Farmers Without a Farm

We have been trying to purchase a farm for a few years now. It is just proving to be an impossible dream for us. So, we have come to the decision to live the life we have been given instead of longing for the life we cannot have. The yo-yo ride of back and forth is just too stressful for us and the kids. This means that we will be staying in town but thankfully have a good sized lot so we will look at purchasing the house we are in and putting in a food forest. We will still try to be Farmers Without a Farm and have summer pasture so we can raise meat for our freezer each winter. It will be a bit more expensive but at least we will know how the meat is raised. Our changed story will likely be of interest to others that can't or don't want to move out to a farm but still want to grow their own food. Thankfully I've found permaculture which is wonderfully suited for an urban food forest. The years have also allowed us to narrow down on the types of foods we will actually use.

This year we have discovered the benefits of preserving our own foods. I have done some preserving over the years but this is the first time I've done it on a large scale. We often have used the freezer but learned the hard way that this isn't a great idea. Our freezer door was accidently left open and we lost a ton of food. At least with preserving, the energy use stops when the processing is done. We will still use the freezer for some things but will preserve as much as we can. This year we have discovered some free produce in the form of apple trees unused on an abandoned farm property, inexpensive roma tomatoes, peppers and peaches. Hopefully we can learn to grow some of these on our own lot. I'm guessing we can still have day old chicks and poults in the backyard to grow out until they are big enough for summer pasture. We also have some good contacts now to purchase animals for summer pasturing and fall meat. It will just be the beef that will be a challenge since they take so long to grow out (18-24 months to butcher weight).

I will still be posting on our journey but the posts will be light for the next few weeks as I focus on getting the kids registered for their various activities and arrange for a private tutor again. I'm guessing that things will be light over the winter too as there just won't be a lot going on, other then eating our havest! I really appreciate all of our followers. It's nice to know there are others cheering for us...