Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com profile picture

Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com

If you can't be self-sufficient try being self-sufficientish

About Me

We are identical twin brothers who set up the website selfsufficientish.com in April 2004. Since then we have been offered a book contract with Hodder and Stoughton to write The Selfsufficientish Bible due to be released in May 2008. - A book that covers all aspects of Green/Environmental friendly and Eco living in the 21st Century.
The Selfsufficientish Philosophy written by Dave April 2004------------------------------------------------------Th e idea behind self-sufficientish-ism is although many of us would love to live on a farm, grow all our own food, brew pea pod wine, live the 'Good-Life'. Not all of us have the means the space or are perhaps unwilling to give it all up and suffer the highs and lows of going it alone on a smallholding.Although total self-sufficiency is appealing the thought of giving up the little luxuries in life may not be. I grow a lot of my own food eat wild foods and when I have the money buy organic fruit and vegetables but I still enjoy beer in a pub and like to go to the cinema or eat out occasionally.Self Sufficientish-ism has created for these reasons. It is for all those who have limited time, space or money but would like to have a go at growing their own food or brewing their own alcohol or want to know which wild foods are good to eat. We also aim to offer advice on a whole host of other subjects from a low-ecological impact perspective.It seems to make more sense to rely on what is around us throughout the year or what we can grow rather than having our food shipped in from the other side of the globe. In terms of energy, the amount needed to fly an apple in from New Zealand can be up to a hundred times its energy (or calorific) value.This website is part guide and part window into my brother and my own experiences of growing and gathering food. Through our message forum and featured articles it can also act as a pool of knowledge for all those interested in self-sufficientish-ism.We don't claim to be experts in the field, although we try to 'live it' and welcome any comments from anyone with an interest in the subject.

My Interests

Andy - Growing produce, wild foods, saving money, reusing, making instead of buying. living as gently as possible on the planet--------Dave - I have similar interests to Andy - Growing my own food, foraging for wild food, Skip hunting (I made this computer out of things people threw away), Environmentally friendly travel, Songwriting (as Stephen Stranger), Writing (fiction and non-fiction), Film-making, Cooking, Eating, Walking, Living, Breathing, Putting clothes on in the morning, Cleaning my teeth, watching TV

Music:

Andy - smiths, stones roses, madchesterDave - Mistys Big Adventure, Retro Spankies, Jane's Addiction, Flaming Lips, Led Zep, Gomez, Sandy Denny, Goldfrapp, Iggy Pop and many many more

Movies:

Andy - Jean de Florette, Highlander, Room for Romeo Brass (and most shane meadows stuff) Dave - Wickerman (the origional), Withnail and I, Zoolander, I heart Huckabees, Royal Tenenbaums

Television:

Dave- Peep Show, David Attingborough, Ray Mears, Gardeners World, Hyperdrive, The IT Crowd, Dr Who, Tribe, Nature DocsAndy - Deadwood, Dr Who, Torchwood,

Books:

Dave -Fiction - The World According to Garp, Ben Elton (early stuff like Stark and This Other Eden) Non Fiction - Monty Don, Plants for a Future, Richard Mabey (food for free), Gardening books.Andy - George Orwell

Heroes:

George Orwell, Monty Don, Ray Mears, Richard Mabey, Ken Fern, John Seymour, Tim Smit.

My Blog

CATE - low carbon Holiday

Well with talk of offsetting and the like perhaps it is time to talk about low carbon holidays. Well to be exact the holiday that Dave and I have just had. Having a little gap in our writing/editing s...
Posted by Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:23:00 PST

Our housing co-op

Well today was the first meeting of out little eco housing co-op at the moment totally consiting of friends. About 8 of us turned up; it was really nothing but the opening stages and a meeting  o...
Posted by Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com on Wed, 12 Sep 2007 05:11:00 PST

How to write and publish a book in easy steps

Well as we are just a few edits away from completing our great big book (160 000 words or over 400 pages at last count) I thought it time to give a few steps of how we, a couple of unknown wierdos man...
Posted by Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com on Sat, 25 Aug 2007 04:09:00 PST

How green are you superheroes/villains?

With many super-villains using electricity as their power source you have to wonder where they're getting their electricity from?  The worst offender has to be Electro Spiderman's arch enemy.&n...
Posted by Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com on Thu, 09 Aug 2007 02:47:00 PST

Another blog about writing

It's hard to make a blog about writing a book interesting when your publishers have told you not to put any of the book into the blog.  Most of our research has been done online, with books, at a...
Posted by Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com on Mon, 30 Jul 2007 05:29:00 PST

RSI and voice recognition software

I have developed R S I and so I can't use the keyboard without causing myself some pain.  I am trying different ways to write the book.  Pen and paper seems to be the best option so far, but...
Posted by Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com on Sat, 07 Jul 2007 05:14:00 PST

Food glorious food

My cabbages are now covered in nets to stop the birds eating them and I have just about dealt with the slug problem.  It seems the down side of raised beds is that it gives the little critters a ...
Posted by Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com on Thu, 05 Jul 2007 06:55:00 PST

Writing for a living

It is now nearly two months to the deadline of our book. Things are starting to get slightly stressful. We're well over half way but have to hit around 4000 words a week each every week between now ...
Posted by Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com on Thu, 28 Jun 2007 06:28:00 PST

Taking the piss - and our gas bill

Yesterday I contacted Adam Hart-Davis (the bloke that does What have the Romans ever done for us on the telly) - for a bit of info on his straw toilet that I had seen on the local news. I didn't expec...
Posted by Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com on Thu, 14 Jun 2007 08:06:00 PST

Feed a cold, Saturday night fever

On Friday I noticed I had a slight cold, my head was fuzzy and I had a sore throat but it was nothing major.  Also on Friday two old mates decided to visit for the weekend and I had to decide i...
Posted by Andy & Dave - Selfsufficientish.com on Mon, 11 Jun 2007 10:51:00 PST