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The Year in Which I Grow Our Food Pt. 7
A Place for Animals-Ducks and Geese
When we arrived here almost 13 years ago, we brought with us a small red coop of 10 laying hens, and a pair of American Buff geese named Ginger and Ferdinand. The chickens no one questioned. But the geese….no one understood.
Keeping geese is odd in the US because the US doesn’t keep geese (Europeans keep geese). It’s shortsighted, because geese do a job, which I’ll talk about below. To me, keeping geese in a country that doesn’t keep them really just brings home the point that here in the US we don’t allow our animals to work with us the way that they can. We see them as something to be extracted (just like everything else), instead of as allies. If anything at all, I hope this article will open your eyes to the other things animals can do for us besides providing food (which they do as well).
Ferdinand and Ginger are no longer with us, though their descendants are. Over the years, I have had American Buff, Pilgrims, a very loud and very affectionate Chinese goose named Arthur, and now I have two Ferdinand and Ginger descendants named Persephone and Echo living with a pair of Embden geese named Maxwell and Leona. As to ducks? Such a long cast of characters there. I’ve had Pekins, Runners, Cayugas, Muscovys, Khaki Campbells, Appleyards, and White Crested (for pictures of these, see here). Why so many different types? Turns out that ducks might be delicious for humans, but they are VERY delicious to wild animals, as well as easy pickings…
…click on the above link to read the rest…
The Year in Which I Grow Our Food Pt. 4
How Much Food Can You Fit?
A Word on Self-Sufficiency
Let’s talk about the big question of the year: “How much do I grow to feed my family for the year?” It gets asked, and then for some reason that question leads to the talk and belief in self-sufficiency, and then “self-sufficiency” becomes a buzz word and gets batted around all over the place, so let me clear the air on that.
Here’s the thing — and sorry — we normal, everyday people with everyday yards CAN’T grow enough to not need food from another source, and you can’t grow everything you need, either. I’m not even sure that people with large acreages can do it. I doubt it. It would take a huge investment and a ginormous skill set.
For us mere mortals, either we don’t have the land for it, we don’t have the skills for it, we’re not in the right area to grow something, or we don’t have the money for it (or all of the above). And some of these things apply to people with large acreages as well.
Let’s just think about it for a minute. Can you grow:
Sugar? Cocoa? Coffee? Tea? Enough of anything to press it for cooking oil? Or enough animals to provide you with lard or butter to use in lieu of cooking oils? Can you grow enough wheat or barley or oats (or all three) to feed your family on TOP of all the other things? Can you grow enough wheat or barley or oats or corn to feed your livestock, if you have it?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Year in Which I Grow Our Food Pt. 3
Planning to Plant the Plot
When do we plant?
Vegetable gardens in this country are largely seen as a “summer thing”, and I believe this is because the crops people associate with vegetable gardens are mainly summer growing. These are most of the crops that we discussed in the last article. However, if we adjust what we are growing, we also have to adjust when we grow it, because not everything grows well in summer, and needs the cooler weather of spring or fall instead. This way, the summer-only garden really becomes a spring, summer, and fall garden. This is a far better use of our space and time, because the more time the garden is in use means that more food can be produced. Good news, if you think about it.
What can we plant in spring, then? We can plant things such as:
Onions (bulbing),Peas, Potatoes, Cabbage, Kale, Carrots, Swiss Chard, Radishes, Lettuce, Spinach
In summer, we can plant the “heavy hitters”, such as:
Tomatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Peppers, Summer Squash, Winter Squash, Pumpkins, Melons, Celery, Cucumbers, Beans, Eggplant, Corn, Basil, Cilantro, Dill
In fall, we can plant things similar to the spring, such as:
Peas, Cabbage, Kale, Carrots, Lettuce, Spinach, Radishes, Onions (not bulbing onions, though, bunching onions instead), Garlic-this stays in over the winter, Turnips
These are not exhaustive lists. Any seed company worth their salt (and there are a number of really good ones) will tell you which crops do best in which season. These are examples so you can see that there are a number of things you can grow and three seasons in which to do so. Doing so, however, is a bit of a ballet…
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
