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Living the Good Life in the Outer HebridesThe Outer Hebrides offer not only beauty and an escape from the rat race, but many incomers are attracted to the idea of the 'Good Life' or having a crack at self-sufficiency.My husband and I are making slow steps towards a more simple life-style, rather than completely self-sufficient. There are various reasons we are wanting to go this way: * The price of oil has risen sharply in the last couple of years and who knows how long reserves will last. The price of oil and petrol/diesel is much higher here in the Western Isles. We need to find an alternative heating source that doesn't depend on anyone else. * The price of fresh produce is also very high and dependent on the ferries making it across. This winter has seen much higher gale force winds and thus ferries being cancelled - there have been times the shops have been empty of fresh produce. Also, if our own veg is locally grown (and maybe even sold at the local farmer's market), it's not a big impact globally (see first point). One also gets a lot more satisfaction out of having grown one's own food. * Dependency on the National Grid for electric. In the hurricanes two years ago, our village was without power for 4 days. The only source of heat was the open fire - and I had to use that to heat up tins of food. We don't want to go through that again. Also, costs are going up and up. * A more wholesome, healthy life. The simpler the life (not poverty stricken though!) and the less dependence on material acquisition, the happier we are. Too often we hanker after material wealth in an unhealthy way in the neurotic hope that it will fill the emptiness inside, but instead it creates more neurosis and anxiety. At first, we tried to go hammer and tongs all at once and all we did was burn ourselves out and get discouraged. Becoming self-sufficient on a croft in the Western Isles and particularly Lewis, is not as straight forward as say, a smallholding in Devon. That's not to say it's easy doing it anywhere! There are some extra natural factors that make it much more difficult. First, the weather can make growing things a 'challenge'. You can see on Lewis which way the prevailing wind is - the trees bend towards the east and the leaves tend to be missing of the west. Polytunnels or robust greenhouses are a MUST. These structures must be able to stand up to severe gale force winds, sometimes in excess of 70mph in January! In the olden days, before polytunnels, crofters used 'planticrues' - basically high walls stone dyking around their veg patches. The growing season is shorter, so again, a polytunnel can overcome this. The primary school in Tong on Lewis have their own polytunnel which gets heated with electricity generated by their own wind turbine. The excess goes back to the school building. And the children learn all about growing vegetables from seeds. The soil: peat, acidic, boggy, generally. If you are lucky to have a croft on the machair (some parts of west coast of Harris and in the Uists & Barra), then the sandy soil there is a lot more fertile. Our croft is very boggy in places but not as bad as others! So, if you don't have access to machair sand, then adding lime to the soil helps the ph balance. Also, adding seaweed to the soil during the winter will help add nutrients such as iron back into the soil. If you are lucky to live near a beach, you can just collect it and put it on top of the soil as a 'mulch' over the winter and just leave. If you wish to know more information on growing and selling - or even how to get local produce, both the Highland and Islands Local Food Network and the Stornoway Farmers Market are both excellent resources. Currently, due to withdrawal of funding due to budget cutbacks with HIE, the HI Local Food Network are unable to take any new memberships, but there is a link to local MSPs to contact to urge the government to continue to fund this vital resource. Although the Stornoway Farmer's Market is still small compared to that on the mainland, they are attracting more producers all the time. The Stornoway Farmers Market is run by the Lewis and Harris Horticultural Producers. Details on how to join LHHP can be found on the link above for the Farmer's Market. It is unknown if there is something similar being run in the Uists. If you are from the Uists and know differently, please contact us so we can put the details here!
Follow Thea and John's Slow Express Journey through Europe in a Gypsy Caravan!
Further Reading on Self-Sufficiency
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