Friday, January 15, 2010

Resolutions

It may be a touch late to talk about New Year's resolutions, but since my blog is always a bit behind schedule, this post is right on time (if that makes any sense).

This year I have decided to set a bunch of mini-resolutions under the broad resolution of "Learning". I have resolved to try a learn a new skill, as it relates to my microfarm, maintenance, etc... For instance, first on the list is/was seed starting. I started last fall saving seeds and that's been pretty rewarding, however, I need to learn to start seeds indoors to completely benefit from the endeavor. That skill will also pay big dividends in May 2011 when I don't have to buy plants at my local nursery.

Other skills I would like to learn/improve include pruning, rasing roses, some basic carpentry skills, dehydration as a storage method, raising chickens, raising goats,etc... The more skills I can master, the more self-sufficient I become which is the ultimate goal.

I encourage everyone to think along these lines. A lot of the skills our grandparents took for granted are fading away, hopefully our generation won't be the ones to let them completely be forgotten.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Is that spring I smell?

The holidays are finally behind me. I love Christmas as much as anyone, however, it's the "holiday season" that I've come to loathe. It seems the entire month of December is completely wasted with all the preparations. I just get going into some project or routine and bang, the holidays are here and everything gets put on hold.

As I said, that's all behind me (at least for the next 11 months) and I have the 2010 gardening season about ready to gear up. Since we radically increased the size of our garden, we are having to really consider it's lay-out and management. Our goal is to grow only things we can store, can, or otherwise preserve. Shelley and I see a great opportunity to really increase the amount of food we put up over last year. Everything we are planting is with that goal in mind.

We are also making plans for what we will buy vs. plant. We live in the heart of corn country, as an example, and are a few minutes away from a local Amish produce auction. By joining with a a couple other families from our church , we can buy corn in bulk much cheaper then we can grow it. Also corn is a space killer. To get a years supply stored you have to grow lots of corn. That's not a problem if you're working 2-3 acres, it's a HUGE problem for my situation. Buying corn makes sense.

Some other veggies we intend to buy rather then grow include beets and perhaps pie pumpkins. Beets are very cheap at auction and we can fill our needs rather cheaply. Pie pumpkins are an opportunity. We grow pie pumpkins and intend to do so this year, however, we will probably add to our harvest from the auction. They were selling as low as $0.05 each last year! If we can steal them that cheap this year, we will supplement our harvest.

Strawberries and apples will be another purchase, however, we are adding a large strawberry bed this year and apple trees next year. I'm a big fan of permaculture.