07 – The end of our urban farm?; The Year in Review at 7HH-G

The last couple of years here at our urban farm have been eye opening for our family. Raising our own fruits, vegetables and herbs that were nourished from compost we produced from site generated materials and tending to chickens and honey bees have all made us appreciate where our food comes from.  Although we’re not self-sufficient 100% in our current home, we have begun to see the potential that is possible for a family interested  in changing their lifestyle. We have become very focused on making a change in our approach to living and have plans to become subsistence farmers. This is something we have earnestly researched quite intensively for the past year. Both my wife and I agree this is a dream we are both committed to making a reality; step by step we plan to fulfill our dream. Selling our current home and purchasing land in the country would mean the end of our urban farm but the beginning of our rural farm.

Here are just a few of the books we have been reading – inspiration for us to become farmers;

Here are some interests for us as we start to consider what our farm will look like – we’re not to the point of saying they will all be on our farm but they are definitely ideas we are thinking about.

1. A family cow (jersey). For raw milk, butter and cheese. Raised on grass in the spring and summer on our pasture. Rotated to fresh grass daily and fed hay in the winter months. Milking daily for 10 months out of the year -rain or shine.
2. Pastured broilers. Raised from day old chicks in our brooder, these chickens will be raised for providing meat – pasture raised meat – as many as 20-30 birds per chicken tractor. Rotated daily and ready for culling in 9 weeks.
3. Pastured eggs. A mixed flock of laying hens that we raise from day old chicks as well. They will be house in an egg-mobile and rotated on our pasture in the spring and summer months, following the family cow to clean up after her and her manure. Eggs will be collected daily and when winter arrives , they will be housed in our hoop house during the colder months.
4. Pastured pork. Weaner pigs will be purchased locally at 6 weeks old and raised on pasture for one season then butchered in the late fall – a matanza ! As they are raised on pasture, they will till the section of land we intend to re-seed in the fall .
5. A kitchen garden. This will provide vegetables our family uses on a daily basis + cooking herbs. Small scale gardening.
6. An orchard. A mix of fruit trees for our family. Jams and jellies will be made as we harvest fruit . Maybe add some nut trees too.
7. Honey bees. We would have a minimum of five hives for pollination of our crops. Honey would be harvested for our home and for sale to the public.
8. Intensive vegetable production. Depending on acreage we are able to purchase, if space is available, we would plant intensive permanent raised beds of vegetables for sale at local farmers markets. Surplus would go to farm animals.
9. A hoop house. This would be used year round. During the winter, it would provide a home for the laying hens; during the spring when the hens return to pasture, we would use it to start seedlings for the garden and then in summer and fall months it would be a growing space for tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.

Yes, this all sounds ambitious and would be quite an undertaking – but there is the saying – “dream big!” Taking the small steps we have during the last couple of years have been very rewarding – we look forward to taking bigger steps to enrich our lives with the hard work and rewards of a farm life.