If you’ve been following my blog over the years, you know that we bought a farm in 2010 with big dreams and goals. I had been reading every homesteading book I could get my hands on before that. Our oldest son said emphatically that he wanted to be a pig farmer (of course, he was … Read more
This is a guest post from Anna, the editor of Green Talk. 🙂 I have been gardening for nine years now, and I have made more mistakes than I can count on my hands and toes. What do I do? I learned from my mistakes and kept growing –literally. The following year I will probably make different … Read more
This time next year (December, January, February, and beyond), I want to have fresh veggies in my backyard. I haven’t done it yet, but I am going to. The idea has always intrigued me. I feel like, to be truly self-sufficient, one would have to plant a winter garden. It’s what our great-great-grandparents would have … Read more
I found this post in my Que., not yet published. I wrote it back when we lived on the farm. I hope you enjoy it! Meet Violet! She’s our new cow. Isn’t she beautiful? We’ve had her 2 weeks now. For a long time, we wondered about getting a dairy cow, but it was a steep … Read more
One of our Barred Rock pullets. I called our first Barred Rock hen “Jackie O” because I thought she was dressed in such a nice outfit. 🙂 I wrote yesterday about our decision to sell the farm. You were all so supportive and caring! I couldn’t sleep last night, thinking of how we might be … Read more
How do I start? This is such a big change in our life…. This is our fourth summer raising chickens, hogs, turkeys, ducks, and geese. We raise our meat with a no-soy, no-corn, non-GMO feed (we used to use a completely organic feed, but it’s no longer available). We produce an amazing product. The people … Read more
When we first purchased our farm, we bought “about 1 year old” chickens off of Craigslist. They were adorable, and it was a fun experience, but we have learned a lot since then. If you’re thinking about buying chickens, you might want to consider the advantages and disadvantages of buying day old chicks and the … Read more
Years before we bought our farm, I was checking out homesteading books from the library. I checked out the following books, often: and They were a DELIGHTFUL read for a young mom in a neighborhood who dreamed of canning vegetables from a big garden and hand-churning butter. However, one word of caution: these books … Read more
When we first moved to our farm, I had a vision: that we were not going to feed our chickens soy or corn (more on the corn part another day). At first we found a a soy-free feed that wasn’t corn-free, and we went with it. Then we had the feed store make a soy-free, … Read more
The farm is keeping us incredibly busy this time of year. My hat is off to those of you who attempt to work a full time job and raise and sell good food. We are blessed that The Farmer is home this time of year. And, because he’s home, this is the time of year where we will make … Read more