The Good Life: Cropping broad beans (and a gratuitous pic of Felicity Kendal...)

Harvesting some dwarf broad beans, planted Anzac Day or thereabouts. Not a good cropper, so avoiding in the future. But satisfying enough...

Plenty korero about self-sufficiency in times like these.There's probably a kilo of beans on my bench in the photo (just blanched and being bagged up for the freezer). That's from maybe four square metres of my mara, and like I say, planted about April 26th. Another smaller crop is about ready. But still, hard scrabble to feed a whanau of five. Should include the dog I 'spose, which would make it six.


I need about 2,300 calories a day. Maybe 8,000 calories per day, oh the dog...9,000 plus? Dunno, my head is starting to spin.


Sure, we're getting chickens soon, so eggs for brunch, and broilers every now and then. My point, and I do have one, is that the dream of self-sufficiency (remember 'The Good Life') requires a lot more space than most people currently have, a lot more work than many would realise, and wouldn't give much variety.


One day, you eat the dog.




[Realised the most hits on this blog go to a posting on Paul Henry which is titled 'Fear of a Black Planet'. Hence the gratuitous reference to Felicity Kendal, who played Mrs Good in aforementioned BBC comedy. Hey, one day I might wanna sell Google some advertising space to buy some butter for me beans!]