Homesteaders

[Loc20chick]

Great ideas on how to start seeds indoors, mine is always a hit or miss, when I start the seeds some like tomatoes germinate well but collards and leeks sometimes germinate and then die or are too weak. I have several containers with lids that I will use and plan on saving more for spring. Also thanks to a posting earlier by someone here, I ordered several free catalogs ( I didn't know I could do that).

I have been reading a book on edible landscaping and have some plans on starting two different fruit areas, one with strawberry as cover crop, nanking cherry and some other fruit that require same soil ph, and another patch with fruits that require acidic soil like blue berries, lingon berries and the like. I will have to test the soil and amend for this as last year I planted some blue berries and they didn't survive winter but the grapes did and are in the same area, on further reading I saw they require different things. I will till around the chicken run and grow herbs there too.

Hoping to expand the garden every year slowly

 

[wyoDreamer]

Make sure to harden off your starts before planting them in your garden.

A cloche will protect newly planted seedlings and give them time to acclimate. I cut the bottoms off gallon milk jugs and use those to cover the seedlings if they are smaller. make sure to take the lid off of it or you will steam your plants to death.

 

[KlopKlop]

Make sure to harden off your starts before planting them in your garden. 

A cloche will protect newly planted seedlings and give them time to acclimate.  I cut the bottoms off gallon milk jugs and use those to cover the seedlings if they are smaller.  make sure to take the lid off of it or you will steam your plants to death.

How long do you harden them for? The tomatoes I speak of were set outside for a few day and brought in at night. Then after that left out 24 hours a day for a few days before planting.

Maybe I just got unlucky :Shrug

 

[rancher hicks]

@Chicken Girl~15...I agree the old ways of cooking taste a lot better and for me it is very therapeutic.

I bake many foods from scratch.. I love trying new recipes and seeing my family enjoy my labor of love.

My most recent was biscotti and my boy's & dh just loved them.

I don't buy seasoning packets & salad dressings I make my own...I just recently made my own apple cider vinegar with the mother..to think I've been paying a lot of money for Bragg's organic...when mine cost pennies AND I made it myself.

Well lets have that recipe for the vinegar as I buy braggs for the birds.

 

[Loc20chick]

Well lets have that recipe for the vinegar as I buy braggs for the birds.

X2

 

[Loc20chick]

I have to share this.. I'm so excited I have finally made it to convince Hubby we don't need to be paying so much $$$ for cable TV

This may seem a small battle to some but for me it's huge, I've been trying to cut back on expenses as lately we have been barely making it from paycheck to paycheck, Hubby is the only one working but he is making more than the both of us were a couple of years back when I payed all our debts, got our cars paid off. So end of Dec cable is off and we'll only have internet, I look forward to more quality time with my family and the thought of saving some cash is always welcome.I could expand more and more on homesteading .

Looking for more ways to save.

 

[mythreesons]

Well lets have that recipe for the vinegar as I buy braggs for the birds.

Thanks for acknowledging me..

This is where I learned it..

 

[KlopKlop]

I have to share this.. I'm so excited I have finally made it to convince Hubby we don't need to be paying so much $$$ for cable TV

This may seem a small battle to some but for me it's huge, I've been trying to cut back on expenses as lately we have been barely making it from paycheck to paycheck, Hubby is the only one working but he is making more than the both of us were a couple of years back when I payed all our debts, got our cars paid off. So end of Dec cable is off and we'll only have internet, I look forward to more quality time with my family and the thought of saving some cash is always welcome.I could expand more and more on homesteading .

Looking for more ways to save.

Good for you! Knowing how much cable companies gouge nowadays i figure that should make a decent amount of budget space for you! We were fortunate enough to have a huge arial antenna on our house when we moved in so we get a decent number of local channels so we can keep up on news and weather, but most importantly - Vikings football if we didnt have that, we would have nothing as i refuse to pay for satelite. We arent TV watchers so we would never get our money's worth from that.

That should make more room in the budget for MORE CHICKENS!!!

 

[mythreesons]

Just wanted to give you a little insight into my little piece of paradise.

I have had chickens for the past 6 years since buying our home that sits on a little less then 3-acre's as it was all we could afford or we would of loved to have owned more acreage...that same year we added 1-plum and 1-peach tree with a few blackberry bushes (they died btw) had my dh build me a couple raised beds but soon realized I needed to fence in our garden as our chickens free ranged and from that point on our little homestead grew into more then I could of pictured.

I bought a greenhouse using my bonus money from work..made several cinderblock beds (couldn't afford to buy cedar wood) then my dh used whatever he could salvage from our property to build the fence..( we did need to buy some t-posts and the wire fencing that surrounds my garden) with the greenhouse in the middle of the raised beds..I dedicated some of the beds for our perennial edibles which is a couple asparagus patches, a herb garden, a mint garden, sun chokes, walking onions and a strawberry bed..around the inside of the fence I planted several grape vines, several rhubarb plants, a yarrow and for some color some irises that I got on clearance last year at Tractor Supply for $1.50 and many very old purple ones from my 83- yr old MIL's yard and a comfrey plant that I also dug up at my MIL's..one of the raised beds is shaped like a T and one part is a 2-cinderblock high raised bed that homes 4-blueberry bushes with some strawberry plants that jumped their beds and needed to be placed somewhere..they are thriving so I must of done something right.

We have pear, peach, plum, sour cherry, sweet cherry, apple, juneberry, mulberry trees in our fruit orchard 24- trees in total so far...on the outside of the fenced in garden we have 1-black current, 2- juneberry and 7-elderberry bushes.

Planted blackberry, raspberry, white raspberry, blueberry, pink lemon aid blueberry, gooseberry..over 80 plants and growing new canes every year.

Just this year I finally got smart and planted some herbs that I could step outside and pick instead of walking to the garden.. oregano sage, chives, thyme and marjoram perennial herbs around our newly built front deck (my dad paid for it as a overdue house warming present.. I call it our forever present..lol.) mixed in with day lilies, cheyanne echinacea,, irises ,lemon balm, peppermint and spearmint..

I plant medicinal's but have only made a tincture using our elderberries.. I planted yarrow, bee balm, echinacea, comfrey, lambs ears, horseradish, comfrey.chamomile so far.

We have many wild edibles growing on our property like fiddleheads, nettles, wild onion, wild garlic, wild grapes, dandelions, wild black raspberries, lambs quarters, burdock, hens of the woods.

We have a maple tree and sycamore tree that we can tap to make maple syrup.

I learned that you can eat hosta's..I have many planted around our property that I bought on clearance for a $1.00 each and some my Aunt gave me.

We have a acorn tree, pine trees and white burch that has medicinal and edible uses.

I made dandelion wine last year that is absolutely delicious AND will kick your butt..lol..can't wait until spring to pick all the untainted dandelions I can find to make as many gallons of wine I can put up..
'
I also made my own comfrey & dandelion salve's..

My son made us stinging nettle pesto that was better tasting then basil pesto from nettles growing in my strawberry patch.

I made all our jam from picking blackcaps (aka black raspberry) that we have growing on our property, on my dads property which is up the road from me...if you have never tried blackcap jam or jelly you don't know what your missing..this is coming from someone who was brought up on smuckers concord grape jam.

I'm self taught by watching youtube to pressure can, dehydrate and water bath can...

I'm alway's striving to learn something new to grow, or preserve.

I love my little piece of paradise.

 

[wyoDreamer]

@mythreesons my goodness, you have done a lot on your 3 acres!
someday I would like to make tinctures and such. I have been researching herbs for a while and it is very interesting. There is a lot of conflicting info out there on the web though.