This category is dedicated to gardening, foraging, raising your own food, preserving harvests, and all aspects of self-sufficient food production.
Okay, so I am way behind on the A- Z Challenge. I don’t even know where we are at this point. All I know is things have been crazy busy here and I am having a hard time keeping up.
Jeff and I (mostly Jeff) cleaned and organized the barn so we can actually get a truck in there if we need to. That worked out really well since we got hail the other night. Perfect timing.
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Lots of people like the idea of growing their own food but get quickly overwhelmed at the thought of a garden that will grow everything they want to eat. The key is to start small so you don’t get overwhelmed. Some of these simple gardening ideas may be just what you need to get started.
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The start of our garden.
Today is another twofer, this time for the letter G. I can’t decide whether to write about goats or gardening, both of which I love.
Gardening was my first love. I have been gardening since I was old enough to stand up. My parents always had a huge garden, and summer was highlighted by eating fresh, yummy veggies every day. In fact, I would often raid the garden when I was outside playing, looking for goodies to snack on. Continue reading
Well, it’s Monday and we are up to the letter F for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Today’s post will be short and sweet because I feel like yuck and want to go to bed.
The first thing to come to mind for the letter F is my family. The second is food. And they both go together quite well. 🙂 Continue reading
Today’s A-Z Challenge post is the letter C. Chickens seemed like the natural topic because they are easy to keep and, in some places, you can have a few in your backyard even if you live in town. Raising chickens is a step toward being more self sufficient.
Chickens are pretty easy to keep. They need a draft-free coop as well as clean food and water. Food can be commercial feed from the farm store or it can be kitchen scraps, grass, bugs, worms… chickens will eat pretty much anything. Continue reading
As you may or may not know, the bee population is declining rapidly. Bees are dying off from disease as well as the increase use of pesticides farmers and gardeners use on their crops. You may think, “Who cares; it’s a bug” but the fact is, we need bees to live. Continue reading
Molly
I figured out my A post. Well, my husband did. Don’t know what I’d do without him. I was actually looking for something to eat.
So anyhow…
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You have probably seen it all over the place and never gave it a second thought. Chicory grows wild along roadsides and in fields all over the country. Albeit pretty, it is considered a weed. But as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”
I am sort of in the “If it’s green, let it grow” camp. I am okay with weeds all over the lawn. I don’t need that perfect illusion of civilization where we have to control Nature itself. I find all plants fascinating. So when I found tons of chicory plants all over our fields, I had to find out what I could do with them.
No, not for Easter. This is sort of a year-round thing on the homestead. Currently, we have 14 layers, and even though my husband built them a beautiful nest box, they seem to like laying eggs in odd places.
We have found eggs in the bushes and in the other barn in an old… um… I don’t know what it is. It is some sort of contraption that should probably be in the trash.
My husband even found some in a box of stuff for electrochemical bore cleaning. (Do NOT ask me what that is. I have no clue. I asked Jeff what it was. That’s what he told me. It belonged to his dad so I assume it is related to guns. That’s all I can tell you.) Not necessarily a great place to lay a pile of eggs.
Another really busy day today. I didn’t sleep much last night so I was less than pleased when my alarm went off this morning. But sleeping in was not an option because someone was coming to buy our potbellied pigs today, early.
Our original plan was to breed them and sell or butcher the babies. Yes, potbellied pigs are actually a meat breed, not a house pet. So first we got Tyrone, a solid black piggie who loved having his belly rubbed. Later we added petunia, a black piggie with a white belly. Petunia was very shy with no interest in belly rubs.
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The Practical Homestead 