My food journey and how to be self sufficient

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My name is Camilla Remneblad and this is my food journey.

Food is my passion. If I’m not in the kitchen cooking or baking you probably find me growing, catching or gathering food.

I’m a qualified chef and worked in many kitchens in different countries and places.

Food and cooking are always on my mind. I’m constantly thinking what to cook and eat next

venison schnitzel with roasted potatoes and rosemary sprigs — *Pork schnitzel*

Hosing down fresh clams in a large net — *Fresh clams from the beach*

I grew up in Sweden and moved to New Zealand 20 years ago with my partner. We’ve spent most of our time in Queenstown owning and running food businesses.

While in Queenstown we dream of a rural lifestyle living of the land and being self-sufficient as much as possible.

We moved to a lifestyle block in Southland, New Zealand, 6 years ago, starting to make our self-sufficient lifestyle a reality.

Making the most out of our land by growing food and raising sheep and chickens for meat and eggs.

We now have two young kids and we are very happy and proud to feed our family nutritious, free range, spray free food daily.

You can find some of my recipes here

Freshly harvested autumn vegetables on a white kitchen bench

Read about how to grow stunning potatoes effortlessly at home here

Wild Food

Hunting, fishing and diving are some of our favorite activities. Therefor we often have wild, organic meat and seafood available to cook and eat.

Cooking and eating wild food is my most obvious step towards a self sufficient life.

I know of hunters and fisherman who doesn’t eat the meat or seafood that they just shot or caught. It blows my mind! It’s the best part of the process. Premium, fresh, organic food right in front of them. My advice is to make the most of it. The hard work has been done and now it’s time to enjoy it.

Learn to cook all the different cuts of the animal and you can feed your family for a long time with good quality meat.
Learn how to cook different kind of fish. When you go fishing and catch something that is not your target species you can still eat it. Just about all fish taste good when cooked fresh. You might even end up with a new favorite fish.

Read about how to cook venison here.

Butchered venison meat in two large plastic tubs

We never send any meat away for processing, it all gets done at our place and we don’t waste anything. The non-premium cuts we mince and we also make our own sausages.

Mincing deer meat using a meat grinder — *Mincing deer meat*

3 Venison burgers frying in a skillet pan with rosemary sprigs — Venison burgers

Venison loin and fillet on a white plate with rosemary sprigs — *Butchered deer meat*

Utilize all the meat by making delicious sausages, burgers, meatballs and more with help of a meat grinder

You can read more about hunting food here and fishing for food here

We enjoy foraging too, so wild mushrooms are often on the menu in autumn as well as stinging nettles and wild blackberries

freshly picked porcini mushrooms on a white kitchen bench — *Wild birch bollete*

I think it’s a far better way to enjoy food. More flavors and nutrition but best of all free from nasty chemicals and sprays.

Growing food

I try to grow as much variety of vegetables as possible .

With very little idea of gardening before moving here it has been a learning curve.

I find it satisfying and relaxing to spend time in the garden.

Watching vegetables grow and then harvesting them is very rewarding.

With food prices increasing and food shortages on the horizon it’s never been a better time to start living a self sufficient lifestyle.

Start growing, finding, hunting, catching your own food and start moving towards a more self sufficient food journey

I encourage everyone to do at least something in this direction. You don’t have to go all in.

Do what you can.

Not everyone have enough space for a vegetable garden or sheep but a few pots in the window or on the deck or balcony for herbs and lettuce is something anyone can do and that is also very low maintenance.

Fresh herbs can transform an average meal to a great meal easily.

Rosemary growing in a large pot outside a grey house — *Rosemary plant*

zucchini plant in a pot on a deck — *This* *zucchini plant looks lovely on my mum’s deck*

I never lived in a rural place before moving to our lifestyle block 6 years ago. We also live in a cold climate. Long, frosty and sometimes snowy winters. We still manage to live very close to entire food self-sufficient even in winter.

It’s rewarding in so many ways to be in charge of your food supply and where your food comes from.

How to be self sufficient.

With the right planning and good ways to store, preserve and freeze food. We can eat really well and hardly buy any fresh food.

If we can do it most people can. Many people I talk to are amazed, surprised and curious how we manage to be so self-sufficient.

It’s a lot easier than most people realize and that’s what encouraged me to start this blog.

I want to share my food journey and what I do. It’s very simple and without expensive set up cost or equipment’s.

vegetable garden bed with frost cloth cover — *Frost cloth on my vegetable garden*

Check out what I do each season below:

I hope it can encourage others to become more self sufficient. Start small and grow from there.

Start today where you are now. Do what suits your current living situation

My recipes are mostly simple weekday meals that I cook for my family utilizing what’s available around me at the time.

It’s fresh, seasonal, farmhouse style home cooking