sustainable farming, homestead farming

2.  There are two of us in our family to support now. I
really enjoyed the outline of the article in that it
talked about 1. establishing your goals 2. choose
your garden methods 3. plan how much to grow (I
enjoyed the information on how to determine how
much to grow)4. keep good records 5. preserve
your harvest. I thought back to when I was a young
kid and both sets of my grandparents were farmers
and I can tell you they would not have starved. Both
of my Grandmothers preserved a lot of food and
they shelved it in their basements and it did not go
to waste. I thought today that canning is a lost art…

3.  “But for many modern people, food comes from the grocery store, not
from farm fields, forest, streams and meadows”. Peter Bane
I find it interesting that in 1862 the department of agriculture was
created and approximately 90 out of 100 Americans were Farmers.
Today approximately 2 out of every 100 are farmers. We have a
majority that depends on others to provide food for them in the U.S.
and they do not have the skills or desire to raise their own food.
 “Indeed, not only do people need the land, but the land, in order to
flourish, needs people”. Peter Bane
Being a good steward of the land we have is in our best interest, not
just for the current time that we are using it but for the future. So if we
are addressing the needs of the land we use it will yield well for us,
however if we do not take care of it properly it will not take care of us.
 “Even much farmland is poorly used and could produce more for
people if it were cultivated differently”. Peter Bane
 I took from this if we manage our land well it will yield well…

4. CROP SERVINGS/YEAR POUNDS/YEAR NUMBER OF 100
SQUARE FEET
BEDS
PEACHES 104 30.5 ½ BED
BEANS 104 23.6 FULL BED
SQUASH 156 45.8 FULL BED
CORN 156 91.7 2 FULL BEDS
ONIONS 260 12.6 ½ BED
POTATOES 156 50.3 FULL BED
CARROTS 104 37.1 2 ½ BEDS
RICE 104 4.3 ½ BED
CORN 104 4.3 ½ BED
BEANS BLACK 104 6.8 1 ½ BEDS
BEANS WHITE 104 8.8 2 BEDS
KIDNEY 104 8.0 2 BEDS
STRAWBERRIES 52 8.6 ½ BED
GRAPES 52 27.3 FULL BED
CANTALOUPE 52 20 ½ BED

5.  Based off the Foods that we will grow we will
need a total 18 beds.
 I found it interesting that during the season
while growing vegetables our meals consist of
what we grow, raise and hunt. The area we
need to work on is during the winter as we still
have what we raise and hunt but not as much of
what we grow in the garden. This is an area that
we need to work on better, we do the canning
but we need to have more storage for potatoes
and onions etc…

7.  For the area that I garden by the house it is full
sun except in the evening by the garage. I will
be able to plant most of my crops in full sun and
then for the area that has somewhat shade in
the early morning and late evening we normally
plant greens in those areas as they are already
raised beds. We get plenty of sun and
sometimes maybe too much. Our greenhouse
which also faces the east is another source we
have available to start plants early on and will
provide produce throughout the year as well.