Lesson Structure:   Self Sufficiency 2,  ASS101

There are 10 lessons:

1. Diet and Nutrition
   • Introduction to good health
   • Science of nutrition
   • Nutritive Values of different foods
   • Effects of Inadequate Nutrition
   • Food allergies
   • Water
   • How to be a Vegetarian
   • Vegetables -nutritive value, fibre
   • Health Basics, Natural Body Cycles
   • Major Food Groups,
   • Dietary Sources for different nutrients
   • Choosing and Using Vegetables
   • Understanding Carbohydrates and Diet
   • Fats, Protens, Minerals and Diet
   • Energy Production
   • Recipes and A well balanced diet.
   • Living a Well Balanced Life -eating, exercise, etc
2. Establishing a Kitchen Garden
   • Why Grow Herbs and Vegetables
   • Deciding food plants that can be grown in your garden,
   • What you can grow, and how you might use it
   • Designing a productive garden.
   • Managing Water for Optimum Value
   • Integrated Pest Management
   • No Dig Growing Method
   • Permaculture Gardening
   • Biodynamic Growing
   • Other Growing Methods
   • Understanding and Managing Soil
   • Getting Started with a Vegetable Gardewn
3. Vegetables
   • Growing Vegetables from Seed
   • Transplanting Seedlings, Crowns, Offsets and Tubers
   • Using Cold Frames or Cloches
   • Culture for specific types of vegetables, including:
   • Brassicas
   • Lettuce
   • Legumes
   • Onion
   • Potato
   • Tomato
   • Others incl. Beetroot, Capsicum, Carrot, Celery, Corn, Eggplant, Parsnip, Spinich, Cucurbits
   • Others including: Artichokes, Garlic, Asparagus, etc.
   • Mint, Fennel, Dandelion
   • Mushrooms
   • Harvesting Vegetables
   • Growing -fertiser, pest and disease management
4. Fruit
   • Establishing a Orchard -What to consider
   • Orchard Location
   • Cross pollination, Winter Chilling
   • Pruning in the Home Orchard
   • Cultural techniques for different types of fruits & berries
   • Citrus
   • Apples
   • Apricots
   • Avocado
   • Cherry
   • Fig
   • Grape
   • Olive
   • Pear
   • Peach
   • Raspberry
   • Strawberry
   • Other Fruits: Mango, Medlar, Olive, Papaya,Pineapple, Blackcurrant, Kiwi Fruit,etc
   • Cutting Propagation
5. Bottling
   • Scope and Nature of Bottling
   • Equipment
   • Techniques for jelly/jam making
   • Sauces
   • Pickling
   • Bottling
6. Freezing and Drying
   • Scope and Nature of Freezing
   • Freezing Tips
   • Anti Browning agents
   • How to Soften Water
   • Managing a Freezer
   • Vegetables you can Freeze
   • Harvesting and preserving techniques
   • Scope and Nature of Drying
   • Tips for Drying
7. Producing Milk and Eggs
   • Milk Production
   • Choosing a Dairy Breed
   • Cows, sheep and goats
   • Nature and Composition of Milk
   • Milk Protein
   • Factors affecting Milk Composition
   • How Milk is Made
   • Lactation Cycles
   • Managing a Dairy Cow
   • General Methods of Caring for Animals
   • Animal Feed, Water and Health
   • Scope and Nature of Poultry
   • Feed and Water for Poultry
   • Developing an egg production system
   • Keeping Goats
   • Pasture Management
8. Growing & Cooking with Herbs
   • Growing Herbs
   • Harvesting Herbs
   • Storing Herbs
   • Drying and Freezing herbs
   • Companion Planting
   • Selection and cultivation of culinary herbs
   • Recipes for cooking with herbs.
   • Using Herbs -Garnishes, Condiments, Medicinal Uses, Teas, Flavourings etc
9. Egg and Cheese Cookery
   • Value of Eggs
   • Storage and use of eggs
   • Distinguishing different types of cheese, cooking with eggs & cheese
10. Grain
    • Different Types of Flour -wheat, corn, oat, soy, etc
    • Role of Cereals in Nutrition
    • Characteristics of Different Grains
    • Using Grains
    • Baking with Herbs
    • Baking bread, etc.

Learning Goals:   Self Sufficiency 2, ASS101

• 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.

Practicals:  Self Sufficiency 2, Ass101

• 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 using the chart `Naming the Soil’ in the Accompanying Notes.
• Design a crop rotation system for the vegetable garden you planned in question 3b. Send in your design and explain why you have designed it this way.
• 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.
• Contact your nearest Department of Agriculture office again. This time, obtain any information you can on fruit growing.
• Prepare a list of fruit which you would grow to provide an adequate year round supply for the needs of a family consisting of two adults and two children.
• Choose 5 fruiting plants and explain how you would propagate them.
• Bottle something which you have never bottled before. Explain step by step the procedure you have followed. Indicate the equipment you have used in your bottling. Take a photograph of your finished product and send this along with your answer to this question.
• Make a preserve of your choice, send in the recipe, ask your family and friends to appraise it. Send in a report on their comments

Susan Stephenson
BSc in Applied Plant Biology (Botany) Univ. London 1983.
City and guilds: Garden Centre Management, Management and Interior Decor (1984)
Management qualifications in training with retail store. Diploma in Hort level 2 (RHS General) Distinction. 

Susan Stephenson is a passionate and experienced horticulturist and garden designer. She has authored three books, lectures at 2 Further and Higher Education Colleges, teaching people of all ages and backgrounds about the wonders of plants and garden design, and tutors many students by correspondence from all over the world.

Susan studied botany at Royal Holloway College (Univ of London) and worked in the trading industry before returning to her first love plants and garden design.

She is therefore, well placed to combine business knowledge with horticulture and design skills.

Her experience is wide and varied and she has designed gardens for families and individuals. Susan is a mentor for garden designers who are just starting out, offering her support and advice and she also writes, delivers and assesses courses for colleges, introducing and encouraging people into horticulture and garden design.

Susan is a Professional Associate and exam moderator and holds the RHS General with Distinction. She continues to actively learn about horticulture and plants and (as her students will tell you) remains passionate and interested in design and horticulture.

She also supervised the Area Arboriculture Team and was Exhumations Officer€“ in charge of collecting discovered remains and arranging identification (if poss) and interment of same.

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