Anyone Else A Farmer?

[wonderwanders2]

Didn't see any discussions about this topic so thought I'd ask...

 

Any other farmers out there?

 

I don't mean pets.  I mean  actually growing your own food.  Urban farming or otherwise.

 

I'm an urban farmer. I have a small flock of chickens (for eggs), and we have a small grove of fruit trees (Orange, Grapefruit, Lychee, Mango, Avocado, Persimmon) and such on the property. We also have a community garden plot nearby - that's our experimental plot to see what grows in this region before we commit to building our own plot in the yard.  I have a few herbs in the yard but haven't tried much else. This is all within city limits, we have what would equate to 3 city lots.

 

We've sold fruit (pick your own) out of the yard.  I've never had enough eggs to sell them (Right now I only have one good laying hen.) - I should really turn the other hen into soup but I just don't have the heart for it. So she's the "guard chicken."

[galleri]

Yay! We farm a garden! I really want to get chickens this year, but alas it will have to be next year. Also, we have plans to start beekeeping. So probably next year I will start building hives. And we also have herbs growing around the property. I have some lavender, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, chocolate mint and lemon balm  I love that they grow back each year. Unfortunately I have let the oregano bolt. I have found that the bees really love oregano flowers. We also have 2 orange trees. 

This year in the garden we are growing 3 different tomato varieties, corn, beans, lima beans, okra, peppers, bell peppers, musk melon,  and peas. And I have some sunflowers to plant around the property too.  

[wonderwanders2]

3 hours ago, galleri said:

Yay! We farm a garden! I really want to get chickens this year, but alas it will have to be next year. Also, we have plans to start beekeeping. So probably next year I will start building hives. And we also have herbs growing around the property. I have some lavender, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, chocolate mint and lemon balm  I love that they grow back each year. Unfortunately I have let the oregano bolt. I have found that the bees really love oregano flowers. We also have 2 orange trees. 

This year in the garden we are growing 3 different tomato varieties, corn, beans, lima beans, okra, peppers, bell peppers, musk melon,  and peas. And I have some sunflowers to plant around the property too.  

Yay! I hope you do get bees!  I wanted them too... (ironically we had a hive in the WALL of the house when we bought it...) ended up paying a beekeeper to catch and remove the hive. I'd wanted to keep it but it wasn't a good location - right near the back patio where our drunken friends could have stumbled into it. Still at least we didn't kill the bees. Poor things have a hard enough time as it is.

 

Re: Herbs... I also have rosemary.  That stuff is tough. My oregano died... but the chives are holding strong!

[galleri]

Oh I forgot I had chives!!  lol They are just out there still reviving themselves. I am so glad you had a beekeeper come and get the hive out. Can you still not get bees in the future?

[wonderwanders2]

On ‎3‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 5:36 PM, galleri said:

Oh I forgot I had chives!!  lol They are just out there still reviving themselves. I am so glad you had a beekeeper come and get the hive out. Can you still not get bees in the future?

 

Do you mean could bees come back to the house? No. The hole the bees were using to get into the wall to their hive was blocked off once the bees were all out. (They created a one-way valve w/ screen that let the bees out but not back in) Once the queen left the hive they followed her into the nice bee box ready and waiting there for them. The whole process took about 2 weeks if I recall; it was pretty cool to observe.  There's still the abandoned honeycomb in the wall, as we didn't want to bust the wall to get that out.

 

If you meant Could we still have bees in the yard, ie: farm them....  technically yes, but the wife was totally turned off of bees after the wall-incident so doesn't want to encourage any more nearby than we already have. So big fat NO to bee-keeping in the foreseeable future.

[Andromen]

My parents grow a LOT of peppers.. I myself grow some strawberries, as well as I want to make a special area for catnip and peppermint to grow this year once winter is over (there's still snow & ice here..). I also have been thinking about growing some beetroots this year again. And, when autumn comes around, we have a lot of fun harvesting potatoes on the far side of our 'garden' - we use a toy tractor I've had from when I was small haha. It's a lot of fun.

[galleri]

8 hours ago, wonderwanders2 said:

 

If you meant Could we still have bees in the yard, ie: farm them....  technically yes, but the wife was totally turned off of bees after the wall-incident so doesn't want to encourage any more nearby than we already have. So big fat NO to bee-keeping in the foreseeable future.

 

Yeah, I meant that part. What a bummer

[wonderwanders2]

On 3/18/2018 at 3:10 PM, Andromen said:

My parents grow a LOT of peppers.. I myself grow some strawberries, as well as I want to make a special area for catnip and peppermint to grow this year once winter is over (there's still snow & ice here..). I also have been thinking about growing some beetroots this year again. And, when autumn comes around, we have a lot of fun harvesting potatoes on the far side of our 'garden' - we use a toy tractor I've had from when I was small haha. It's a lot of fun.

Half the fun of growing veggies is having enough to give away/swap for other stuff. 😊. The potatoes harvested by toy tractor sounds very fun!

[wonderwanders2]

We just got 4 new chickie's from Tractor Supply: all females about a week old: One black Maran, one Olive Egger, one Red Star, and one Australorp. These are all new breeds for me.

[Andromen]

Nice!

And yeah, I remember me taking the tractor, putting in the potatoes and then travelling to the house.. The only problem is that one of the wheels was broken, so the little trailer kept falling to the side. But it still was a lot of fun

[EndOfTheWorld]

Back home in Wales my family owns a vineyard if that counts. I haven't done any farmwork since I moved overseas to live in the states to be with my wife and her side of the family (her father unfortunately is not long for this world while my parents are quite healthy so we decided we would stay in the states atleast until my father-in-law passes away and hopefully move back to Powys and maybe take her mother with us.)

[maylin]

Its me and my husbands dream to have a farm but its so hard to get a place with enough land in Germany to get started and even when you find somthing it cost too much or is too far away from your current job.

Edited March 20, 2018 by maylin

[spatio]

We've got around 60 chickens (we've got like 15+ acres and they've got a field to themselves so you wouldn't think there were so many!) and a few mules, too many  a bunch of peach trees, a couple cherry trees, a few pear, plum, apple, almond, mulberry, fig, and walnut trees, blueberries/strawberries/blackberries/raspberries out the wazoo (the thornless raspberries are my fave, we have the thorny variety as well), several squash varieties (patty pan, crookneck yellow, zucchini, butternut), a couple watermelon, pumpkin, and cucumber varieties, potatoes (the purple flesh ones are my faves!), onions, several pea varieties that I've lost track of (they're more my mom's deal), and too many herbs to count (a bunch of mint varieties, parsley, chives, garlic, ginger, tumeric, thyme, etc)!  I'm probably forgetting a lot but oh well haha

(so yee i like plants a lot hehe)

 

Edit: we also just got a beehive, I really want to get into beekeeping but idk if I'll have the time, might end up being my mom's hobby haha

Edited March 20, 2018 by spatio

[Lovecats]

I'm personally too busy studying at the moment, but my mum has quite a decent-sized space on a local allotment. We get all sorts of veg out of them so we don't need to buy store beans/carrots/potatoes, etc for a good portion of the year. It's pretty nifty!

 

Wish we could keep chickens, though: most of the allotments in my area don't let us keep them, sadly.

[galleri]

Ok you strawberry growers! I need help in that department. I have tried to grow them a few time and the produce very little for me. Thoughts? 

[Caius]

I'm not really a farmer, but I'd like to be, or at least have a small farm one day.

I'm not a city person and even though I live in one of the smaller villages too close to the fourth

largest city here in Sweden, I still don't feel too much ... At home, even though I do love my

apartment so much and have a small forest only 100 meters away from my house. But I'd like to

have only forests and fields around me; for I feel somewhat suffocated here in the city and I am

more of a forest person anyway.

 

So I've started looking almost every day for old houses and farms on the countryside ... Because

it's my dream to live in an old little cottage or small farm. And I've recently had this thought that I'd

love to have some cows and/or some sheep or goats.

 

Also, I love plants and tend to the garden so much. I love both arranging the planting areas with merely

flowers, but I also like to grow herbs. And that's just about what I've tried so far. Growing potatoes and

such would be fun too, but I've no place to do that right now ... So I'll have to be satisfied with just my

herbs which I will plant this weekend. And I bought a tomato plant a few weeks ago, just to see if I can

make it with them. So far the little one is three times as big compared to how it was when I bought it; so

I guess that means I'm doing something right and will get some tomatoes later this summer. :'D

 

But yup, until I get my own little place on the country side, I guess I will keep taking the car to the forests

to stay there a few hours each week so I won't suffocate too much until I get there. And do the best I can

to enjoy my apartment, because it's the one and only apartment I ever wanted to live in since I had to ...

And let's just say ... The windows I do have and the amount of light that comes in here during the days;

it's simply gorgeous - but hot, lol. And I do have a small forest just outside my windows, so I guess I can

make due with this place for a few years until I find my dream house out there in the great wide somewhere.

[AlicornsPrayer]

Farmer here....We just upgraded from a 3 acre farm to a 21 acre farm 3 years ago. 

 

We raise goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, peacocks, chickens, ducks, and geese. Parent stock are our pets, the offspring are used for filling our freezer and selling at the local farmer swaps. 

We're also slowly building an orchard and raised garden (I have high blood pressure so can't garden the traditional way), with plans to add bee hives in a couple of years once the orchard is established and mature. We also plan on building a pond, so we can add fish and that be food on the table or for sale as well. 

[Starscream]

I want a small farm. I do have land but its way out of reach. I have worked on farms, as a farm hand.

 

 

I would like fruit trees, Grapes, Hops, barley and bees (thats for my wine and beer/mead making) vegetables. I used to use part of a friends farm for our garden.

 

Livestock I would like. Goats, Llama (or alpaca) chooks, turks, guinea fowl, I'd like a peacock. More or les what AlicornsPrayer listed.

 

I would like an outdoor -  summer kitchen so I can process food into jars or cans.

 

ALSO -  I want to get into aquarium trade coral farm (would have ot be indoors)

[AlicornsPrayer]

3 hours ago, Starscream said:

I want a small farm. I do have land but its way out of reach. I have worked on farms, as a farm hand.

 

 

Actually, may not be as out of reach as you think. Depends on where you own your land, and laws regarding livestock owning. And more urban areas, as well as city laws, are becoming more acceptable of law changes for such purposes.

 

There's this new trend that's been happening for about a decade now, called 'Hobby Farming' and 'Homesteading' and works very well for those just starting out. And if you've worked as a farm hand in the past? That will go a long way in getting your farm started off easier. The secret is start small, and as you get one established, start on a new addition. We started with chickens and ducks, worked ourselves up to the bigger critters. 

If you want to bounce ideas? I'll be more then happy to hook you up with some good resources and homesteading/hobby farming groups. Just give me a shout. Don't let go of your dreams. If this old lady managed to make her dream of farming a reality? Then you can do it for sure. 

 

By the way? Good to see you still around. Missed ya bunches! (((((HUGZ)))))))

[Starscream]

My land is 2-300km from where I live. so its way out of reach - I'm already knowledgeable in a number of areas - I'll get around to it eventually. We might be moving to Nova Scotia, since phase one of that plan was completed just last week.

[AlicornsPrayer]

1 hour ago, Starscream said:

My land is 2-300km from where I live. so its way out of reach - I'm already knowledgeable in a number of areas - I'll get around to it eventually. We might be moving to Nova Scotia, since phase one of that plan was completed just last week.

 

Just don't put it off forever. Nova Scotia eh? :D 

 

[Starscream]

1 minute ago, AlicornsPrayer said:

 

Just don't put it off forever. Nova Scotia eh?

 

Part of the problem with our land is lack of transportation. My husband just got his full drivers license last week. It takes two years to finish the process in ontario/canada. We are looking at properties out there. we are trying to sell the land, but if we don't its not a big deal, its land... it won't go bad. Its almost 7 acres.

[AlicornsPrayer]

8 minutes ago, Starscream said:

Part of the problem with our land is lack of transportation. My husband just got his full drivers license last week. It takes two years to finish the process in ontario/canada. We are looking at properties out there. we are trying to sell the land, but if we don't its not a big deal, its land... it won't go bad. Its almost 7 acres.

 

 

I'll keep my toes crossed for y'all. Hubby hails from Canada if you remember. He finally gave up trying to talk me to move up there after our grand-daughter was born 3 years ago. PMSL!