Recreating The Good Life - Food Waste and Chickens

The Good Life was a sitcom shown on the BBC in the mid-70s (when shown in the US it was re-titled Good Neighbors). Although it got off to a slow start it ran to four seasons and became an incredibly popular show with lasting appeal.

The Good Life follows the life of Tom and Barbara Good after Tom turns 40. In the first episode, ‘Plough Your Own Furrow’, Tom’s stagnating career in a meaningless design job provokes a mid-life crisis. Discussing the mysterious ‘it’ that is missing from their life, the couple decide that they need to break the cirle of working to earn money to buy things that then break, sending them back to work for more money. Since they don’t aspire to owning a lot of ‘things’, they decide to have a go at self-sufficiency in their own back garden, in the upmarket suburb of Surbiton.

Although the sets might be dated, the idea of self-sufficiency is currently undergoing a resurgence. Many people find themselves in meaningless jobs; many more have found themselves without work as a result of the recession. And even among those who are content in their day jobs, there is a significant drive towards living more sustainable lives – growing some of your own food, generating some of your own energy, embracing alternative lifestyles and economies, recycling and thrift. The Goods were lucky in that they owned their house outright, and had a large garden – both things that modern urban gardeners are likely to struggle with. So how easy would it be to recreate the Good Life in the 21st century?

By the end of the first episode, Tom has resigned from his job, swapped the car for a rotary cultivator (a rotivator) and started to dig up the front garden. A surprising step in Surbiton, this would still raise eyebrows in most UK communities – and in many North American towns would be against the rules governing what people can and can’t grow in their front yard (although there is a movement towards Food, Not Lawns).


Hen Solo and Princess Layer

In episode 2 – ‘Say Little Hen…’ – the first of the livestock arrives. Tom takes the goat down to the common for some free grazing – something that is still legal where common land exists. Meanwhile, Barbara is tearing down a perfectly good greenhouse to turn it into a chicken run. These days urban farmers are more likely to be investing in a greenhouse or polytunnel so that they can grow the marginal crops like tomatoes and peppers that have become an indispensable part of the modern diet, and also extend the season to have fresh produce year-round rather than rely on stored food all through the winter.

The couple are also economising – cutting out all the luxury expenditure so that their savings will last them through until their first harvest provides them with a surplus to sell or barter. And they’re recycling their waste (“refuse is not rubbish”) and leftovers – two trends that have resurfaced of late. The BBC have been showing Economy Gastronomy and teaching people how to shop properly and cook basic meals to save on their food bills, and we’re being encouraged to Love Food, Hate Waste to keep food out of landfill while keeping our money in our wallets. Retailers were quick to bring back old-fashioned joints of meat as people moved away from premium lines.

Once the chickens arrived, the Goods eagerly awaited their first harvest – but the hens were disinclined to lay. The couple face the dilemma of whether (and how) to kill a chicken, something that urban farmers still face today. An advantage that we have that the Goods didn’t have is the profusion of information available to us – on the internet and in books and magazines published on every imaginable topic. We may not have the skills our farming forbears took for granted, but we can learn them, and there are plenty of courses and workshops springing up all over the place as more people become interested.

So this is just the first article in a new series. I’m going to look at the challenges the Goods faced through their four years on television, and see how different (or similar) our modern attempts at urban self-sufficiency are – because I truly believe that the time is coming when we’re all going to need to know how to produce some of our own food and energy, consume less and produce far less waste than we do now.

Articles in the ‘Recreating the Good Life series’:
Recreating the Good Life: Cash Crops
Recreating the Good Life: Energy
Recreating the Good Life: Food Waste and Chickens
Recreating the Good Life: Pigs and Barter
Recreating the Good Life: Press


Resources: magazines
Permaculture Magazine, the leading environmental magazine dedicated to sustainable living and self-sufficiency in the 21st century.
Mother Earth News, an American magazine devoted to homesteading, organic gardening, renewable energy and green homes, real food and DIY – with a vast archive of material available via their website.
Home Farmer covers everything to do with living ‘the good life’, from kitchen gardening and keeping livestock through to cooking and preserving.
Grow Your Own is one of the best titles if you’re into growing veggies – it’s great for beginners and hasn’t been running as long as some of the other magazines available on this topic and so isn’t stuck in a gardening rut.

These are just my favourites of the available titles – if you have a favourite then leave the link in the comments :) I will cover other resources in future articles.

Posted 26 October 2009, 15:35.  

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