Seed Varieties, Where did they all go?

As you can see in this infogram plant varieties have reduced greatly after the modernization of seed catalogs. This is caused by a few reasons, the main two are the big commercial growers have a hard time controlling that much stock, and the second is the backyard grower who passed down seeds from generations are not around anymore. Luckily for us there has been a rise in the number of farmers who specialize in the unique but that's a different topic. So the question is asked why is it better to have many varieties then just a few that do ok everywhere? Customization! Years ago if you were in New England you found seeds that grew really well for where you are, and if you went down south you had a hard time finding those varieties, they had something similar but were better suited for their region.  Take for example the Connecticut pumpkin, the Kentucky wonder bush bean, the Boston pickling cucumber. Each in their region great crops, but outside of it there were less than average.  So now we are left with what big growers picking and choosing for us what's available. These companies select seeds based on its ability to produce beautiful fruit not as much on taste or region specific traits. So how do we prevent this from happening?  Start saving your own seeds.  Talk to the local nursery see if they know of see swaps in your area, maybe someone there has a variety of vegetables you remember from when you were a kid but you thought they were lost.  And most importantly encourage someone to garden. If all of my followers were to share what they know with just their neighbor we could save those loss seeds.

Hello followers!  this week has been fairly quite here.  Elsie, my youngest started crawling and my wife is looking great as always!  We took a little break from farm and work life to go kite flying! My four year old is a rock star at that!  I purchased my Mother earth news fair ticket.  I also started my farming cost spreadsheet, I want to track everything from costs to rise animals to how well seeds did, and what varieties I planted. Lets see how everything else is doing: 

Veggies:

With the asparagus coming up last week I decided it was time to weed the bed, and I spent a good part of the evening after work Friday  weeding and getting the bed ready for mulch, hopefully that will be next weeks project.   it rained buckets this week, so my garden is under 3 inches of water again, I am thinking about just growing lily pads and frogs. As for my seedlings they are sitting in the room still, one of my squash plants has a bud that is about to bloom on it, that is not good.  and I picked up a few more herb plants to go with the ones I have started growing.

Fruits

I weeded the raspberries this weekend and planted three more rows!  besides weeds and rocks this is the only thing that seems to grow no matter how much I ignore them.

Animals

So my hens have been acting weird the last few days.  At night they come outside instead of going in to roost.  all day they are in and out of the hen house.  then come night time and all the hens come out and sleep in a pile outside.  They are odd.

As for the goats, they are good, we currently have 4.  A pregnant 5 year old, a milking, open, 3 year old, a dry yearling, and a weather.

Housing

Inside the house I partially cleaning the basement by tossing things into the tag sale pile or right into the trash.  I have been looking at everything we have here and I am wondering how we will manage to move all of this stuff so far.

Moving

Speaking of moves, we are still working on finding the right place and saving up for the move.  But we did create a strategy plan and we are working from there.

Well readers it is that time.  Remember you don't truly know how fresh something is until you grow it in your yard so, until next Sunday, go out and plant something!

I have been thinking all week how I want to work on this blog, do I want to randomly post as things and projects happen? Or do I want to post on a specific day and be consistent?  Listening to my favorite pod cast this week Chicken thistle farm and what they do.  I am inspired, what they do is weekly they release a what happened at the farm broadcast. They also break it out into segments or sections.  I want to do something similar.  So please bear with me over the next few weeks as I discover my voice, discover my writing style, and get my hands dirty.

                So I think the sections are going to be:  Veggies, Fruits, Animals, Home, Moving

Veggies:

                I had asparagus start coming up this week!  This will be my first year that I will be eating asparagus from my garden!  More updated on that next week. Even though they are doing well it has been consistently cold and rainy that did not deter me from starting garlic and onions outside this week.  With all the rain and cold my seedlings are still inside, I started my seeds early this year, the last few years I have had issues with my seeds germinating and growing big enough to plant outside.  For the most part I started them in a south facing window our out on the front porch where the temperature was uncontrollable.  This year I started them in plastic cups instead of biodegradable medium or newspaper. And the cups appear to hold the moisture better.  And I placed the seeds under a homemade grow light in my soon to be pantry.  I also added a heat lamp to keep the space warmer, with those two items my plants are growing very well.

Fruits

As for fruit updates, my blueberries, raspberries, and apple tree all have buds on them so they are doing well, I need to heavily  weed my blueberries and prune back my raspberries.  Not much else to report.

Animals

The hens got to venture outside this week.  I started with just about 30 min of outside time and I am slowly moving up the amount of time they can go outside to ensure they find their way back inside at night. We still have 17 of them and are not really sure on who the roosters are.

Housing

This section I will be talking about home stuff and the house upkeep.  So this week has been one hell of a week.  Elsie started crawling so look out world here she comes just a few inches at a time.  Also my wife ran her first 5K!   She has beenm doing amazing with her weight loss and getting fit.  A year ago she would hear about me going running but never came out to the races.  This year she is not only coming out she is running them and breaking down her own barriers.  You can follow her amazing journey here:  Opereration Emily!!!!!

Moving

So no updated on the move.  We are still working our way through getting a grasp on what bills we have and where we stand.  This is a long journey so I would not expect much in this department.

Well readers it is bed time.  Time to hit publish, notice a few issues edit it again and go from there.  Until next Sunday, go out and plant something!

Introduction

First I want to start by saying welcome and thank you for being part of our journey.  Over the next six years we will be working towards finish working on our current home, continue to grow our skill sets and save up to sell this place and move south.  Somewhere we can follow our dreams..

So who are we?  We are a family of 5.  A dad; Will, a mom; Emily, and three daughters; Olivia Samantha, and Elsie.  We live in northwest CT on approx. one acre of land with 4 goats, 18 chickens, 2 cats, one dog, and an assortment of gold fish.  My goals before we move are to be able to supplement 80% of all of our food shopping.

We have decided to move, but where?  There are 49 other states, that’s a lot of choices.  So I have sat down and looked at what I want to do.  I want to be a nitch farmer.  I want to raise grass fed beef, free range chicken, vegetables, fruit, hold a small CSA, raise pastured pork, and have cow shares.  I want to supply local food to the food movement.  I want to be a house hold name, to my community, maybe farther.  I want to educate those around me to what it takes to grow that food, what is put into it to get it to your plate and what it should taste like.  I don’t want to be rich, in money terms, I just want to wake up in the morning, go outside and not have to commute.  I want to be able to pet my cows before I send them to be made into steaks.  My wife and I want to home school our kids and keep them out of the failing public schools.  And I want to do all of this sustainably.  I don’t want a barn with 1000 bales of hay.  I want a few just in case of a bad winter.  Looking at all of that currently we are thinking Tennessee.  But will  the market support us?  I am not sure yet.  But I have a few years to figure that out.