Store Bought vs Homegrown

Most of my friends buy their food from stores and farmers markets. Much of my food comes from my farm, or my locality via trading and foraging. So.....

                    .....which is better? 

Whoa, I'm not the original author of that question. I'm not judging for the world, nor telling other people what they should do. It's just that I was confronted this morning at the farmers market by someone who thought that I'm pushing this idea of growing food a bit too hard. She was defending buying store bought foods, and asked me specifically which is better, homegrown vs store bought. As I said, I'm not here to judge for other people. But let's explore .........

Which is better? When it comes to hubby and I, of course I believe homegrown and local is better. It's what I'm doing. Let's list some reasons......

... Freshness. 

... Flavor. 

... Being able to harvest at gourmet timing, such as baby squash, baby carrots, edible flowers, etc. 

... Producing foods that I can't buy in a store. (When's the last time that Aunt Molly's ground cherries were in the supermarket?) 

... Supporting local growers. 

... Less chemicals and contamination (but I have to know my suppliers. Not every grower is trustworthy.) 

Store bought has its benefits...,,

... Out of season availability. 

... Selection of foods not available locally. 

... Commercially made "instant food". 

... Getting food to the masses, especially in urban situations. 

... Generally cheaper in the long run for the majority of people. 

Store bought has a lot of downsides that I prefer to avoid --- sugars, salt, chemicals, contaminants. 

Homegrown brings other benefits --- a connection to nature, a feeling of self reliance, the knowledge that I wouldn't miss a meal even if times got rough. 

So you decide. Which is better? 

Pig Rototillers?

I recently was reading an article on how to ring a pig. Applying hog rings to the snout of a pig is to prevent rooting behavior. By the way, I don't ring my pigs. I've read articles on the internet of how short nosed breeds of pigs don't have a rooting behavior, but I don't think that's accurate. All pigs root up the ground to some degree or another. Some people say the certain breeds don't root, while others say just the opposite of the very same breed of pig. Personally my experience says it depends upon the individual pig. Some definitely like to root more so than others.

All my pigs so far have been mixed feral types. Some have more domestic pig in them than others, but they all have been at least 50% feral. Some of them were avid rooters, others had little interest in rooting other than scuffing the surface. 

My current pigs, Lava and Shelly, aren't big rooters. Yes they root a bit, but their hearts aren't into it. They snuffle here and there, but generally grass grows just about everywhere in their enclosure. They have one spot that they like to churn up rocks, but that's it. 

I often see recommendations on various farming/gardening forums to use pigs to "plow" the garden. I don't see that as great advice for a few of reasons. First, not all pigs are avid rooters. So you can't just order "2 piglets please that will be good rooters". Second, they are selective rooters. They surely aren't going to go down your rows and politely plow up your garden beds. (You will notice in the photo that my pigs haven't rooted most of their enclosure. The grass is doing just fine!) Third, some pigs just snuffle the surface, while others like digging down to China. So instead of plowing, they are more apt to make lunar landscape craters with deep foxholes here and there. You will end up with more of a headache than when you started. Top that off with the fact that pig activity tends to leave behind compacted soil, I personally don't see the benefit of using pigs to prepare a garden site. 

Bottom line........if you want your garden tilled, I wouldn't rely upon a pig to get the job done. Use a rototiller, plow, or shovel instead. 

Piglet Visitors

Look who's come to visit! 

3 little eight week old piglets. One black boy (on the left), one black girl ( standing on the right), and one dark chocolate girl (laying down on the right). For right now they are in my quarantine pen......

This pen is made from plastic pallets, except for the door. Those plastic pallets are quite heavy and would be impossible as a door. The plastic makes things easy to hose clean and sanitize between uses. 

The pen is five pallets long, so it gives the piglets some space to move around. They have blankets and sheets to lay on in the far end of the pen, which has a rainproof roof & tarp. They also have food and water bowls, and toys to play with. Yes, toys. Piglets love to play if given the opportunity. 

Usually the first few days in the new pen the piglets are shy. But these little guys are quite bold and confident. It didn't take long for them to rearrange their bedroom, check out the toys, and eat a meal. Tomorrow  I plan to treat them for lice and deworm them. Then they will be ready for their new homes. 

Food Forests

"S" just questioned me about food forests. Guess she has been reading permaculture websites recently. While I do incorporate many aspects of permaculture into this homestead farm, I'm not a permaculture farm. At least, not yet. Maybe some day.  I keep edging closer and closer. 

So what is a food forest? It's a type of gardening that uses a young forest model to grow a diversity of edible crops. Most plants are perennials. Food production is layered, going from ground covers to canopy trees, and everything in between. Much of the food forest is not tilled, thus relying upon mulches and nutrient teas for soil additives. But that's not strictly the case, depending upon the crops used. Things like root crops require soil cultivation to plant and harvest them. But generally the area mimics a forest habitat. Come to think about it, I guess you could say that digging those roots crops mimics a forest pig rooting around for a meal. Ah-ha, just like nature after all. 

Why have a food forest? It's less time consuming that intensive gardening. But the diversity of food is more limited. Land that I may not have the time to tend can be made to be food productive via a food forest. A food forest need not destroy the native trees already growing there. The soil biome need not be destroyed. Wildlife can still utilize the area. Land perhaps not suitable for conventional gardening can be used for a food forest, perhaps someplace too steep or too rocky.  

Some food forest characteristics..... Predominately perennials. A mix of trees, shrubs, low growing plants, ground covers, root crops, climbing vines. Use of multi layers : subsurface, ground level, mid level, high canopy. Utilizes both sun and shade oriented plants. Provides other resources, such as firewood (from tree pruning) and mulch material (from pruning, spent plants, natural leaf drop). 

On my own homestead farm, I don't have just one area dedicated as a food forest. My food forests tend to meander through the 20 acres, and they morph from one type of food production to another. Over by the barn the forest area was originally eucalyptus trees. It now hosts in addition -- lemon trees, bananas, pipnolas, papaya, and chaya. I'm still adding plants and plan to put in sweet potatoes, cholesterol spinach, ginger, ti, and some herbs. 

     Along the dry river bed and up the driveway, ohia and feral guavas were the original trees. I kept the ohias and thinned out the guavas. I added a cinnamon tree, an allspice, a clove, moringa, coffee, and several citrus trees. Also growing there are pipinola, turmeric, sweet potato vines, bananas, and a variety of herbs. 

     The pastures are in the process of being converted from dense, inedible ferns under ohia and wild guava. The ground cover consists of various pasture oriented plants, both grasses and forbs (in the places where the ferns have been removed). I've already added avocado trees. There's a whole lot of work still needed back there, 

     The Secret Garden has the most diversity so far. Originally mostly ohia trees and ferns, I've added quite an assortment of food bearing plants. Pipinolas, sweet potatoes, okinawan spinach, cholesterol spinach, a sapote tree, a white guava, mulberry trees, several citrus, coffee, and many different kinds of bananas, lots of taro, lots of ti, a cacao tree, turmeric, lilikoi, pineapples, plus a few herbs. It's still a work in progress. 

    Just so "S" and others understand, I didn't set out to create permaculture food forests. I set out to grow food, period. I recently discovered that it's now in vogue to have a food forest. How nice. I'm not one for fads, trends, what's in vogue. I do what I'm interested in and figure out how to make it work. And by the way, my macadamia nut trees aren't a part of any particular system. They simply line the driveway. 

Wednesday Diary

I guess my favorite day of the week is Wednesday, simply because it's my town's market day...and everything goes from there. Here's how my day typically goes, not exactly heart stopping excitement, but it doesn't take much for this country girl to enjoy market day. 

Up early as usual. Morning chores are abbreviated on market day. I check on all the critters and distribute feed. The rest can wait until I get back. Even the breakfast dishes. Hum, especially those dirty dishes. 

Back at the house, I like to do some finishing touches on whatever produce I'm taking to market. Today it's freshly dug turmeric. Most the prep was done last night, but this morning I still need to weigh it out into individual baggies. Feeling totally optimistic (heck, the sun is shining so beautifully this morning), I pack up an extra dozen baggies. 

I invite Noodles to come along. He's ecstatic. Tail thumping, big grin, jumping with joy. Boy, you would think I never let him ride in the truck. Maybe the sun has him in a good mood too. So he hops into the passenger seat and off we go.  

There's a full contingent of vendors today. Even a couple overflow folks on the roadside, hoping the cops will be in a good mood and pass them by. First stop is the veggie vendor at on the Shaka Restaurant grounds. He likes my turmeric and has been selling out every week so far. I return to the truck with more than enough red cabbage, broccoli, and lettuce. Both sides are happy with the trade. Back at the truck Noodles is disappointed. I guess he was hoping there'd be dog cookies in that trade. 

Next stop, the main market. This time when I return to the truck there are goodies for Noodles, plus homemade sourdough bread, a big bag of oranges, several tomatoes, a dozen eggs, 3 banana lumpia, an entire bunch of green bananas, fresh young ginger, and a gigantic frozen tilapia fish. No Noodles, you can't have the fish. Looks like I made a good decision packing the extra turmeric. It's a hot item this morning. Some days are better than others, and today all the turmeric was successfully traded. 

Back home I still had a full day ahead. The rest of the morning was spent wielding a sawsall, cutting up wood pallets. I aim to add a couple new chicken enclosures. They're almost completed but I need more planks to finish the task. I also got the electric sheep fencing moved, opening up some new pasture space for the girls. (Only took less than 15 minutes. Gee, I love this fencing!)  And moved 3 loads of rock up to the driveway rock wall construction area. David was around today and caught up on most of the weedwacking around the place. 

After lunch I went back and finished up the daily routine chores, even threw a load of laundry into the washer. This still left me with time to haul piles of pulled up ferns from the back pastures up to the driveway hugelpits that I'm working on. Clearing out the ferns is the pasture improvement project. Using the ferns as fill is part of the hugelpits project. One hand washes the other........or zero waste, whichever way you want to look at it. Worked till 5, then called it a day and took a nice hot shower. I still really appreciate hot showers. The memory of cold ones hasn't totally faded away yet. Then managed to hang out the wash before collapsing into the easy chair. Those dang dirty breakfast dishes will have to wait until after dinner. 

Hubby came home early (government shutdown is interfering with his work. In fact, he might not even get paid this month, but we'll see how that goes.) Dinner tonight.....how do sandwiches sound? ........ Fresh homemade sourdough bread, tomatoes, lettuce, egg salad, and pipinola pickles. Sounds just fine to me. 

After dinner (yes, I washed the dishes), catch up on the internet then watch the kittens play.....better than tv!! 

The Dark Side of Homesteading

"T" liked my homesteading mistakes post, then he asked me if there was a unseen side to homesteading. "What? Do you mean a dark side? Those dirty little secrets no one tells you about?" Yes, there is. Going back to the earth is trendy now. Success stories sell magazines, for-profit blogs, money making YouTube channels. If they talked about the horrible things that happen, then they wouldn't have an audience for long nor make money. 

So what are some of the dirty little secrets? It may be good to be aware before plunging into any level of homesteading. You aught to go in with open eyes. Be aware that everything isn't roses and lollipops.  

... If you have livestock, they will eventually die. Sometimes it's ugly, sometimes expensive, sometimes a surprise, sometimes drawn out agony. Sometimes you find them peacefully looking like they're asleep. Other times there is blood everywhere. 

...Crop failures. There goes your food supply. Oops. It seems that everything out there is trying to kill your crop: bugs, diseases, the weather, the neighbor's cows. I once had Bucky, my wether, and his friend, E-Ram the sheep, eat my entire main garden. All-l-l-l gone! 

....Nobody wants your products. Making crafts is one of the first go-to ideas people have for making income. But there's a narrow market for such items and the competition can be huge. Selling your extra veggies is another grand idea. But there's not a guaranteed market, especially if you have a farmers market in the area. Or if they aren't pretty and priced right, you'll be taking them all back home with you. 

...Things go wrong.  The generator you depend upon stops running. You run out of firewood. Frost hits the very morning your seedlings germinate. You check your pond and find all the fish floating belly up. The milk cow gets mastitis. 

...Bad weather. The land floods. Or, there's no rain. Early frost. Cold spring. 30 cloudy days in arow. Strong winds blow everything down. 

...Doing things by hand takes a lot more time. Hand digging a drainage trench can take days, while using a backhoe can take an hour or two. Everything done by hand takes a lot longer to get finished. But sometimes by hand is the only way you can afford getting the job done. 

...Every homestead different, but each has something that eventually becomes an issue. Hauling water? (That can lose its appeal.) Long driveway to maintain? (Wait until the first real snowstorm.) Living off grid? (It takes discipline to live within energy boundaries. And you'll kill your first battery bank while learning.) 

...It's hard work. There's lots of physical work. It's not a part time job. Once the entire infrastructure is in place, then the work eases up, until you get bored and start taking on new projects. Yup, the work never ends. 

...Not glamorous as depicted in the glossy magazines, glitzy blogs, polished videos. That beautiful photo of the well groomed family of dad, mom, and two young kids holding bags of fresh picked ears of sweet corn is staged. Hate to break that to you. But if they had REALLY just been out picking that corn, their hair would be torn askew by wrestling 6' high corn stalks, their hands would be red from twisting and yanking all those ears off, their clothiers would be a mess with spider webs and dirt, and they wouldn't be lined up smiling like a line of Hollywood actors.

Homesteading has its rewards. Of course. Otherwise real people wouldn't be doing it. 

Homesteading Mistakes

A few readers have remarked that I make homesteading sound easy, and that I don't make mistakes. Oh brother, that's far from the truth. I've always said that farming isn't easy. It's work. And I make lots of mistakes, but maybe not the most common ones. 

Over the years I've talked with many a wannabe small farmer or homesteader. I'm often asked for advice. So here's a list of some of the things I mention in order to avoid having to deal with common mistakes people make.....

... Wrong location. Choose your location wisely. Consider the weather, climate, government restrictions and taxes, the area's future planning, your neighbors and neighborhood, availability of shopping and health care. There are a lot of things to consider, and each person has there own priorities. But I've heard of people buying without regard to land restrictions and are frustrated that they can't have a flock of chickens, or don't they have water rights, or they find out an interstate highway is planned to run adjacent to their land, or oil wells are planned the the land across the street, or their land isn't accessible by vehicle during the rainy season. 

... No cash or a job to bankroll your start. Too many newbies can't survive the first year because of lack on funds. It takes a while to learn how to produce your own food, and survive using less resources. If starting ftom scratch, it takes a while to build something to live in. It takes money to buy the tools and supplies you need. 

... Not everyone in the family be on board with the idea. Not everybody needs to be an active participant, but they can't be against it. 

... The First Year Syndrome : trying too many things at once. Most people fall victim to this. They try to get everything done at once. 

... Constantly looking for the perfect or best way to do things before acting. Some people get paralyzed trying to decide what is the best way. They want to do it right the first time. As a result, they never get started. It's called analysis paralysis. Other people go ahead a do something, but then re-do it over and over again, looking for the ideal ultimate way. Every year they tear down what they did the year before and rebuild it, or sell last year's "the ultimate goat breed" and buy a different one. 

... Over estimating your ability. With the advent of easy access to information via the Internet, newbees tend to over estimate their knowledge and skill to farm, have livestock, build a house, maintain farm equipment, grow a garden, etc. They figure that they saw it on YouTube or read someone's blog and that they can do the same thing successfully right away. They don't realize that experience has a lot to do with success. It takes hands on work and time to be successful at just about any and all aspects of homesteading and farming. Believe me, if you've never gardened before, plowing up two acres and buying a couple hundred dollars of seeds is a big mistake. 

...Growing too big too fast. Expanding sounds like a good idea. But if the foundation isn't there to support the growth, you get over extended in a hurry. What too often follows? A big crash. 

... Not knowing about the livestock before you buy. I've seen people buy a type of livestock that appealed to them without learning anything about them first. Emus. Alpacas. Potbellied pigs. Scottish Highland Cattle. Buffalo. This even includes the more common goats, sheep, rabbits, etc. And I've watched too many of those animals die, or worse yet, the new owners getting badly hurt by them. 

... Not having infrastructure in place before buying livestock. This is far too common a mistake. A person visits a livestock auction (by the way, that's a terrible place for a newbee to buy an animal). They come home with 6 diary goats and tie them out on ropes because they don't have any fencing in place yet. Nor do they have the equipment or skill to milk them. Nor the feed on hand to go feed them correctly. Nor a water trough. Nor a shelter. Believe me, I've seen this happen! For real! My advice is to have everything in place before the first animal arrives. 

...Not having livestock evaluated before purchasing. When buying animals, one needs to be able to evaluate their health, temperament, confirmation, and suitability for the reason they are being acquired. If you can't do it yourself, then get help from someone that can. I've seen people buy scouring calves, not knowing what was going on. Other times it's been piglets loaded with lice, sheep too aged to be of much use, goats too anemic to survive, hens past egg laying age. As a teenager I got stung buying what I thought was a gelded pony, only to find out later that it was a cryptorchid stallion. Yikes! 

...Trying to home slaughter and not knowing how to do it. Gee, I've gotten nightmares over this common mistake. I've heard grewsome tales. 

...Raising animals for food only to find out that you can't bring yourself to kill them, or eat them. Wow is this common! Once you've looked into an animal's eyes, given it a name, tenderly cared for it, it gets difficult or impossible for some people to keep in mind that this is food. It gets killed, cut up into pieces, and served for dinner. And it gets worse when the kids can't bring themselves to eat Bossy, Elsie, Little Red, Thumper, etc. I've seen these type homesteaders drowning in livestock that they can't bring themselves to eat, kill, sell, or give away. 

...The family is glued to supermarket food. I've seen families where they don't eat what the grow, and I'm not referring to animals. To them, real food comes from a store, and most is prepackaged commercially prepared meals. 

...Not understanding that farming goes on regardless of the weather. Rain. Freezing cold. Broiling summer days. Storms. Mud season. Snow. There are jobs that need taking care of regardless of the weather, especially when there's livestock. No livestock? You're not off the hook. Got tomato seedlings out in the coldframe and there's a snowstorm scheduled for tonight? Well you gotta go out in the cold and dark to cover that coldframe with straw and tarps, or piles of wet blankets. 

I'm sure there's plenty more common mistakes that beginners make, but these are what came to mind ..........because either I made them myself or watched others who did.