Homesteaders

[Chicken girl 15]

This year is meat chickens being added to the eggs and garden. One step at a time is all we can take. I have 2 autistic children so even small changes are tough. However all changes are nesacery. The food industry today puts very strange things in what they expect us to eat. I'm not interested in cereal with rainbow marshmallows or fake apple flavor. I want chemicals out of the diets . So we started with veggies since they take very little space, to start now it's rather big. Then eggs for the pure protien next chicken for clean meat. Next year is 2 cows, 1 meat 1 dairy. The next year who knows.

I plan on adding wheat and other grain to my food plots this year I just have to find it.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

This year is meat chickens being added to the eggs and garden. One step at a time is all we can take. I have 2 autistic children so even small changes are tough. However all changes are nesacery. The food industry today puts very strange things in what they expect us to eat. I'm not interested in cereal with rainbow marshmallows or fake apple flavor. I want chemicals out of the diets . So we started with veggies since they take very little space, to start now it's rather big. Then eggs for the pure protien next chicken for clean meat. Next year is 2 cows, 1 meat 1 dairy. The next year who knows.

I plan on adding wheat and other grain to my food plots this year I just have to find it.

Dairy is a someday goal. It is a big job, but we figure we would make it more doable by keeping the calf on the cow when we are not milking.
Still I would love to do it. I saw a presentation on making cheese, would love to get into something like that.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Google local organic grain elevators, We have one that is only an hour away from us, the Grain Place. It really does not take much wheat to make enough flour for your family, and it is easily reseeded for next year, so buy once and you should be done.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

We go through so much milk and cheese that alone is worth the cost of the start up. Not because it will save money exactly but because it's fresh and I know what is in it. Eventually it will save money.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

We go through so much milk and cheese that alone is worth the cost of the start up. Not because it will save money exactly but because it's fresh and I know what is in it. Eventually it will save money.

When you factor the price of a gallon of milk that is raw and fresh, your cost drops quickly. But the hay to feed that cow needs to be high quality, you cannot buy just any hay for a milk cow

 

[KlopKlop]

Google local organic grain elevators, We have one that is only an hour away from us, the Grain Place. It really does not take much wheat to make enough flour for your family, and it is easily reseeded for next year, so buy once and you should be done.

How do you process (dry, thresh, etc) your grain?

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Google local organic grain elevators, We have one that is only an hour away from us, the Grain Place. It really does not take much wheat to make enough flour for your family, and it is easily reseeded for next year, so buy once and you should be done.

will do that tonight, after kids go to bed.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

When you factor the price of a gallon of milk that is raw and fresh, your cost drops quickly. But the hay to feed that cow needs to be high quality, you cannot buy just any hay for a milk cow

I plan on doing a search near me for good quality hay. I want my animals to eat good quality so my family can. If I save money on most of my food bill by growing and raising as much as I can the saved money can go into making sure the livestock has good feed. Plus they will have grazing open as long as weather permits each year. We are already researching what to plant to grow the best pasture.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

How do you process (dry, thresh, etc) your grain?

We are a true farm, so with a tractor. We plant it in the fall and harvest it in june (This depends strongly on your spring, a warm dry spring will mean the wheat is ready early, but your output will be low) many farmers double crop their land with wheat and then a fast growing soybean, we do not, we let the land rest. But there is no reason you could not do it by hand, assuming a small field.
We dry it in our bins with DE to keep the insects down until we sell it. The wheat I choose for flour I do freeze and then pick the insects and weed seed out a bit. Learn what Ergot looks like, too much of that is poisonous.
Then we use an electric grinder for our flour.
It truely is easy. Doing it by hand the biggest challenge is Dehusking it, but that should still be doable, I would just look up what the settlers used. The husk does come off if you just rub it between your hands. but that would grow tiresome quickly.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

The husking is super simple just time consuming. Take a 55 gallon barrel and shake a big handful vigorously until the berries fall. Keep at it until finished. Not hard but not fun either.

That's just one way I found. There are many.