Greetings again from South Western Ukraine. We were given a 25 year lease in 2016. I was 55 with 25 years experience in organic farming along with the hubris of a 19 year old. I was offered a 50 year lease but I told the owner I may renegotiate when I'm 80. I looked at the market opportunities and focused on salad greens for restaurants. This worked ok but the customer base is rather small, as we are isolated. 1 hour to the customer was the shortest delivery. Also, suppliers from Moldova and Turkey were far cheaper than we could compete with. My main issue, and this involves my age, was that I had to push our produce no matter how far the customer is and no matter how I felt or what conditions were on the farm. I started making deliveries to the US Embassy in Kyiv by train once a week. 7 hours one way. This basically took up 72 hours of my week. That would require a lot of spinach to be carried and kept fresh. Because I was doing the delivery by train and then subway in Kyiv I could only carry so much. But it was the shelf life that was the main factor. I needed to produce something that could last post harvest. I will mention that there is no good Mexican food in Ukraine. One of my Expat friends from the States asked since I also grew tomatoes and peppers could I make salsa? I sent him a jar and a few days later I got another call from the US Embassy asking if I could bring salsa to them and sell it in their commissary? On the first delivery of salsa I also had a few corn tortillas made from masa we processed from local corn using hardwood ash for the lye. That is when things really took off. All this was in 2018. From then until COVID in 2020 I was making deliveries for Mexican food to Kyiv once a week made from our produce. With COVID restrictions we simply began to freeze and ship all over Ukraine. We shut down for a few months when the violence escalated in 2022. Nothing was moving. December 2023 we restarted. This planting season we grew nothing but jalapenos, habanero, Serrano and Carolina Reapers. We make a line of salsa, hot sauce and dried pepper powder. We only ship as it is still unreliable to make the weekly trips to Kyiv. Our sales have not come back to pre-invasion levels but they are increasing. We are at a point now where we are investing in a larger kitchen either on farm or in our closest town. I meet with my lawyer and City council on Wednesday. Big step. Focusing on just peppers and the accompanying value added production has allowed me to continue to increase production no matter what my age is. I would like to mention that we run a free psychological service center. That is the purpose of the farm. The revenue generated allows us to see patients without charging them. Mostly combat veterans and refugees with our specialty being substance abuse and emotional trauma(PTSD). Thanks again for the education. You are awesome.
And did someone mention and farming like sixty when you are 25? Actually I am seventy and consider myself to be in good health. We have a smaller garden. About 5,000 square feet. As much as I do not want to admit it I need to figure out a downsize plan. I garden because I love it. I do not want gardening to become a "job" for me. Also great info on sweet potatoes. Got our biggest harvest ever this year. Loving the daily videos too!
That's got to be hard. May I suggest taking up half of your area with perennials, berries, asparagus, fruit trees come to mind and things that self seed like dill, cilantro, chamomile I think. I know there's a lot of things in both categories. But they require a lot less work and it can still be part of your garden. Potatoes and sweet potatoes could take up a large area too, my potato patch fries back every year, I just don't pull up all the potatoes, dig some up, leave cut ones or just some in general.
@@TheCainoftier Not too bad and most likely not going to get better either. Agree and more perennials. Doing that and more flowers being planted. We do have berries and grapes and figs planted. However, more along the outer part of the garden and not really taking up a lot of room. As far as asparagus, we actually have one large tractor tire planted. Now twenty three years and still going strong. Did a couple more tractor tires and asparagus which we will also harvest next summer. We plant our potatoes in 4X8 raised beds. VERY hard clay where we live. Three are planted with three different varieties of potatoes. They do pretty good. The fourth is the sweet potatoes. A bit very happy and we got about 60 pounds of sweet potatoes from the 4X8 bed this year. Life is good and no reason to complain. Thank You for your reply!
I had a jumping spider in my kitchen for a while. I named her Jisbella McQueen, after the teleporting rogue in The Stars My Destination. She came out and asked for veggie offcuts during mealprep, usually very politely.
As a 64 ya female, I have had to modify many aspects if gardening and householding to suit my strength level. I run everything by wheelbarrow. I even go down the street with it to collect compost in the fall. I tell myself that it is safer to think a minute before attempting something dangerous. I have a small chain saw that takes care of most tree cleanup. I made custom shelving for my garden and power tools in a shed I made custom.
I’m 62 and am doing most of the gardening myself...(hubby’s idea of ‘work’ is to use machinery for everything.😆) Gardening is good strength training and I’d rather haul a wheelbarrow than go to a gym. I do like your plan to prevent injury.
@@wordwalkermomma4 The male here and seventy years old. As far as machinery we purchased a really nice roto tiller a few years ago. We definitely love it. We have heavy clay soil. Now and almost two years into no-till we rarely use it!!! Love gardening on so many levels. The mental, the physical and of course all the great CLEAN food that we harvest!
I'm making the idea of farming like an old person a top priority as I build out and design my new farmstead. I'm early forties now but with overuse injuries and health struggles it's been on my mind. I'm trying to set things up as tightly as possible, with lots of perennials that I could harvest from even if I had to stop doing annual veggies. I'm creating beds with gravel pathways to avoid weed intrusion and having to mow or weed whack, heavily mulching inside the beds to keep weeds down and water in the soil. Everything goes through the filter in my mind of how much work I'm creating for myself in the future and if it's possible to reduce that through good design. Unfortunately it does create more work for current me, but I think future me will be appreciative.
I'm 67, zone 6a, and have a huge garden, 2 50x50 asparagus patches, and just under 10 50x50 annual beds. There is a farmer I know 10+ years older than I just as big. Get an ATV with a garden trailer. Everything goes in 5 gallon buckets and in the trailer, including radio, tools, cell phone, drink... When you harvest, the ATV shadow will be where your dog is and buckets of harvested vegetables. Then, as you clean and process vegetables in your cleaning area, everything goes back in a bucket, in your trailer, and then as you head out, you swing by the compost pile. A zero turn mower keeps all the pathways super clipped and clean, between gardens, making moving hoses, or even keeping your shoes dry on dewy mornings very nice.
I'm an old timer gardener in a new location for the last 6 years and to make the work less strenuous, I'm building a tool shed right outside of the fenced garden which is right outside the kitchen door. Just brought in a big haul of basil, celery, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, squash, pumpkin, flour and sweet corns. Drying, pickling and canning now.
Choosing plants for my zone and sowing more than I think I'll need to expect loss. These two understanding really helped the quality in my garden. Top advice section
I'm a senior gardener and appreciate the time I spent putting in hard pathways both for being steady underfoot and ease of wheeling equipment around. We fondly call all our spiders George, although I also like the name Desmond. Quite wrong really as most of the spiders will be female. Loving the daily podcasts, thank you.
If you cut the slips short with no roots, you can put them in jars of water and they will grow new roots good enough to plant within 7-10 days. This gives them a better chance to survive hot days until they get established without the cost of the shade cloth.
All of my jumping spider friends are named Jump Jump. (Mantises are Humphrey, honey bees are Honey, lizards are Larry; I have no explanation or justification. Hahaha)
I'm planning for my future backache by growing things in raised beds. I also bought a wheelbarrow to help with moving things. :D I didn't think I needed one since I could borrow my landlady's. It's been wonderful to have one.
Zones of access is one of the best tools I've borrowed for thinking of my homestead layout; which areas do we walk through daily and most easily maintain? Which are farther out of sight and mind? Where are the key distribution points for water, mulch, fertility and feed? I try to keep the things I need to tend often or harvest often in my Zone 1, and the market plants that need regular attention in Zone 2, while the forest and pastures count as Zone 3. Zone 1 has to be laid out such that I could theoretically tend things even if I break something and have to use a wheelchair. Yes, I am young and healthy now, but it won't be that way always... and injury can happen at any age.
Just a thought about transgenerational plant properties: what you told in the video reminded me on an other thing that 'I heard somewhere': a plant that does not well in your soil type needs a few (5?) generations to adapt to your soil type and then thrives in your soil type. So, it seems to me that a baby plant just does better than the parent plant _under the _*_same_*_ circumstances_
I take a S potato and put it a can or a plastic cup half full of water. When the slips are about 6" , I pull them off potatoe and put in second half full cup of water. Let root. keep in window or greenhouse. A few potatoes that have blemishes will rot.
The chiropractor comment 🙌🙌🙌🙌 Yes! Ive seen my chiro for 12+ years. I have 7 kids and was pregnant with baby # 2 when i first started seeing her. Now, i cant imagine farming or carrying a baby without my adjustments. I also sing praises of physical therapy and massage
Omgoodness, Jessie 😊 I too have had several jumping spider buddies in my grow room over the years. I will share the video! ❤ I have a question about starting sweet potato slips… Can I start some now in water or by taking cuttings from vines that are still currently growing. I can tend to them until next planting time. I have not dug up my small planting this year, simply hoping to have enough for the thanksgiving feast. Small planting because of what I thought were wire worms. Didn’t seem to be a huge problem, but was trying a different area (using slips from potatoes grown the year before) and wasn’t wanting to purchase more. Can’t wait to dig and see if any did well. Thanks!
I'm not Jessie But you definately could. Each node on the greens of a sweet potato can root. If you let them grow along the floor, where each node touches soil they root in and grow more spuds So as long as there's no issues with the crop, can for sure work
Thanks! Wasn’t sure if there was that sneaky possibility that cutting wouldn’t produce tubes as well. It’s been a recent topic of conversation with Dahlia growers. I appreciate the wisdom and engagement. 😊
as for no-kill growers' spider names, well, our jumping friend is of Salticidae, so Sal is a no-brainer---as well as gender neutral for these sensitive times. On the topic of thinking like an oldster, yes, make it sustainable---but/and, recently while crawling around on a cliff with a youngster helping me make brush terraces to mitigate erosion, after about 3 hours he turned to me and said, "A lot of old ladies don't do this kind of work . . . " Which made me think, yay, one way to keep doing it is to keep doing it (and also hire a youngster to help)
Hey might be worth exploring deep tissue massage. Chiropractic practitioners aren't all that well qualified and a lot of people (most?) get similar results from massage. Less back cracking type moves but to be honest that's probably a good thing
Greetings again from South Western Ukraine. We were given a 25 year lease in 2016. I was 55 with 25 years experience in organic farming along with the hubris of a 19 year old. I was offered a 50 year lease but I told the owner I may renegotiate when I'm 80.
I looked at the market opportunities and focused on salad greens for restaurants. This worked ok but the customer base is rather small, as we are isolated. 1 hour to the customer was the shortest delivery. Also, suppliers from Moldova and Turkey were far cheaper than we could compete with.
My main issue, and this involves my age, was that I had to push our produce no matter how far the customer is and no matter how I felt or what conditions were on the farm. I started making deliveries to the US Embassy in Kyiv by train once a week. 7 hours one way. This basically took up 72 hours of my week. That would require a lot of spinach to be carried and kept fresh. Because I was doing the delivery by train and then subway in Kyiv I could only carry so much. But it was the shelf life that was the main factor. I needed to produce something that could last post harvest.
I will mention that there is no good Mexican food in Ukraine.
One of my Expat friends from the States asked since I also grew tomatoes and peppers could I make salsa? I sent him a jar and a few days later I got another call from the US Embassy asking if I could bring salsa to them and sell it in their commissary? On the first delivery of salsa I also had a few corn tortillas made from masa we processed from local corn using hardwood ash for the lye. That is when things really took off. All this was in 2018. From then until COVID in 2020 I was making deliveries for Mexican food to Kyiv once a week made from our produce. With COVID restrictions we simply began to freeze and ship all over Ukraine. We shut down for a few months when the violence escalated in 2022. Nothing was moving. December 2023 we restarted. This planting season we grew nothing but jalapenos, habanero, Serrano and Carolina Reapers. We make a line of salsa, hot sauce and dried pepper powder. We only ship as it is still unreliable to make the weekly trips to Kyiv. Our sales have not come back to pre-invasion levels but they are increasing. We are at a point now where we are investing in a larger kitchen either on farm or in our closest town. I meet with my lawyer and City council on Wednesday. Big step.
Focusing on just peppers and the accompanying value added production has allowed me to continue to increase production no matter what my age is.
I would like to mention that we run a free psychological service center. That is the purpose of the farm. The revenue generated allows us to see patients without charging them. Mostly combat veterans and refugees with our specialty being substance abuse and emotional trauma(PTSD).
Thanks again for the education. You are awesome.
Great big hug from Austin, Texas. 💚
thank you for being the only person on youtube to use "cannot be overstated" correctly
The importance of this usage cannot be overstated. 😉
It's the most important point.
And did someone mention and farming like sixty when you are 25? Actually I am seventy and consider myself to be in good health. We have a smaller garden. About 5,000 square feet. As much as I do not want to admit it I need to figure out a downsize plan. I garden because I love it. I do not want gardening to become a "job" for me. Also great info on sweet potatoes. Got our biggest harvest ever this year. Loving the daily videos too!
That's got to be hard. May I suggest taking up half of your area with perennials, berries, asparagus, fruit trees come to mind and things that self seed like dill, cilantro, chamomile I think. I know there's a lot of things in both categories. But they require a lot less work and it can still be part of your garden. Potatoes and sweet potatoes could take up a large area too, my potato patch fries back every year, I just don't pull up all the potatoes, dig some up, leave cut ones or just some in general.
@@TheCainoftier Not too bad and most likely not going to get better either. Agree and more perennials. Doing that and more flowers being planted. We do have berries and grapes and figs planted. However, more along the outer part of the garden and not really taking up a lot of room. As far as asparagus, we actually have one large tractor tire planted. Now twenty three years and still going strong. Did a couple more tractor tires and asparagus which we will also harvest next summer. We plant our potatoes in 4X8 raised beds. VERY hard clay where we live. Three are planted with three different varieties of potatoes. They do pretty good. The fourth is the sweet potatoes. A bit very happy and we got about 60 pounds of sweet potatoes from the 4X8 bed this year. Life is good and no reason to complain. Thank You for your reply!
I had a jumping spider in my kitchen for a while. I named her Jisbella McQueen, after the teleporting rogue in The Stars My Destination. She came out and asked for veggie offcuts during mealprep, usually very politely.
As a 64 ya female, I have had to modify many aspects if gardening and householding to suit my strength level. I run everything by wheelbarrow. I even go down the street with it to collect compost in the fall. I tell myself that it is safer to think a minute before attempting something dangerous. I have a small chain saw that takes care of most tree cleanup. I made custom shelving for my garden and power tools in a shed I made custom.
Good to hear and positive too!
I’m 62 and am doing most of the gardening myself...(hubby’s idea of ‘work’ is to use machinery for everything.😆)
Gardening is good strength training and I’d rather haul a wheelbarrow than go to a gym.
I do like your plan to prevent injury.
@@wordwalkermomma4 The male here and seventy years old. As far as machinery we purchased a really nice roto tiller a few years ago. We definitely love it. We have heavy clay soil. Now and almost two years into no-till we rarely use it!!! Love gardening on so many levels. The mental, the physical and of course all the great CLEAN food that we harvest!
I'm making the idea of farming like an old person a top priority as I build out and design my new farmstead. I'm early forties now but with overuse injuries and health struggles it's been on my mind. I'm trying to set things up as tightly as possible, with lots of perennials that I could harvest from even if I had to stop doing annual veggies. I'm creating beds with gravel pathways to avoid weed intrusion and having to mow or weed whack, heavily mulching inside the beds to keep weeds down and water in the soil. Everything goes through the filter in my mind of how much work I'm creating for myself in the future and if it's possible to reduce that through good design. Unfortunately it does create more work for current me, but I think future me will be appreciative.
Same as that for me, bought and done as much as possible for my later years, now it’s paying off.
I'm 67, zone 6a, and have a huge garden, 2 50x50 asparagus patches, and just under 10 50x50 annual beds. There is a farmer I know 10+ years older than I just as big. Get an ATV with a garden trailer. Everything goes in 5 gallon buckets and in the trailer, including radio, tools, cell phone, drink... When you harvest, the ATV shadow will be where your dog is and buckets of harvested vegetables. Then, as you clean and process vegetables in your cleaning area, everything goes back in a bucket, in your trailer, and then as you head out, you swing by the compost pile. A zero turn mower keeps all the pathways super clipped and clean, between gardens, making moving hoses, or even keeping your shoes dry on dewy mornings very nice.
I like the dark ambience! So chill
I'm an old timer gardener in a new location for the last 6 years and to make the work less strenuous, I'm building a tool shed right outside of the fenced garden which is right outside the kitchen door. Just brought in a big haul of basil, celery, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, squash, pumpkin, flour and sweet corns. Drying, pickling and canning now.
Choosing plants for my zone and sowing more than I think I'll need to expect loss. These two understanding really helped the quality in my garden. Top advice section
I'm a senior gardener and appreciate the time I spent putting in hard pathways both for being steady underfoot and ease of wheeling equipment around. We fondly call all our spiders George, although I also like the name Desmond. Quite wrong really as most of the spiders will be female. Loving the daily podcasts, thank you.
Honestly, I love the content but the dad jokes are what truly make me come back for more! You're awesome!❤😂
@@kristinemagnien1 I miss Kitty Kat
My roommate's daughter just transitioned off Racing and went to Portland Thorn. Go Soccer families! Blessings in Christ.
Peace n prosperity. This show might be the first i pay for, u deserve it
If you cut the slips short with no roots, you can put them in jars of water and they will grow new roots good enough to plant within 7-10 days. This gives them a better chance to survive hot days until they get established without the cost of the shade cloth.
All of my jumping spider friends are named Jump Jump. (Mantises are Humphrey, honey bees are Honey, lizards are Larry; I have no explanation or justification. Hahaha)
I'm planning for my future backache by growing things in raised beds. I also bought a wheelbarrow to help with moving things. :D I didn't think I needed one since I could borrow my landlady's. It's been wonderful to have one.
The nerdy ag / NWSL crossover content I needed 🎉
Zones of access is one of the best tools I've borrowed for thinking of my homestead layout; which areas do we walk through daily and most easily maintain? Which are farther out of sight and mind? Where are the key distribution points for water, mulch, fertility and feed? I try to keep the things I need to tend often or harvest often in my Zone 1, and the market plants that need regular attention in Zone 2, while the forest and pastures count as Zone 3. Zone 1 has to be laid out such that I could theoretically tend things even if I break something and have to use a wheelchair. Yes, I am young and healthy now, but it won't be that way always... and injury can happen at any age.
Just a thought about transgenerational plant properties: what you told in the video reminded me on an other thing that 'I heard somewhere': a plant that does not well in your soil type needs a few (5?) generations to adapt to your soil type and then thrives in your soil type. So, it seems to me that a baby plant just does better than the parent plant _under the _*_same_*_ circumstances_
Jumping spiders are awesome.
What a great question! Sounds like this could be a fun experiment to play with next year
Thanks!
New subscriber here from Philippines very informative ,I'm also a sweet potato farmer
I take a S potato and put it a can or a plastic cup half full of water. When the slips are about 6" , I pull them off potatoe and put in second half full cup of water. Let root. keep in window or greenhouse. A few potatoes that have blemishes will rot.
The chiropractor comment 🙌🙌🙌🙌 Yes! Ive seen my chiro for 12+ years. I have 7 kids and was pregnant with baby # 2 when i first started seeing her. Now, i cant imagine farming or carrying a baby without my adjustments. I also sing praises of physical therapy and massage
I love ALL No-Till Growers videos!
Omgoodness, Jessie 😊 I too have had several jumping spider buddies in my grow room over the years.
I will share the video! ❤
I have a question about starting sweet potato slips…
Can I start some now in water or by taking cuttings from vines that are still currently growing. I can tend to them until next planting time.
I have not dug up my small planting this year, simply hoping to have enough for the thanksgiving feast.
Small planting because of what I thought were wire worms. Didn’t seem to be a huge problem, but was trying a different area (using slips from potatoes grown the year before) and wasn’t wanting to purchase more.
Can’t wait to dig and see if any did well.
Thanks!
I'm not Jessie
But you definately could. Each node on the greens of a sweet potato can root.
If you let them grow along the floor, where each node touches soil they root in and grow more spuds
So as long as there's no issues with the crop, can for sure work
Thanks! Wasn’t sure if there was that sneaky possibility that cutting wouldn’t produce tubes as well. It’s been a recent topic of conversation with Dahlia growers.
I appreciate the wisdom and engagement. 😊
Magnificent advice
This life is not a practice run, enjoy it while you have the chance.
Any chance we could get a bookshelf tour sometime?
What a great spider! Check out those rows of eyes - how about Goggles for a name?
Your spider: "Daley Thompson"
Much Appreciated the Chiropractic thumbs up! If you're ever in Dumbo Brooklyn NY 11201 You get an adjustment and therapy session on me. 😉👍
Boris. Name the spider Boris.
Hi Harry (spider buddy)
In a no till environment in raised beds, what’s your best recommendations for a bad invasion of root knot nematodes? Everything I read says “till in”
Jumping spider name: Peter Parkour
Name the Jumping spider Tilly!!
To me sewing cover crops with weeds sounds like a nightmare. When the weeds seed out you are going to have a whole heap of trouble the following year.
At least you weren’t arrested 😂
Farm like you're old!
as for no-kill growers' spider names, well, our jumping friend is of Salticidae, so Sal is a no-brainer---as well as gender neutral for these sensitive times. On the topic of thinking like an oldster, yes, make it sustainable---but/and, recently while crawling around on a cliff with a youngster helping me make brush terraces to mitigate erosion, after about 3 hours he turned to me and said, "A lot of old ladies don't do this kind of work . . . " Which made me think, yay, one way to keep doing it is to keep doing it (and also hire a youngster to help)
Hey might be worth exploring deep tissue massage. Chiropractic practitioners aren't all that well qualified and a lot of people (most?) get similar results from massage. Less back cracking type moves but to be honest that's probably a good thing
🇳🇿🙏🏼
All good. Not applicable to me in zone 4B.
Thank you!
Thanks!