~ Let It Be Spring ~

This post was written for Fertile Imagination @ http://community.fertilityflower.com/ where I have monthly column. Feel free to visit me over there, too!
Let me just say, emphatically, that I am sooo ready for winter to be over. It is not cooperating one bit. Last year, with March generally being our snowiest month, we didn’t get one drop of snow. It was melting by now.
This year, we still have lots of snow and the temperature today is a whopping 22 degrees outside but feels like 11 with a low of -13 tonight. Fun!

Inside however we have started our seedlings. American Flag Leeks, Carantan Leeks, Giant Musselburg Leeks, Pepinos, Thai Red Papaya, Pink Bananas, and Heartseal (Johnny Jump-ups). The bananas, papayas, and pepinos will be planted in big pots so that they can be brought in when it starts to get cold again.

In another week we will start all of our tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, tomatillos, strawberries, huckleberries, and sun berries. We are anticipating so much new growth over the next few months farm wise. We ordered our new chickens, ducks, and geese last night. Twenty-five meat birds, twenty-five new laying hens (a few will go to some good friends) Black Swedish Ducks, Khaki Campbell Ducks, and White Embden Geese. The boys got Crevecoeurs, Golden Polish, and Silver Polish Chickens for 4H. We will place additional seed orders today.

Lots of prayer and planning have gone on these long winter months and we have realized that we have a passion for helping people, all people, have access to really good, wholesome food that they can afford. The reality is, that until massive changes are made to the food supply system we have now, its up to us to enact change. Its up to us to help our local economies and communities. We are striving to achieve a balance between affordable food and being able to make a living. We have ordered our bees and will be getting those set up in the next month or two, whenever the weather decides to cooperate. We have found goats for meat, still searching high and low for milk goats. Our barn and fences really need some work before we get anymore big animals, so we are looking into the smaller ones right now.

If you are looking for a way to be a bit more self sustainable but have a small space to work with meat rabbits may be the way to go. They take up much less space, are not noisy like cows, goats, or chickens. They breed eight times a year regardless of season, furs can be a additional source of income, and rabbit meat has a delicate flavor and is leaner than beef or pork. They are very easy to maintain as long as they have proper ventilation in their housing and are easy to clean and prepare for the freezer. Rabbit poo is also very good for your garden and doesn’t need to be composted. There is also a rising demand for rabbit meat. I have looked online for rabbit and average prices are $25 - $30 for one 3 lb rabbit. I can tell you right now that I won’t be charging that price because I can’t afford it and reasonably priced food is our goal with this farm.

Another great way to maximize your growing space is to utilize squares instead of rows for some plants. I am going to plant in 2'x2' squares this year instead of rows. A 1'x4' row will yield 12 beets while a 2'x2' box will yield 36 plants because you can stagger them. If you have a small garden space this may be something to consider. We will also be doing raised beds with our 2'x2' boxes to make it easier for the kids to know exactly where they can step. It is our hope that gardening this way will cut down on the weeding we have to do as well. Things are moving along and if weren’t for the snow they would be moving much faster.

I would love to hear what you are planning at your home this growing season, whether it is just a few pots of tomatoes on the patio, a new garden, or the addition of backyard animals. Have questions? I would love to help if I can! Happy Growing!

~ Homeschooling ~

This post was written for Fertile Imagination @ http://community.fertilityflower.com/ where I have monthly column. Feel free to visit me over there, too! Wow, a new year! What I would like to know is where did last year go? Did everyone else’s year go as fast as mine did? We have had a very fun, relaxing year of home schooling thus far. We have incorporated quite a bit of unschooling, keeping a relaxed atmosphere encouraging learning when the kids are most open to experiencing new things. We have utilized some teaching textbooks from The Critical Thinking Company. The boys really like them and it is a great way for them to learn to get a few things done on their own which leaves me with a little wiggle room to knead bread or change the laundry around. We did lap books this year for science and WHAT A BLAST! Putting them together was a huge project all on its own and now they are busy filling them in. It amazes me how much more they retain verses just reading it from a textbook. Last year we didn’t do a lot in the arts and crafts department. It was a bit of a trick to get a project done from start to finish with little helpers around to suck on glue sticks and sprinkle “pixie dust” around the house. For this years projects I opted for spending a little bit more money and buy craft kits that incorporate other subjects. Mosaic art that has a math base, paint by number for learning numbers and following directions, and snowflakes that included a science lesson. Our big highlight for this year will be the birth of a new baby calf. It doesn’t get anymore hands on than that. We have the opportunity to see pictures of a friends new calf and the placenta so the kids have a bit of knowledge in the birth department, but it will be really cool to experience it in real life. I am going to try and get it on video, hopefully she won’t deliver in the middle of the night when no one is around. We are already working on a seed order for this year. The kids are each getting a small square of dirt to work with. They will get to choose what they want to grow and will tend to it. We are going to keep a journal for measuring growth, weather conditions, and soil temps. Depending on what they grow and how much they plant they will have the option to come to the farmers market with me and sell what they produce. I realize that home schooling isn’t for everyone. The biggest thing people ask me is how do they socialize. Without going into a great deal of detail, we have ample opportunity to socialize with people of all age ranges, not just the other 30 kids of the same age in their classroom. My kids are comfortable playing and talking with someone to is 2 to 92. I feel that we get a much more rounded education with home schooling/unschooling than we would get in the public education system. It works especially well with our second son who is dealing with vaccine injury. It has aloud us to continually utilize what works and drop what doesn’t. The freedom teachers don’t have, to customize a learning plan for one student who is very bright and intelligent, but happens to learn differently than most kids. I bought him reading material at the fifth grade level for Christmas (he’s 7) and he is halfway through what I bought already. We are planning on mixing it up with a few more field trips (we started our school year with a field trip/family vacation to the Black Hills of South Dakota) and plan on having a ton of fun learning as a family.

~ To Til or Not to Til ~

This post was written for Fertile Imagination @ http://community.fertilityflower.com/ where I have monthly column. Feel free to visit me over there, too!

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We are coming to the end of the harvesting season and there is always the big question, do we till the soil and get ready for next years planting or just leave the dirt alone. Why, you ask, would you just leave it alone? In most peoples mind, when they think of a garden, they think of the lush, black rows of dirt, freshly tilled, ready to be planted with seeds.
What if I told you that tilling wasn't good for the soil. When first heard this I was a curious, so the kids and I set off to explore the reasons not to deep till (to finely chop up the soil 6" deep) every year.

 The number one reason: Ecosystems. The dirt is a huge ecosystem and is destroyed when we run a tiller through it. Healthy soil should be teaming with plant roots, insects, fungi, bacteria, and animals. Soil is made up of 50% minerals and 50% organic compounds such as water, air, and microorganisms.

Earthworm turn the soil, aerating and fertilizing. When we fire up the rotary tiller and prep the soil for next year, guess who gets chopped up? That's right, our worms. Our hard working, friendly, free organic fertilizers are gone and it will take quite awhile for new worms to migrate in. By the time they do, it will most likely be time to till again.

Tilling destroys all the air gaps that our worms and other microorganisms work so hard to make. Good fungal hyphae gives our soil structure. Another fungi, mycorrhizal fungi form a symbiotic relationship (win-win) with the plant's root system. They produce fertilizer for the plant while eating the plants roots and both the plant and fungi thrive. Those lush black fluffy rows will become hard packed after a few rains because all of the structural support is gone. It has been torn it all to bits. And, all of the weed seeds have been brought to the top of the soil to germinate. The earth does not like to be bare. Weeds grow quickly because the earth/soil is trying to repair itself with a shallow root system to reduce erosion, conserve water, and reduce nutrient loss. We have found that the best way to control weeds is to green mulch our fruits and veggies and brown mulch our perenials, shrubs, and trees. Now, I should say that if you are starting a brand new garden or the garden you have is nutrient deficient, deep tilling is not a bad thing. If you are starting a garden where there was sod before, it is best to cut the sod and remove it first and then amend your soil. If you simple turn the sod over you will be weeding out grass chunks for the remainder of the gardening season and most likely the next season too. Please, do not spray your new garden area with a herbicide to kill the grass. For some, this seems like a no brainer but I have heard it suggested as the easy way to get rid of the grass and its root system.

Using a garden fork or hoe to turn over the soil and add compost is a good thing. You are not destroying the complex system and you are giving your soil the nutrient boost it needs to grow plants for you again next year. Ideas for composting on the cheap can be found here and here.

The second reason I think the roto tiller is not such a good thing, we miss out on a huge oppurtunity to connect to the land. We are displaced by a piece of loud, gas guzzling machinery instead of being down in the dirt getting fresh air, exercise, and well, dirty. In my past experience, using the rototiller just wears me out and give me a headache from all of the noise and fumes. If you are new to gardening or have limited space, I would highly recommend learning about square foot gardening. It is an awesome way to grow an amazing amount of veggies in a very limited amount of space. The Square Foot Gardening Foundation is a great place to start.

My last Purple Cone Flower

"Managing your soils to keep this living system thriving can make the difference between gardening success and failure," according to Rodale's Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening.

~ Do You Know Where Your Food Comes From? ~

This post was written for Fertile Imagination @ http://community.fertilityflower.com where I have monthly column. Feel free to visit me over there, too!

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One of the huge advantages of raising your own vegetables and/or meat is that you know exactly how the vegetable or animal was fed and raised. It saddens me that family farming has gone by the wayside in this country and big agribusiness has taken over. People, especially children, are losing out on a tremendous learning experience by only getting food at the grocery store. I am sad to say that there was a small window of time that my children thought things came from the grocery store. I assumed that they would know where things came from because after all, I grew up on a farm and I knew things didn’t come from a grocery store. What a silly mommy I was. We need to intentionally teach our children were our food comes from and what it is that we are actually eating and how that food effects our bodies.

When we look at the high cost of medical insurance and care, rise in obesity, and the childhood diabetes epidemic, we really need to make changes and fast. I do not want to start a debate, but the formula that was recently recalled is 56.3% sugar. Why? Because it is cheap to produce and has a high profit margin and people believe that it is healthy. After all, it is regulated by the government, right? All the more reason for promoting breastfeeding as the normal way to feed a child, more support for mothers who are struggling and the demand we must make for affordable donor milk from milk banks and more private milk share programs.

We sent our meat chickens to be butchered last week. The kids went with when my husband dropped them off at the local farm that butchers for us. I have gotten some funny looks when I tell people that. I think they assume that it is traumatic for our children, that their “pets” are being sent off to slaughter and the opening scene of Charlotte’s Web races through their mind. Charlotte running through the barn yard to save the runt of the litter. My children understand that some of the animals we get are for pets and we name them and some are for eating. We take very good care of our animals, raising and feeding them as close as we can the way nature intended. Our chickens are free ranged in our fields, free to run and eat bugs. Our cow and calf are pastured, not confined CAFO style, being force-fed GMO corn and soy beans, feed stuffs that were never meant to be ingested by cows, that breed the deadly O157:H7 e.coli. Our veggies are never sprayed or fertilized. True, we may get smaller yields some years depending on the weather, but oh the taste. Heirloom vegetables are so good and if we are not careful are going to become a thing of the past.

This year I ordered all heirloom vegetable. Things like Green Apple Eggplants (which the ducks ate), Blue Hubbard Squash and Strawberry Popcorn. The funnest of all this year was the pole beans. If you only plant one thing next year (or whenever your growing season starts) make it a pole bean. We planted Scarlett Runners, Hidatsa Field Beans, and Rattlesnake Pole Beans. They have gorgeous flowers, climb to about 10 feet and had tons of beans. Lots of bang for your buck and something that most people have never seen before. It is important to us that these oldies but goodies, stay around.

Teaching our children the importance of native plants and what happens when we transport things long distances or introduce an invasive species that have no natural predators. Take your children to your local farmers market to meet the farmers and ask question about how things are grown. I can guarantee that they will love the questions. Ask if you can visit the farm and help for an afternoon. Farmers love help, if anyone wants to come help me, I will welcome you with open arms. These are invaluable ways to teach your kids were their food comes from and just how important your local farmers are.

You will also never have to worry about food recalls when you know were your food comes from or about eating GMOs. A GMO is a Genetically Modified Organism. Like mixing genes from a fish and genes from a tomato so that it is more cold hardy. I have two huge problems with this. One, don’t mess with nature. If you give her a nudge, she will knock you into the next universe. Two, my child has food allergies. GMOs do not have to be labeled. So what happens when a child who is allergic to fish eats a tomato with fish genes and has an anaphylactic reaction. Or my daughter, who is allergic to corn eats a GMO papaya, that has corn genes in it and her throat swells shut. GMO corn and soy beans are in every boxed product on the market today that is not specifically label non-GMO. Lab animals who were NOT part of an experiment, had their everyday feed switch to GMO soy because it was cheaper. The lab saw a 50% increase in infant mortality rates. Of those offspring that survived, half were infertile. Within three generations, all animals that had been fed GMO soy were infertile. GMO seeds have a “kill gene”, one that does not allow the seed to germinate and produce a crop for next year. No more seed saving making us dependant on the seed companies for food thus relying on them to stay alive. The US population has been eating genetically modified organism since the 1990′s. No one has ever studied the “kill gene” and the effect that it may have on the human population. With the rise in fertility treatments in the last twenty years, I would say that they are having a negative effect on our human population. Without sounding all conspiracy theorist, there are people in this world that believe the human race has had a good run and now we need to die out and leave the earth alone to repair herself. No kidding. I don’t believe this, but I do believe that population control through GMOs and vaccines is occurring. This is why education and planting of Heirloom plants is so important. It starts with our kids. I really truly believe that most of the time kids are smarter that adults. They have more common sense, more compassion and empathy, and more conviction of what is right and what is wrong. So next year, find some place to plant some heirlooms.

One thing that I really like to do is organize a small group, especially if you have limited space, to purchase seeds together. I love ordering from HeirloomSeeds.com, Rareseeds.com, or check out Seedsavers.org.
”Since 1975, Seed Savers Exchange members have passed on approximately one million samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners. We are a non-profit organization of gardeners dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds.”

Make some simple container gardens (be creative, almost anything can grow plants) and watch your children’s eyes light up as the plants grow, produce fruit and then savor the goodness of home grown veggies!