We have a small flock of laying hens that provide us lots of eggs.
My wife has 4 milk goats. We were on the fence about getting another billy or shipping the girls. Seems we are keeping them and getting a boer goat billy to breed them with
This spring we got 2 calves from the auction. We’ve never had cows before so this will be an interesting adventure.
Also this spring we got 3 wiener pigs for us to pack in the fall. We’ve done pigs a number of times and bred sows for a while. We found that there was no money in raising pigs for market. Buying all the feed and paying for a butcher left no. Profits left for us. Once it warms up and these guys get a bit bigger they will spend the summer on pasture eating scraps and the cover crop i put down for them.
For the past ten years i have been farming vegetables.
It started when we raised some pigs and attended a market to sell the pork. We picked some produce from my parents garden to make the table look good. The produce sold better than the pork. At the time we were doing mixed farming. Chickens for meat and eggs, sheep (we had 30 ewes) pigs and produce. Between the produce selling better and growing produce really excited me. Gradually we switched to just growing produce. Between 2016 and 2018 i really dialled in my growing method. I have 1 heated greenhouse and 6 12×50 hoop houses that i can minimally heat. Looking back the transition went from learning and experimentation to proficiency to specializing my crops. I pushed to be first to market with all my produce and push later into the season each year, eventually growing year round for the past 3 seasons.
Each year i tended to grow less variety and more volume of the high value crops. Tomatoes, lettuce, all manner of greens, peppers, cucumbers, beans, peas etc. I still grow a large variety of crops but there hasn’t been much experimentation and new trials
This year is going to be different. My goal is to grow as many crops as possible to feed myself and take the left overs to market. Instead of 3 markets, a large csa, as much wholesale as i can muster. It’s going to be 1 market and 2 long standing wholesale customers only. I want my time back and i want experimentation back as well.
Chickens for meat and pork are going to be on the farm this year. I’m planning to grow corn for cooking. I’m interested in tobacco growing and cannabis cultivation. I’m still going to be growing full time just not having any staff and see how much can be accomplished by just 1 person. I have a different perspective and system set up now than i did the last season i grew without any staff.
I plan to devote more time with cover crops, knf, Jadam and basically having time to observe and better my processes.
The orange area is most of my established gardens.
I have already started all the crops that will fill my heated greenhouse in a grow tent in my basement. Shortly i will make a post laying out the details of that.
Sage peasant 