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There are risks to being self-sufficient and it's important to understand them and mitigate them as best you can. There are benefits too of course and done right, the benefits far exceed the cons.
These benefits encompass all of life: your nutrition, your mental health, your physical health and your contribution to society as a whole.
Done wrong though your could end up burnt, overwhelmed and suffering nutritional deficiencies, so don't treat this lightly!
I actually like this, I want something to motivate me to get out in the fresh air most days, but some might see it as a con.
This is definitely a con. I look with jealous eyes at plots that are all pristine , weed free, empty beds, all waiting to be planted in spring. In my case every bed is in production all year round, there's - almost - never bare soil.
I also like this, but again some may see it as a con. The ground never gets chance to rest, they say. Well I say the ground doesn't need to rest, it needs to be always alive: soil microorganisms, feeding off root exudates, from living plants.
This is also a potential con. When you grow 3-5 successions, plus interplants in every bed, every year there's no chance of getting a strict 3-4 year rotation in place. I like this too though, it's freeing, I don't worry about not rotating crops anymore. For more see my video on pests and disease.
This is a much bigger concern, which I cover in more detail in the section of this book on feeding the soil
It's inevitable that you will experience some dietary restriction if you grow all of your own veg and even more so if you grow all of your fruit as well. We've learned to embrace this as a more joyous and natural way of eating though. We don't feel as if we are missing out.
We took the conscious decision to eat almost all of our fruit and veg fresh. This isn't usual, a lot of home growers rely on frozen food and preserves during winter and spring. This is fine if you like this sort of food, we don't. We also question whether this is actually better than eating fresh food, or commercially frozen/preserved food from the supermarket. You need to do your own analysis on this.
If you do end up doing a lot of preserving you will use a lot of energy to make all of these preserves. We try to keep to a zero carbon budget, so this is always nagging at me.