http://andyhamilton.selfsufficientish.com/blogs The day to day workings of selfsufficientish mind. Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:57:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I keep being asked why I am not over in Copenhagen, so I thought I would take some time to anwser.  The main reason is that I don't really think that using all of that carbon to travel there, just to protest outside a building, would make a difference. If ... http://andyhamilton.selfsufficientish.com/blogs/2009/12/18/why-i-am-not-going-to-copenhagen/ In another life I think I want to come back as some kind of medicine man, well herbalist really.  In fact I have not ruled it out of becoming one in this life. My interest in the medicinal side of wild plants has not dwindled in the last few years ... http://andyhamilton.selfsufficientish.com/blogs/2009/12/10/herbs-herbs-everywhere/ I have been pondering for the last few months the signature at the bottom of my emails (and life has not even been that slow). I have come to the conclusion that, "please consider the environment before printing off this email" at the bottom of every email is now so ... http://andyhamilton.selfsufficientish.com/blogs/2009/07/10/please-consider-the-environment-before/ I have been having the same conversations with many people over the last few days. They have approached me in a panic, all of them worrying that it is too late to plant anything. IT'S ONLY MAY, DON'T PANIC!! I have only planted half of what needs to go in for ... http://andyhamilton.selfsufficientish.com/blogs/2009/05/11/is-it-too-late-to-plant/ Over the last two days Dave (My twin and co-selfsufficientish fella) and I have been foraging for wild food with groups of people in Bath and Bristol.  Yesterday we were in Bath to help out Topping and Co bookshop and also to help promote our book. There we took a ... http://andyhamilton.selfsufficientish.com/blogs/2009/05/02/city-foraging-collecting-wild-food-in-a-city/ Well it looks like no-one fell for my April fools joke, ah well will try again next year. Nope no-one for UKIP has ever approached me. http://andyhamilton.selfsufficientish.com/blogs/2009/04/03/april-fool/ "Fact is often stranger than fiction", just a bit of cliche I thought well that was until this morning when I recieved a call. "Hello, can I speak to Andy Hamilton?" Said a young and rather well spoken voice. "Yep". I replied, rather bluntly as I thought it another 8am sales call. "I ... http://andyhamilton.selfsufficientish.com/blogs/2009/04/01/ukip-have-asked-me-to-be-a-green-advisor/ Cutting Japanese Knotweed Japanese Knotweed Fallopia japonica is a plant that can divide forages from allotmenteers. Many foragers and love the stuff whilst allotmenteers dread seeing it. Why, you may well ask. Well it is because it is such a thug in fact to call it a thug is to ... http://andyhamilton.selfsufficientish.com/blogs/2009/03/20/cooking-with-japanese-knotweed/ I gave a talk last night on how to make beer. It was in the place that I live, Bristol (U.K) and I gave the talk as part of the Freeskilling evening program. Freeskilling is the brainchild of that bloke who is living for a year without spending any money ... http://andyhamilton.selfsufficientish.com/blogs/2009/03/11/how-to-make-beer/ Well when I say foraging season is almost here, I guess it does not really go away it is just that the amount you can pick goes down. I am happily tucking into dandelion roots which are not massive at the moment but are starting to swell up. This is where ... http://andyhamilton.selfsufficientish.com/blogs/2009/02/25/foraging-season-is-almost-here/