Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[MaryJanet]

In my country (most countries in Europe) you have to pay for plastic bags for your shoppings. Almost everyone brings their own bag(s) since. Shops who sell luxury goods often pack in free paper bags.
But the shop owners are allowed to give away (thin) single use plastic bags for fresh groceries like fruit, vegetables and meat.

The grocery store where I buy for home delivery’s uses plastic crates and bags with a deposit system.
For most plastic bottles and tins for beverages we have a deposit/recycling system.
Plastic straws and some other single use products are forbidden.

It's the same in Australia.

Tax

 

[Shadrach]

Given Shad is now growing veg on his chicken plot , this seems relevant as another way in which individuals can make a difference:

"You will get about two and a half kilos of seed from a 20-foot-long bed of 30 kale plants. Now that's actually three-quarters of a million seeds - and if every one of those was given away or swapped, and then grown, you will have created more than 500,000 kilograms of kale! More than enough to feed all your friends and neighbours, and their families.

So you can see that even one person, on a small scale, can make a real contribution to local food security. Take your spare seed to a local seed swap... Get together with your friends or family and set up a seed-circle: one person can grow kale seed, another parsnips, another cucumber, etc. You'll all have bags of seed - you can all just swap with each other, so no-one has to save seed from more than a couple of things, yet you all get seed of everything.

It will save you a fortune, and you'll get great, locally adapted varieties. Just remember, all this is only possible because you are growing real, open-pollinated seed. You can't do this with hybrid (F1) varieties. Funny how the seed companies are so keen on selling you hybrid seed, isn't it?"

That's copied from a local seed swap here, https://www.incredibleseedlibrary.com/drying-your-seeds

If Shad knew what he was doing he might, if he was lucky, grow enough vegetables to feed himself vegetables for a few weeks. After that, say for the other 11 months, Shad will be joining all the other people who don't have an allotment plot, or a garden large enough to grow more than a few flowers if they are lucky, at the supermarkets, because most of the greengrocers have been pushed out of the market.
It's hard to get accross to many Americans here on BYC that the UK just doesn't have enough land at a price the vast majority can afford to even attempt self sufficiency.
https://www.oceanhome.co.uk/articles/february2023-market-snapshot#
With the majority of the houses in the Bristol area what one gets is a building with a postage stamp sized plot of land for £350,000. If I take a hard working couple I know whose combined yearly income is a bit over £60,000 then they would need to first get a mortgage for 6 times their annual salery (almost impossible) and even if the managed that, they couldn't grow any more than Shad does on an allotment plot.
The entire UK population can't just up sticks and move to the country and start living the good life. Even if they could wrest the land from the large landowners and get an affordable plot, the work required to to fully feed oneself would mean that at least one person from a couple would have to give up working at a job which they need to pay the mortage to work on the land.
I think it's great that some here on BYC can head in the direction of selfsufficiency but for the overwhelming majority of people it isn't a realistic or affordable option.

 

[Perris]

who said anything about self sufficiency? That was just about seeds for free, as many or few as one has room and desire for. What can be grown on a small plot is very well illustrated at St Fagan's with this exhibit
https://museum.wales/stfagans/buildings/rhydycar/

The website focuses on the buildings, but you can see from the photo the sort of small garden these cottages had, most with lots of veg growing, and a couple include a pig pen. If memory serves aright one is entirely given over to food production and it's surprising how much you can grow in a small space.

 

[RoyalChick]

It's the same in Australia.

Tax

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I think paying for plastic bags was considered in NJ but they went straight to an outright ban.
And I believe paper was also banned because the environmental impact of paper bags is also pretty bad - they need to be reused many times to break even if you see what I mean.
It works fine, we all have reusable bags - although I notice here and in the UK these reusable bags also proliferate and I have no idea if they are made of something recycled. Hope so.
I am still working my way through my mother's stash of plastic bags - I anticipate being offered money for them at some point when I visit the grocery store - I already get looks of shock/surprise/envy when I take them out of my pockets to pack up my groceries!

 

[Iluveggers]

NY has banned plastic bags as well. You can pay 5 cents for a paper one, or bring your own reusable. I keep a bag of 10 folded inside in my trunk. I like them better anyway…they don’t break with heavy items!

As far as self-sufficiency, I don’t live in the country. We were fortunate to buy a house at the edge of town, and the empty lot next to it. If I lived in the country I would have many more animals! I can’t even have a rooster here, but thankful I can have hens. For people with limited space, front yard gardens, square foot gardening, and patio gardens are good options. Any self-sufficiency is better than none. My in-laws have a tiny yard outside NYC, and two small raised beds. They plant spinach & greens in one, and tomatoes & cucumbers in the other, and are happy they don’t have to buy salad items during the summer. Sharing with neighbors is a great idea also. My husband and I work full time, and do the best we can with thr free time that is left.

 

[Shadrach]

The general theme of less reliance on commercial enterprises and living off grid runs through most of these discussions.

https://museum.wales/stfagans/buildings/rhydycar/

Lovely looking place. When can I move in? I could manage a rent of say £800.00 per month.

I visited this place a couple of weeks ago looking for starter plants.
https://propagationplace.co.uk/buy-vegetable-plants-online/

 

[Shadrach]

I think paying for plastic bags was considered in NJ but they went straight to an outright ban.
And I believe paper was also banned because the environmental impact of paper bags is also pretty bad - they need to be reused many times to break even if you see what I mean.
It works fine, we all have reusable bags - although I notice here and in the UK these reusable bags also proliferate and I have no idea if they are made of something recycled. Hope so.
I am still working my way through my mother's stash of plastic bags - I anticipate being offered money for them at some point when I visit the grocery store - I already get looks of shock/surprise/envy when I take them out of my pockets to pack up my groceries!

Doesn't anyone have shoppping bags any more? Apart from my rucksack I have a couple of canvas bags I take shopping.

 

[Perris]

Lovely looking place. When can I move in?

Yes, they look cute from the outside, but did you notice that those cottages are basically one up-one down? The idea that whole families lived in them is mind-boggling - a family of visitors have to dance round each other to get in or out of a room, and climbing the stairs brings a whole new meaning to the idea of accessibility! And no services - water is outside, power is non-existent, and there's just a single range for all cooking and heating (plus a communal oven at the end of the street; btw they had such public ovens in Morocco, and apparently their provision, like water, is a fundamental aspect of good Islamic leadership). I think the greatest benefit of studying history is to realize you wouldn't want to live there, and the concomitant encouragement to appreciate the improvements in the present.

I have a couple of canvas bags I take shopping

Me too. Canvas bags are great. Strong and go on and on.

 

[Molpet]

Some of My great grandfathers left Ireland and Sweden because there was no land for them to subsistence farm being the youngest sons. I imagine it's about the same nowadays.


I used to bring reusable bags until COVID. The stores didn't want the germmy bags handled by cashier's.
Actually I had to watch the baggers because they would put the items in plastic bags and then into the reusable bags

 

[RoyalChick]

Doesn't anyone have shoppping bags any more? Apart from my rucksack I have a couple of canvas bags I take shopping.

Don't see them much - though these reusable ones that have taken over are shopping bags I guess.
I have my grandmother's old string bag - I remember her using it - but I can't seem to grasp how to not lose small items through the spaces in the mesh - so instead it houses the plastic bags ready to reuse.
To be fully transparent I only use the old plastic bags as back up or overflow with groceries. I have a canvas bag and in the US I have to drive to a grocery store and I don't use a bag at all - I take the trolley to my car and load stuff into the rich assortment of cardboard boxes that live in the back of the car (and possibly breed there too).
Of course you are not driving to buy groceries. Here in the US I have no choice.