate that we can't take trees, grass, water etc for granted, and that everything we used there was flown in (we were 200 miles from the nearest town), so I've always been concious of where things come from. Then I studied archaeology and there is nothing like spending several years looking at ancient refuse to make you realise just what we are doing now.

In many ways though I'm a very bad downsizer, (my recycling is still a little erratic and I use the car too much just for starters), but I do try, and I think thats the most important thing, to be concious of what I do and to keep aiming for personal improvements

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 9:08 am Post subject:

I grew up in a council estate in Gateahead, that would have been some time around 1983 or 1984 when we moved there (I'd have been 9 or 10). Built in the early '70s where there used to be coal mines, as you might imagine its a place that is always sinking in interesting directions. The up side of that was that there was plenty of greenery; as you might imagine, much of the land was so riddled with mineworkings you could never build on it. There were even some older blokes who kept pit ponies (not that they had been used in mines for a generation or more, it was just a tradition they wanted to maintain) down the way from us.

So in amongst the general well kept greenery there were places that were more or less left alone; the old coal railway line, the thick bits of golf course, little bits of wood that had been left during mining days, etc. And, of course, some parts of that end of Gateshead are just too steep to build on (the geology is quite exciting, if anyone is interested).

So it was an odd mix of post-industrial decay, fallen over buildings, and really good green wild(ish) spaces. And to put that into context of what else was happening, wasn't long after that my dad was made redundant (like the rest of Tyneside!) and never worked again.

So that meant that blackberries were easy to find. And raspberries weren't uncommon. Next I think I found gooseberries, elderberries, plums, apples and pears (so many pears growing wild!), grapes, strawberries, rhubarb, hazelnuts, walnuts... then of course you start noticing mushrooms, and having no context of people around me picking mushrooms I had no fear

So I was soon picking horse shrooms, field shrooms, fairy rings, oysters, shaggy caps, beefsteak, parasols, and then lots of wild greens like dandelions, ramsons, chickweed, goosegrass, beech leaves, etc.

My dad took to making wine as a hobby (had a lot of time on his hands) and my mum was more or less housebound (desperately ill most of the time) and loved to cook, so they both really encouraged me to do that kind of thing. And as I'm the youngest of 5, I think they had long since stopped worrying about kids wandering off for hours on end, going miles away and coming back later. We had a tiny garden, but space enough for a strawberry patch, a rhubarb plant and a bit where I could experiment with a couple of veg.

For anyone who's curious, the best landmark for where I'm from is the Angel of the North. Stand there, face North (towards the middle of Gateshead and Newcastle). Look to your right and you'll see three pairs of blocks of flats; the ones at the top of the hill are right next to where I lived. I used to pick shaggy cap mushrooms where the angel is.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 9:51 am Post subject:

I'm here by accident.

We bought our house and it happened to have some fields with it. I was bought the River Cottage book, and wasted all of Christmas day glued to it. As a keen cook, I knew that the way forward was my own pigs and chickens, and I haven't really looked back. They've been easy. Green stuff, however, I find harder. It's just not as rewarding to stroke your broccoli, is it? (Down, Northern Lad, it's not a euphemism, is it?)

This year, however, I've built the raised beds, and topsoil should be here today, and seeds are waiting to go in, so....

Naomi

Joined: 26 Mar 2005
Posts: 1945

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 9:54 am Post subject:

Cab , Your background is so much like mine!!
I too grew up on a council estate.It had lots of green spaces and areas of overgrown brambles/wild areas etc and my wonderful parents ,despite having very little money , somehow managed to buy us ( their three daughters) a pony to share.

That meant we had to keep it at a local livery yard (as we only had a normal garden).The yard was about 2 miles away and so we would walk across the farmland every day after school , carrying our saddle and bridle etc to tend to our mare. Every spare moment we had was spent at the yard.
It meant we were outside in all weather conditions , every single day and I grew to love it.
We would pick blackberries and elderberries , coltsfoot, cowslips,etc too, as my dad was also very into winemaking .We learnt about poisonous plants and what not to let our horses eat etc .
We helped our local farmer with haymaking, bagged up manure for our veg patches.Collected fallen branches for our open fire .It was just how we lived.

Dad was also a keen shot and would bring home rabbits and pigeons for our tea.He would go fishing too so our diet was varied.

My mum is a bit eccentric like me and so one day we all came home with a young female goat in the car (back in the good old days when you could do that) after visiting Sevenoaks auction, just to see what was on offer.
Our goat lived in a converted garage in my parents back garden in the middle of the big housing estate and she would be taken for walks every day by one of us ,to browse on greenery!!! Our neighbours thought we were mad!

We also frequented jumble sales etc as having all our money spent on our pony's keep ,meant we had to make do with second hand stuff for ourselves. So recycling and mending things was second nature to us. In fact at one jumble sale all those years ago I picked up John Seymours Complete Book Of Self Sufficiency. The old Corgi edition .
I still have it now.It is a bit tatty from all the use it has had.That was an inspiration in itself for me. .Just reading what could be done!

Anyway, eventually my mum and dad bought their council house and sold it on a few years later and they managed to move away from the town to buy a tiny smallholding of their own.
So we then had chickens and turkeys , ducks and goats etc . Dad got some ferrets. Life was lovely.We had many happy years there.

My parents sold that place 5 years ago to move into a smaller cottage closer to us here in Lincs.

I guess no matter where you were born ,you can still have the countryside and the love of a simple lifestyle in your blood.

I can't imagine living anywhere else or any other way now.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45678
Location: Essex

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 9:56 am Post subject:
I grew up in the East End, mum and dad were both from farming backgrounds and as soon as they had a garden they were growing veg. Made sense to me.

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 10:37 am Post subject:

cab wrote:

For anyone who's curious, the best landmark for where I'm from is the Angel of the North. Stand there, face North (towards the middle of Gateshead and Newcastle). Look to your right and you'll see three pairs of blocks of flats; the ones at the top of the hill are right next to where I lived. I used to pick shaggy cap mushrooms where the angel is.

My sister in law lives not far from there just off Lobley Hill

I was inspired by The Good Life - as a child I adored that program and always wanted to live like that plus my family are all extremely good cooks so was brought up learning how to cook properly

The house my parents still live in had 2 x 30 ft greenhouses in the back garden when they first moved in - The previous owner had been a market gardener and obviously brought his work home with him - I can quite distinctly remember growing lettuce in there aged about 8 or 9 - I wish they were still there now

We also grew our own veg - the summer of '76 we grew some amazing sweetcorn and I can still remember picking brussels from the garden at Christmas

Mum and Dad also made their own beer and wine - Long before kits were invented and going picking elderberries and blackberries down the Canal as a family remain some of my best childhood memories - hopefully my kids will have similar ones

Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 10:55 am Post subject:

I was a confirmed townie all my life. Spent the first 10 years of my life in a city and then moved to the other end of the counry to the a**e end of nowhere. Spent a few years in the country - loathed it and was overjoyed when we moved back into a town. I couldn't bear living in the country, I hated the smells, the remoteness, the people, the lack of buses and shops

Then in 1999 I went up a hill to watch the eclipse and came down again an hour later, seeing purple snakes in the grass and knowing that I had to have a 5 acre smallholding where I was going to grow my own food and learn to spin. No 'substances' of any kind whatsoever had passed my lips

moongoddess

Joined: 24 Jan 2006
Posts: 673

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 11:53 am Post subject:
I grew up in middle-class surburbia and knew there had to be more meaning to life mg x

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91� N

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 11:54 am Post subject:

I was inspired when I went to Uni, having grown up in the countryside I just found it depressing to see somewhere where off road meant mounting the kerb outside the supermarket and the neighbours kids were not allowed out of sight of their house (my folks used to assume we were OK and probably hadn't made it out of the country yet (well once or twice only)). So I spent the next few years avoiding staying where I lived until I could get back to a rural location - downsizing and self sufficiency was just a side effect of moving back to the real world.

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18415

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 12:26 pm Post subject:

My father was a keen fruit and veg grower, into cooking and making preserves : he got me started with my own small plot, as well as helping him. My mother used to take me foraging (nuts and berries), and we all went fruit-picking in the summer. I used to go off into the country on my pushbike, and back then noone worried. Folk on the street kept chickens and bees, grew food, made food and clothes, mended and built things.

Not having much money when I left home led to jumble sales, skip-raiding etc. Got into herbal medicine, good food and organic ideals.
Moving out of London in the late 80s to the country (still not much money) was an opportunity to put growing and making into practice. I read John Seymour and thought about self-sufficiency. And later moved on to smallholding and livestock. Lack of money + growing/foraging + drink-drive laws = homebrewing.

Northern_Lad

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 14210
Location: Somewhere

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 12:37 pm Post subject:

I'm here after drifting over from River Cottage. I always enjoyed the series, but if was only after getting the Meat book that I started to make bigger changes.

I used to cook a couple of meals a week when living with parents. When I moved out I did my shopping at a local farm shop, getting all my meat there and as much veg as possible. I then started to go to farmers' markets and now get all of my fresh food there.

I like experimenting, hence the knitting, candle-making and home-curing.

There's no history of growing things or home brewing in the family, although my dad used to make some wine in the mid-eightlies - very good at unblocking drains by all accounts.

thos

Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 1139
Location: Jauche, Duchy of Brabant (Bourgogne-ci) and Charolles, Duchy of Burgundy (Bourgogne-�a)

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 12:44 pm Post subject:

My greenie credentials go back to 1973 when I remember making a presentation to the class on producing methane for cars, because burning fossil fuels was bad for the environment and bringing on the next ice age. I was an early subscriber to The Ecologist.

My dad's quarry was wonderful for blackberries, and we had apple and damson trees in the garden. My mum grew softfruits and my dad grew tomatoes in his greenhouse. When I was little they also grew peas and beans and potatoes.

My contribution was brewing. My wine was not great, but my beer was fantastic. I must have started in the fifth form and stopped when I was doing my accountancy exams, aged 23-24.

My father also owned a one-third share in 40 acres of dairy farm at the back of the house (bought by my grandfather for land for the quarry). This was tenanted and farmed in a very 'unsound' manner - battery hens and pigs that never left their stall.

I never did any gardening between leaving home and moving to Belgium - and my garden is still more dreams than achievement.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 12:51 pm Post subject:

Tahir said that he'd come and get me if I didn't help out....

My parents always grew veg, fruit etc and kept hens. We went blackberrying and so on. I kept ferrets when I was a teenager and went rabbiting. Started home-brewing when I was a student.
I just thought that this was what people did if they were interested in food really. The 'reducing your environmental footprint' bit always just seemed like a side effect of trying to live in a sane way to me.

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