Planning a year's supply of food for each member of your family can seem a daunting task. Want to grow a large garden, have an orchard and vineyard, grow your own crops, and produce your own oil and sugar? How much meat, vegetables, fruit, sugar, oil, flour do we each consume per year? What if …
Category: Livestock
Before Grocery Stores…
“Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.” ~ Alexis de Tocqueville ~
Food Independence on a 1930s Farm
A young man and his family relished the seasonal bounty of their garden and orchard, especially the green chili chow-chow they made each fall. By Harold Oliver, as told to Peter Kohler We braided onions and hung them to dry in the cellar. ROBERT SHETTERLY This account was told to me by my former neighbor, Harold Oliver, …
The Multi-Species Flock of Birds
Birds of a feather, flock together? While it is an old, funny saying, this really isn’t the case. Multi-species flocking occurs in nature; frequently. Not just coexisting in the same space, but true camaraderie, a true relationship. For instance, woodpeckers use chickadees and titmice as sentinels, standing guard, keeping watch, protecting against marauding predators. The …
Mother Hen
A good mother hen is worth her weight in grain; double, triple... decuple (that's 10x) her weight in grain. Her skill-set is invaluable to your homestead. In poultry, hens can be great mothers or just okay mothers or not want anything to do with these highly active, presumably annoying hatchlings. We have a chicken hen …
3 Tried and True Methods of Killing Insects
We have reached that time of year when we thank God that the onslaughts of summer stinging, biting and swarming insects have ceased their stinging, biting and swarming. Phewwwwww…. Oh wait, here come the fall insects! Ants, Lice, Mites, Fleas, Asian Beetles, Boxelder Bugs, Bedbugs, Earwigs, Millipedes, Centipedes, Cluster Flies, Silverfish, Cockroaches, Worms, Squash Bugs …
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Forest Permaculture
Forest Permaculture is an integrated three dimensional design of permanent agricultural layers combining tall trees, small trees and shrubs, vines, perennial and self-seeding ground covers, and livestock to sustainability and permanently provide nutrients. Okay, that sounds so serious and professional. Permaculture is a method of farming management where the environment provides food for your livestock. …
Why You Should Raise Chickens for Eggs?
Nutritionally Superior to Grocery Store Eggs 1/3 less cholesterol • 1/4 less saturated fat • 2/3 more vitamin A • 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids • 3 times more vitamin E • 7 times more beta carotene Benefits Eggs from well-tended backyard chickens are healthier Eggs from backyard chickens are tastier Chicken droppings enrich …
What Eggs-actly Do You Know About Eggs?
[Repost from my Capper Farmer blog: http://www.cappersfarmer.com/blogs/falcos-poultry.aspx%5D What really do you know about eggs other than they make a delicious breakfast? Well, Falco's Heritage Farm and Capper's Farmer are here to answer all your egg-related questions! Production of an egg typically takes about 11 ½ days. Typically, enough hormone is released to develop only one …
Livestock First Aid Kit
1. Colloidal Silver (spray & drops/liquid – an antibiotic) 2. Organic Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother 3. Castile Soap 4. Saline Solution 5. Vet Wrap 6. Neem Oil (natural, safe insecticide for ticks, mosquitoes, mites, fleas, fungus etc., antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal) 7. Calcium Gloconate (egg bound, birthing trouble treatment) 8. Nail Clippers 9. Nitrile …
How to Provide 