Distance Education Course
- Learn to be more Self Sufficient in your own life
- Lay the foundation for a Career in the Green Industries
Learn to be more self sufficient from people with decades of experience. This course has been compiled and is taught by a team of renowned experts in agriculture, horticulture, permaculture and self sufficiency.
To complete the certificate you must successfully complete all assignments and pass exams in each of six modules as follows:
Compulsory Modules:
- Self Sufficiency I
- Self Sufficiency II
Contents of the Core Studies
Part I
- Introduction- “What can I grow or make myself?
- Health, Nutrition and Clothing- Learn the importance of good nutrition and health
- Horticulture ‑Learn about the relevance and application of horticulture to self sufficiency with Fruit and Vegetables
- Horticulture ‑ Learn about the cultivation and use of herbs.
- Animal Husbandry ‑ Learn about Poultry and Bees
- Animal Husbandry ‑ Learn about Grazing Animals and Pigs
- Building- Learn about the appilcations of building self sufficently
- Energy- Learn about the application of alternative energy sources
- Craft and Country Skills- Learn about skills to make the most of your new lifestyle
- Making Decisions- Decisions that are made in a self sufficent lifestyle are differnet to those in modern society.
Part 2
- Diet & Nutrition - Introduction to good health, basic nutrition, food allergies, food combining, a well balanced diet.
- Establishing a Kitchen Garden - Deciding food plants that can be grown in your garden, designing a productive garden.
- Vegetables - Easy to grow vegetables, long cropping vegetables, culture for specific types of vegetables.
- Fruit - Cultural techniques for different types of fruits & berries, cross pollination
- Bottling - Equipment & techniques for jelly making & bottling.
- Freezing & Drying - Harvesting and preserving techniques including freezing & drying
- Producing Milk & Eggs - Milk from cows, sheep & goats, developing an egg production system, making cheese and yoghurt.
- Growing & Cooking with Herbs - Selection and cultivation of culinary herbs, drying herbs, recipes for cooking with herbs.
- Egg & Cheese Cookery - Storage and use of eggs & cheese, distinguishing different types of cheese, cooking with eggs & cheese.
- Grain - Growing sprouts, cereals, baking bread, etc.
Elective Modules
Choose any four of the following electives:
- Alternative Energy
- Mud Brick Construction
- Permaculture Systems
- Advanced Permaculture
- Sustainable agriculture
- Poultry
- Organic Plant Culture
- Herb Culture
Other options may also be considered from courses offered through this school; if relevant to the needs of the student concerned.
How to be more Self Sufficient
To be self sufficient requires a peculiar blend of three things:
a) Practical knowledge and skills.
b) Management or organisational skills.
c) A readiness to compromise. You may need to compromise to achieve a balance between the things you would like to have and the things you are able to provide yourself with. A self sufficient lifestyle might make you less dependent on society, but this might only be possible at the expense of giving up some of society’s luxuries.
To become self sufficient, you must be selective in the goods and services you choose to supply yourself with. It involves doing those things which yield greatest benefit in relation to the time, money and materials you need to spend on producing the goods or service (eg. if you spend $20 on fertiliser and seed in order to grow $10 worth of vegetables, you would have been better to not grow the vegetables at all - you could have bought them instead and still had $10 in pocket to spend on another more worthwhile project).
The way you physically organise your property and living space (both inside and out) as well as the way you organise your time, are vital factors in improving your level of self sufficiency.
PREPARING FOR EMERGENCIES - IN THE EVENT OF A CRISIS
In the event of a national crisis, the government will focus the greatest amount of resources on towns and cities. People living in remote isolated areas may find themselves having to look after themselves. People living in isolated areas are more likely to be badly affected than those living in cities. World events, such as September 11th 2001, strikes by police or fire workers, power cuts and so on, may affect you more. As resources are put into towns and cities, more isolated areas can lose out. In bad weather conditions, there may be a regular threat to loss of power and telephone. The UK can suffer extremes of weather, particularly snow; other countries face earthquakes, volcanoes, typhoons, monsoons and so on. These can all have an effect. How?
• Shortages due to strikes can lead to reduced power and fuel. Also, in light of terrorist attacks, people may rush to fill up their shelves, leaving supermarkets low on stock. After 9/11, in the UK, there was a shortage of bottled water as people were scared the tap water would be poisoned.
• Prolonged cuts to electricity/gas can cause real difficulties, eg. The loss of foodstuffs from your freezer.
• Loss of communications may leave you vulnerable. Alternative communication sources can be used, such as mobile phones, radios, battery operated or wind-up TVs or radios to keep you up to date.
• So what can you do in the event of a problem – remember preparation can give you peace of mind.
• Ensure you have good stocks of toilet rolls, salt, powdered milk, flour and yeast to make bread – these are likely to go quickest in event of panic buying.
• Money – ensure you have some money available for emergencies.
• Travel – enough fuel, maybe tow ropes, mobile phone, blankets.
• For power cuts – ensure you have fuel, perhaps a generator, batteries, rechargeable batteries, torches, wind-up/battery television or radio, cigarette lighter/matches.
• Communications cut – a mobile phone – make sure you can recharge the battery!
• Extreme cold – have logs, matches, paraffin and paraffin heaters available, perhaps even coal.
• Animals – ensure they have sufficient feed, hay and straw.
• Medical necessities – eg. aspirins, antiseptic, first aid kit, drinking water.
And finally, DON’T PANIC! Panic can cause far more problems than the crisis itself. It is in situations of crisis that you will find that you and your neighbours will band together and help each other out!
MAKING MONEY FROM HOME
No matter what you do to become self sufficient, you will undoubtedly always still come across occasions where you need money to buy things.
For the “perfect” exponent of self sufficiency, the way around this is usually to find either a product or a service which can be produced and supplied from home: in essence, to develop a low key, home based business.
The first and most obvious option is to grow and sell some type of produce; or value-add by producing some art or craft item; perhaps selling on commission through a local retailer, or at a market. There are other options as well though.
THE ACS TEAM APPROACH
ACS was founded by John Mason in 1979 as Australian Horticultural Correspondence School.
Right from these very early times, we've always believed that the best education only comes when the student is learning from the experience of a whole range of industry experts (rather than just a single teacher).
Every ACS course is a work in progress, continually evolving, with new information being added and old information being updated by our team of internationally renowned professional horticulturists.
Over the decades more than 100 horticulture experts from across the world have contributed to these courses, bringing their individual knowledge and experiences from as wide afield as England and Spain to Australia and America.
While may colleges and universities focus on providing courses that relate only to the country where they are based, ACS always strives to make its courses relevant to all parts of the world; any climate, economic or cultural situation. This has been achieved by involving a large number of professionals in the course development.
When it comes to tutoring, marking papers and mentoring students, the team approach is just as strong as with our writing. ACS students have the ability to obtain advice and support from staff across the world, with horticulture tutors located in the UK, Australia (both the north and south) and New Zealand.
The ACS team approach and global focus to both course content and student support, ensures our graduates have a unique and "real world" skills set. This unique approach is highly regarded by our colleagues in horticulture.
Contributors to ACS Courses over the years have included:
John Mason -former parks director (Melton, Essendon and Heidelberg), Landscape Designer (Playgrounds and recreation Association of Victoria), Nurseryman, President Australian Institute of Horticulture (Victoria), Committee International Year of the Child (Australia), Author of over 40 books, Editor Garden Guide Magazine, Editor Your Backyard Magazine.
Maggi Brown - Education officer, Henry Doubleday Research Association (UK), gold medal winner Chelsea Flower Show, Garden consultant.
Adriana Fraser - Horticultural Consultant, TAFE Lecturer, Project Manager - Parks and Gardens, Horticultural writer.
Iain Harrison -Garden Manager Fibremakers, Garden Consultant, Lecturer Swinburn TAFE
Katie Freeth - Manager Commonwealth War Graves (France), Horticultural Consultant (France & UK), Board member Institute of Horticulture, and International Federation Parks & Recreation Administration
Tony Bundock -Horticulture Businessman, Consultant, Head of Horticulture Dept. TAFE
Jim Davis -Horticulture Businessman, Lecturer TAFE (NSW), Principal VCAH Burnley College
Dr Lyn Morgan -author and internationally renowned hydroponics consultant (New Zealand)
Dr Valeria Astorga -horticultural consultant, lecturer (Spain, Peru, Australia)
Alison Bundock -Editor (Kangaroo Press; Southern Cross University), Technical Writer (APM), Consultant
Rosemary Davies -Horticultural concultant, journalist, media personality (Victoria)
