Food security
Hey friend,
Have you ever considered growing or raising your own food? Perhaps you already do.
When I was still in Bahrain, I dabbled with the idea of procuring some chickens for eggs, but our rescue dog with baggage, Chester, wasn’t a fan of other animals and I was worried about keeping another being alive especially during the crazy 50 degree Summers that we’d often escape for a couple of months.
When we were in planning mode for our return back to Australia, food security was front of mind when looking at where we wanted to end up living. We understood from years of research that we didn’t necessarily need a lot of land; just look at The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil and how they were able to grow their own food in suburban and city communities, but we also took into account climate, rainfall and other factors that would help us with growing our own food.
As this is a complete tree change for us, almost the opposite of our previous lifestyle as expats in the Middle East, we’re on a steep learning curve, but it’s been over a decade in the making.
Before we had kids, my husband (then boyfriend) introduced me to the concept of Earthships; we almost signed up to help build one, and he went exploring on a trip to the Netherlands to see one for real. As a Geoscientist working in the Oil and Gas industry, he acquainted me with Peak Oil; the theoretical timeline for when domestic or global oil production will hit its maximum rate and begin to decline. It's the idea that—at some point—the world's finite quality and quantity of oil will decline to such low numbers that it would no longer be economic to produce. We’ve always been curious spectators of friends that had gone before us, to move to a more natural, holistic lifestyle, and now we’re slowly giving it a go.
Collectively we’ve already experienced so much disruption, progress and change in our lifetime, I think we can agree that life can feel so uncertain. I feel so much comfort in being able to play a part in my family’s food security starting by educating ourselves and setting up our vegetable garden.
Recently one of the next steps in being more self sufficient has been buying more rainwater tanks.
I’d love to hear from you, if you’re a seasoned gardener or if you’re also feeling the nudge to move to a more self sufficient lifestyle, and if so, let me know what your current focus is on, I’d love to learn more.
I’ll be sharing more of this journey as it transpires if you’d like to join along. This week my goal is to set up my Hugelkultur no dig garden, ready to plant my garlic, I’m told if I miss this window then I’ll have to wait all year to get them in the ground.
Until next time
Robyn x
Wondering why you received this email?
I started this newsletter in 2010, when I was known around the inter webs as Girl on Raw, a raw chef sharing raw vegan education, recipes and life living as an Aussie on a compound in Saudi Arabia. You may have later signed up to receive updates on learning how to blog. Or maybe you’ve read my books, most recently The Body Plan. Regardless of why you’re here, I hope you’ll stay as I continue the story of my family of 4, re-integrating back to our home country of Australia after 16 years living abroad.