Just so you know.... both Bryce and I were “raised in the shade”. This is to say that we are far more enthusiastic than experienced regarding an agrarian lifestyle. We would never have ventured down this path were it not for our friends and next door neighbors Karl and Nancy Falster. So if you come here looking for wisdom it’s more likely that we’ll be able to share with you how NOT to do things (based on personal experience) as opposed to the best way to develop a productive farm.
As this blog develops we’ll be sharing our trials and triumphs as well as sharing books, website links, photos and other information that have been helpful to us and that we hope you will find to be of interest.
To date we have accumulated 1 miniature hereford heifer, 1 miniature hereford bull calf, 19 laying hens, 1 rooster, 3 California (meat) rabbits (2 does/1 buck), 3 dwarf bunnies, and 2 dogs. We had a good experience with 50 meat chickens we raised and processed last Summer. It has been wonderful having the freezer stocked with our own chicken and we look forward to raising more again in the Spring.
As we enter the new year we have no lack of fresh eggs and we hope to add rabbits to the freezer at some point in the near future.
We successfully planted grapes, blueberries, blackberries, 2 apple trees and 1 apricot tree and we had limited success with onions, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, peas, radishes and herbs. We'll continue to experiment with garden sites and raised bed boxes later this year. I just ordered seeds for this years Spring garden with plants appropriate for both in-ground and in-box plantings hoping for enough produce this year to participate in our local Farmer's Market.
Speaking of the Farmer's Market, I'm also making a list of what value added foods we can make/take as well as creating kitchen related cross stitched pieces (bread cloths, sachet bags and hand towels) and hand painted/carved gourds Bryce's mom creates. We'll be planting a variety of gourds for her this Spring.
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