Farm School Winter Series Week Nine

Winter is fading away here at

Farm School.

There is plenty to keep us busy in the garden.

The tomatoes we caged last weekend

are thriving.

The last three leeks are awaiting harvest.

Lynn and Faye sold out at the farmer's market.

Fortunately, there are more ready to be transplanted.

Beets as far as the eye can see.

Slurp!

Look at how vibrant this Red Salad Bowl lettuce looks.

This Annapolis red romaine is tender

and adds a pop of color to a salad bowl.

I sampled this and enjoyed every bite.

The New Zealand spinach is not bouncing back as expected.

This crop was planted last May,

so it has given its all.

What can be harvested will fill someone's produce basket,

and new seed will be started.

Banana peppers are being enjoyed weekly.

The scallions are bursting from the pots.

Lynn is pondering how best to harvest them.

 

The newer plantings are making swift progress.

Another batch will be sown in a few weeks

so that the goodies just keep on comin'!

Celebrity tomatoes are goin' to town!

Tomato town, that is.

Lots of fruit could be spied.

Today we transplanted these Sweet Million tomatoes.

Even though these have gotten long and lanky,

they will morph into strong, healthy producers.

We used the coring method to transplant these babies.

The deep hole ensures support for the plant,

so it can concentrate on making fruit.

Eggplant is showing signs of delivering something good to eat soon.

We also transplanted quite a few pepper plants.

We are blessed to be able to grow all winter long.

With the garden fully loaded,

there are always tasks to keep our hands busy.

It's an enjoyable and very rewarding endeavor.

Here's hoping that today finds you 

enjoying all that life brings.

Spring is just around the corner!

You can find Farm School's humble beginnings here.
 All the Farm School posts can be found
just under our header.

WET

We had a great soaker a few days ago.

Ahhhh, you can just feel the garden's delight.

According to the Farmer's Almanac,

March 1st is when we should start planting above-ground crops, 

so we might be persuaded to put in a few more things.

Want to see what to sow in your area?

Go here.

Homesteading Where You Are Series-Raise

Welcome back to our Wednesday Series:




I'm daisy and I currently live in Central Florida.

Our family will be making the move later this year,

to a more rural spread in North Carolina.

For now, we share how we homestead in suburbia.

************
Today's topic is 
Raise.



~Raise awareness.
It's gotta start here.  
By understanding where we fit in the big picture,
we are able to educate ourselves to determine
where our priorities lie.
Attending workshops, reading and talking with like-minded folks
can all be invaluable methods for enlightening one's perception.
We've already decided that suburbia isn't for us,
although we are making the best in our current location.
If we hadn't had this experience,
we wouldn't have known what we really wanted.
It's all good...


~Raise standards for the quality of life we want to experience, 
as well as the impact we want to make on our world.
Knowing what we want and striving to make it happen,
whether it's growing it ourselves or supporting a local venue.
We tend to spend time, money and energy on experiences,
rather than material possessions.
Memories are priceless.

~Raise hopes when designing our future.
Our dreams can be as big as we allow them.
One great quote I heard recently was,
"You can't dream big enough."
This effort to live better is an innate longing.
We are the creators of our own lives,
and the motivation to strive for something better
can prepare all of those hopes for reality.
 

~Raise our own food so that we are less dependent on outer sources.
By providing the necessities for our family,
we are less reliant on outside resources
and retain more control of our overall health and well-being.
We currently have a small garden and a few avocado trees,
but are hoping to expand this effort when we move later this year.
Our long-range goals include tending  fruit and nut trees, 
a large vegetable garden, a beehive, and raising chickens for eggs.

~Raise up the local community.
For those items that we can't provide for ourselves,
we will patronize local farmers who are cultivating with a conscience.
Understanding that we're all in this together
and fostering the sense that 
we can thrive in an interdependent system
allows all involved to excel in their areas of expertise.
Learn, and be willing to teach.

~Raise the next generation,
including the role that homesteading plays.
Homeschooling is an outstanding opportunity
to instill homesteading and homekeeping skills.
In North Carolina, we hope to have a teaching farm,
so that others can understand how fulfilling and meaningful life is 
when one's passion is followed.
The intrinsic satisfaction of a job well done
is worth passing on to future homesteaders.
Whether it is learning to repair an engine,
cooking from scratch, or creating a family garden,
these skills should continue to be passed down
with all of the reverence they deserve.

Please visit the other gals sharing their ideas in this series:

*Jackie, at Born Imaginative, grew up as an avid 4-Her, on a 50 acre hobby farm, with parents who pursued a homesteading life. Now, with a husband and two small children of her own, she is bringing an 1880s farmhouse/30acre farm back to life in Southern Coastal Maine.

*Mary, at Homegrown on the Hill, lives in Southwestern Ohio with her family on a 5 acre homestead. Their goal is to be as self sufficient as possible. In helping with this goal, they raise a big garden and keep chickens, rabbits, and cattle for food.

*Staci, at Life At Cobble Hill Farm, was bitten by the homestead bug in 2006 and although she began her homesteading ventures in a rented condo, is now homesteading on less than an acre in Upstate NY.

*Sue, at The Little Acre that Could, shares her body with an auto-immune disease, and life with her husband. They live in a once-working Victorian farm cottage now bordered by a modern subdivision. She has dreamed of homesteading as long as she can remember and continues to strive toward that goal in rural Atlantic Canada.


Five bloggers, 7 weeks,
Big Ideas!
Join us every Wednesday!


Homesteading Where You Are-Intro
Homesteading Where You Are-Make
 Homesteading Where You Are-Grow
Homesteading Where You Are-Preserve
Homesteading Where You Are-Save