Know how

Article categories

Grow your own

Whatever the scale of your ambitions or plot you'll find something useful here.

Make your own

Reduce your footprint by making your own, from knitting to soap-making to adorning your home.

Livestock and pets

Find out about rearing livestock from the farm to the garden, and doing the best for your pets.

Energy efficiency and construction

Discover how to adapt, change and even build your own home to enable you to tread more lightly upon the planet.

Cooking, preserving and home brewing

From the home brewery to ambitions of chefly grandeur. Find out how to do it all here and really taste the difference.

Wild food

Subsidise the larder in a sustainable way. From fishing, to shooting, to foraging safely, find it among these articles.

Conservation and the environment

Conserve our world for future generations. See how you can help in these pages.

Marketplace

From shopping with a conscience to building your own enterprise. Find advice and encouragement among these pages.

Everything else

Sometimes the diversity of downsizing can throw up an unusual topic.

Editorial

Past editorial items from the downsizer front page.

You are here: Home arrow Articles arrow Editorial arrow Autumn 2009

Print

Editorial Autumn 2009

Written by Jamanda

Autumn is here already. The children are back at school, which is good news for parents and less good news for the teachers amongst us.

It's been a great year for hedgerow fruits. If you've not filled your freezer yet get a move on, then you can try jams and jellies, fruit liqueurs or chutney. Finding wild food in September is a useful place for beginners to start.

There's still plenty you can be going out on the plot in September and October. If you've had a good harvest you might find this article on storing fruit and vegetables useful.

As the season progresses most of us will start to prepare for Christmas. Christmas cake, puddings, and mincemeat all benefit from being made well in advance.

If you like to give home made presents, we have many articles to give inspiration, and a great deal of very talented people posting on the Make your own forum. How about making your own soap or knitting some socks for starters?

Whatever you do, enjoy yourself and don't forget to join in and share your successes and failures on our forum.