SELFSUFFICIENTISH.COM the birth place of the Selfsufficient-ish Bible.

Welcome to our corner of the internet. We have been bringing you advice and information on everything Selfsufficientish and self sufficient for almost five years.

If this is the first time you have been here then Hello. We are selfsufficientish, a website for anyone who wants to be a little more selfsufficient - ish. See our philosophy for more details on what selfsufficientish means. We call it the urban guide to almost self sufficiency, a sort of urban homesteading site. The worlds first urban homesteading site, in fact, as we were founded in 2004.

We are identical twins and if you would like to tell us apart Dave is the one on the right with the good looks and the army jacket and Andy is the one on the left with the hat. 

Selfsufficientish  Courses In Swindon - July 31st-2nd August

We have teamed up with long-standing friends of the site, winners of this years Observer/Guardian Ethical award Garden Category - Lower Shaw Farm to offer courses in our own strand of urban self-sufficiency. We cover everything from home-brewing and wild food to container/small-space gardening and fire lighting - with a lot more in between. For more details visit the Lower Shaw Farm website. 

We need more allotments - Write to your MP and sign this Petition!

 There are still not enough allotments in this country and it is high time we all did something about it!! With the price of land falling by 50% in some urban areas and developers going bust before they can develop their land now is the time to take action.  Write a letter to your local MP, you can easily find them by following this link or you could sign this petition 

For further reading here and here or look for threads on our forum

 Selfsufficientish shortlisted for a Dandelion Award!

Well it's been a funny year for awards, my band Vontergarten were in the final 20 runners up in the Tuborg Musical Comedy awards and now Selfsufficientish has been shortlisted for a Dandelion Award in the Food and Garden catagory. 

We're both chuffed to bits with this result especially considering the calibre of the other candidates.

The Fruits of your Labour (Labor U.S.)

Summer is here (or so some might tell us). By now all the hard work is beginning to pay off, plants that were all but seedlings not so long ago seem to have grown at a rate that, despite doing this year after year, never seems to surprise me.  It doesn't seem that long ago that a lot of my plants were merely seeds, nothing more than a little wish or hope in a pot of compost. Now some are giving me leaves for salads, leaves for pots, beans and very soon fruits and roots. 

Here in the UK it seems to be following the pattern of being sunny then being  incredibly wet for days on end. This can be very good for the plants but slugs can be a problem when it's wet so click here for some tips on organic ways to deal with them. 

Wild food - Foraging Courses

Wild Food/Foraging Courses - Please see here for more details. Or see The Guardian website for a review of the walk.- We are also offering foraging courses as presents.

We will be offering day courses in foraging in the Bristol area for 2009 to book a place, find out costs and other information please check our this page or email us. If you are considering giving a course as a Present then please email us for a chat and we can see how to make it special for that special person.

The Selfsufficientish Bible

We're now into the second print run so a big THANK YOU to everyone that has bought a copy and kept us in print. 

For those who are still looking for a copy please order from your local independent book shop as right now small businesses need all the help they can get! 

 Indie Bookshop? If you are an Indie book shop unfortunately we cannot sell it directly to anyone wholesale and you should instead get in contact with our publisher Hodder and Stoughton.

If you are a book shop owner, want some free publicity and you have any copies, please let us know as we can publish your details on this front page. 

Sportsmen (and women) and the Selfsufficientish Bible 

 This is Matt Leveque holding up a copy of our book. Do you know any sporting personalities who have a copy of the Selfsufficientish Bible? If you do please send in a picture and we'll put it up here on the front page. Great picture by the way Matt - hope you enjoy the book! 

A bit more about us and the team

Our writing team of 3ish, Andy and Dave Hamilton and Nev Sweeney will be writing a little bit more on here so expect many more new articles over the coming weeks and months. In fact if you look closely enough you might find some extracts from our most recent book. To find out how you can buy this then click on one of the adverts for it. I am afraid that we can't sell it directly as the warehouse is empty! So get a copy quickly before it sells out everywhere. We are quite proud of this book and it is a years work each for myself and Dave. It is packed full of ways to not just save our environment to save you much more than the cover price in money.

Use our search over to the left to look for advice on anything from growing stuff in a small space to foraging for food. Or if you want to join in and have a chat with thousands of other people just like you then please do join our forum.

Competition - Free Books , Free Books. 

The latest competition has come to an end and a new one shall be launched very soon. Thanks to Eco-logic books! 

The selfsufficientish Bible

Welcome to the New'ish site! It is still evolving (just like a garden) some things will change and extra features are being added all the time by our wonderful web fella John.

Are you creative and in Bath? - Have a look at one of my mates site, it needs some input. oh and go to the forum.

Interested in comedy German techno? What to see what else Dave does with his time? - Visit here or here

:)