Homesteaders

[mythreesons]

Chicken girl 15~ my garden tomatoes got blight again for the 6th year in a row anyway, my friend's tomatoes were producing more then they needed so I bartered a couple dozen of my free range eggs for his extras a great trade imo.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Chicken girl 15~  my garden tomatoes got blight again for the 6th year in a row anyway, my friend's tomatoes were producing more then they needed so I bartered a couple dozen of my free range eggs for his extras a great trade imo.

IMO anytime you can trade something you have extra of for something someone else has extra of its a win for all. Plus it's money not given to big business.

 

[rancher hicks]

I decided to skip the spuds next year. There is a farm only a few miles from me who grows and sells the most wonderful potatoes of all sorts. I don't feel it necessary to take business from him just so I can save few dollars. He can grow the spuds for me.

Well now that's the whole point of planting is to save money. Sure if you have it but a penny saved is a penny earned. It's money you could put on your mortgage or just save for a rainy day.

Rancher Hicks~ I love the picture of your chickens..I will have to look into that breed when I have more room available for them where did you get them? I have only gotten mine from Tractor Supply.

I just got the little catalog from the place in Maine to buy my potato seed too. I have no clue which potato to plant either.

To answer your question about the Hosta's you eat the freshly grown shoots if I remember correctly you sauté them.

My C. Rocks and most others came from folks on here. Not hatcheries, though I have nothing against it. C. Rocks I got from Yard full o' rocks in Georgia. I hatched purchased eggs. Most of my chickens are my own hatches. Just a few are not.

I've been reading a "Heirloom" magazine about Victory gardens and such. How after the war folks needed to grow their own food to eat.

Too, How cities worked to have "alottments" so folks who worked in factories and came from rural areas could grow food since they'd have to buy it and there not being a lot of money.

I know England and Columbia, MD have alotments. Plots of land one can rent to grow things. My dad had one in MD.

As for Taters, I think the Mid to late varieties are the ones for towers. Though I have an article that shows how to grow in towers that just means starting another row on top the the previous row. Towers are all about space. More work though, I think.

If you have a Barnes and Nobles you can sit an look at all the gardening magazines for free. Or I'm sure there is a great deal on line.

 

[rancher hicks]

Chicken girl 15~ my garden tomatoes got blight again for the 6th year in a row anyway, my friend's tomatoes were producing more then they needed so I bartered a couple dozen of my free range eggs for his extras a great trade imo.

My first trouble with blight was purchased plants. They came from down south and lots of folks got it.

DO NOT put blighted plants in your compost, but either send them out with the trash or burn them.

DO NOT replant where blighted plants have been but in a new location.

As a rule I'd start my own plants, it was the year I purchased them that I got hit with the blight.

If you do buy plants buy heirlooms from small local farms that start their own plants and do not buy whole sale starts. Ask where they get their plants. If they've purchased them out of state find somewhere else to buy them.

Lowes, HD and other big box stores do not get their plants locally.

Crop rotation is important too. I skip beds and rotate.

Next year I hope to can our tomatoes as in previous years. I just need to plant more tomatoes. If your yield is not enough at one time, put your tomatoes in the freezer whole and can later. The freezing will cause the skins to come right off so there is no blanching process. I expect to have bags of tomatoes come canning time.

 

[shortgrass]

Lol@rancher hicks, you just reminded me, I have a bag of frozen Champions and 2 bags of Romas in the deep freeze; I totally spaced getting them canned!

Thanks lol

On the potato towers... I do them that way, with tires... This was in June, right before adding the third tires...

I had bad bad chickens lol; they found them and demolished them, repeatedly I could have gotten ALOT more if they would have just left them alone they started into the second tire, but the majority were in the bottom one, and next year its getting moved and fenced off lol... It was super easy to dig; DH just forked up the entire stack with the Bobcat to uproot the tires, then the chooks helped me find the taters lol

I only got a bushel lol, but I got experience, and paranoia for next year; they're getting hidden from the chooks!

 

[Woodsdweller]

Quote: Ummmm... on that note. What kind of chickens do you have? If you have breeds that I don't, I'd be open to bartering for the subject we've been discussing for hatching eggs. I have also started saving heirloom seeds.

 

[KlopKlop]

Ummmm... on that note. What kind of chickens do you have? If you have breeds that I don't, I'd be open to bartering for the subject we've been discussing for hatching eggs. I have also started saving heirloom seeds.   

Have you guys had any luck with hatching eggs that were mailed? I just bought my first incubator this fall and will be hatching this spring. I have read lots of bad stories of poor hatching rates

 

[Loc20chick]

Have you guys had any luck with hatching eggs that were mailed? I just bought my first incubator this fall and will be hatching this spring. I have read lots of bad stories of poor hatching rates

I hatched one batch of mailed eggs past spring and they did ok! The lady who sent them is a member here and had packed them real good.

 

[KlopKlop]

I spent my lunch break today looking at onions in seed catalogs and watching you tubes about growing from seed. Has anyone tried this? I am considering it as it seems easy enough

 

[Beekissed]

I spent my lunch break today looking at onions in seed catalogs and watching you tubes about growing from seed. Has anyone tried this? I am considering it as it seems easy enough

I am considering it as well, though I'd like to start mine in the garden instead of flats. I'm not finding much about that out there but I've got my seed and made home made seed tape yesterday and will be sowing some of the seed in the garden now and then some in the spring. I'll also sow some in a couple of flats in case mine in the garden doesn't germinate.

I'll be planting Candy onions.