Advanced Self Sufficiency (II)

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Diet & Nutrition
2. Establishing a Kitchen Garden
3. Vegetables
4. Fruit
5. Bottling
6. Freezing & Drying
7. Producing Milk & Eggs
8. Growing & Cooking with Herbs
9. Egg & Cheese Cookery
10. Grain

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

• Explain the importance of good diet and nutrition to good health
• Discuss the potential for increasing self sufficiency by growing your own food in a kitchen garden.
• Describe the potential and appropriate procedures for vegetable growing in your area.
• Describe the potential for fruit growing and appropriate fruit growing procedures for your locality.
• Describe the process of practices like bottling to extend the shelf life of produce.
• Explain the process of practices like freezing and drying to extend the shelf life of produce.
• Describe the principles of animal production and processing animal products, where someone is seeking to improve dietary self sufficiency.
• Describe growing and cooking with herbs, where someone is seeking to improve dietary self sufficiency.
• Describe the use of eggs and cheese where someone is seeking to improve dietary self sufficiency.
• Describe the use of grains in a situation where someone is seeking to improve dietary self sufficiency.

• Write down what you eat on a typical day....and at what time of day you eat each of these things...and what quantities of each thing that you eat.
• Visit a local nursery and inspect the food plants which are available in your locality.
• Talk to the nurseryman and find out what types of food plants will become available at other times of the year.
• Make a list of food plants which can be grown in your locality.
• Build a compost bin and send in a photo of the finished bin
• Draw a plan of your garden, as it now exists. Now plan how you would like to change it to produce a garden which supplies you with a significant amount of your food needs. b) Draw a second plan showing how your garden could become more productive.
• Take a photograph of your soil. Name the type of soil
• Design a crop rotation system for the vegetable garden
• Contact the Department of Agriculture in your state and discover how they can assist you with your vegetable growing. Collect any leaflets (or other information) which you can.
• List those vegetables which you consider would be easiest to grow and give the best production for the effort you would need to put in.