15 Ways to Become more Self-Sufficient

    Hi, my name is Cheri and this blog is about my trials in learning to become more self-sufficient while living in an urban landscape. I read all the time about being self-sufficient on one acre of land. Well, I live in a condo on the second floor with a balcony. That’s it. How in the world am I going to do this? Well, I plan to figure that out.

    Here are 15 ideas to get me started:

1.     Growing food. Last year was my first year in the condo and I grew two cherry tomato plants in large pots. I also grew cilantro and parsley, which brings me to my second idea to get started.

2.     Growing herbs. Cilantro didn’t go very well my first year. It bolted pretty early on in the heat of the summer. And to be honest, I wasn’t watering as regularly as I should have been. This year, I will try a variety of herbs.

3.     Dehydrating food. I would love to get my hands on a dehydrator to preserve food when I find produce or meat at a great deal at the grocery store, since I clearly can’t grow too much food on my balcony (and I definitely won’t have any livestock!)

4.     Canning food. I want to learn how to can food to preserve it. During this quarantine, canned tomatoes and spaghetti sauce, for instance, have been very hard to find. But what if I canned my own?! I know there are risks to canning food, especially when you’re trying it for the first time. I’ve read all about the mistakes that can easily be made, but my parents have been canning for years, so I plan to pay them a visit once this quarantine is over to learn their canning secrets!

5.     Fermenting foods. I don’t know why, but fermenting my own food makes me nervous. Will it turn out right? I’ve been watching some videos on youtube about fermenting, and I think I’d finally like to give it a try.

6.     Cooking from scratch. I’ve really been working on this the last year. As a newly wed, I’ve never really cooked much before, but I’m giving it my best shot and learning a lot along the way. Sometimes it’s so tempting to just call for takeout or to eat easy-to-microwave frozen dinners, but that isn’t the most healthy or delicious decision.

7.     Make my own pasta. Speaking of cooking from scratch and hard to find items in quarantine – pasta! My trips to the grocery store the last few weeks have found the pasta aisle empty. If only I knew how to make my own, it wouldn’t be a problem!

8.     Bread-making. I know I can make bread in the oven, but I’ll be honest, I tried it once and it was a disaster. Fortunately, my mom is going to loan me her bread-making machine. How fun!

9.     Composting. I’m not sure yet how I can go about composting my food scraps, but I know that there are some options out there for people in my living situation. A worm compost, or vermicomposting, is an option I’ve heard about, I’m just not sure I can convince my husband to go along with the idea yet. However, I think there is an organization where I live, and most likely where you live, that collects food waste for composting at community gardens. Which brings me to my next topic,

10. Community gardening. I’m not ready yet to take this step, because I know so little about gardening at this point, but I can see it being something I could do in the future.

11. Raising chickens for eggs. Yeah, I can’t do this yet, as much as I’d really love to! But I can buy my eggs from local farmers. From the research I’ve done, it might be a little more expensive than going to the grocery store, but I want to support my local community. Not to mention, I found a couple of local farms that sell duck and quail eggs! I’ve never had those before!

12. Sewing. I know enough about sewing to sew a button back on a shirt and that’s about it. I remember making a pillow in grade school on a sewing machine, but if I had to use a sewing machine today, I’d be lost. Well, I’d like to change that. I’ll start off with a few easy projects, but ultimately, I’d like to be able to make my own clothes one day.

13. Make my own household cleaners. I sort of do this now, but not enough. I keep telling myself, I’ll use up the cleaners I have and then create my own, but I keep buying more harmful chemical cleaners. Shame on me. 

14. Make my own soaps, candles, lip balms, etc. I’ve dabbled in candle making before and it’s a lot of fun. I’d really like to make a few other things now too. I think my first project will be lip balm. I need to do a little more research into candle making still before I jump in. And finally...

15. Live simply and embrace frugality. I used to love shopping. Sometimes, I still catch that feeling of wanting to shop needlessly at various stores, but I resist the urge. I really like the idea of minimalism, but I am far from a minimalist, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t take some of their ideas and incorporate them into my own life.