One of my readers reminded me that I haven’t posted in a while, and I think now is a good time because of the issues of food security that are coming to the fore. The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic brought something Americans have not seen for decades: shortages of basic necessities. Early on, it […]
Filed under: Self-Sufficiency | Comments Off on It’s all about the calories …
Last summer, the state re-did the road in front of my house, in conjunction with a bridge project. As part of improving the drainage, the project had the unfortunate side-effect of emptying my well, which means a new (and much deeper!) well had to be installed. Every dark cloud has a silver lining though! Putting […]
Filed under: Cress, Seeds, Self-Sufficiency | Comments Off on Upland Cress: A Free Lunch!
The best time to get your beds ready for next year, or prepare beds for the first time, is in the fall. The reason is because MiniFarming relies on organic methods, and organic methods though superior in the long run, are slow. The additions made to beds — alfalfa meal for slow nitrogen, compost, dolomitic […]
Filed under: Self-Sufficiency, Vegetables | Comments Off on Fall is the Time to Get Ready!
I haven’t kept this blog updated much because I have been working on a massive book. It is finally done and in to the publisher, so it will be out in the spring! The new book is on the increasingly popular subject of ancestral diet and exercise, along with other lifestyle issues. It required crazy […]
Filed under: Self-Sufficiency | Comments Off on Finally, a bit of a break!
Folks who read my blog know that just before last Christmas, I scattered parsnip and carrot seeds on some of my beds to see if they would take. The theory behind this is straightforward: if you duplicate what nature does, nature will lead the seed to sprout at exactly the right time for your area […]
Filed under: Carrots, Planting, Vegetables | Comments Off on And the Results are In!
There are two economies in the United States. No, I’m not about the get political and talk about rich and poor, nor am I going to discuss the underground economy or black market. That is because all of the foregoing are part of the exchange economy where the only thing that is measured or assigned […]
Filed under: Self-Sufficiency | Comments Off on Production for Use Versus Production for Exchange
As a source of protein, objectively speaking, there’s nothing wrong with eating horse in preference to cow or pig. Horse meat contains twice as much iron as cow meat, a whopping THIRTY TIMES more healthy Omega-3 fatty acids and twice as much vitamin B12. Plus, it carries no risk of mad cow disease. (1) So […]
Filed under: Self-Sufficiency | Comments Off on Horse meat and trusting yourself
I save a lot of seeds, sometimes factors more seeds than I will ever need simply because it is easy to save them. This means I can afford to experiment with planting methods without it costing me an arm and a leg. When we are mini-farming, we are in many respects simply adapting natural processes […]
Filed under: Planting | Comments Off on Planting Nature’s Way
I live in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire, which is not exactly the warmest spot on earth. It’s not as bad as Minnesota, thank goodness, but it is far cooler than where I grew up in Virginia. Yet, with no greenhouse, snow forecast for today, and well past the first frost of the year, […]
Filed under: Planting | Comments Off on Monday Night, I Harvested Carrots!
Official inflation numbers don’t take the costs of food and energy into account. But the cost of food is rising fast as the following table demonstrates: Just LOOK at that! The price of potatoes has quadrupled and the prices of many other things have doubled or tripled. Crazy! No wonder people are feeling broke on […]
Filed under: Potatoes, Self-Sufficiency, Squash | Comments Off on Coping with Rampant Food Inflation
