OT: Becoming Self Sufficient ** Was: Aromatic Bread

[Guest guest]

Howdy y'all,

 

On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 5:26 PM, <heven_scent wrote:

 

> I live in down east Maine and over the last two months I have put up 50

> jars of jelly from apple butter to strawberry jam .two days ago we were

> given a field of corn that the farmer said was gone buy.sorry not fur us it

> inset we fight with the coons for it we like it firm to put in the freezer

> off the cob. I put in 36 dozen eats .we know what it means to be self

> sufficient.. We raise or own chickens goats and rabbits for meat.. plus we

> make dairy products out of the fresh milk from the goats and drink the

> unpasturised milk..we may run a 200.00 feed bill a month but we don't go to

> the stores for much. Now I have a arbor full of grapes and I am looking for

> a good easy way to make grape wine if anyone has any good sites .keeping in

> mind I don't want to add stuff to it or chemicals I want it most natural.

>

 

Sounds like you are doing well on being self sufficient. If the corn was

not GM I might have taken it and the coons .. barbecued coon is pretty good

chow. ;-) I've been spoiled I reckon in that I no longer eat field corn

or horse corn .. we froze and canned 4 different varieties of sweet corn ..

but good natural field corn can be turned into some mighty fine corn meal.

 

We froze around 3 gallons of Blueberries .. not bad since we had but 6

bushes. Put up 3 bushels of Golden Delicious from our trees and another 2

bushels of Granny Smith from my cousin's trees .. apple jelly, apple butter,

apples and frozen apple pies. Froze around 15 quarts of purchased

strawberries but next year we'll get 5 X that much .. will be selling them

... from 64 plants we put in this Spring. From 50 pounds of Red Seed

Potatoes we harvested a tad over 600 pounds .. we are giving some away as

its more than we can use. Also been giving Watermelons, Tomatoes, Sweet

Peppers and Cucumbers to folks we liked and even those we don't know. Had

some Brocolli heads as wide as 14 inches and some Brussels Sprouts the size

of Persimmons .. Collards, Kale, Eggplant, Peppers still coming in and lots

of Tomatoes though they get smaller as the weather gets cooler .. we are now

making Green Tomato Relish and Pickled Green Tomatoes .. plus eating lots of

Fried Green Maters. ;-)

 

It would be easier to say which vegetables we did not preserve rather than

which ones we did cause we went overboard on the size of the garden this

year. ;-) All were totally Organic .. and lemme tell you that its a butt

kicking job to stick with that .. not because of creating fertility .. that

is easy .. fighting the insects is a problem. That will be easier next

year .. I just didn't have the time or the knowledge to make it easier this

year. We do NOT have a shortage of Praying Mantis, Ladybugs, Toad Frogs,

Bees or Bats .. I feel for those who do. Oh yea, and Hummingbirds .. got so

many we have to fill 2 each 1 liter bottles with sugar-water each day.

Hummingbirds live off of insects .. nectar is NOT their main diet.

 

Early 2009 we'll stash a lot of Pecans and Black Walnuts from my cousin's

trees .. we planted Pecans but it'll be a few years afore they produce.

Also planted Pear, Peach and more Apple trees last Fall and we already had

Cherry and two Apples on the place when we bought it.

 

Our Grapes will be 2 years old next year and we'll get enough to make a good

bit of jelly .. same goes for the Blackberries. As for making Grape Wine

without synthetic chemicals .. that is a norm. All you need is crushed

grapes, yeast and sugar .. there are forty leven dozen recipes on the I-Net.

 

Back in the mid-80s I raised quail and rabbit for meat but now wild meat is

too abundant here so its not on the agenda .. plus I like the taste of wild

meat more than that on domestic. Also, feed for any critter is out of

sight now. Lots of catfish farmers going out of business. I don't like

farmed fish anyway and here we have Kentucky and Barkley Lakes and Paris, TN

is known as the Catfish Capitol of America. ;-)

 

My opinion is that lots of folks are gonna start learning how to become a

bit more self sufficient due to increased cost at the check out counter ..

plus, getting more healthy food. Fresh vegetables that are frozen have far

more nutrition than those that appear to be fresh in the supermarket.

Even folks with no more than a 20 x 20 foot back yard can grow one heckuva

lotta vegetables if they do it right .. we ahve some on the list now who are

doing that.

 

Count on food costs to continue to rise. Fertilizer costs are up 400% in

the last three years .. driven by the cost of oil. Today, farmers pay more

for the seed corn they plant than they did for the seed, fertilizer and lime

3 years ago .. an acre of corn costs more than $500 to plant now and this

finds its way to the checkout counter. Farmers are not getting rich

either .. in fact, the price of corn and soybeans is down now .. plus the

last two years of draught has caused a lot of damage .. some farmers are

plowing their soybeans under rather than harvest them. Some small

farmers are biting the dust and some of the larger ones are tightening their

belts to make mortgage payments. Some folks think that because one owns

1,500 acres they gotta be rich .. dead wrong they are. Sometimes the bank

is a partner in that land and even those farmers who inheritated their land

have loans for a couple of million bucks in buildings and equipment .. a 12

row corn picker costs $175 to $250 K today .. add to that a few 175 bushel

wagons to dump the grain in .. tractors to haul the wagons .. a 40 foot

truck & trailer to dump it in and then haul it in .. some silos ..

fertilizer spreading equipment, etc., and then planters .. the planter used

for wheat and soybeans can't be used for corn. Then there is crop

insurance and labor and dozens of other expenses .. profit margin on farming

today sucks .. except for the multinational corporations .. and its to them

that farm subsidies are given. American farmers today must gamble each

year they plant a crop .. and there is no way they can count on a Bail Out

if they lose their butt.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch ... http://www.AV-AT.com <http://www.av-at.com/>

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Delightful thread. Butch, I so envy you and Tanya!

What you are doing there is my ideal, but the reality

falls far short.

I am the only one in my family with the peasant

gene, alas. We could have done so much more on

this place, it grieves me to think of it.

 

However, I have to take exception to your statement

that creating fertility is easy!

On my rocky acreage, it is back-breaking labour.

 

Illustrated details here: http://tinyurl.com/4236mk

 

I have been blessed with a remarkably strong back,

maintained by years of decent diet and whole-food

supplements.

 

After I dug that fresh stretch, a whole day of

digging and removing rocks and roots, I had a bath

with Epsom salt and a local Lavender e.o.

I wasn't even stiff afterwards. Not at all!

 

I have used Epsom Salts before, and it took the

edge off, but this was quite remarkable.

Could it have been the Lavender, or was it the

supplement that I started taking again for

brainfood, but it also works for joints?

 

Who knows, who cares! We're doing Life here,

not Science. I'll definitely keep doing both.

 

Ien in the Kootenays, feeling great and smelling

of Lavender

http://freegreenliving.com

http://wildwholefoods.net