Dodging the Bullet

Whew, the severe winter weather that was full of ice and snow went north of us. We did have some nasty winds and it's pretty darn cold now but I'll take sunny and cold over 2' of snow anyday!

So, what are we doing around the farm today? Oh, the usual stuff- feeding the animals, chopping a little firewood and baking bread. Plus my all time favorite winter passtime of garden dreaming. Yes, I know it's just December but it's never the wrong time to be thinking about and making plans to start those precious seedlings for a new garden.

The garden is the very heart of this self sustained lifestyle. Without the garden, all I would be is a consumer. Buy it, use it up and buy some more. Breaking that cycle wasn't easy since it's what we all grew up believing was normal. I choose to feed myself and accept the responsibility and all the work that goes with it. So, I must constantly think about last years garden and how i can improve my yields. What worked good and what didn't work so good. Like my potato crop for instance. I also constantly work on how I can beat Mother Nature. What? Yep, I am always trying to get around her, every chance I can get! I want my plants to hit the garden and produce as quickly as I can make them. The sooner I can get tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc, the more I will have for the table. How do I do that? I start my seeds early, way before the last frost in the kitchen window garden. It takes up a bunch of space and usually by planting time, my kitchen is literally taken over by plants. I have a small table full plus a variety of shelves and the "indoor garden" always ends up sprawling over to the dinner table and my counters. It's lots of work tending and watering all those plants but if I didn't do that, I'd not have ripe tomatoes before July around here.

Sounds like a big fuss, doesn't it? It would be if I didn't have that whole line of southern exposure windows. Is it worth it? I think it is. Eating only from what you grow isn't a small accomplishment. It takes 20 tomato plants producing full time to cover just the sauce, paste and diced tomatoes we consume in the course of a year. If my first red tomato doesn't come until July, that just gives me 3 1/2 to 4 months to produce enough to last the 9 months until the next round of tomato plants start producing.

Self sutained living isn't any different than the way everyone lives, we just don't go out and buy what we need, we create it for ourselves. Yes, it takes more time and effort to do it for ourselves and sometimes it's no so much fun but in the end, it's worth it. If it weren't for my dedication to doing it for myself, I would most likely be among the thousands across the country in mortgage default right now. Growing my own food has allowed us to stretch what little money we have much, much longer than what it would for people that are consumer based. All the animals here are fed from what we can produce. In turn, that gives us free chicken, free eggs, free rabbit, free sheep, free pork, free beef, plus free produce! When all you have is $100 to make it the whole month, that sure does mean a bunch! Especially when fuel is $2.80 a gallon...

Survival Seed Package Giveaway Winner

It's 7pm and the winner is.............

Peggy from Peggy's Mountain Blessings. Congrats Peggy, email me at mmpaints@yahoo.com with where you want the seed pack mailed to.

Bright and Cold!

Whew, it's darn cold this morning! I'm not upset about it, the cold temperatures will kill off all the bugs. My windows have been swarmed with those little bettles that look like ladybugs for the past month. Those buggers bite!

It's been 5 days now since my big black rabbit doe kindled her second batch of bunnies and so far, they are still alive. She is tending her kits. I'm not real sure how many she has since I'm reluctant to actually touch the hairs and look. I don't want her to not take care of them. I know all the rabbit care books say it's okay to touch them but in my experience, if you disturb the nest of either an inexperienced or nervous doe, she lets those kits you touched die. After the last batch of 12 she never tended, I have been very careful with her.

I put a list of seeds on the right sidebar, those are what I have pulled out of my own garden seed stash for the giveaway seed package. There will be at least a dozen of each seed and around 3 cups of wheat. I will also look into adding a couple arabica coffee beans, not sure how many I have in reserve tho. If you all don't mind, I'd like to respond to a couple of comments from last night post- Survival Gardening- Self Sustained Living....

Rebecka asked about open pollinated seeds. All open pollinated seeds are desireable for seed saving. These are all Mother Natures best. You must also know that these seeds will produce plants that will cross pollinate by themselves if you plant more than one type of similar seed close together. Example- Country Gentleman corn less that 50' away from Golden Bantam. These are both heirloom, open pollinated sweet corn and will cross pollinate all by themselves and create a wonderful yellow and white ear of corn. The seeds can be used to save for replanting but you may get plants that resemble the parents and then crosses from being planted all in the same rows. That would not necessarily be a bad thing but if you wanted a whole crop of white corn or a whole crop of yellow corn, well, you get the idea. If you like what your heirloom or open pollinated seed produces, just make sure it's not near another plant it can pollinate with and you can save seed that will produce exactly the same year after year.

The next one is for Stacey SWPA. Stacey asked about how long a seed can be stored before it won't germinate. I'm glad you asked that Stacey! Sometimes I don't always use up my seeds and they will hang around in the bottom of my coffee cans for several seasons. I've had tomato seeds 9 years old still sprout and grow. Cuccumbers as old as 5 years, peppers up to 7. I have noticed tho, the older they are, the lower the germination rate is. Not all the old seeds will sprout for me. The fresh seed from my previous season usually has a 95% to 98% germination rate. Corn on the other hand is smoked after 3 seasons. It appears to break down and just does not grow at all. With corn, I always save twice the amount I want to plant any given season just in case I have to replant the crop due to weather, etc and at the end of the season when I am ready to save for next year, i throw the old seed into one of the animal feed mixes.

I save my seed in ziploc bags with a paper towel folded in them to absorb any moisture due to temperature changes. I keep the bags in an old coffee can with the lid on in my pantry away from heat and light. I've never had a batch of seed that would not germinate at all for me.

A dirty kitchen calls to me and i don't have any bread for supper....... enjoy the day!

Survival Gardening- Self Sustained Living

That is a picture of some Roma tomatoes I grew in a bucket this summer. The seeds came from what I saved from my harvest last year. I'd like to share my thoughts on seeds, gardening and seed saving with you tonight.

How do I grow all my own food and how can it be free? Well, it's not free the first year of planting because the seeds have to come from somewhere. I bought some and traded for some. All the seeds are what is considered heirloom seeds. So, what's an heirloom seed? It's a seed that will produce the same quality plant as it's parent plant. For instance, the tomato. I plant a seed and it grows. Then it produces fruit. I save the seeds from that fruit, replant them and they grow a plant just like the first one I grew. Same quality fruits, same growing habits.

Nature all on it's own cross pollinates plants all the time. It's normal evolution. The problem with a hybrid is that the fruits of such a cross very rarely grow a plant like it's parent. The seed will grow a plant that reverts back to one of it's parent plants. So, if you plant a hybrid tomato that grows quickly, produces an early tomato with good flavor, the chances of a saved seed producing the same results on the next generation is kind of slim. That's why I plant only heirloom seeds. I want to have the same quality and performance year after year so I know what to expect and I know how much food I will produce. That's a good thing to know when you are eating only from what you grow.

Now, here's a type of seed that is what I consider to be the root of all evil. A GMO(genetically modified organism). This seed is the product of molecular genetics and can often have other organisms spliced into it such as pesticide genes that would never occur naturally. There is no scientific proof that plants and fruits produced from GMO seed do not harm organisms that would normally feed from these plants. Monsanto is now producing GMO seed that grows a plant to produce fruits that are sterile. The resulting fruits from the original GMO seed will not produce a plant. Hmmmm, don't fool with Mother nature boys, it never turns out well........

It makes sense to plant heirloom seeds, grow your garden and save seeds to grow next years garden from your bounty. All the following years you plant, you food is then free. Wouldn't you like to have the same bounty every year? Only use and save heirloom, open pollinated seeds for your self sustaining, survival garden.


Okay, where do you find heirloom seeds? Reputable seed companies such as Johnnys Seeds, Burpee and Seed Savers Exchange are good sources. Seed Savers is exclusively open pollinated. Other companies will tell you in the description and on the seed packet if the seed is hybrid. Never trust a packet or company that does not disclose which kind of seed they are selling. Do your research, read and read some more!