brownhounds
Banned
How many homesteaders on here? We need to start a new sub forum called Homesteaders. I would love to hear what yall do to grow, can, and store food. Preppers would be welcome as well.
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Homesteading
- Thread starter brownhounds
- Start date
Capt Quirk
Senior Member
We have started a homestead, been at it going on 9 years now? Wow. We aren't as successful as we'd like to be, but have managed to survive off grid, pretty well at times. Other times... not so well. But we get by.
brownhounds
Banned
It's been a good way of life for me
How would you preserve seeds and produce without power? And, would you be able to feed your livestock without a feed store?
How would you preserve seeds and produce without power? And, would you be able to feed your livestock without a feed store?
Capt Quirk
Senior Member
Ideally, a root cellar would suffice for that. Mine is still only half dug. We aren't grid tied, but we have a generator for the necessary and the little perks. We did start with solar, but the system slowly died out over a 5 year span. Trying to set aside for new batteries and some better gear and try again.
Jeff C.
Chief Grass Master
Should be an interesting info in here, glad it was added.
Big7
The Oracle
Me too!
oops1
Buzzard Expert
Do homesteaders have the interwebz?
NE GA Pappy
Mr. Pappy
yes, I would rather be at home instead.
Capt Quirk
Senior Member
No. We send postcards to a firm in India, and they post it for us, then send us letters with replies.
Big7
The Oracle
I'd like to know from folks that do it.
I've had a thread or two about getting your
mail, drivin' license, GFL, etc.. if you "live" on
a boat or RV.
Thinking seriously about going mostly off the grid.
No matter if it's boards and dirt, boat or RV.
I keep liking a big boat better.
How much $$$ would it REALLY take to get a jump
on it and everything you need?
I've had a thread or two about getting your
mail, drivin' license, GFL, etc.. if you "live" on
a boat or RV.
Thinking seriously about going mostly off the grid.
No matter if it's boards and dirt, boat or RV.
I keep liking a big boat better.
How much $$$ would it REALLY take to get a jump
on it and everything you need?
Capt Quirk
Senior Member
Depends on how much of a change you can handle. If you can go "Grizzley Adams" style, not much. "Little House on the Prairie", a bit more. You want to take all the best of hood living, and just move it to the middle of nowhere, always plan on it being very expensive. Always expect it to be more than planned
Daddy used to store his seed in tin containers with tight lids so weevils and mice couldn`t get to them. Before electricity they either canned or dried their vegetables and made preserves out of their fruits. Mama also pickled the peaches.
Feed for the stock in the winter was corn and it was kept in the corn crib. Fodder was pulled and stored in one side of the corn crib too.
About the only things Daddy purchased from the feed and seed store was guano, soda (nitrogen), tobacco seed, and cotton seed. And the chemicals to make his tobacco beds every January. Tobacco and cotton were his money crops along with fur trapped every winter.
I still have some of his corn saved for seed, that was passed down the line from my Great Great Grandaddy. It`s a white field corn, Dent, I think it is.
Big7
The Oracle
Depends on how much of a change you can handle. If you can go "Grizzley Adams" style, not much. "Little House on the Prairie", a bit more. You want to take all the best of hood living, and just move it to the middle of nowhere, always plan on it being very expensive. Always expect it to be more than planned
Where in Ga. would you start looking?
I just need to feed me and prolly a good dog.
Trying to decide on a lil' dirt with a big lake or river.
Maybe guide for some supplemental income.
Or.. Already (I think) have a pretty good idea on
the saltwater deal. (not that I'm an expert)
That would call for a living boat and a fishing boat.
Already have 2 smaller ones.
brownhounds
Banned
When he canned the produce, did he do it over an open fire with the jars in boiling water? And, did he have to cook the produce longer that he would've if it was in a pressure cooker?
oops1
Buzzard Expert
This is going to be a slow thread then
Mama canned on a wood stove and I`m not sure how she did it then. When they got electricity she was using a pressure cooker. I remember that it was a big one.
In her later years she took to blanching and freezing a lot of vegetables, except for string beans. She continued to can them.
Home canned vegetables have a lot better flavor than frozen. I can tell you that.
NE GA Pappy
Mr. Pappy
Frozen green beans won't hold a candle to canned white half runners.
Mom puts up around 150 quarts of half runners every year. Being a big family, when we get together to eat, she normally fixes 6 quarts at a time.
We still can tomatos, beans, and vegetable soup. We freeze cream corn and some on the cob, but that takes a lot of room in the freezer. Okra is cut up, rolled in flour and baked in the oven for a few minutes, then frozen. If you don't bake it, it ain't fit to eat after it is frozen.
Onions get hung up by the stalk in the basement. Squash is boiled, bagged and frozen. Cukes are eaten fresh mostly, but we do put up a few pickles from time to time. Pickles are an art, and I ain't a artist. Yet.
Mom puts up around 150 quarts of half runners every year. Being a big family, when we get together to eat, she normally fixes 6 quarts at a time.
We still can tomatos, beans, and vegetable soup. We freeze cream corn and some on the cob, but that takes a lot of room in the freezer. Okra is cut up, rolled in flour and baked in the oven for a few minutes, then frozen. If you don't bake it, it ain't fit to eat after it is frozen.
Onions get hung up by the stalk in the basement. Squash is boiled, bagged and frozen. Cukes are eaten fresh mostly, but we do put up a few pickles from time to time. Pickles are an art, and I ain't a artist. Yet.
Capt Quirk
Senior Member
My favorite way of preserving fruit, is to make wine
blood on the ground
Cross threading is better than two lock washers.
Can you give more details on the okra? I've tried off and on for 15 years to freeze okra and its only fit for soup at best when thawed. I'd like to know the process in detail if its not to much to ask.
When I was growing up, most of the older members of my family lived what we would call an off-the-grid homestead-type life. Most of them never worked on a job in their life, just raised and grew everything they needed. Most of them grew a small crop of tobacco for cash money, and did a lot of bartering with neighbors for stuff, also. If they had enough land, they would usually run some beef cattle, too. My great-grandpa used to sell enough coon hides every year to pay his property taxes. Many of them also sold stuff like tanbark, ginseng, and sometimes, liquid corn. Most of them had no electricity or running water. They would carry water from the spring, and many had a springhouse to act as a refrigerator.
I personally grew up twixt and tween. We grew a huge garden and tater patch every year, stored probably 60-70 bushels of taters, and canned hundreds of cans of vegetables, fruits, sausage, and such. Apples were often dried too, and the last picking of half-runners were allowed to mature and dried for "leather-britches" beans. We had a milk cow, churned our own butter. The yard was always full of chickens. One of my grandmas had geese that they plucked for feather beds and pillows.
We had a smokehouse, like everyone else around, and we killed and cured hogs. We also usually raised a beef steer to butcher every year. We grew tobacco as a cash crop, and worked it with a mule or draft horse. Grandpa raised sorghum and made cane syrup/molasses. Most folks had a few stands of bees, and a small orchard. We had running water, but it was gravity-fed from a spring up the holler.
My homeplace still has a couple of root cellars, but the smokehouse, outhouse, and chicken house are gone. I don't have any livestock now, because I don't want to be a slave to them. I like to go places and do stuff, which is impossible if you have a bunch of critters that have to be fed, watered, and taken care of. I still grow, can, and freeze a lot of stuff.
The two main obstacles to homesteading right now IMO:
1. Land and property taxes are ridiculously expensive in most places; and ordinances/zoning/government regulations are also ridiculously prohibitive. It would be really hard to purchase and pay taxes on enough land to be self-sufficient on if you weren't working a good-paying job. They have also phased out most cash crops that you can grow in small amounts with a minimum of equipment, like tobacco. You might be able to cultivate a market for herbs, berries, grass-fed meat, or some such if you're willing to jump through the hoops of regulation.
2. There is no longer a sense of community in most places like there was back when I was growing up. Back then, every neighbor for miles around was likely a relative or friend, and the whole community got together to help each other with bigger jobs that would have been almost impossible for one family to handle on their own. It would be hard to pull that off now.
Most of them had no electricity or running water. They would carry water from the spring, and many had a springhouse to act as a refrigerator.I personally grew up twixt and tween. We grew a huge garden and tater patch every year, stored probably 60-70 bushels of taters, and canned hundreds of cans of vegetables, fruits, sausage, and such. Apples were often dried too, and the last picking of half-runners were allowed to mature and dried for "leather-britches" beans. We had a milk cow, churned our own butter. The yard was always full of chickens. One of my grandmas had geese that they plucked for feather beds and pillows.
We had a smokehouse, like everyone else around, and we killed and cured hogs. We also usually raised a beef steer to butcher every year. We grew tobacco as a cash crop, and worked it with a mule or draft horse. Grandpa raised sorghum and made cane syrup/molasses. Most folks had a few stands of bees, and a small orchard. We had running water, but it was gravity-fed from a spring up the holler.
My homeplace still has a couple of root cellars, but the smokehouse, outhouse, and chicken house are gone. I don't have any livestock now, because I don't want to be a slave to them. I like to go places and do stuff, which is impossible if you have a bunch of critters that have to be fed, watered, and taken care of. I still grow, can, and freeze a lot of stuff.
The two main obstacles to homesteading right now IMO:
1. Land and property taxes are ridiculously expensive in most places; and ordinances/zoning/government regulations are also ridiculously prohibitive. It would be really hard to purchase and pay taxes on enough land to be self-sufficient on if you weren't working a good-paying job. They have also phased out most cash crops that you can grow in small amounts with a minimum of equipment, like tobacco. You might be able to cultivate a market for herbs, berries, grass-fed meat, or some such if you're willing to jump through the hoops of regulation.
2. There is no longer a sense of community in most places like there was back when I was growing up. Back then, every neighbor for miles around was likely a relative or friend, and the whole community got together to help each other with bigger jobs that would have been almost impossible for one family to handle on their own. It would be hard to pull that off now.
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