rty007 winemaking Q

[TanksHill]

Tell her your trying to get out on your own and prepare for your future family. Including hordes of grand babies.

I agree with Dace, be prepared to answer all her questions. Show her your plans all mapped out. Expain to her the health bennefits and security of owning your own place.

gina

 

[valmom]

We mothers are always going to worry! But present a plan that is thought out and not just an emotional sounding decision is great advice. Your mother wants to know that you will be warm, clean, and fed, and, yes, happy. Tell her how you are going to do that.

 

[rty007]

well... the talk didn't happen, couse my DM came home with a 3 container kit with some herb packets. And she had a laugh "That's your farming test" I took it calmly, with a smile. I started them, and they have actually germinated in 2 days. sure I gave them warmth and light, but boy.. 2 days. So my father started joking about some wheat in our small back garden, and my DM responded that there is not enough light which is totally true, but I told em that is what it should actually be like, veggies instead of the lawn and that there are those leaf family plants that do not require as much light and DM gave me a green light, whit which I am actually quite impressed, couse it means she might be caving in. It ain't anything big, but it is just a start. since it is a rather shady small place I am thinking about aquaponics to utilize the space to the maximum.

 

[Farmfresh]

How would they feel about meat rabbits? Rabbits would also do well in a shady area.

 

[rty007]

Ok, so I have a question to people who eat 100% out of their garden, how big is it? I am just wondering, including a 35m2 that is approximately 350 sqf of a hydroponic greenhouse, how much of a space do one need. I mean I read somewhere that a normal person eats on average about 1200-1500 of veggies and fruits per year. AND that you could produce about 2.2 pound from a greenhouse using traditional methods and about 3,5-4,5pound using hydroponics per square feet. But you need to move around the greenhouse so I figure 25m2 out of that 35m2 would be the growing space
That would mean about 250x3=750 but that is a absolutely ridiculous amount... I know they are talking about winter veggies too, and the hydroponics do not need a pause between harvest and planting, as a matter of fact it is better and healthier for the system to harvest one crop and have another one already started. That means that instead of 1 MAYBE 2 crops out of the space you get around 3-4 crops or even more such as lettuce which can be harvested about 6 to even 8 times out of one spot.
What I will probably get is that 2 acre plot, with about half of an ace with open sky, the rest is wooded, That would give me about 2000m2 of land to play with, and the wooded area would make for a great pasture for hogs/chickens, not so much for lamb.

open area:
35m2 of hydro/aqua ponic greenhouse
500m2 of 2 mandala gardens
300m2 of orchard
12 apple trees, 6cherry trees, 4peach trees, 3 pear trees, 4 plum trees, that
makes about 30 trees.
115m2 of strawberry plot (what can I say.. I looove strawberries)
400m2 of lawn to sit on.
50m2 of house (i know it is not a lot.. but I really do not need much)
2x35m2 of root cellar

that leaves about 500m2 probably for chicken/rabbit pens.

 

[Farmfresh]

I went about this whole question in the opposite manner.

First of all you take a good HARD look at your situation and your habits. BE HONEST.

There are two of us in this home. We are empty nesters, but we often have our kids home for dinners through out the year. We eat from our garden/garden stores (canning, dry frozen etc) all year round. [We DO also eat out quite a bit, however. Hubby and I find going out to a good restaurant one of our fun things to do, so it is one major form of recreation for us. Therefore I can't say we eat 100 % out of our garden, but we do not buy veggies, meat or fruit we can grow in our area from the store.] Since I don't want to EVER purchase something from the store if we can grow it ourselves I started keeping close records on what we actually eat each year. Even though it varies somewhat there is a usual amount that we seem to buy of each item.

For example green beans. We have tried frozen green beans and dried green beans but only like fresh or canned green beans. We seem to go through periods where green beans are SO delicious and we both want to eat them all of the time and other times when if I fix them for supper neither of us will touch them. This is the same with all vegetables. You can only eat so many in a year. We seem to eat the most when they are freshest. Sometimes a whole meal is nothing more than green beans with a slice of meat thrown in the pot. During that time of the year I need enough fresh beans for eating a big batch about three times a week. Then I need enough beans to can for the rest of the year. Enough to last us all year (plus some extra) until bean season comes again. For us that is around 60 to 70 pints a year.

Now I look at how many beans I need to grow to fill that requirement, which is to say how much garden space do I devote to that food. In my garden I was able to meet the need quite easily last year with a single 20 foot row of a very productive pole bean called Rattlesnake. I grew them on my little backyard garden fence.

They keep producing all year as long as they are kept picked (about every third day) and receive plenty of moisture. Some years we have a bumper crop and I will can more than required. That is fine it just adds to my emergency stores for that occasional year that bunnies keep eating the bean shoots or other disaster strikes and we have few or no bean crop.

The key to success is variety. Some years you have lots of green beans and your broccoli is awful (Like last year for me), other years other crops are best. The goal is to try and raise at least the minimum you need in the easiest way with the least amount of space.

 

[old fashioned]

I revived this thread because of the news about Poland's President, wife & others being killed in a plane crash.

RTY007-I'm not sure here what to say especially since I don't know how you or your family or others of your country actually felt about your president. But I would think this could mean some political trouble for your country, unless the government has a solid base & plan for covering such disasters.
Atleast in the US our system is set up to have a chain of command (if you will) that should anything happen to the Pres, then the vice-pres would take over. I don't know how it would be in Poland, especially since it's gvt is still in the earlier stages.
This is my perception of most eastern European gvts, and if I'm wrong I sincerely apologize as being "a dumb Yankee American"

 

[FarmerDenise]

I was also curious how this would affect you and other polish people. Since I have family in Poland, I worry a little bit. Unfortuantely I don't have any way of communicating with my family. I don't even know if my mother has any way to contact them. My Babcia was the one who always kept in contact. But Babcia died a few years ago.
I hope the transition goes smoothly.

 

[rty007]

Well... I feel bad for him, but just a normal, person to person tragedy, nothing more really. There were some people on that plane that I respect more, and feel worse about them.

About the gvt... please... our bureaucracy is blown out of all proportion, we do not have a vice-president, BUT we do have a deputy speaker who takes presidents place in case of his death. All the ministers have seconds who will immediately take over, so it won't be long before all goes back to normal, probably 3 days, a week at the most.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Thanks for answering our questions. I usually don't pay too much attention to politics.