One of the fun gardening experiments I've indulged in this year involves seeing what dried beans / seeds -- that I love to eat -- will sprout! So far, organic popcorn, dried green Edame soy beans, and lentils have sprouted! And all of them are a few years old! #HomeGardening#Gardening#Seedbanks#Homesteading
I'm Lily, a proud trans lesbian from Denver, a mom of a 13 year old, and a perpetual instance migrator.
I'm a neurodivergent woman in tech working as a Senior SRE at Writer.
I like to run around the farm, hang out with my kiddo, play guitar, snowboard, go camping, play videogames, hang out at the local lesbian bar, and see whatever kind of trouble my wife @deb and I can get into on the weekends.
I thought I had lost one hive but today discovered all 4 of my hives are alive. The one I thought didn't make it has a mouse in the bottom, the bees have moved up under the lid. My next bee task will be fashioning mouse guards for all the entrances. I fed them all good quality pollen patties today, and did another O. A. treatment. 2 of the 4 are very strong, 2 weaker but hanging in there. Considering the absolute clown weather we've had, I am very encouraged.
The Encyclopedia of Country Living, 50th Anniversary Edition by Carla Emery
The Original Manual for Living Off the Land & Doing It Yourself
For more than 50 years, this homesteading classic is the essential book of basic skills and country wisdom for living off the grid, being prepared, and doing it yourself. Keep your family healthy, safe, and independent--no matter what's going on in the world.
The Color of Food: Stories of Race, Resilience and Farming by Natasha Bowen
The growing trend of organic farming and homesteading is changing the way the farmer is portrayed in mainstream media, and yet, farmers of color are still largely left out of the picture. The Color of Food seeks to rectify this.
Daffodils preparing to bloom in a few weeks. These are later varieties and they always come later than the little yellow early ones. As "mulch" you see the shredded feed sacks we use as animal bedding and weed control. They are biodegradable and help with carbon sequestration.
All of you reading this in the Northern Hemisphere - if you want to grow food in your garden this summer, or if you want to grow more food, start planning now! Plan well, buy seeds, read about it, and have dreams!
Sometimes it's hard to live out here, and winter is especially isolating. As we all retreat and focus on inner work and reprieve from the often constant movement of other seasons, we tend to reach out less, travel less. This is true for both us and our friends we see often, usually, and so since the Solstice it's been quiet here at the Ranch. We've really not gone anywhere, and no one has really come to visit.
However, I'm reading "The Independent Farmstead" by Shawn & Beth Dougherty, and feeling renewed and inspired. Sometimes this path feels too difficult, and I reminisce on the period of my life where I was ignorant of the depth and multitude of the issues that plague our species and where I just lived in the way that society dictated. In a way, ignorance really is bliss. In a way, it was just easier.
But I think back on the suffering I experienced then: the suffering I experienced at jobs, at the hands of others abused by our society, the suffering I experienced feeling like I was drifting along without a purpose, and the suffering that came from seeking purpose in careers that I could never attain because of my chronic inability to engage in personal politics. In a way it was easier to work many hours a week, eat out, go to parties, and move through life unthinkingly chasing the next thing that made me feel alive, connected, loved, despite that those experiences never lived up to my memories of them and despite that they were always so fleeting.
So it's not that we don't suffer now, of loneliness or of hardship or of our own interpersonal shortcomings. But we feel guided by purpose and by duty, and in so many ways that eliminates suffering. Though we don't always have other humans here to feel connected to, we do often, and in their absence we are connected to place, and to other living things that help sustain us and which we sustain in return.
Rancho de la Libertad is most definitely going to be adding some goats to the land in the next year or so, but are also considering pigs (for food self-sufficiency, not land restoration, although their manure is compost, too!).
So, #Pigstodon (if there is such a thing), tell me your experience raising pigs! We'd love to hear from some real human beings what they liked or hated about raising them and if it was worth it!
A few days ago we welcomed a new addition on the farm. Relampaga (the brown and white cow in the picture) is June's (the black cow) first female calf. She is about 3 years old, and is now a first time mother. We now have three generations out in the field ♥️. She's an attentive mama, and protective of her baby.
We practice calf sharing with our cows, so mama and baby will not be separated for at least the first two weeks as we ease both of them into the milking routine. For now, every day I go out I check on mama, go through the motions of milking and make sure no mastitis sets in. She's going to be a very productive cow!
Once the calf is eating grass, and showing herself to be strong and healthy, we'll start separating her from her mama for about 10 to 12 hour overnight stretches. This will allow a nice bit of milk to build up that we will then take for ourselves before turning baby loose to freely nurse for the remainder of the day.
Now that I have two cows to milk, I'm going to have to get creative with so much milk. I just borrowed the neighbors cheese press, but I think I might also need to sew a strainer bag for making greek yogurt. I'm most excited about the possibility of building up a store of butter. 🤤
I've had cows fairly continuously for the last 11 years, and cannot imagine my life without one.
Climate crisis is a food crisis. As the local food growing weather shifts with climate change we are going to have to adapt along with it. That can mean finding new varieties to grow, new ways of keeping crops cooler, wetter, warmer or drier. We have to plan ahead for events that we are not sure about. We have to try to follow a path of logic without definites. We are being challenged to use our resources and tools in ways we never have before. Some ways that some of us might change what we are doing could be using greenhouses more and expanding them to all seasons which means finding ways to keep them cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Of course 4 season greenhouses already exist but they are prohibitively expensive for the backyard gardener. As of now, my greenhouse lengthens the seasons by one month in spring and one month in fall. Last year I successfully overwintered brassicas, spinach and a couple other things under the second tunnel. They didn't grow in the cold but they stayed alive and grew fast and early in the spring. This year, the rats got in there and ate everything. So I don't know. Constantly looking for ways to adapt.
As I said last night, homemade beef jerky and crusty Italian bread were on the menu to be made today.
Unfortunately, the best laid plans of mice and men always run awry.
I had a migraine for the majority of today, and the meat that I pulled out for the jerky was pretty thick, and was thawing slowly. Therefore, the most I could do jerky-wise was getting the meat cut and into the marinade.
Then, it was onto the crusty bread. Simple to make, and absolutely delicious. I happened to overwork the dough a little bit, so the loaf came out more dense than I would've preferred-- which you can see in the last photo-- but it is still tasty.
This means-- aside from the obvious of not spending money-- that it is time to get creative with what we have in the freezers and pantries.
There is very minimal spending allowed, and it is really only if necessary for fresh produce. This is fine.
I made a batch of potato and onion soup that I have been eating through, as well as having eaten a small piece of the family's pot roast last night. Tonight, they had sausage and potatoes.
While looking through what we have, I decided to make butter with the heavy cream we had leftover from another project... which lead to the next plan of making a crusty Italian bread tomorrow that can be eaten with the soup, dipped in oil, or slathered in butter.
Not one to be known to take on an appropriate amount of projects simultaneously... homemade beef jerky is also on the menu for tomorrow. I figure the jerky is a good protein packed snack that will last for a bit, and even longer if I vacuum-pack it.
30 different types of tomatoes to choose from to grow this coming gardening season.
WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY GODDAMN TOMATO SEEDS?
Anyway, of these... which ones are your favorite, or which would you like to try?
My favorites are the Sungold's and the Super Sweet 100s.
My goal is to make and sell things at farmers markets, and my little farm stand (that I didn't put up at all in 2023, whoops!).
Tomatoes are not all I grow... but I will never not be surprised at how many different types of tomatoes I have when I take my seed stock at years end.
"What the fuck is the point of "the economy"? Why do we make all this crap if we don't like it? And if we don't like this economy even when it's "good," what would an actually good economy look like?"