BEST and WORST food to Grow for SELF SUFFICIENCY
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- Опубліковано 21 лют 2023
- There are 3 Things you need to grow on your homestead if you want to be more Self Sufficient, and a few other things you should NOT Grow.. why?
I'm guessing you are not a full time farmer. Your growing time is limited. SO instead of trying to grow everything, focus on growing the most productive things…
How do we know what the most productive things to grow are?
We found over 100 homesteaders who were growing around 75% of their food. What are they growing? More importantly, what are they NOT wasting their time on? We will share that in this video!
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HOMESTEADS THAT HELPED WITH THIS VIDEO
Steph from Red Pine Pastures RAISES MEAT! / redpinepastures
Matt and Sara GROW VEGGIES -@mattsara2802
Dana Raises CHICKENS in NEW ZEALAND @FantailValleyHomestead
Liv LOVES MILK COWS - / livsalittlefarm
Codi's GROWING TONS OF FOOD... @morethanfarmers
Steph and Chris are SQUASH'in the competition - @HickorycroftFarm - Розваги
Love it! Really solid video. Great information for people with big dreams, but don't know where to go with em 😊 I love how you brought the community together with this one too, and I was glad to be a part! Actually, filling out the survey was what inspired me to make our upcoming video.. We went 48 hours eating ONLY food that we grew. So fulfilling to eat what you grow, and I love how you're inspiring others to do it too. Keep it up! And, thanks for the shoutout 😊
GO CHECKOUT THIS CHANNEL… CODI AND HIS FAM MAKE SOME AWESOME HOMESTEADING VIDS! Thanks for being a part of this video!
Mason bees are way better pollinaters . No stings no honey.Love you guys. Thank you!🌞🖖🙏🌎
When we bought our land, there were dead fruit trees all over. In our climate, peach, apricot, oranges, limes, etc is like growing octopuses in our pond. Ain't gonna happen! Crab apples, strawberries, and garden veggies do best here. If you're lucky, there's pinion pines on your property for the nuts. My wife has to clean her engine compartment weekly of pinion nuts stashed by squirrels.
Personally, I think fruit should come higher up. You plant it once and it keeps coming back. You don’t have to seed save and most are very easy to propagate if you want more. Also, fruit is more expensive at the store typically than vegetables.
I agree
Also, they're holding up a pumpkin as a star vegetable producer, but pumpkins are definitely a fruit!
I get it, you're distinguishing annuals from perennials.
Perennials return the best bang for the buck over the long term, hands down. I think this survey was skewed towards new homesteaders with young trees, not serious orchardists.
I agree, but also fruits need a lot of water compared to veggies.
I can leave my lettuce on the side of the house and the water we get from rain is enough. But if I want fruit and nut trees they require A LOT of extra watering and bushes hit the ground running, which isn’t ‘bad’ per-say. My neighbours probably wouldn’t appreciate it.
Yes, some big sturdy fruit trees or berry canes can give you years of fruit with little effort.
It all depends on the soil in your area. I am stuck with white sugar sand, which has basically NO nutrients.
I reckon the reason why nuts are so unnoticed because it's a handful of species competing with everything from squashes to potatoes to cabbages to legumes to carrots to... you get the point. For us, hazelnut has been a very easy culture. It's plant and literally forget except for once a year when you harvest. Unlike fruit trees, that require pruning and such, we just do literally nothing with the hazelnuts. Could put it in a forest miles from home and it'd be just fine and make bucketfuls of hazelnuts, anyway.
I have a good work-around for the bees: offer your orchard to local bee enthusiasts. There is always somebody who needs new forage space for their bees. Also, you get wax (for crafting) as well as honey. Let the hobbyists invest in smokers and frames and bee suits, etc. I "rent" my orchard to bee keepers and get a couple of frames of honey and wax in return. I get better fruit production, as well. Just a thought
WE did this last year! Was great
Genius! 💡
Mutual aid like this is how we build stronger communities that depend on each other, not some politician, no matter the color of their tie. Everyone has something to contribute, and everyone has something they need; localized interdependence is a future we can build together!
@@mcgoombs Preaching' to the choir, over here! 😊
@@mcgoombs 💯! Thank you. Well said.
When I had my smallholding, my dairy cow was the base of my homestead's prosperity. The manure amended the poor sour soil. I grew so many tomatoes that I sold bucketsful! I sold milk and butter. The cow ate down the weeds. She ate peels, cores, and seeds. She gave us a calf every 18 months - she was a persistent lactater. Milk by-products went to the laying hens. Yes, Lissie was the foundation!
How did you get a calf without a bull?
@@abay4504 AI, artificial insemination.
Bees are difficult to me, but my husband loves them. I must say, since adding bees to our homestead, we've had a huge increase in our harvests of pears, Meyer lemons, blackberries, blueberries, and a multitude of vegetables. People who have only had store bought honey can hardly believe the difference in flavor of real raw honey ( not cut with corn syrup[!]). We even had a local food truck use it in 2 of their bbq sauces!
Might just be my local... but every major chain here sells local raw honey of many dif varieties. (I prefer the raw, infused with real vanilla sticks)
Also yes, these are all raw (not pasteurized or cut with anything)
Bees pay for themselves, just like chickens.
Mushrooms aren't a good primary crop, but they're great for improving soil quality and getting an extra crop out of your vegetable beds. A tabletop mushroom kit can also function as a unique "houseplant" for a family's kitchen before being thrown into the compost bin to inoculate it.
@Disabled.Megatronkinda, depends on the year and what not
She's so cute cause she doesn't do that weird positive active listening power nod thing she just looks sorta blind and confused then says something on point and funny. Thank God for real people
Point of issue with your bees, you can get several products from them. (Not just one as you stated)
1. Honey
2. Propolis (Caucasian bees make a lot of this.)
3. Queens
4. Pollen
5. Wax
Incidentally increased yields, along with mead if your so inclined.
Great points, but just a side note for this series we specifically said we were only focusing on food production, but still thanks for sharing the other great stuff from bees!
Honey bees are threatening wild bee populations.
@@Homesteadyshow the queen bee
`s milk is known as panacea miraculous treatment for millennia!
There's such a thing as Caucasian bees? That's funny!
My Jersey milk cow was a central part of our homestead. I made soft cheeses, butter and fed turkeys and meat chickens with the excess.
When the children married I couldn't do it all myself plus I came up with Fibromyalgia which was the deciding factor.
After more than 40 years in this lifestyle I still raise chickens, a garden and want to once again expand into meat chickens and turkeys; all on a very small scale. (My husband hunts as well).
The ambition is still there but the body can't keep up!
It has been and is a great way to raise a family!
I don't consider myself a "homesteader", but do grow vegetable gardens, black berries, plums, peaches, pears, and the nut worth growing, the chestnut. We have chickens but no large animals. Tomatoes are our number one vegetable. I grew up in an extended family of farmers that grew literally tons of beef!
I love the videos y'all put out!
Why not? I 100% consider you A homesteader 😁 that’s a lot of food your growing
@@HomesteadyshowI was also going to say this haha
Relatable, except I don't have any animals😅
And I use only a section of my parents garden as of right now.
My plans however are to buy a plot of land nearby and expand :)
I even got an adress to get miniature sheep in the village
Ewww, chestnuts are the only nuts I hate. Bitter and mealy. And I've only ever had them roasted in Quebec City, where it is their specialty, so if that's as good as they get I don't know how you eat them outside of famine times.
I am a single 70-year-old homesteader so I raise small animals. My favorites are quail, rabbit, and chicken. I do have muscovy but would never keep ducks. I used to have goats and might get a pair again, and I'm looking for pigs too. I want Idaho pasture pigs but they are hard to find and probably won't fit in my budget..
If it’s a possibility you can raise a couple of cheap piglets, butcher and sell them to buy the more expensive pigs..?
I’m like you. Small animals that I can manage by myself. With osteoporosis I see no need to have any animals that could push me down. Can still manage 50 pound bags of feed though! Curious why you don’t raise ducks…
@@wandamannsmith8469 Ducks are dirty and make huge messes everywhere they are. Muscovy is clean and tastes a lot better.
@@Clarinda787 Yes but that is perfect for my fruit tree production. They splash, water and feed all of the trees while eating and keeping all bugs away. I know they didn't like fruit tree's but for me they are passive food, each produce around 250-300 fruit per tree per year. Just can and save w/e through the winter
@@EC-dz4bq I was just looking down at the young fruit trees thinking a kiddie pool with ducks would be fun to watch. Would it work to have a tractor for them instead of a stationery house to have to clean out? Also, is it true what I read that they help control the Japanese Beetles? Those beetles have almost killed some of my berries and apricot. (I have so many questions since I retired and am trying to be as self sufficient as possible!)
Working on methods to incorporate growing mushrooms while increasing vegetable yields. As a mushroom farmer, I can definitely say that as a main crop, growing mushrooms is vastly different than farming just about anything else. It's highly specialized. Though using something like wine caps in companion planting in a bed to turn mulch into nutrients is something just about anyone can do
I love this insight from an experienced shroom farmer! Good to know the reasons behind the data!
@@Homesteadyshow the biggest thing that separates mushroom farming from normal farming is the lab work. You have to work in a sterile environment for much of what goes into farming mushrooms. There's lots of expensive specialized equipment that keeps the average person from being able to grow them on a bigger scale
We’re the crazy bee people 🤣 We absolutely love our bees haha but we also took our my husband’s uncle’s bee business when he moved north and couldn’t take all 29 hives with him. It’s our biggest profit maker too for our area. Desert honey is probably the most sought after which is nuts!! So if you want honey I got you guys 😉😂
I WANT HONEY. 😁 (just not bees -aust)
@@Homesteadyshow Haha I can ship y’all honey! Can’t promise a bee won’t tag along (just kidding, I wouldn’t do that to you guys haha). If you seriously want some honey shoot me a message on IG (same username here as there) with your address and I’ll send some desert honey!
I would definitely do both bees and mushrooms- but that’s only because those are two of the things I use most of. I add mushrooms to *everything* and to me, they dont take too much space. For honey- that’s how I sweeten my baking, and i bake a LOT! Also i drink tons of tea with honey! But im just a single person, so im not feeding a family
Yeah, if your a big mushroom user, they are not hard to grow (at least some are not hard…)
Spot on "Grow what you eat and eat what you grow"
Fruit and nuts are sooo easy, I have a strawberry patch and blackberry patch that comes back every year almost no work other than picking fruit. Trees both stone fruit and nuts like hazelnut are great and attract wildlife and the excess great for the pigs
Squash...eat the leaves (hairs disappear when cooked), eat the tips and stems (peel them like celery), eat the flowers (remove the stamen) eat the tender small squash, let the squash ripen so you can store them for months and use for chicken feed
Thank you for this info.
I’m lucky in that we have a lady local to us who will butcher ducks for $8 a bird. You bring her the live bird and you pick it up in a freezer shrink wrapped bag. I hatch my own ducks and take all my extra drakes to her because I don’t have the mental capacity to butcher my duckies on my own, but I love duck meat.
Couldn’t you buy a duck for $8 and save yourself the money?
@@Nautilus1972 the cheapest I can get a whole duck for around me is $25
Squash, potatoes, onions, carrots, and apples are our favorite non-meat storage crops which are easy to grow, produce abundantly, and store without processing.
Community is the key here. It’s better to not do much yourself, you specialize in one or two things and your neighbors specialize in other things. You can focus on gardening and beekeeping and they focus on raising cows and sheep (as an example).
Also bees are one of the most productive things you can raise. You get honey and wax. But from wax you can have healing salves, wood preserve, lip balm and SO much more. This may be a bit biased but they are very productive
As someone who doesn't put much time in their garden I have taken a "plant lots of different stuff and see what sticks approach". This way I can see what I should focus on next year. So far I have grown figs, yams, eggplants and broad beans with almost zero input from me. The broad beans and figs especially practically started overruning my garden so I had to trim then down a bit to give other stuff some breathing room ( I got only 500m^2 to work with). I know full time gardeners are probably cringing right now but it has worked for me so far.
Also I want to touch upon beef as a great source of meat. It is undoubtedly good bang for the buck but you also have to factor in butchering the animal and storing the meat. Both can be a problem for someone doing all this stuff on the side instead of a full time commitment. Smaller meat animals like rabbits and fowl might be less efficient but much more manageable for someone like me and probably many others.
Oh and I do have to say something about BEES! 😂 I am super excited to be a beekeeper as of last Spring. We don't have Maple trees and we wanted to produce at least some of our own sweetener. We also wanted the pollinating benefits. BUT, I do agree that it's something that should wait til you've got other necessities nailed down. There's a reason we're 8 years in and just getting started with em 😏 We had to learn the hard way not to take on too much at the beginning!
100%! Bees are on my list, but last for the same reasons. I’ve got to get the meat, dairy and eggs down in addition to the fruits and veg first
We are starting bees this spring, I however have a friend who is a beekeeper with 40,000 hives who is getting us started. I don't know if I would be jumping in if I didn't have someone to show me what to do. We feel like we have the breathing room right now to try some new things but it's the support that made the final decision.
Very true with the ducks. I worked at a locally owned butchery and we butchered ducks a few times. Always a massive pain. We made sure to do the entire batch in one day. Honestly, their skin is a really cool texture, and I love how soft and dense their feathers are. It is simply very difficult to get a clean pluck without damaging the skin. Ducks have a lot of uses in permaculture, but are definitely a pain to butcher.
As for the squash:
I’m in Florida, and we get soooo many squash bugs it’s kind of a joke to try to grow squash. I’m open to any ideas on how to manage this problem.
Powdery mildew is also a problem, and it is difficult to keep them well watered in our warm (hot) season (which is like ten months of the year). When we do get squash though, they definitely produce.
I guess raising ducks is not all it's quacked up to be :(
For the normal person, if you're having issues plucking ducks, go skinless. We raise our own quail and my husband will take an hour to pluck a quail. I think I need to get a plucker, and just deal with damaged skin.
@@tiffles699 Yeah I also raised quail and after plucking our first two, I just skinned the rest. Definitely much easier.
It’s a shame to lose all the fat from the duck skin though. If I were doing it for personal use, I’d use a plucker and deal with the damaged skin. My boss was doing it for profit of course, and needed pretty presentation for better sales.
@@cccspwn 😫😄
Aquaponics was a huge deal for me in the city. I had a 30' sun room in my house that was like a jungle with tomato plants climbing the walls. When I move to the farm I brought the tanks and things with me but the fish were gone in the first year. I still use the tanks for water and keep the pumps running to cycle and filter the water but the water now gets used for rabbits or chickens or pigs.
Glad you mentioned this! I was really curious about aquaponics after what they said in the video
Pumpkins are a fruit 😂 I googled it! You guys are awesome I appreciate all the help and knowledge you share.
I raise bunnies in the city, in a trailer park and eat one tender young rabbit per week. I keep just one breeding pair, their babies live just 12 weeks before they are meat. If I can raise rabbits covertly here, you can do it anywhere ;)
Nut trees are a good addition to a homestead. It takes a long time to get a significant harvest, but if you have existing trees or can forage in a nearby forest, nuts are a valuable and tasty protein source.
If you have a pond, definitely stock it with fish. Some areas have great programs through Game and Fish to get fish for your pond. It's a great way to have low input protein and some productive relaxation! Teach your children to fish.
As for ducks, the eggs are great, and they help keep pesky insects, including scorpions under control. They are valuable beyond being a hard to pluck meat source. Also, you can just skin them instead of plucking. BTW since duck feathers are essentially waterproof, you are better off plucking them by hand without scalding. You can also use the down for pillows and such. Same with geese.
I think quail is a better option for some. I live in a city and I've been raising quail for over a year now. They lay eggs and are ready to butcher at 8 weeks. They can be raised in a small amount of space. Chickens take 6 months to start laying eggs and 12 weeks for butcher. Also with any farm animal, the benefit from manure is a great asset to the vegetable garden. My raised beds that got amended with quail manure are doing so much Better than the ones amended with store bought organic fertilizers. The raised beds with the quail manure got a one month rest before planting after they were amended. Great video.
I have friends who say they would willingly butcher, prepare and cook rooster, chicken, duck... but when I volunteer my quail the response is "they are too small to bother, not enough meat"
If you don't have a lot of room or time: I make hundreds each month just selling herbs and salad greens to a restaurant. I have a garden the size of 3 normal parking spaces.
I'm also raising asparagus roots from seed which will be worth $10 each after year 2
I do grow fruit, mostly just strawberries, but my neighbor keeps chopping down my raspberries. I have always wanted to have a bee hive, as they are doing more than just producing honey, they are actually quite profitable pollinating the gardens you have. If the end results are only honey, then you forget that they are not the only product. The products from bees are the vegetables you get from the pollinating part that bees do. So in other words, they produce EVERY vegetable you grow, not just honey. But its not just vegetables, its the seeds also. So to recap, they produce honey, vegetables, fruits, seeds. No I am not a bee keeper, we have one living down the road from us, but I do learn a LOT when getting honey. I raise chickens, I grow vegetables, fodder, fruits, and herbs. I don't have enough space for dexter cows or they would be here.
I plant flowers in all my veg gardens and my fruit trees to attract the bees.
(European and African) Honeybees are mediocre pollinators as compared to the ones we have in the US. They also spread their disease to NATIVE pollinators, who are doing most of the work.
Australian honeybees exist, but they create a grape cluster like honey pockets but they don't make much... But the US doesn't have native honeybees and they are mediocre here.
Sounds like you need some metal pipe anchored in a concrete foundation nestled in with your raspberries. For luck.
"Meat tastes better"..... yes, Kay, it does. You're not wrong. Lettuce agrees with you, which is why it literally lays it's own life down to help with the cause.
Thank you so much for the list! Really going to get into gardening this year. This gets me thinking about what I want to do.
I'm not a homesteader but I'm in process of making a suburban permaculture garden. Mushrooms have been one of the *best* things I've invested in. If you've got trash soil, they're great for improving it quick, fast, and in a hurry. Basically, I mulched the hell out of my nutrient poor lawn to kill the grass, then tried to start a garden. It didn't work, even with compost and fertilizer...I did grow some stuff but it was mostly quite sad and barely enough to supplement my family's diet. After a year, I added another layer of mulch and inoculated it all with wine cap mushrooms in the fall. Vast improvement, plus they started fruiting after only two months. Ridiculously huge flushes. They dry well and are excellent for soups, stews, casseroles...mushroom ketchup/seasoning and my new personal favorite, mushroom jerky (not a substitute for the real thing but it's tasty). Plus, they consume nematodes in the soil! The blue oysters I put out haven't done as well yet, but they've still given me a few delicious flushes and I'm sure they'll get there.
And it's really easy. Get yourself a block of inoculated sawdust, break it up, and layer it in some mulch or straw like lasagna (sawdust/mulch/sawdust/mulch, etc) depending on how deep your mulch is. It seems most like at least 6 inches. The only maintenance really is to keep the beds moist (not hard if they're your veg beds too) and to add more mulch as it breaks down, since the mulch is what they eat and they break it down into wonderful soil for next year's plants. Supplement with a little compost when you'd fertilize and you really can't go wrong. Even more awesome? Once you inoculate one bed, there's no need to get more sawdust! Just dig up a chunk of your colonized mulch and lasagna it in a new bed. It's extremely cost effective. Want to grow them inside in the winter? Put some in an icecream pail and mist it or put it in a grow tent with a humidifier. Just give it a good dusting of diatomaceous earth in case fungus gnats get any ideas.
Wow! I'm in Australia and only know of mushroom growing kits which are expensive. I've looked at how to DIY on UA-cam and have only seemed what looks like a difficult to get right science experiment.
@@michelleobrien6996 Look into the wine caps aka King Stropharia/Stropharia rugosoannulata. They are *insanely* easy and productive. I'm honestly drowning in mushrooms right now...because of the rain and temperature fluctuations (perfect for mushroom fruiting), I've harvested probably 30 lbs this week from three 4'x4' beds. I'm running out of things to do with them! If you were closer I'd happily send you some inoculated mulch, but since you're in Australia I don't know if it'd make it that far (or get through customs...)
I even put them in soft wood mulch, which is generally considered a no-no (hard wood or straw is best) but they didn't give a hoot, they're wild! The main drawback is that they don't saute/fry all that well cause they release too much liquid, but they're amazing for soups, roasting, and pickling!
You guys are really cute together. 😁 I appreciate all the data and the entertaining way you provide it. My best to your family!
Nicely done! Compiling data from others was a wonderful idea. Love the format here!
Me and my wife have a goal of raising or hunting 2/3 of our food this year the curve ball is we live in a very northern climate so short growing season and we are on a 1/10 acre lot, we do 24 meat chickens a year and are adding a batch of 30 quail this year also
Wondering approximately where you are at/what hardiness zone?
You're gonna want a greenhouse.
I love these videos you have been doing, its like open source homesteading via community outreach. It is not an exact science but these videos are a really valuable source of information! So thanks a ton!
#BeePeople - Bees are amazing, especially for our garden! They are fairly expensive to get started, but even with only 2 hives, our garden produced so much more this year with bees than they did the year before. Plus harvesting your own honey, we use it to replace store bought sugar in most of our recipes.
LOVED this video. Thanks for sharing and the info. Very well put together.
Pumpkins are great for your animals, they are great natural dewormers.
I'm in a novice beekeeper course. So excited - agreed there is a large upfront investment of learning and materials!
I've been watching your videos for years, but as a new homesteader with a new property, I'm taking a lot of them a little bit more to heart. Thank you!
YAY! You got a homestead! Congrats :)
I'm so glad I found your channel! Homesteading seems far less daunting with your content, and now I've got even more channels to check out. Many thanks!
Edit: the Wilson edits are the cherry on top 🤣
Haha, we raise bees, I have hazelnut trees coming this spring, and am also planning some small grain crops mostly for supplemental chicken feed (amaranth, buckwheat, sunflower, corn) Doing it the hard way I guess. Oh, and I’d love to get some mushroom logs going. But I do love growing winter squash! It’s food for us and for the animals.
First video I've watched of ya'll and it is a great introduction to your homestead.
Ok…THE BEST THUMBNAIL IVE SEEN…..ever? At least in several years. ❤ Your guidelines hold true, even for those of us on a teeny tiny scale!. Much to learn - keep teaching’!
I just bumped into your channel for the first time and felt immediately in 💖 with your personality's. You guys are so funny and the love for eachother is all-over your faces, amazing!
I have a lot to read (automatic translation, English is not my first language) and to watch from now on.
You two are not only bringing the knowledge of homesteading to people but also putting a smile on their faces.
Thank you.
Aust and K are my favorite! I agree, I just love their chemistry. I always find myself smiling while watching.
I appreciate you folks greatly. It’s good see your happiness.
I love your UA-cam content as well as your podcast station. I can’t watch UA-cam during the day at work but I can listen to your podcast so that is helpful. Thank you so much for all your work and helpful tips.
Y’all have such great personalities. I love watching your channel. On top of learning you both make me smile. Thanks!
Thanks Dirt roads 😁
Again, tons of helpful information! thanks for the entertainment and sharing of knowledge!
For me, I am in a 1/4 acre plot in town--so meat critters are out. I have found that fruit trees are pretty awesome though. I have apple, pear and pie cherry. I also have raspberry canes and alpine strawberry. All of these being established means I might prune once or twice a year--and then I harvest food. I give away a lot of fruit, and still have enough to keep myself in fruit most of the winter. My spouse also makes mead that utilizes fruit (melomel and cyzer). I grow annual vegetables too, but they are a lot more work.
@@mamabush2160 Well, the laws of my town are pretty specifically against it, but the more practical matter of proper space for critters is more the issue.
@@mamabush2160 I have house rabbits for pets, so I think it would be more like betrayal!🙂
I have a suburban 1/4 acre homestead. I have 9 chickens and a 500 sq ft. garden with 5 fruit trees. I can't get rid of the lawn without the city losing their minds, but I'm at the limits of what I can do. Time to upgrade to a real parcel somewhere
@@sloppyfloppy79 So jealous of the flock! My city does not allow any livestock within city limits. I work at an organic farm twice a week during the season and get to play with their chickens though!
@@erikabailey7397 that's awesome! I love my birds. Raised each one by hand. I have 3 bantams that lived in my room for 4 months. Had a little coop and everything. Every morning they would follow me, single file, out to the back yard, then in the late afternoon, would come running inside when I opened the door and head straight to my room. They got out once through the space between the gate and fence and were touring the neighborhood when a neighbor happened by and rang my doorbell. He thought I needed help getting them back in and I just shook my head and said "watch this". I called them and they practically flew right up to the door and came inside, once again, single file. He laughed and said I had well trained pets.
I love these entertaining AND educational videos! We grow 70% of our food, but only 70% because we don’t have a dairy cow but 70% because we have been watching your videos and joined the pioneers!! Thank you!
So glad to have you as a Pioneer Danya!
I love the podcaast. Very easy to follow and you keep it interesting.
Great video. Goats are amazing meat sources nutritionally. I'm new to utilizing their meat and really delighted you brought their source into focus- they are quick to provide while you wait for the beef! My daughter has a small herd and they ARE a challenge to contain, but once you understand their mission is to get out (they test every fence, every fallen tree and live to use you for their purposes) you can be one step ahead. If they know you and the sound of the feed bucket, theyll come right back even if they escape to the greener pasture. DELICIOUS milk as well.
This was a fantastic summary of the questionnaire and it was very interesting to see the breakdown of the data. The one thing we noticed with the items that were not to grow, was they either required specialized skills or equipment that wasn't transferable to other aspects of the homestead, which makes them less accessible to some people and situations. The meat as number one makes total sense as it is the often the most expensive item to buy and also something that many people are concerned about when it comes to what is in their food. Thank you so much for the mention in this video. We were so happy to participate and look forward to future similar content!
GO CHECKOUT THIS AWESOME CHANNEL 👆 great points Hickorycroft, that’s spot on. If you can raise a sheep you can raise a goat almost the same way, but not a fish or bees... etc. such a good takeaway. and thanks for the life changing advice on Squash! We’re gonna do more this year!
@@Homesteadyshow Hickorycroft is a wealth of knowledge!!
I'm so glad we've found your page!! Tons of help for my wife and I getting started ! 👍🏿subscribed
Love this and love the information you have collected. Was also encouraging, we grow beef, pork, chickens, eggs and i have a garden. Working on learning to grow a years worth of one crop per season. Just now getting into some fruit. We do lots of canning, dehydrating, sourdough baking, etc. We do have bees and i agrer they are hard and take a long time. I love them. We have never done a dairy animal but i would love to once i am able to work less. Love this video, love watching and learning from you. Kerp up the good work!
Super helpful video, helps to see general best practice on a bigger scale
Hickory Croft Farm is one of my favorite channels. Thank you for this great collaboration 💚
Always intertaining and informative! Thank you!😘
Yes, loved the survey and data aspect of this aspect guys! And an ode to Wilson didn't hurt either :)
This video is amazing thank you and thanks for the hilarious cutaways
We actually do TONS of Ducks. But we do have access to a processor who does a great Job. Great video! I love seeing what other homesteads are doing/find most valuable. On our way to produce the majority of our food. We currently produce 90% of our meats, and plan on Building up our gardens and orchards in 2023!!
We do tons of ducks for eggs 😆
Truly, your channel is in the top 3 of my favorite channdels on UA-cam. Love love love y'all!
Thanks Georgia! Who else do you like watching? Please share! 😁
Love the video very informative. This was inspiring. I think I'll be working with my farm now.
This is fun watching while enockulating a log with mushrooms, i love growing it, because i like eating it, and i can plant it where nothing else grows like in pretty much total shade, and i can grow it in straw, that i use as mulch, so its like a food i can grow without using extra space, but it take some prep to make ready
Bees are great for a variety of products. True honey is the only food product but there is a lot of things that can be made with the wax, candles lotions, balms, leather protector, etc. Propolis tincture is also a great addition to the medicine cabinet.
Great video be the way. Very informative and funny.
Great talk and video! :) TY
Love the information 🙂
Strawberries. All time biggest best crop and easy. Every year - WAY more than we can eat or use. The neighbours love us.
Great video with so much info! Thanks! First video we've seen from you! Just subscribed!
Like you're content stumble across this channel earlier today and I like what you guys have. I've got to say,I mean zero insult by this, I feel like I'm watching homesteading tips from what I imagined a live-action Bob Belcher to look like.
love the data based videos!
You’re such an adorable family 😩😊 awesome tips! I want to start homesteading next year!
Such a helpful video! And thank you for the shout out xx
I can't wait to get a house cow or two, it will make a huge difference
GO CHECKOUT DANA AND HER FANTASTIC CHANNEL 👆 Thanks for being a part of this one Dana, and tell your daughter the breeder we want some New Zealand chicken genetics in my flock!
Great video. Growing herbs can also be used for their medicinal use!
Love you guys!
I totally agree with not beekeeping. There are hundreds of different native pollinators. If you're already raising cattle, pigs, sheep and a garden. why the added effort of beekeeping to save like 80$ worth of honey a year.
I agree. If you have trees, tap them and boil down to make syrup. That syrup can still be used as a sweetener. We have a lot of Goldenrod in our yard and there were was a least 100 honey bees plus other types of bees pollinating them. I have no idea where those honey bees home at. Growing meat (including our egg laying chickens with 1 rooster) (dairy goats) (ducks) is #1. What you grow in your garden is #2. You can forage for so many wild edibles is #3. That's what we're focusing on. Oh, yes, a good homestead book on the animals you're raising and crops you're growing.
Beekeeping is more for the honey in my opinion. Honey is a very important addition to any healthy diet, local honey, as it helps you with allergies!!!
As a family of 6 using honey as our only sweetener, we go through hundreds of dollars in honey a year. Definitely going to start beekeeping soon!
@gracerlthomas it may cost hundreds to buy, but it will cost thousands to make. About 700$ to get started with 1 hive. Then you have to worry about pests, disease, and predators. If you live where there are bears forget it unless you put up an electric fence. And 1 hive is going to only produce the equivalent of 40$ of honey a year. Then you will have to buy more hives and colonies, costing thousands to make the hundreds that you would just go to the store and buy.
Not sustainable unless you find joy in the hobby.
@@budspencer2658 How are there so many successful honey businesses around me then?
I love the perspective from other people's homesteads for context.
I am shocked I have not heard of yall until today with yt recommending it on my homepage. Yall are informative and entertaining!
I’m not surprised Dom, we’ve eternally been homesteadings biggest little channel 😂 (or littlest big channel?)
@@Homesteadyshow well I'm stuck with yall now or is it yall stuck with me lol. Amazing content !
Yes, foraging for mushrooms is awesome. If you want to add an easy one to your already existing garden that grows on the mulch you should already be using, grow Garden Giants/Wine Caps. They are big producers, delicious, and you set them up once and will get mushrooms for years.
These videos are priceless. Thank you
Awe shucks 😊 thanks Ellen!
Thanks for sharing!!!
I'm hooked on their videos - what a cute, helpful couple. New subscriber.
Our small 6 acres does provide us with about 50 % of our food. We have bees for honey and wax. We do pork, turkey, meat chickens and chickens and geese for eggs. We have gardens and orchards as well as tap maples for syrup. We did do Muscovie for a few years too.
I planted sunflowers one year... they ended up over 12 feet tall and shaded most of my paste tomatoes. I had a small harvest that year and now plant 2 foot tall sunflowers.
This was a fun video!
I will start with callaloo and sweet potatoes.
If you don't know what callaloo is, it is a leafy green stem plant in the amaranth family. Not to be mistaken with the Trinidadian pepper pot soup with the same name.
I could sew a lot and start eating them from a tender stage while thinning them out to a selected amount. Then the more I cut those remaining, the more they grow. A never ending cycle of greens. They can also be cut up, zip lock and freeze.
Sweet potato slips can also be eaten as vegetable, so you can get two different crops out of it.
I am not a meat eater, so veggies and fruits will be my main focus.
We planted 6 or 7 potato varieties and they mature at different times so we get a long supply of pots.
I’m also going out right now to name a pumpkin “Wilson”.
Fantastic video! Look forward to the workbook to help with my 2 acres😊
It’s got so much extra goodness. We really learned a lot from our fellow HOMESTEAD-IES
putting it together!
Did you wait for the chick's to molt? I like ducks, their happy birds that don't destroy everything, and their eggs are great!
I have a family member that developed anacphalic? reactions to bee stings. She swells up and has to carry an epipin. Her husband used to be a bee keeper and wasn't a nice person, so probably aggitated his bees. They aren't for everyone and certainly aren't beginner friendly. Having hives are aa luxury I think unless it's your business. The wax can be used to make candles and for other uses.
Great video!
You two are awesome. I am considering chickens. My neighbors already have had them about 6 mos. I never see them or SMELL anything and they have given us eggs a few times. So we are considering it.
🤣🤣🤣 I just can't..
That Wilson pumpkin part... 🤣🤣🤣
I grew up in an agricultural community and I don’t know how you guys got so flush and those immaculate barns and all the accoutrements… you guys got that thing up and running in a very successful way very early in life. How did you pull that off?
I got on the email list. Can't wait to get the info.
My dad would get calls from Walmart durring spring to come and get swarms that would show up. Loved growing bees.
In a group I’m in on Facebook, there was a woman that bred, from a French bresse and something else, their very own perfect meat chicken. And it wasn’t like a Cornish cross where they would just lay down all the time, they weren’t “double breasted” but the carcass of her chickens were just as handsome! I think they dressed at 4#. It was really impressive.
We have red broilers that we have hatched eggs from. The red ranger type are much hardier than Cornish and lay surprising well for not being a dual purpose bird. We had a hen that laid for 4 years before a predator attack last summer.. They are double breasted and some finished 8# at 11 weeks. We have friends that keep a flock of brese and we plan to swap roosters and try a cross.
We breed Bresse chickens as well. Our breeding flock is just starting to lay and our plan is to hatch and raise enough to do meat birds once a quarter. We also have a dairy cow, which is important because Bresse chickens finish best with corn and milk.