Post by paprikafaa on Nov 17, 2011 12:37:59 GMT -5
If you create an evacuation point that has been carefully tended & cultivated prior to the need for such, you are already a step ahead. That is what the family farm has become. It is not a location with nearby neighbors, much less a location near a city, & the idea is to create a place that can be used for many seasons to sustain a family, tribe, or group without the worry about intruders (security systems) or loss of food sources (sustainable farming).
Most people do not have access to a "family farm", but it can be created quite easily. If you can purchase even a small amount of land, say 2-3 acres, for a reasonable sum (whatever your version of reasonable is) then you can create a "family farm" with ease. Throw in a fenced pasture, add a few goats & sheep, a (portable) barn to house them, a portable building for "the office" where all the records are kept, a hay barn (also a portable building) for storage of fodder for the animals, and turn the rest into a large efficient garden, you could theoretically have a "family farm" with little effort on your part for maintenance.
Granted, milk goats have to be milked daily like cows, but that takes all of 10 minutes per goat, & if there is more than one person doing the milking, it should take about an hour to complete the whole flock. If there were to be anyone actually living on the property, there would have to be "portable buildings" on trailers, because it is illegal to actually live in a portable building that is on the ground. (See American Housing laws, Minimum-Size housing) Each trailer could be moved to provide optimum sunlight/shade ratios for the crops in the garden. Read the book, The Small House Book by Jay Shafer, for more information. You can buy it at this link: www.tumbleweedhouses.com/books/
A suggestion on reading: The Internet Archive has a number of useful books on subjects that have become commercialized. People used to make food at home, instead of buying it from a store & microwaving it. Cheese, wine, bread, beer, hominy, preserves, all were made at home, & stored for later use (in the cabinets) without (much) spoilage. The Internet Archive has a great number of books on food preservation & preparation. It also has a great number of books on pioneer living, cooking without electricity, and other useful subjects. Gardening is one of my favorites.
I believe there must be 5 webpages on books that actually have "gardening" in the title in the Internet Archive. I don't remember. I do remember that the one time I typed "goat" into the search box, I came up with more information than I ever thought possible. So, just to be contrary, I searched for "garden". I should know better. I then searched for "gardening". Many of the books were the same, but there were quite a few that were different. If you were even remotely interested in greenhouse gardening, for example, there are several books that could give you instruction on not only how to build the greenhouse, but also what to put in the greenhouse, when to plant it, what side of the greenhouse to plant it on, and when to transplant it, either outside the greenhouse or into a larger container. Many of these books were written to transfer knowledge, not for entertainment, so they do have that "textbook" style of writing, but those of us who have no had the benefit of growing up "in the country" or with a family farm or greenhouses would benefit greatly from this style of book.
The family farm is something that can be created with simple tools, simple ideas, and easily-acquired seeds. Bucket gardens, for example, work well for potatoes, any root vegetable, and leafy greens. If you can acquire a few 5-gallon buckets, you can have a nice potato farm, with red, white, & sweet potatoes in the same area, though not in the same bucket. A 2-3 gallon bucket is wonderful for leaf-&-root vegetables such as turnips, parsnips, & horseradish. The process is simple for a bucket garden: place a potato eye in the center of an inch of soil in the bottom of the bucket. Water the plant. Wait a week or 2, watering as needed. When the plant reaches 2-4 inches tall, or has more than 2 leaves on it, add more soil. Repeat until the bucket in nearly full. You may notice that the plant flowers when it reaches a certain age. It doesn't last long, so if you're not talking to them daily, you may not notice. About 8-10 weeks after the bucket is full, or when the growing cycle for the particular type of potato is complete, grab another bucket & a sieve (a window screen will work) & dump the bucket of potatoes into the sieve. Sift the soil away from your potato crop.
Turnips can be grown in buckets as well. This makes them easier to hang from tree branches, away from nibbling animals such as deer and goats. To add a bit of squirrel prevention, put a "chinaman's hat" on it. It's a 4/5 circle that's seamed (glue, tape, tab & slot, etc.) and placed on the rope used to hang the bucket about 4-5 feet above the bucket itself. Squirrels hate these things. They can be made from ABS plastic, tin, steel, anything that has a flat shape and doesn't crumple. The reason squirrels hate these things is that they cannot get up the courage to attempt to go over the edge to get to the succulent foodstuffs under it. Their fear of falling at this location is quite pronounced.
Melons, unfortunately, must be grown either on the ground or in a raised bed. There is no law in the world that says you can't build a raised bed on top of a couple old dressers with plastic & plywood on top of them. It won't be easy to build, but you can be guaranteed that small burrowing animals, deer and small children will not be able to get into the melons. Raccoons, opossums, and other inventive, curious climbers may still be able to access your melon patch. Mousetraps are excellent equipment for preventing this. They don't even really have to be baited. Placed in the right location, in the right position, they are immensely effective. And then you have stew and melons.
Portable raised beds are useful, as well. The drawers of the "couple old dressers" I mention above can be used to provide a reasonably safe location for the growing of small plants like carrots. Lined with a thin plastic sheeting, they make an excellent raised bed that can be transported as needed for optimum sunlight. At night, when the majority of the game animals are about, the drawers can be placed back into their slots in the dresser, thereby protecting the crops they contain. This must be done very carefully, to prevent damage to the tops. Fortunately, carrot tops bend easily and spring back well.
Herbs, also, can be grown in containers, raised beds, portable raised beds, in trees, on hooks, in tubes, in crocks, on porches, patios, and even inside shelters. Herbs thrive in containers. Herbs help food taste good. Some herbs can even be grown upside down. If you wish to grow herbs, and you don't have a safe location to grow them, put some dirt in the crook of a tree branch, add a bit of netting fabric (tulle) and put a few seeds in the dirt. For that matter, you could grow an herb ball. Take tulle, wrap it around a handful of dirt, put a few herb seeds in it, near the outside, tie the tulle at the top, and hang it from a tree (eave, windowsill, porch, rafter). Water regularly.
Some plants grow well upside down. Tomatoes, for example, can be grown upside down in cloth tubes with an opening at the bottom and top. Granted, the plant has a significantly smaller opening than the top, but it works. It also works well to have the plant started in a container in the upright fashion, then inverted once it has a good sized root base to prevent the plant's demise. Strawberries also grow well in cloth tubes.
If you wished to experiment, I'd bet you'd find a great many food plants that grow well in tubes hanging around. This would significantly increase the number of crops that could be grown on a family farm, since the growing space is no longer 2 dimensional. If we follow the example of the builders of large cities, we find that when you run out of linear space, you have one other way to go: vertical. If you were of the tree-climbing type, or willing to use a tree for this purpose, you could turn a single oak tree into an amazing garden, useful as well as beautiful. Turning an oak tree into a garden area would prevent the removal of the tree. The tree provides shade for the house, or the garden, or both at different times of the day, so why remove such a wonderful addition to the garden? Simply repurpose it.
I believe I have rambled on about gardening enough. If there is anyone who has a thought on the subject, please feel free to post. Remember, always, that this is a survival garden, and it can be moved to a new location if necessary, by a number of people. A raised melon bed, full of melons, for example, would have to be carried by one person for each square foot of area. Or placed upon a transport device such as a wagon of sufficient size.
Most people do not have access to a "family farm", but it can be created quite easily. If you can purchase even a small amount of land, say 2-3 acres, for a reasonable sum (whatever your version of reasonable is) then you can create a "family farm" with ease. Throw in a fenced pasture, add a few goats & sheep, a (portable) barn to house them, a portable building for "the office" where all the records are kept, a hay barn (also a portable building) for storage of fodder for the animals, and turn the rest into a large efficient garden, you could theoretically have a "family farm" with little effort on your part for maintenance.
Granted, milk goats have to be milked daily like cows, but that takes all of 10 minutes per goat, & if there is more than one person doing the milking, it should take about an hour to complete the whole flock. If there were to be anyone actually living on the property, there would have to be "portable buildings" on trailers, because it is illegal to actually live in a portable building that is on the ground. (See American Housing laws, Minimum-Size housing) Each trailer could be moved to provide optimum sunlight/shade ratios for the crops in the garden. Read the book, The Small House Book by Jay Shafer, for more information. You can buy it at this link: www.tumbleweedhouses.com/books/
A suggestion on reading: The Internet Archive has a number of useful books on subjects that have become commercialized. People used to make food at home, instead of buying it from a store & microwaving it. Cheese, wine, bread, beer, hominy, preserves, all were made at home, & stored for later use (in the cabinets) without (much) spoilage. The Internet Archive has a great number of books on food preservation & preparation. It also has a great number of books on pioneer living, cooking without electricity, and other useful subjects. Gardening is one of my favorites.
I believe there must be 5 webpages on books that actually have "gardening" in the title in the Internet Archive. I don't remember. I do remember that the one time I typed "goat" into the search box, I came up with more information than I ever thought possible. So, just to be contrary, I searched for "garden". I should know better. I then searched for "gardening". Many of the books were the same, but there were quite a few that were different. If you were even remotely interested in greenhouse gardening, for example, there are several books that could give you instruction on not only how to build the greenhouse, but also what to put in the greenhouse, when to plant it, what side of the greenhouse to plant it on, and when to transplant it, either outside the greenhouse or into a larger container. Many of these books were written to transfer knowledge, not for entertainment, so they do have that "textbook" style of writing, but those of us who have no had the benefit of growing up "in the country" or with a family farm or greenhouses would benefit greatly from this style of book.
The family farm is something that can be created with simple tools, simple ideas, and easily-acquired seeds. Bucket gardens, for example, work well for potatoes, any root vegetable, and leafy greens. If you can acquire a few 5-gallon buckets, you can have a nice potato farm, with red, white, & sweet potatoes in the same area, though not in the same bucket. A 2-3 gallon bucket is wonderful for leaf-&-root vegetables such as turnips, parsnips, & horseradish. The process is simple for a bucket garden: place a potato eye in the center of an inch of soil in the bottom of the bucket. Water the plant. Wait a week or 2, watering as needed. When the plant reaches 2-4 inches tall, or has more than 2 leaves on it, add more soil. Repeat until the bucket in nearly full. You may notice that the plant flowers when it reaches a certain age. It doesn't last long, so if you're not talking to them daily, you may not notice. About 8-10 weeks after the bucket is full, or when the growing cycle for the particular type of potato is complete, grab another bucket & a sieve (a window screen will work) & dump the bucket of potatoes into the sieve. Sift the soil away from your potato crop.
Turnips can be grown in buckets as well. This makes them easier to hang from tree branches, away from nibbling animals such as deer and goats. To add a bit of squirrel prevention, put a "chinaman's hat" on it. It's a 4/5 circle that's seamed (glue, tape, tab & slot, etc.) and placed on the rope used to hang the bucket about 4-5 feet above the bucket itself. Squirrels hate these things. They can be made from ABS plastic, tin, steel, anything that has a flat shape and doesn't crumple. The reason squirrels hate these things is that they cannot get up the courage to attempt to go over the edge to get to the succulent foodstuffs under it. Their fear of falling at this location is quite pronounced.
Melons, unfortunately, must be grown either on the ground or in a raised bed. There is no law in the world that says you can't build a raised bed on top of a couple old dressers with plastic & plywood on top of them. It won't be easy to build, but you can be guaranteed that small burrowing animals, deer and small children will not be able to get into the melons. Raccoons, opossums, and other inventive, curious climbers may still be able to access your melon patch. Mousetraps are excellent equipment for preventing this. They don't even really have to be baited. Placed in the right location, in the right position, they are immensely effective. And then you have stew and melons.
Portable raised beds are useful, as well. The drawers of the "couple old dressers" I mention above can be used to provide a reasonably safe location for the growing of small plants like carrots. Lined with a thin plastic sheeting, they make an excellent raised bed that can be transported as needed for optimum sunlight. At night, when the majority of the game animals are about, the drawers can be placed back into their slots in the dresser, thereby protecting the crops they contain. This must be done very carefully, to prevent damage to the tops. Fortunately, carrot tops bend easily and spring back well.
Herbs, also, can be grown in containers, raised beds, portable raised beds, in trees, on hooks, in tubes, in crocks, on porches, patios, and even inside shelters. Herbs thrive in containers. Herbs help food taste good. Some herbs can even be grown upside down. If you wish to grow herbs, and you don't have a safe location to grow them, put some dirt in the crook of a tree branch, add a bit of netting fabric (tulle) and put a few seeds in the dirt. For that matter, you could grow an herb ball. Take tulle, wrap it around a handful of dirt, put a few herb seeds in it, near the outside, tie the tulle at the top, and hang it from a tree (eave, windowsill, porch, rafter). Water regularly.
Some plants grow well upside down. Tomatoes, for example, can be grown upside down in cloth tubes with an opening at the bottom and top. Granted, the plant has a significantly smaller opening than the top, but it works. It also works well to have the plant started in a container in the upright fashion, then inverted once it has a good sized root base to prevent the plant's demise. Strawberries also grow well in cloth tubes.
If you wished to experiment, I'd bet you'd find a great many food plants that grow well in tubes hanging around. This would significantly increase the number of crops that could be grown on a family farm, since the growing space is no longer 2 dimensional. If we follow the example of the builders of large cities, we find that when you run out of linear space, you have one other way to go: vertical. If you were of the tree-climbing type, or willing to use a tree for this purpose, you could turn a single oak tree into an amazing garden, useful as well as beautiful. Turning an oak tree into a garden area would prevent the removal of the tree. The tree provides shade for the house, or the garden, or both at different times of the day, so why remove such a wonderful addition to the garden? Simply repurpose it.
I believe I have rambled on about gardening enough. If there is anyone who has a thought on the subject, please feel free to post. Remember, always, that this is a survival garden, and it can be moved to a new location if necessary, by a number of people. A raised melon bed, full of melons, for example, would have to be carried by one person for each square foot of area. Or placed upon a transport device such as a wagon of sufficient size.
