Are we all going 'Simple'?

Everyday since the beginning of the current economic down turn, more and more of my friends, family and co-workers seem to be going 'simple'. In fact everyone seems to be coming around to 'our' way of thinking.

A neighbour of my parents gave us permission to pick as many of her cooking apples as we wanted - so we picked them all including some for her.

Someone gave my sister a bag if potatoes which were too small to make the grade in a supermarket (individual potatoes I mean, the sack was the normal size).

My mum has given my blackberries and plums for warming winter puddings.

Another friend gave me a bag of eating apples and a bag of cooking apples from her trees and borrowed some demijohns from me to deal with her grape harvest ( I am still hoping for the left overs from this harvest but I am trying not to look too desperate!).



Someone on Freecycle offered all of their unpicked apples and pears to anyone who wanted them.

One of my colleagues collects all the fruit pips and stones from our lunches and grows them on in the pot plants, we have grapes, mangoes and avocados on the go.

On a less 'free food' orientated note, people are actually planning their journeys to minmise mileage and petrol use. They are car sharing and taking public transport.

Actually I noticed I do tend to focus quite a lot of food and feeding my family. I miss working the allotment but the land was just too awful and we couldn't cope. I am hoping that from the spring I will be able to grow more in our little garden to make up for the loss of the allotment.

So far I have a cooking apple tree and a cherry tree which produces quite well. I also have some black currant bushes but they are very productive at all. I have a kiwi vine which appears to be alive but doesn't actually come up with any fruit. I assume he needs a friend. I have room enough for salad and herbs, so that will be my first attempt. Once I have got the hand of that then I can worry about what comes next.

The good thing is with all these new 'simple' folk there should be plenty of little plants around for bartering in the spring. Cool!