Time to Think about....GROWING SOME FOOD!

     It may seem like Spring will never come again around this time in the winter. It seems that the north gets a bunch of snow and the South is huddled in the cold just glad we don't see much of the white stuff.  But...Spring will come again and like every year it is upon us SUDDENLY and I will find myself unprepared again. The reason it feels so sudden is that there are so many false starts. So many signs that it is here...That sunny 70's weekend where the wood stove doesn't need to be lit ...the stores are filled with seeds, summer bulbs, vegetable transplants and all the tools we need...and then bam...back in the 20's at night. Deceptive and teasing...Mother Nature. So what can you do Mid February when there is only Winter? Start your seeds to transplant. 

    This year I plan on planting as much of my own food as possible. I always plant a ton of tomatoes and this year plan on upping that number. I realize that tomatoes are the base for so many of my recipes and go through them very quickly. AND...with the slightest bit of care they are a sure bet. I will also always grow cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash and peppers, occasionally I will grow green beans and corn also. But this year...this year is going to be different. As I have said in previous Posts...I have closed my business and am ready to be a "Food Growing Machine". Self Sufficient!

     This fall I threw in a fall garden. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Red & Green Cabbages, onions, garlic, Swiss Chard, Brussel Sprouts and Collard Greens. Per usual, I was down there weeding, watering and trying to get bugs off of the stuff the best I could. It is always disheartening when you spend all that time and effort and expense and you are battling to get ANYTHING to give you food. This Fall I was raking under a bunch of trees in the corner of my place...I think it may have been raked once in 12 years...and saw all that leaf mold and thought..."why am I burning this stuff?" So I started putting it in the Wheel Barrow and bringing it into my fall Garden and PILING IT DEEPLY around all the vegetables. The Back to Eden method with a twist I guess. There were no weeds, grass or actually anything growing under the trees I was raking under soooo...SUCCESS!!! The most prolific, self sufficient garden I have ever had. I didn't need to water it once even when we didn't get rain for almost 2 weeks. 

 Here is the first of the Fall Garden pickings with some Summer Peppers still being crazy Prolific!

A Little Panoramic view, made it look squat.

Broccoli Heads were Huge!

Green Cabbage is fermenting into Sauerkraut as I write this..only a few weeks left before canning it.

Red cabbage was small heads but the Green...Wow!

Cauliflower is in the freezer, along with some of the Broccoli and about 10 lbs of Collard Greens. I have given a way a ton of greens, made them for Dinner 4 times. Have fed them to the chickens time without number...and allow the chickens access to eat at will...AND THEY ARE STILL PRODUCING LIKE MAD!!!  

Back to Upcoming Spring! Start some seedlings. You can use cut Paper towel and toilet Paper tubes as little planters. I like to start my little seeds on a wet paper towel and let them soak for 2 days before putting them in soil. With my goal to be self sufficient as humanly possible, I want to really pay attention to what I should be planting when. Some Summer Vegetables need the soil to be warm to grow. Corn for instance. I remember one year spending almost an entire day planting corn and nothing for weeks...I had to replant when it got warmer. So, spring...Peas,(regular and snow peas for chinese food) lettuces, onions, garlic, radishes, Potatoes, carrots, beets, Kale and more of the same I planted in the Fall...and also will be planting perennials, like more strawberries, rhubarb, Asparagus, Horseradish. I also ordered over the Winter, which will be delivered by Burpee in a timely manner. 4 Tea Plants (need that morning drink since I can't grow coffee...just trying to be prepared) Currants,  Elderberry, 2 Marion Blackberries, 2 More Raspberries and dozen more Strawberries. 

     Considering how many Tomatoes I want to grow this year, transplants from the nursery are out. I need to grow more by seed, and use as many heirlooms to start saving seeds year to year. I am just starting to investigate what tomatoes are best for Pastes, sauces, juices etc. I also want to try my hand at Canning Ketchup, Barbecue Sauce and salsas...maybe my own V-8 Juice. 

     So, start with a plan...what do you eat? I know we eat some sweet Potatoes in a course of year, so those will be planted but we eat a TON of Irish White Potatoes...I plan on having several plots of those. We eat some Green Beans and I will pickled dilly beans, but we eat a bunch of squash and eggplant, so will plant accordingly. Just make a list of all the vegetables and fruit you buy on a regular basis and start with those. You also don't want to set yourself up for failure if you try to much to take care of. 

1. Start with a plan...What do we eat the most? 

2. Where in your yard or property gets the most sun? 

3. What Zone do you live in to find your last frost date

3. Either start your own transplants or buy from the nursery when they become available. Tomatoes and Peppers were what I always bought as transplants as they were easier but corn, summer squash, cucumbers and the larger seeds always worked out great for me directly sowing in the ground

4. Look up ways of composting...this really does become a necessity in the self sufficient arena...might as well get a handle on that as soon as you can also

 This is meant to be a primer and will get into more details in future posts. 

Have a good one...and Think Spring...I keep telling myself I will be complaining about the heat in just a few months.  

The Mentality of Homesteading

(Finding the money to get started)

     

     This was the Mantra of the Great Depression. They HAD to live by this, there wasn't any other choice. To make things easier, it seemed the entire nation was living this way also. But we in the 21st Century do haved the choice and choose life differently and what we think is an absolute necessity is really a luxury.

     25% of the working people were actually unemployed. But this was WITHOUT Unemployment checks, or Food stamps or any other government help. To think about having all your money in the bank, except enough to get through that week, and the banks closing and losing all of it and no NET...well actually that is totally unfathomable to us. We have been raised not to think "self" sufficient because there are so many government nets in place. So we are swimming upstream from the very beginning. But for a moment...just stop...and really try to grasp where would you be if you had enough cash for a week and that was the end of it. What would you do? Take a look around you are you watching Cable TV, lap top or tablet on while you are purusing News, Facebook at the same time with high speed internet and under that is XBOX ONE, Bluray player and who knows what else? or there unnecessary lights on in the house, in rooms that there isn't anyone even in? Can you hear a fan blowing in a room or exhaust in the bathroom that has been on for hours? As you are looking around did your cell phone just beep for a text or snap chat?
See what I mean? We have to think about our lives & What do we need? Really?


     Our excesses can help finance our kick off to Homesteading. Our NOT  spending money on unnecessaries is the key to get us to where we want to be. It isn't just about finding a place out in the woods and getting chickens and start gardening...it won't work if we have one foot in the way that we have always thought about how to live. Try one Week of not spending one cent on anything...not even food. 7 days! That isn't that long. And that doesn't mean that the day before you start you go out and spend twice as much on food etc. Allow yourself $10 to get milk, eggs - Absolute necessities...like if toilet paper won't last for 7 days! No Starbuck's, no dinner or lunch out or calling out for Pizza. What is in your cabinets, fridge and freezer will be your 3 meals and snacks. No new clothes or the myriad of other things that leak out every week. Most people will save a few hundred dollars just doing this. 
    Homesteading is HARD WORK! Doing things that are physical even on days you just don't feel like it. The Chickens do not care that it is raining, or sleeting or below zero. They have to be checked on and fed along with other livestock. When there is a frost warning and you just put in your garden a few weeks ago...ugh...time to get out every sheet from the linen closet and cover every row. Every fruit bearing tree, vine and bush. (or whatever you plan on using). 
   Being Self Sufficient means you are cooking without any convenience foods because you are using what you have raised and grown, so that takes more time then most are used to. But it is ALL worth it!! 
    I watched a PBS show called "Frontier House" - Highly recommend it...if you can get past the personality flaws with the people, there is a wealth to learn from what these 3 families went through adjusting. They all mentioned back breaking work...sun up to sun down, constant chores...I actually ended up buying the DVDs and watched them numerous times gleaning what life would be like if I went totally off grid...and as self sufficient as possible. I am just scratching the surface but already I have done more than I ever thought possible. And you can too! Everything I have done has been very rewarding. I am looking forward to sharing it all.