We're controlled by the system because we've allowed ourselves to become reliant on it for our survival. Our hunter gatherer ancestors would have had the skills to survive off the land in any situation.

With that in mind I did the one day beginners course from MD Survival & Adventure on Sunday (17th July). A fantastic introduction, it's run by Micky an amazing tutor with lot's of real life practical experience who is really generous with his time.

We learnt to light fire without matches or a lighter, build fast emergency shelters, sanitize dirty water safe to drink, acquire food from the wild and camouflage techniques.

I learnt a huge amount in a short space of time and will definitely do an advanced course.

Find out more here:
https://t.me/MDSURVIVALandADVENTURE/3553

Sonia

http://instagram.com/TheGrowingProjectUK

http://t.me/TheGrowingProject

#growyourownfood #exitthesystem #keepcashalive #shoplocally #independentbusinesses

City foraging:

I tend to avoid foraging on roadsides because of pollution (that rule would obviously go out the window in an emergency situation) but does it really matter in a city? The park I forage in is quite isolated but there are roads close by. Are there any foraging experts that can advise? Will pollution contaminate the fruit internally?

Sonia

http://instagram.com/TheGrowingProjectUK

http://t.me/TheGrowingProject

#growyourownfood #exitthesystem #keepcashalive #shoplocally #independentbusinesses

Rural foraging:

"Cherry plumbs, wild oats, Broad beans, wheat and Yarrow....A few things I've found while walking in my area. I'm in a rural, farmland location so I have an abundance of vegetables growing around me. Even if I don't pick them to eat now I can collect the seeds from various plants to preserve and grow myself.

I pick from the edges of farms, left over from the last crop. These are from random plants that poked though between the current crops!"

Jen

http://instagram.com/TheGrowingProjectUK

http://t.me/TheGrowingProject

#growyourownfood #exitthesystem #keepcashalive #shoplocally #independentbusinesses

If you're going away an irrigation system can be bought to keep plants watered. Micky t.me/MDSURVIVALandADVENTURE tells how to make one yourself.

"A gravity fed drip feed system is pretty easy to make & costs only a few pounds. It should do for a few days or a week dependant on the flow rate. Water bottles 5l, plastic hose, the kind on oxygene masks or similar (avail from chemists), some paperclips & some hot glue or multipurpose glue.

Pop a hole in the side at bottom of the water bottle just big enough for the tube & push the tube into the hole about an inch into the bottle. Seal the tube with glue on the outside of the bottle. Place the other end of the tube on top of the soil of the plant/s you want to water. Get a paperclip & pinch it over the tube to slow the flow to a drip every few seconds or so. You can adjust the flow by opening up the paperclip slightly. Add as many tubes to the bottle as needed or if there are many plants use more than one bottle. Raise the bottles higher than the plants."

The Growing Project: Food Abundance community space - North London.

We're very exited!! We have our first garden space were we can help a community grow together; a large garden at the back of a block of flats.

We visited a week ago and managed to get interest from a resident who is keen to get involved. We spent our first day there planting and knocking on doors and we've managed to engage another resident to come on board. We got a couple of people saying no but you can tell there's a slight interest so on our next visit we'll try again. A lot of people weren't in so we put leaflets through doors.

Community buy in is imperative to keep a project going so we'll be using this project to put a blueprint together on it.

Thank you to Carla from the brilliant Crops Not Shops www.cropsnotshops.co.uk for putting The Growing Project in touch with the location and for helping out with the planting and watering on the day.

Sonia, Jen and team

http://instagram.com/TheGrowingProjectUK

t.me/TheGrowingProject

Garden growing musings from experienced grower Jen:

Here I talk watering and how I deal with pests organically and ethically. I've been removing butterfly eggs and transplanting them to a donor plant. You can just brush them off as well.

Jen

http://instagram.com/TheGrowingProjectUK

t.me/TheGrowingProject

#growyourownfood #exitthesystem #keepcashalive #shoplocally #independentbusinesses