Food
Being the daughter of a Chef, and from a family of Foodies, food is always one of the major things that preoccupies my mind. In the time that we have had our off grid home, we have had one gas powered fridge, that never really lived up to our expectations, and always slightly terrified us that it might quietly poison us with carbon monoxide. So for a good while, the fridge has just been a cupboard. For the most part, we are pretty savvy about not having a fridge, and being in Northern Spain during January definitely had its advantages. However we did have to be rather scrupulous about meal planning so that we didn’t waste anything. As much as it was always tempting to cram our basket with all of our favourite goodies, it was very much about eking those out over a few weeks, so that we could really celebrate and enjoy those treats, without them spoiling in the “cupboard” Food is a precious resource, and with that I think it’s really important to maximise its uses, and try to waste as little as possible. I have been really enjoying the Jamie Oliver’s feast for a fiver series on channel 4 since we have returned. It has shaken up the way I have looked at ingredients, and has encouraged us to be more inventive. And interestingly we are buying and wasting far less food than we were before our adventure , so maybe it’s time to switch the fridge off - or just not over fill it!
Tools
Tools maketh the (wo)man, or just they can make the job a whole lot more efficient and enjoyable. I was overjoyed to be reunited with the vegetable peeler I inherited from my Granny’s kitchen and my trusty cleaver that graces a lot of instagram shots and is my go to weapon for chopping in the kitchen. It sometimes takes going away to remind yourself that a basic kit of good quality tools really do make your life an awful lot easier. So my take away from the time away, is that I just need a good speed peeler, a cleaver and a weighty chopping board, and I can take on most challenges in the kitchen - apart from filleting anything. A cleaver and a replacement cleaver are now on my Vinted and charity shop search lists - and if I can’t find them before our next journey South I may succumb to buying new. But these are my kitchen essentials.
Water
Water is a bit of a scarcity at our house, especially after we realised that our Cisterna (large water tank filled with rain water caught off our roof) had sprung a leak and was empty. Our dear friends leant us an IBC and we swiftly attached the guttering to it, when we knew there was four days of rain forecast. But when you know that you have one cubic metre of water to last you a month - you go steady! We’ve always been quite cautious of using too much, and it’s quite hard to use lots at our Spanish house because it’s not connected to any taps or toilets. But we have learnt that we can flush our toilet with 5 litres of water rather than the 8 the cistern can hold, and it’s these ideas that we come home with. In our UK house we have a brick in the cistern to stop it from using as much water. And I have been hooking up waterbutts galore to collect a provision for the Summer ahead. It’s hard to think that we will undoubtedly have a shortage of it in warmer months, when it’s been a constant deluge for much of the Winter. But it’s those sort of thoughts, that mean we don’t start preparing for future, and making the most of the abundance we have now.
Lights
It probably comes as no surprise, but when you return from 5 weeks with no mains electric, over head lighting does seem pretty damn marvellous. We do have rechargeable lights, and the accessibility of LED lighting has massively upgraded the quality of light we can achieve with minimal upgrades to our solar power system. But it does change the way that you operate in your space. With our visit being in Winter, we were subject to later starts and early evenings, and a lot of jobs being saved for those times with the best light. And it really got me thinking about what was achievable and what really needed to be done. Evenings were longer, but with limited lamp light, we read and would go to bed, rather than spend endless hours staying up late. It made me feel like we were leaning into Wintering and hibernation. Nothing was so urgent, that it couldn’t wait until daylight - and that was almost a release. I’ve been quietly trying to remember this feeling since coming home. That candle light and low wattage light bulbs can evoke peace and restfulness, and that work doesn’t have to come home with me outside of daylight hours.
Rest
I think this lesson leads on from the the last, and it’s leaning into rest. Off grid living can be hard, it can be joyful and it can be slow. Things don’t always happen quickly, and when there’s been a big push of work, it can be really helpful to stop and rest and review. Off grid living can be contradictory in being both restful and labour intensive, and I think that there are similarities in running a small business. There are times of incredible output, but there is also the opportunity to down tools and leave for a month. Or at least that is the life we are striving for. Recognising the time to work, to facilitate the time to rest our minds and rejuvenate our bodies.