feed only what you can grow

[ohiogoatgirl]

ok so this is something i have tossed around alot and not really been able to get the thoughts out of my head into words or type that makes any sense... so here goes...

say you have 1 buck and 3 does and growout space. you are raising for home production meat and pelts, maybe sellin a few to neighbors a bit.

now where you live (or where your dream place), lets say you have like 3 acres all usable garden/farm land. you are limited to not using large machinery other than a smaller tractor and etc for square bales. and if this isnt used all the better.

so what do you grow? thoughts on different things for bulk winter storing etc., with and without electricity?

i know there is more i want to say here but this is a good start. i will try and type up something that makes sense to reply for my own thoughts later. <br /><br /> __________ Thu Apr 24, 2014 4:01 am __________ <br /><br /> amaranth- i have never grown this before but i imagine if i grew bunches and bunches of it i could feed thinned out plants and the birds wouldnt be able to terrorize a whole crop like i see problem brought up in the garden forum with small lot people. and its supposed to be high protein.

triticale- supposed to be better and more nutritious that wheat.

oats- because they are in the grain recipes here and a good bulk/fill up

sunflower/BOSS- seed and the stalks after harvesting

radish- they are edible and go good between plants i want to eat and i dont eat these

parsley- good summer add in

dandelions- yes i would be happy to never cut the grass again and let it grow up and have huge dandelion leaves and flowers to feed

chicory- hardy and pretty, i just love the color (weed type not funny chinese stuff i dont even know what)

alfalfa- high protien

timothy- goes good with alfalfa

pumpkin, winter squashes- easy winter keepers, raw seeds said to be natural wormer

sweet potato- dont know how well it would do but vines are prolific and good greens evidently and if i am lucky sweet potatoes for added yums in winter

bell peppers- they are easy to grow, nutritious, easy to dehydrate

cucumbers- quick easy summer feed

plantain- weed not the "mini banana" things lol

turnips- good winter keeper

green beans- been reading some people say no but anyone who has fed em has done fine so i would try em. the once i grew em i thought they were offed by a deer etc and that part overgrew with weeds until end-ish of summer i was wading through gettin the last of tomatoes etc and found three big plants! got a big grocery bag of beans and all i done was planted seeds and watered em maybe four times.

carrots- can feed the tops and roots store ok for winter

indian corn- i think a good heirloom variety(ies) would be good to feed some crack corn to growouts at least. and of course feedin stalks at harvest time.


this is my list for now but i'm sure i forgot things and will have to come back and add things.

 

[michaels4gardens]

Sugar beets, ...
Kale
and-...
get a copy of
"Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps": A Penguin Handbook [Book]
$6.44 from 5+ stores
by Alan Thompson, Claude Goodchild · Penguin Adult · Paperback · 170 pages · ISBN 0141038624
First issued in 1941, when the national crisis made it essential for every scrap of kitchen waste and spare time to be used for increasing the ...nation's food resources-

-and if "someone" wanted to do something like that-- "they" should get started soon, -- a quick look around will tell you the world is not heading into a good place-- my guess is--we have about a year of "good times" left...when "the west " finally pushes "the East" into a corner... they will have no choice but to fight...

 

[TwoAcreDream]

"Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps
First issued in 1941, when the national crisis made it essential for every scrap of kitchen waste and spare time to be used for increasing the nation's food resources-
"they" should get started soon, -- a quick look around will tell you the world is not heading into a good place-- my guess is--we have about a year of "good times" left...when "the west " finally pushes "the East" into a corner... they will have no choice but to fight...

I just bought that book because of a prior post that you made. Thanks

I recently had a ad up for selling pet rabbits. I have people inquiring
about rabbits for meat purposes. More interest than I thought for.
One lady is 4 hrs away from me, and wanted to know if I could ship
her used cages. I told her no. If she wanted to come here, I would glady
work with her for rabbits and cages.

I also am seeing more interest in chickens for backyard flocks.
I don't have a good feel for the economy. It's best to get prepared now,
if one hasn't started already. The future ain't gonna be purty.

 

[Featherhoof]

I feel it too, TwoAcre. The rabbits, quail, and my garden provide me with a small amount of security. I feel good knowing that my family eats good, clean food and that much of the same food should still be available if things declined to a desperate state.

 

[CDiana]

I tried growing a garden and raising chickens on my tiny lot in Colorado Springs.. but with incredibly poor soil and drought. It became very expensive to garden and just got poor yields. My sister rents a farmhouse and 20acres. My kids and I are going to move in with her after my divorce is final. She doesn't know how to garden, so me and my kids are going to teach her. She is going to be getting a bunch of chickens and other poultry for us to help her with. One of her neighbors is 100% self sufficent when it comes to food. So they are going to teach us canning and give us lots of tips.

 

[Comet007]

Actually, if you use biointensive gardening methods, I think it's been shown that you can raise a very high percentage of your food needs on less than one acre. Your idea here might be more achievable if the goal is to raise what you need on an acre, or even half an acre. We are on .75 acres, and I feel that once we're up and running we can raise most of our food right here using intensive methods.

We already have 11 fruit trees, with plans for more, and we have a small front and side lawn that we are going to convert to a cover crop. We are primarily doing that so we don't have to mow, but we could just as easily grow a crop that is attractive and could be fed to rabbits/chickens. We also have a large back lawn, the fruit trees are mostly to one side, that could also be converted over time to food or grazing crops.

As it is, even before buying our property we started investing in the kitchen equipment needed to put food up. We also started buying produce in bulk in season and putting it up, as well as doing freezer cooking. Last year we didn't garden, we wanted to figure out effective processing of the 100+ dungeness crab we get in July & August for year round eating, plus all the fruit from our 11 trees as well as the three varieties of fruit we buy in season. We put up about 400 pounds of fruit last year, and I think 111 crabs? Plus we had a winter crab season, but we mostly just ate that!

 

[michaels4gardens]

try to find a place that still has water when the power is out

 

[dayna]

I live on catchment, so we'll have plenty of water when the power goes out.

 

[michaels4gardens]

I am old enough to have seen .17 Cent / gal gas, I was the oldest of 9 kids, we lived far from town, off what we could grow ourselves, we were poor,we worked hard, but were fed and happy- I did not watch TV, play video games, have a cel phone, or expensive toys, We worked and played together as an extended family-- no one was allowed to be lazy, all of us pulled our weight.
---I see the world we live in right now -and know -- this false reality bubble will burst soon. Sept 2015 is the next peak of the karma cycle-- I do not know if I should be worried , or happy, -- maybe both.-- but one thing for sure- --I am planting a big garden this year...

 

[Comet007]

Water is the only things that really concerns me - we are on a community well, and with no electricity, once the water storage tanks are empty, the water stops coming. We are considering harvesting some of the wonderful rain that we get so much of here, though!

 

[dayna]

Water is the only things that really concerns me - we are on a community well, and with no electricity, once the water storage tanks are empty, the water stops coming. We are considering harvesting some of the wonderful rain that we get so much of here, though!

It's pretty easy to set up some water tanks with collection that just drains into them.

Our roof is a peaked metal roof. The water drains into the gutters, then collects at two points on the house into large white pipes. Then the pipes drain into our 10,000 gallon above ground catchment tank.

I have a pump that pumps the water from the tank to the house. We bought a special higher powered generator that would run the pump if the power is out (our two smaller ones couldn't run it).

But if worse came to worse my catchment has a soft top, I could just dip the water out with a bucket or something. <br /><br /> __________ Sat Apr 26, 2014 11:31 am __________ <br /><br /> hawaiianpunaparadise.com has a post about our water system.

 

[Comet007]

Sadly we are out of time and money for big projects this year, and I still need some more kitchen gadgets and hopefully a new wood stove before Fall. One step at a time...

 

[michaels4gardens]

berkey makes a nice water filter [at a "nice" price also] --but it takes no electricity-- a person could greatly extend the life of filters by "pre-filtering" the water before it gets run through the filters, I have used pillow cases to get the big stuf out before it gets to the filter.

 

[zee]

Though it is very invasive, Rabbits and humans could eat Jerusalem Artichokes. The buns could eat the leaves, stocks, and roots. If you're worried about them taking the garden over, grow them in containers. I use a plastic 55 gallon cut lengthwise to grow mine. I am also planting a garden this year to supplement food prices due to the expected price hikes. I think that this will be the beginning of rough times ahead. SMH!! Here is the Wall Street Journal's article explaining why their expecting an increase in food costs :

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/04/ ... es-rising/

 

[michaels4gardens]

I feed J. artichoke-- it is great, and it is "about" as nutritious as potato, and-- you don't have to cook it.
My rabbits love it and do well on them. and --when you weed out the unwanted plants next year, remember, -, the rabbits love the tops also.

 

[Comet007]

Can rabbits eat blueberry twigs? When we trim back the branches every year? I just found out that we might get SIXTEEN 3-4 year old organic blueberry plants (5 varieties) for $4.5-6 each! We weren't planning any more big projects this year, but that's a crazy good deal!

Looks like we will be digging up a 25'x21' patch of grass and amending soil, putting in paths, etc. this weekend! I know you could give a bun a blueberry or two here or there, but I'm most curious to know if we can give them the branches to chew like they do the apples/pears. Of course, there won't be any pesticides/fertilizers to worry about.

 

[CDiana]

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livest ... bbits.html here is a discussion on another forum. farther down in the comments it mentions blueberry twigs being ok. pears and apples are also on the lists. it also says what parts of each plant are ok for them to eat.

 

[Comet007]

Thank you! We really didn't need any more projects, but we are also picking up 15 rooted raspberry starts this year - so after next years' pruning we will have some more twigs for them to nom on, plus I can dry my own leaves instead of buying them. Luckily we already have an empty (except weeds) flower bed that is the perfect length for the raspberries, so it will only be weeding and soil amendment - and then netting sometime before June!

 

[dayna]

Thank you! We really didn't need any more projects, but we are also picking up 15 rooted raspberry starts this year - so after next years' pruning we will have some more twigs for them to nom on, plus I can dry my own leaves instead of buying them. Luckily we already have an empty (except weeds) flower bed that is the perfect length for the raspberries, so it will only be weeding and soil amendment - and then netting sometime before June!

I hear ya, my neighbor just gave me 5 blueberry plants for free... so I just did another project this last weekend so now we're behind on other projects!

I swear with livestock/farming it never ends.

 

[Comet007]

You just can't beat five free blueberry plants!

To possibly add to the list of growing rabbit feed (or people):
-I wonder about wintergreen ground cover, I don't know if it's too obscure to find info about feeding to rabbits
-Alpine Rock Cress (Arabis alpine), another edible ground cover
-blue honeysuckle also intrigues me, the nutrition elements for us - probably the foliage and cuttings for the buns
-Siberian peashrub
-rose hips
-grape vines (greens), we actually have one pretty nice sized one, once the grapes are off them this year and don't need the shade, this is a good possibility, plus the cuttings of the vines down the road
-radish tops (we can grow these year round, as well as carrot tops and probably kale in the cold frames and greenhouse tunnel)
-what about sprouts like what we can do for salads? We are getting ready to start two kinds of sprouts and I know they're really good for us - are those good for the buns as well?
-I'm curious about sprouted grains (not actual fodder, just sprouted)

I think that meeting the protein needs of breeding does and grow outs would likely be the hardest part, especially because I'm not sure that anyone could grow enough grains/hay on a smaller lot like ours to sustain more than just a very few rabbits! In that case, we are still needing to purchase grains and hay, even if we can grow all these greens and twigs.