new member

[sharron]

hi, new here , trying to learn this new site
thanks sharron

 

[tortoise]

i don't understand, why aren't you getting it done? you can do it, since 1970 i canned the way my mil law taught me, water bath and open kettle, was terrified of pressure canning, this year with husbands help, bought two pressure canners, a old presto canner( refurbished it our selves) and a new all american, like i said, with husbands help, getting the hang of the pressure canner, who knows, by the time i hit 75 i might even like it lol
if you can't plant a garden you can maybe find a farmers market or local auction and buy what you want to try, you can do it
i like going to the grocery store once in a while, thats where we see all our neighbors but i like going out to the garden and picking what i want to eat too and its so much better flavor wise and i even enjoy the hoeing

I have some health problems that have been difficult to manage. I have trouble with bending/kneeling, standing, heat and direct sunshine. I have a big garden but havent gotten a harvest out of it for 2 years. I keep trying. Even if a garden isnt successful, its still good for me to try!

I am coveting an electric pressure canner since I cant use my big one by myself. When theyre in stock I will get one! I get a weekly produce box and could put up small batches. I have an electric water bath canner I can use. I set it up on the floor so I can sit down while using it.

DH hunts for venison and we raise lamb too. I have 4 pet chickens now - we are taking a break from meat birds.

 

[sharron]

You might be able to teach us a few things!

thank you for that, but maybe not, mostly i learn from someone else, but it does seem like i have a green thumb, i can take a store bought apple and start a tree from the seeds( sometimes) i've started lemons from restaurant lemon slices in the tea lol, i love to play to see if i can, i got a lot of veggie seeds from store bought veggies and then keeping my seeds from year to year.

 

[flowerbug]

i understand more now, don't know if i could even do what you do , if it wasn't for my husband, not sure i could do a big garden myself, i can't start the rotor tiller by myself and son isn't always at home, i do have a small one that i could try
have you tried craigs list or facebooks markeyplace to look for a electric one? sometimes you get lucky and find what you're looking for

believe it or not we manage to get by here with a lot of gardens without using a tiller at all. if you can shovel some of it once in a while and use a stirrup hoe you can keep up quite a bit of space. there are two of us, but i do most of the hard labor now. we have about an acre of gardens and decorations with about 1/2 of that being mowed or gardened for vegetables. the rest is perennial gardens or decorations. if you want to see what i'm talking about you can check out the website at www.anthive.com, and no i don't sell anything and have no connection to the manufacturing of shovels and/or stirrup hoes.

 

[tortoise]

food , i've always liked to can and freeze but was mostly tomatoes and extra veggies that we didn't eat during the summer, now i can freeze and dry almost everything that not only do we grow and raise, we usually buy a whole beef from a friend but we also have chickens and the kune-kunes that we raise. i don't like the butchering so we have someone else do it but if i had to i could do it, i grew up hunting and fishing with my father so i can process just about anything

Wow! Thats awesome! I have interest in preserving food but I'm just not getting it done. I will be following your posts! My big SS goal is to not be dependent on grocery stores.

 

[Britesea]

I like the freeze dryer because there are some foods that I don't like canned or dehydrated (peas, broccoli, etc) and I don't really trust freezers- they can go belly up and then you could lose thousands of dollars' worth of food, depending on how big your freezer is. The down side of the freeze dryer is you can only process about 10 pounds at a time, and it takes from 24 to as much as 40 hours to finish. It's also not an "instant" meal, like opening a can of stew can be; it takes time to rehydrate the food. But I love having another level of food processing available to us. Great for camping!

I wish we had room to raise a pig, but our 1/2 acre is simply too small to be able to set up a pen far enough away from the house that we wouldn't have to smell it all the time... *sigh*

 

[tortoise]

i understand more now, don't know if i could even do what you do , if it wasn't for my husband, not sure i could do a big garden myself, i can't start the rotor tiller by myself and son isn't always at home, i do have a small one that i could try
have you tried craigs list or facebooks markeyplace to look for a electric one? sometimes you get lucky and find what you're looking for

There are quite a few members here exploring no till gardening. I'm working on developing permanent garden beds and "living mulch". Others are trying various compost in place methods. I've seen improvement in perennial weeds, but the annuals are winning. I'm considering not direct sowing anything next year and trying corn gluten meal.

 

[tortoise]

Welcome! What areas of self sufficiency are you interested in?

 

[Hinotori]

Welcome!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hi and welcome from Texas!