Emu?

Who let the emu in the chicken house?

Decisions, decisions

This week I received some wonderful news. I've been offered a scholarship to an organic farming conference. At first I was elated, then I began to add up all the costs of attending that weren't covered by the scholarship. Yikes! The reality of it all took the wind out of my sails. I have another week to mull it over before I have to decide whether to accept the scholarship or let it pass to another worthy recipient.
What to do, what to do? There's the 8 hour drive each way, plus two days off work, hotel, food, and dealing with a teenager who doesn't want to go but can't stay home alone.
Then there's the opportunity to learn lots of skills from people who are really doing this organic farming thing.
If I go I'll be dead broke for months. If I don't go I'll be sorely disappointed.

What do you think I should do?

More Stuff We Don't Buy

Now that I've had my rant on food, here's how I combat consumerism at home.

1. No cleaning supplies.
That is, no prepared concoctions designed for cleaning. Just baking soda, salt and a spray bottle with cider vinegar solution. By keeping it simple I'm avoiding toxins and saving a bundle, too.

2. Laundry soap
Almost a year ago I bought a box of borax, two boxes of washing soda and 4 bars of Fels Naptha soap. Now, I don't really know what's in Fels Naptha soap so I'm hoping to use some homemade soap once I'm out of this stuff. (waste not, want not) I mix up a batch of gel laundry soap in a 2 gallon bucket and it lasts us at least 5 months. I do love Seventh Generation laundry soap but the goal is to be as self sufficient as possible.

3. Body/face soap
I'm not making my own soap just yet. But dear Charlotte up in Jackson makes some of the loveliest hand made soap I've ever seen. She sets up at the Winter Farmer's Market there so if I run out I know where to find her. I even use her soap to wash my hair sometimes. I'll bet there's someone near all of us who makes soap in her kitchen and would love to sell you a few bars. Shop local.



4. Moisturizer/ hair conditioner
Charlotte's soap is so wonderful I don't really need moisturizer anymore but if the weather gets too cold or dry I give myself an all over rub with olive oil in the shower.

5. Facials/deep cleansers
Here we go with the olive oil again. Just warm up a little on the stove, not too hot just warm, and massage on your face and neck. Then get in the shower and scrub with some salt. If you like you can add a couple of drops of lavender oil to the salt to make it smell delightful.


Next installment, closing the loop in the garden.

Jumping Ship on Factory Food

Have you seen Food Inc? If you haven't, eat a meal beforehand because afterwards you won't be able to.
http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Fresh, The Movie is a good one, too. Industrial farming is all over the news, from salmonella in eggs to contaminated feed lot beef. Its been nearly 5 years since we left the big city for the trials joys of small town life. In these 4+ years I've learned a lot about growing things. I've also learned about how most of the food in grocery stores is raised, making me want to grow more of my own stuff.

We haven't sworn off grocery stores for a year, although I kind of wish we could. Out here we lack the robust local food systems that places like Los Angeles, Austin and Portland enjoy. Instead my goal is to steadily reduce the things we buy from stores. Like...



1. Eggs
Just a few backyard chickens can supply all the eggs a family needs. They don't eat much and they're kinda cute. Just don't name the ones you might eat (see #6).


2. Salad greens
Have you noticed that smell when you open a bag of store bought greens? Ick. Easy to grow, quickly maturing, salad greens are something almost everyone can grow for themselves.

3. Potatoes
Okay, I did buy one 3 lb bag of red potatoes this year because I ran out of the ones we'd grown. They like loose soil but will grow nicely in a container or even an old feedsack. This year I have 10 lbs of Red Dale seed potatoes waiting to go in the ground.

4. Tomatoes and peppers
Yep, more stuff that's easy to grow whether you build a raised bed or just plant them in a 5 lb bucket. Commercial farmers have to spray their monoculture tomatoes with all sorts of nasty stuff but when you grow just a few for yourself they don't make much of a target for pests.

5. Melons
Okay, melons do take up a lot of room but a freshly picked cantaloupe is so good it will make your toes curl.

6. Chicken
See item #1. If you buy straight run chicks you will likely have too many roosters. They fit nicely in the freezer and are quite tasty.

7. Beef
No, we don't raise cattle. But there's a nice family down the road that does and we buy grass fed beef from them once or twice a year.http://www.franciscanfamilyfarms.com/ Check craigslist, there may be a nice family close to you who does the same thing.

8. Fruit
This one is more difficult as we live in zone 6b/7. I grow a lot of the fruit we eat. The Farmer's Market is a good source but it only runs from June to September. So I have made good friends with my water bath canner. My pantry is full of jars of pears and peaches that will hopefully last until the early summer fruits are available again.

So we've made a good start. We still have to buy some things from the grocery but the list is getting shorter. The foods we produce or buy locally are a better quality, we're supporting local business and we are consuming less oil as our food doesn't have to travel so far.

Our plans for this year? Well, there are 6 fig tree cuttings happily rooting indoors in a pot of soil (thanks, Sal). I have apple and pear scions on the way and cuttings from 4 different kinds of currants. The seed collection has grown considerably while the chickens tear up and fertilize more of the yard for garden space. It's going to be a great year!

How Big?

How big does a farm have to be in order to call it a farm? One day at work I casually called what I do farming and received several condescending smiles. Around here "farms" are big; 2000, 3000 acres. They have lots of big equipment that need lots of petroleum products. They grow one crop and they do it darned well, if your goal is yield per acre. I have several goals for this little farm (yes, I'm calling it a farm). First, the food must be the highest quality possible; fresh, organic, picked at the last possible moment before delivery. Second, the varieties I grow are open pollinated, ensuring maximum nutritional value. Third, this labor of love will provide my family with an honest living.

I grow in raised beds to extend my season and outsmart the bermuda grass. I make my own compost. The trees supply leaves, the garden and the kitchen give "greens", the rabbits and chickens provide manures. This may not look like a farm to most folks but I feed myself and my teenager in addition to sharing the harvest with 8 CSA subscribers. I feel as if I've barely begun to tap the potential of this little 1/3 acre. There are so many imaginative ways to get more produce out of a small space and I've tried just a few of them.

I need a new name for this kind of agriculture. We need a name, because there are quite a few folks doing this kind of small-scale farming. I know there are Urban Farms but I can't really use that term when in live in a town of 720. Its kind of like Backyard Agriculture but its also a commercial enterprise so I don't know if that fits, either.

If you can think of what to call this "thing" we do, please post it. I'd love to hear your ideas.

Post Mortem

Fall has arrived and the chilly wind is giving us all new hairdos every minute or so.

I didn't post much in the summer because I was in the midst of doing so many things. Now that the fall garden is (mostly) planted I can take some time to reflect on the Summer's projects.

Five little chicks accompanied me home from the feed store back in March. At the time I thought perhaps I needed my head examined. I already had a house full of rescued cats, how on earth was I going to care for even more critters? They lived in a dog crate in my back bedroom for the first 6 weeks as I got used to the routine of feeding and watering. Then I took a weekend and built a chicken tractor for them. It probably would have only taken a day if I'd known what I was doing. But it got built and the girls moved in. They spent the summer happily eating grass and bugs and fertilizing my back yard.

Six raised beds became 7 as I scavenged some 2 X 12s from an old shed. I planted green chilis, jalapenos, cucumbers, sunflowers, green beans and a few more herbs. I dug up some more of the yard and planted corn and sorghum. I also got carried away with the tomatoes. I started some seeds, then the home improvement center put their Romas on sale for HALF PRICE. So I came home with more. By the time midsummer hit I had 50 tomato plants growing out back. I anticipated lots of happy jars of spaghetti sauce on my pantry shelves. But it was not to be. This was not a good garden year. Cucumbers did very poorly, tomatoes not much better. I didn't get a single green bean until September. But the jalapenos did well and so did the cantaloupes. The other veggies limped along. Eventually I had enough extra produce to start taking CSA subscribers.

My financial aid at the college got SNAFUed so I got a booth at the Farmer's Market and every week I baked artisan breads and lovely sweets. I brought my organic veggies. I enjoyed the face time with customers very much. I am definitely doing it again next Summer.

In July my favorite Hatchery sent me an email "White Plymouth Rocks are half price!"

Oh, that half price again. I just couldn't help myself. I drove to the Post Office three days later to collect my box of 25 fuzzy yellow peeps. These would not have names. These are for eating. We built a simpler enclosure for them, just some fencing and some places to roost. They graduated to a covered pen last month. As I write 5 of the roos are in isolation awaiting their date with destiny tomorrow.

The garden produced, the laying hens began to lay and I made the Dean's List at SEMO State. I still have my faithful CSA subscribers. Every week I deliver fresh bread, herbs and produce to their offices. I love the direct contact with customers. I love planning what goodies will go in their boxes. I'll be adding more shares for the Fall CSA and even more when we start up again in the Spring. Here's a link Mamas Garden.

Some of the Summer's projects turned out well, some didn't. I learned a lot and I gained some confidence.

So what's next? There's plenty in the ground right now; broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, beets, radishes, spinach and three kinds of lettuces. I'll be planting potatoes next week. I expect I'll be installing row covers soon if the nights continue to stay so cool. My big dream for this winter...

wait for it...

Growing Power Urban Farmer Training Workshop Series I want to take these workshops soooo badly. Say a prayer for me that it all works out.

Thanks for the encouragement y'all have shared with me this year. I don't think I could have made this leap into Urban Agriculture without it. Check back soon, I have other exciting projects that I don't dare share just yet. I'll keep you posted.

Why I don't take photos.

Lately I've had no photos to accompany this blog. Okay, I haven't had much to say either but that's a story for another day. I've had plenty of things I'd like to show you. But then I look through the camera lens and there's always some sort of disaster going on in the background and I'm not able to a. clean it up or b. shoot around it.

I know you all understand weeds in the garden and unmade beds. But its embarrassing. Between work, full time school, car pooling the child 30 miles one way to school and taking care of the menagerie, things around here have become unraveled. I still get lots of lovely produce from the garden and I get very pretty eggs from my girls. The turtle finally expired but an abandoned baby bunny arrived. I still cook and bake bread. But sometimes clean up has to wait until much later in the day.

So imagine if you will, very happy cantaloupe vines producing a second crop while taking over the eastern half of the yard. 5 fat little hens in a chicken tractor cooing and trilling while munching fresh grass and bugs with the occasional cucumber from the garden. A new enclosure for the meat birds, who have also become rather fat and whose time on this earth is drawing to a close. Overlook the laundry that needs folding and the dishes in the sink. Those weeds will either get pulled or the frost will do them in.

Its all good and my problems are those of abundance.

My higher power (insert the name you use for the creator) has taken very good care of us. But as you can see, there are still no photos.