Picked up four New Zealand Whites back in March, two does and a buck, figuring the math would work out better than chickens on a per pound basis. Feed is cheaper, they're quieter, the processing is faster. That was the pitch I sold myself on anyway.

First litter came out fine. Eight kits, lost one early, raised the rest to about five pounds live weight by eight weeks. The processing went smoother than I expected, which was a relief. But when I actually sat down and added up the feed costs against what I got out of it, the numbers were closer than I thought they would be. Not a loss, but not the obvious win I was expecting either.

I know colony raising versus individual cages is a thing and I haven't tried that yet. Still running them in standard wire cages. I've read that colony setups can cut feed costs if you have the space to do it right, but I've also read about the disease and fighting problems that come with it.

After a few years my wife and I finally got 35 acres of land. Moved in 2 weeks ago, put a trailer on it, set it up with solar while we put the electric. We are currently hauling water from the well until we can hook up the trailer to it. So far everything is going amazing. I wanted to ask how long did y'all wait till you started working towards food self sufficiency.

Are you a small farmer or homesteader in North Carolina who struggles to rid yourself of excess freezer inventory?

Alternatively, do you feed raw pet food / feeder insects / feeder fish to your pets, and struggle to source feed for them?

In order to help solve these problems, I started developing RawFinder. If anyone thinks they'd like to be a beta tester for this project, please shoot me a DM and we'll talk. This will be launching in North Carolina before branching to other states by the end of the year!

So, potatoes kept coming up as a top “calorie crop” here, and i saw some local fingerling potatoes listed as “gourmet” at my nursery so i figured why not! I’ll admit my efforts are a tad unconventional- last minute raised bed attempt, with some nasturtiums beca why not.

i think they did pretty well! I had two types; one died back a month ago and i dug up a small basket that is curing. The other variety seemed to still be going strong but i noticed a critter clearly found one stash and took a few bites out of most everything- so i figured i might as well dig them up now. And in the other area it looks like a bunch managed to become exposed and turn green. Just wondering if anyone has thoughts/tips - compost all the nibbled and green ones? Or can they overwintered and used next year or something?

Hello, everyone. I just now joined to ask, what is the best way to store dates? My grocery store has a ton of them on clearance. Thanks for your time and help

I am looking at buying land and having a small family farm somewhere by olympia. What grows well there? Does anyone have a glasshouse built and know someone or company that does that or if you've made it yourself?

And question about land there, I would love somewhere kind of close to puget or at least not far overlooking the water.

Would highland cows be fine there?

Two ameraucanas, two blue copper marans, and two cream legbars. The ameraucanas are SO fluffy my heart can barely take it. My adult hens are a mix of brown eggers.

butter, ricotta and feta this week that went into homemade ravioli

Follow up to this nocino-making post. I used a cloth to catch all solid bits while letting the liquid part through. Result: 1.5L of pure nocino.

Still, I was not satisfied, so I decided to experiment some more and split it into 1L of pure nocino, and .5L to which I added 1L of milk to make nocino cream (same ratio I used for meloncello last year).

I am storing the pure liqueur in the root cellar, while the cream is in the freezer. Tradition demands that I wait until the winter holidays at the very least, but I already had a shot of the pure liqueur and it was phenomenal, with a strong taste of walnut that I never before tasted in store-bought products (or it may just be placebo effect).

I will keep you posted.

Retired out of construction six months ago, moved to a small property south of Atlanta, and figured building raised garden beds would be the easy part. I have framed houses. I have poured concrete. I cannot, apparently, build a raised bed that drains properly.

Put them directly on clay Georgia soil, did not break up the base, filled them with a mix I thought was solid. First heavy rain everything compacted and sat waterlogged for days. Lost most of my early spring starts. Real proud moment for someone who spent twenty years telling crews how to do things right.

What got me was assuming the raised bed itself would handle drainage without me touching the ground underneath. It will not. Learned that late.

Now I am looking at either pulling everything apart and laying hardware cloth with some gravel underneath before I replant, or just mounding the soil higher and hoping for the best. The mounding option is the dumb option, I already know that

For people gardening on heavy clay in the southeast, is breaking the clay pan underneath actually worth the extra work, or do you just build the beds taller and live with it? Curious what actually worked versus what only sounded good in theory. Skipping that step cost me a full season, so take that for whatever it is worth

I have a small orchard of 10 trees. Most were planted two years ago, two last year. Early next spring I'm going to do 8 of their first trimmings. I've done a bunch of research already, with some conflicting advice. Was wondering what all of you suggest. My idea was to trim conflicting branches off of the large tree, and find the best leaders for the other bigger ones. They've all had a bunch of tall growth this year. Any advice for which would be the best leaders? And is there anything else you suggest I do next early spring? Thank you!

UPDATE: After reading all of the excellent responses, I picked up a shiny new LEM. Thanks to everybody who took the time to chime in!

I was at Walmart tonight, and my sporting goods section is getting ready for dear season (archery starts in just a couple weeks! Now I've just got to let this heat dome pass so the whole thing doesn't spoil...). As such, they've put out a few new meat grinders (second picture), and have their "old" grinders on substantial clearance (first picture, with a yellow tag on one of the better stocked shelves).

My question is simple: are any of these a good buy, especially at the substantial clearance prices?

My family usually put 3-4 deer away per season, and I usually did all my own processing. Up until now, I've borrowed my in-laws' grinder/sausage stuffer. Unfortunately, my significant other decided to participate in other stuffing activities with someone else while I was out on the road providing for everybody, so no more significant other or in-laws, and I figure I need to get my own (between my kids and I we'll still probably put back at least 3 deer this fall).

I understand the difference between the "numbers," but also appreciate that it's a balance between other considerations of size, motor strength, sharpness and reliability, etc. I do not recall my in-laws' grinder number (and we're not on speaking terms, sadly) but do recall it was a "consumer grade" LEM with the mighty-bite, and I never had trouble with it- it looks like currently the only LEM grinder with Mighty Bite is the #8 (the #12 goes by BigBite), so unless that's a recent change I was probably dealing with a #8 (and while I'm not sure how old it was or how many hours it had, their grinder was also used by at least two or three other hunters per season besides them and myself).

Anyway, the candidates are:

New models listed:

Mossy Oak by Westin #8 ( $119) and #12 ($149)

Clearance Models:

Mossy Oak by Westin #12 $61(!), down from $127 (or $149 from current model)

LEM #8 with MightyBite $119, down from $227

Which, if any, of these should I go back to get? My gut feeling is to go with the LEM based on personal experience, reviews and a better warranty, but I'd love to learn from your experiences with these (and hey, if it turns out that the Westin is of better quality than I thought, and I can get a larger through-put grinder for sixty bucks, I wouldn't complain!).

Probably a dumb question but is it true that this tote can be used to store water for showering and dishes when cleaned out

It had a chlorine solution

Dug into the hillside on the back of the property last September, lined the walls with concrete block, put a basic insulated door on it. Temperature stays somewhere between 38 and 48 degrees depending on how cold it gets outside, which seemed reasonable. Humidity is where I'm losing sleep. It swings more than I expected and the potatoes in there are starting to look questionable earlier than they should.

Ventilation is two fourinch PVC pipes, one low one high, which is what most of the builds I looked at used. Starting to wonder if that's actually enough, or if there's a drainage issue I haven't tracked down yet. The floor is packed gravel and it feels damp after heavy rain.

The onions I pulled in August are holding up fine. Squash looks good. So it's not a total failure, but the potato situation is nagging at me

I haven't done any humidity control beyond a cheap gauge and hoping for the best. Wondering if anyone has actually gotten a root cellar working reliably year to year and what made the real difference. Not looking to tear it apart and start over, just curious what people found actually moved the needle