I remember growing up in the suburbs, how my mom would grow standard backyard veggies such as tomatoes, cucumber, strawberries, and zucchini every year in our quite large backyard in small amounts.
She'd also experiment with watermelon, cantaloupe, peppers, and kitchen herbs.
I loved that she did this; but I couldn't understand why she would still use the vast majority of space for flowers, shrubs and trees.
I guess maybe I'm just more logical. Food was definitely cheaper back then, too. I do enjoy a pretty garden, but I'm still focused on growing more food than flowers (unless of course the flowers are edible.. Like nasturtiums, roses or tulips)
Over the years, I too have grown the occasional limp or diseased vegetable for mild, once-in-a-while success. But it had always been done in pots on balconies during my many years of depressing apartment living. And I used cheap chemical fertilizers because, well, they're cheap.
All of that changed in September of 2014 when my wife and I moved into a rent-to-own house (which are just about to purchase less than 1 year later--finally!).
It's not our dream farmstead, but at 1/11th of an acre, one can do surprisingly more than most folks seem to realize. Our goal is to be as close to 100 percent self sufficient as is reasonably possible, if only just to have that knowledge. And of course we are not opposed to achieving this through barter and sale; but the focus is to be cross trained in several homesteading methods of achieving this self sufficiency so we have more meaningful skills to bring to the table than the current average U.S. citizen.
So, the purpose of this blog is to attempt to focus around telling the story and progression of my homesteading ways via our backyard farmstead. That "our" is; my wife and I, Amy, and our 10-month old daughter, Juniper, and future children of course, and maybe a tenant or two for added income.
There is one thing I feel I should warn you about in advance; we also are raising meat animals right here on the mini farmstead. It may come as a surprise to some folks, but raising meat for yourself and your family can have the amazing benefit of making you appreciate the life of the animal that you are eating; as well as giving that animal a much better life and more humane death than factory farmed meat.
With that "said", please enjoy our story as we start on this scary, amazing adventure to live more self sufficient and aware of where our food comes from; right here in the suburbs of America.
