Too many posts to handle? If you missed out on some posts from last month, here’s a quick digest of the most-read posts that you may want to check out:

Mucking in
Posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 in Growing food
The chickens have proved to be a great addition to our self-sufficiency drive. They provide us with eggs, most obviously, but also help at both ends of the chain when it comes to growing veg.For one thing, they eat all of our off-cuts. The peelings from our carrots, which they particularly enjoy, the skin of our beetroot, the ends of our beans, the feathery tops of our carrots and so on all go into the run and are gobbled up right away.

Planning this year’s planting
Posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 in Growing food
It’s still early January, but already time for us to start thinking about what we want to grow this year. Some seeds need to be planted well before spring so they get a good start before the main growing season, and that means planning the plot right now.Tomatoes and beans are a given as they’ve always repaid us well in the past.

Victorian Farm on the BBC
Posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 in General
The BBC is running a show called Victorian Farm right now, in which three people – two men and a woman – are spending a year living as tenant farmers on a large estate, with only the tools and methods that would have been available during the mid- to late-1800s at their disposal.It’s the ultimate in self-sufficiency.The farm was pretty run-down when they took it on; the house hadn’t been lived in for over 50 years, apart from by spiders.

The chickens and the cold
Posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 in Keeping chickens
The chickens don’t seem to notice the cold at all. Every morning right now I have to go out with the kettle to defrost their water supply, which had a good inch and a half of ice in the top at the weekend.The worst part of it is the nozzles at the bottom that the chickens peck at to make the water drip out.

Henkeeping: Inspiration and Practical Advice for Would-be Smallholders : Review
Posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 in Reviews
The choice of henkeeping books is bewildering – especially if you’re just starting out. When we were planning for the arrival of our little flock it was tricky to know which was the best to buy, and as a result we bought more than we needed and got thoroughly confused.It turned out that there’s really not that much you need to know about keeping hens.If you enjoy the content on this site, please make sure to subscribe to the RSS feed.

Related posts:

1. Most-read posts on Blagger from Feb 2009
2. Most-read posts on Blagger from March 2009
3. Most-read posts on Blagger from Dec 2008