homesteading

In my dreams, plans, and attempts to raise most
of our own food, I have discovered a wealth of
sources devoted to helping those of us who have
decided that we are interested in taking more
control of what we eat. I really love to
experiment with new recipes in the kitchen and
have also found lots of great-sounding recipes
that I hope to use with our own fresh fruits,
vegetables, nuts, and meats. It will take several
years to have everything in place, but I think it's
well worth the wait to feel confident that I am not
damaging my family by feeding them foods that
are not as safe as I want.

Every year, it seems, we are scared nearly
senseless because our foods may be
contaminated with a lovely variety of killer
bacteria, or we discover that another experiment
with our dinner has added some genetic
modifications that are less than trust worthy.
Over the years, many of our farm customers
have reflected our own feelings and deep desire
to protect and provide for their families at the
ground level.   There are some very interesting
books and articles that I hope to provide access
to on this page and its links.

This spring my children and I will be planting
several new apple trees on our farm. I have
chosen mostly heirloom varieties in an attempt to
re-connect with our past and those who worked
so hard to raise their families from their own
soil...back when life was slower, but much more
difficult. These apple trees will have to be
organically grown (and well barricaded!) because
we are planting them in the same field that our
sheep are in. I have no idea how difficult, or
even possible, this will prove to be, but we
decided that we could add some wind-fall apples
to our sheep's diet if nothing else. We have dug
one hole and mixed in an ample amount of sheep
manure (we have an incredible amount of this
lovely stuff just hanging around in the barn
begging to help out with our plan) and hope to
dig the remaining 10 holes as soon as it warms up
a bit....it's a pretty cold January morning right
now at 11 degrees, and I, for one, think the
digging can wait. I haven't heard any of my
children nagging me to grab the shovel today
either. I hope to add some sort of record of our
journey down this road to food freedom as we
go along and may add it to this page.

I have also ordered a Mulberry tree which will be
situated closer to the barn so our chickens and
turkeys will be able to consume what we don't
pick. I may have to settle for very few mulberries
for our use, but it will help out with the chicken
food bill while limiting the amount of genetically
modified corn/feed the chickens and turkeys will
need. Even if our poultry gets ALL of the
mulberries, we WILL get them eventually...on
down the food chain!

We have decided that a good sized rhubarb bed
will add some excitement to our diets and
recipes, so there is also a nice number of
rhubarb plants that we are looking for in the mail
with our apple trees. We thought we would
begin with 10 plants, and see how we do with
them before adding more. Ten plants may fill us
up with rhubarb and we will hopefully be able to
add it to what we offer at the local farmers'
market in town.

I was hoping to raise some pecan trees, but we
need to see if sheep will survive with pecans
before we order them. I just don't know about
any type of substances in pecans that could
harm our girls or if sheep will eat them and
possibly choke.   I really hope to have two or
three pecan trees so we have plenty for our own
use and enough to share and sell.   I guess we
may have to find another spot for them if the
sheep can't safely co-habitate with pecans in
their field. I will be adding information that I find
concerning our future pecans here too.

I am not sure, but I seem to remember one of my
daughters saying that she was going to order
some gooseberries with the apple order. Guess
I better start researching them too! I am certain
that she will be getting some strawberries and I
am hoping to find some red, black, and purple
raspberries later in the spring. She also
ordered several grape vines with one of our
apple orders. Where they will go is anybody's
guess! I am sure we will find a spot somewhere
around here. We obviously not only need more
land for our sheep, but some extra acres are
probably going to be needed for all our other
plans too. I haven't even mentioned the future
asparagus bed yet!

As for the garden, it will definitely NOT be
large enough to hold everything we are hoping to
raise this summer. I have a HUGE order of
potatoes coming in March in addition to all of
the vegetable seeds that we have given each
other, and received from others for birthday and
Christmas gifts over the past few years. We do
have unique gift ideas around here!
We have plans for an herb garden to add some
extra zing to our meals without having to worry
about anything added to it that we might not
want to eat.

One of my children is very interested in tapping
maple trees and making our own syrup for
sweetening our treats, and is also hoping to add
some honey bees to our farm.   Bees should do
quite well with the apple trees...and the peaches
that I forgot to mention.

Yes, we have chickens, and guineas, and
turkeys..much to our neighbors' irritation.
Keeping the chickens out of their yard is one of
our projects that is at the very top of the
list...and the turkeys who love to sit on their
picnic table and watch through their window what
goes on in the human world.   It's the very first
job that must be completed in order to continue
to free range our poultry. In fact, the turkeys
are spending most of their time caged for now,
and several of the most offensive hens are in a
pen. There are a good many excellent books
and articles about raising these critters. I am
looking forward to placing a 'chicken order' as
soon as I can scrape together the money and get
the fence secured so they won't go visiting.
Sometimes, visiting just ain't very neighborly and
I think my overly-friendly birds are about to find
their side of the fence is where they HAVE to
stay. We are prepared with plenty of chicken
wire and all the other tools that one has to
accumulate to do such a chore, and are just
waiting for a brief warming spell so our hands
don't freeze to the wire! The new fencing in
addition to the possibility of clipping some wings,
should do the trick. One of the turkeys is
actually awaiting execution as soon as it gets
warm enough to move outside, so I will probably
kill him the same day that we fence.

I don't know if I will ever actually be able to have
enough land for a few cattle, but I do hope that
we will soon be able to, at least, have some steers
for the freezer and a Jersey cow for the milk.
There are a good variety of milk cattle breeds
available, and I love them all (one of my favorite
varieties is the Brown Swiss), but the Jersey
would work better for us due to their smaller
size, and the impressive amount of milk they give
on less feed. If this proves impossible, there are
'milk shares' that can be purchased, so all is not
lost. My main reason for having fresh, raw milk is
to avoid all the growth hormones and antibiotics
that are in store bought milk. These are just
simply things that I don't care to pour down my
family's throat by the gallon. We have tried to
avoid using much milk at all, but there are times
when a hot cup of cocoa hits the spot like
nothing else! Another reason for my preference
for raw milk, heat pasteurization kills the
beneficial organisms in the milk, and I would like
to avoid this if possible.

We already have the Icelandic sheep, and they
can be milked if we don't have room for the
cattle. We are considering the purchase of an
Udderly EZ milker this spring for our sheep.
Not only is the Icelandic milk sweet enough to
use in various recipes without adding any sugars,
but it is the stuff several cheeses are made from.
We, actually, can't drink or cook with our sheep
milk because we are having to use chemical
wormers all summer on our farm. We want to
make homemade soaps with the milk, but buying
the lye that's necessary now requires a license I
have been told. I plan to research this too and
will add information as I go along. Besides, I am
just not sure I want to be washing my hands in
chemical wormer residue anyhow! But then, I
probably am washing in something that is equally
undesirable and just don't know it yet.

I would love the milk from our own cow, but the
fresh, safe, homegrown beef is what I
REALLY want. We should have enough fresh
turkey and chicken, but some beef just hits the
spot! Again, in an effort to avoid the growth
hormones and antibiotics that the typical grocery
store meat contains, our own beef would be
fantastic.   We are considering the addition of
some meat rabbits, but I just don't see myself
being able to kill a bunny. There are some
things that I just have a hard time even thinking
about. I have thought about raising them and
hiring someone to do the dirty work for us.
Fresh rabbit meat is pretty tasty and good for
you.

Since we are already treading on some pretty
thin ice with the neighbors due to our chickens
and turkeys, I am not going to ponder the
question of whether or not to have a meat hog. I
somehow think that might be the last straw.
This, along with the threat by one of my children
to move out if we even LOOK at hogs with any
degree of interest, has made me put the piggies
on permanent hold. The kiddies come first, and
if they just can't tolerate raising something, well,
we can do without the pork! They do cure hams
with 4-H, so we already have wonderful country
hams for the winter, even though the original
owners of those hams (the hogs) probably were
fed all sorts of genetically modified feeds and
given things that I am just going to have to not
think about for right now. Maybe, given time,
the idea of having our own hogs will grow on my
family!   Maybe a trip to a hog farm to see the
baby pigs would be the perfect cure.    Well,
even if I never attempt the hogs, I can find some
interesting information for looking over and
dreaming about.

There are so many interesting things that I want
to attempt to raise...for instance, you can
actually raise CRANBERRIES! ...and make,
that I am planning to live to be 400 so I can get it
all squeezed in. I don't know if living less
dependent on the grocery and the long distance
transportation of it will actually make our lives
more simple and slow, but I imagine there will
come a certain sense of accomplishment with
anything we do manage to succeed at. As I said
in the first paragraph, this will take some time to
get it all in place, so please join us as we begin
our travel to living more self sufficiently!