The United States is facing unprecedented financial and geopolitical pressures due to fiscal failures and political hacks trampling all over the good faith and credit of the United States and using our name and money as a weapon. Ladies and gentlemen, this is my opinion, and I am sticking to it. This is not a political blog; it is a homesteading blog. So, whatever side of the political aisle you fall, know this: production is the only way to weather this storm.
I have available to me 5 acres of land for agricultural production. Due to the lay of the land, production will have to be by hand or hoof. My body is old and worn out from years of hoeing fields by hand. My callouses have softened over the past five years of scaling back, but through my thirties, I had plenty. I mean to find a way to sustain myself through production without killing myself in the heat of the mid-day field.
Besides switching the time period I work in the fields, morning is preferable as predators come out at dusk, and I can change back to the type of foods I was growing. First, I will have to depend on animals that provide regular food like eggs from chickens or ducks, and milk from goats or sheep.
I am not fond of goats. I have had one too many herd queens rear up and head butt me to want to deal with that anymore. I won’t even get into how difficult it is to hobble one or the lack of serious milking equipment for a small holder. Hand milking isn’t bad if you have twenty minutes per animal, which, with my small household, would be doable, but it doesn’t take away the orneryness of goats or their uncanny ability to escape anything you put them in. Thank heavens I don’t need milk, cheese, cream, or anything of the sort to survive. Plus, I have plenty of local dairy men and women who can supply what little milk I do need for an exceptionally reasonable price. So reasonable, it is cheaper to buy a gallon of whole raw milk ($5) and process it out into butter, cheese, and milk than to buy a quart of skim milk ($2), 6 ounces of cottage cheese($2.50), and 4-6 ounces of butter ($2), which is about equivalent to what I get from a gallon of whole raw milk after processing.
Chickens, ducks, and geese, on the other hand, are very fine animals and very valuable if used correctly for their temperament. I eat chicken eggs almost every day, even if I am not raising chickens. Ducks are fine foragers and do lay almost daily if you get the right breed. While duck eggs are not great by themselves, they do make a fine baked good. Geese are never kept for their eggs, but the fat of a goose is a healthier fat than most and has a high smoke point. Geese would be like my pigs were, but smaller! Also easier to contain even if their temperament isn’t the most pleasant, always. Again, it depends on the breed.
I know I will be getting chickens after I build a new chicken pen. My old one was finally destroyed by the March tornado. I didn’t realize how bad it was until April, when the last of my chickens escaped and found a new home with the neighbor. So first, I will build a chicken pen and get some hen chicks. That is my number one goal come spring. After the chickens are set, I will worry about ducks and geese as they produce plenty of fine meat or eggs, but they are not a staple food for me.
I am still searching for the correct mammal to add to my farming, because it must be an animal that doesn’t have to be slaughtered to provide something of value. I have thought about hair sheep since I know how to take wool roving into yarn and crochet. Additionally, there are milk sheep which have a much better temperament than goats, which I would be very interested in working with…specifically Icelandic Sheep. These sheep are the trifecta, “according to legend,” they produce wool, milk, and meat. Before I can ever think of such animals, I must grow out a pasture with proper grasses and put up decent fencing. Plus, I’m not certain Icelandic Sheep would do well with our hot summers. It’s just something I am thinking of, though.
Then, onto plants, first I need to focus on getting perennials into the ground. Although most won’t produce for a few years, they need to be put in. My pear trees are old and not producing like they once did. I will focus on berries, like strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, and the like, for fruits. As far as vegetables multiplier onions, asparagus, sunchokes, nettle, chives, shallots, ground nuts, artichokes, rhubarb, horseradish, garlic, runner beans, wild rocket, and perhaps ramps. There are others, but obtaining seed or cuttings for others will be difficult.
Secondly, I will focus on fruiting plants that can be preserved, followed by fruiting plants that can not be preserved. Primarily indeterminate tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, yard-long beans, ground cherries, spaghetti squash, okra, and zucchini, which are made into zoodles and frozen. Then I will focus on yellow squash, eggplants, peppers, snow peas, cut and come again lettuce, bitter melon, broccoli, swiss chard, kale, and beets.
Finally, a fall garden that has foods which should either overwinter outdoors or will be pulled to dry storage or canned up indoors. Here’s where the cabbage, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, leeks, sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, long keeper tomatoes, and the like are important. I won’t need many of these if I have plenty of meat canned or frozen and plenty of herbs with summer vegetables jarred up. It won’t hurt to plant it, though.
My goal with the perennials is not a harvest this first year. My goal is to set up established beds and to teach my son about these plants so he always has a food supply. He is on the spectrum, and he has intellectual disabilities, so planting, tending, harvesting, and jarring up perennials will give him foods he can become familiar with over a longer period of time so that he can feed himself when I am gone. He needs multiple introductions to grasp a concept, but once he does grasp it…that mind is like a steel trap.
In short, I would like a perennial vegetable and fruit garden, an annual fruiting vegetable garden, and a fall garden. I would also like to have chickens, ducks, and geese with some sort of mammal that produces something without having to give up its life.
Outside of homesteading, I want other things, but given the current climate and situation, I must focus on what I do have control over and an ability to produce some positive results. Please tell me what mammal would fit the bill for my homesteading needs? What would you do?