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Bringing food production home

and...

plants

more farm pic's man can't live on garden alone

this is the worm shed i have 186 sq m. of worm beds under this roof. also a commercial harvester in action.

worm castings at work, this row was planted all at one time, look on the ground at the worm castings i spilled a wheelie and was to lazy to shovel it up....so i just tilled it in. a picture is worth a thousand words....even if by accident.
this plot no longer exists, it was covered with a 8.5mx30.5m greenhouse.
remember the slave labor kids in the photo of the shed? my son grew into this collard green eating man like brute....the fruit of my loins...hahaha

Awesome pictures, I'm just about to harvset some collard greens and need an authentic reciepe form a real southerner, you got one?

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Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

OMG! When do you sleep?

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contentment

greens are easy, if they come from the dirt they are full of sand. my great aunt washed hers 7 times to remove grit, AP would be grit free. the greens can be chopped, or tore from the ribs of the leaf...thats the long hard way, i just chop to 2.5cm squares or so. start season with a few pieces of sliced pork fat back, or salt pork. fry them and render them out in the same soup pot your going to cook the greens in. pour off any renderings you wish not to use, this is a taste issue, i leave it. add the chopped greens and a medium finely chopped oinion. start to simmer on low to medium heat with just a splash of water to start the steaming reducing process...much like you would a cabbage. as it looses water it cooks down a full pot becomes a third. cook till tender add water while cooking if you desire more"pot likker"
some folks sprinkle/douse their greens with vinegar that has had hot peppers soaking in it, pickled peppers i guess. serve with corn bread.
i seen a post in nash's republic....(stands and salutes the harley davidson flag) about what to do with turnips. turnips are cooked the exact same way....some mix in mustard greens with them....some don't.
turnip greens are cooked, and about 2/3 of the way thru the process the peeled roots are sliced an laid on top to slow simmer till tender. we slice and eat the roots raw after salting them too.
the corn bread is just a coarse crumbly type of staple made from corn meal water egg and oil cooked baked in a round cast iron skillet. cooked into muffins or long sticks is "corn pone"
well thats enuff southern culture for one day

sleep? thats after beer and right before coffee right? well i homested so i keep busy. i sort of started down this path about 10 years ago. i stepped back and looked at the way i and my fellow country men lived, what we worked our lives away for... the american dream?. i looked at what the food was made of. i missed seen my kids grow an inch every 1000 hours i put in making some coperation filthy rich...so they could sell me out in the end if i stayed and wasted my life.
i seen greed, so much that the end of the path looked like poverty, hunger, chaos, i took another trail one that my family and i hacked out of the unknown to a place that suited us. then we worked on securing a source of clean water and healthy food.
in the end its about survival, personaly i truly think that we are on the verge of the end. not a bible end, but the end of being able to feed our selves as a nation. if you rely on the supermarket for food you will find better than half comes from china,mexico, argentina.....it gets worse every day. i will not eat fish raised in china, that was fed manure or industral waste. who enforces the laws? who is to stop them from raising in an unsafe or toxic way? bottom line is supermarkets buy from the cheapest source, because thats what corps. do they will feed you crap and get rich. the farmer will feed manure, or add lean meat powder, cut the infant formula with melamine....anything to cut costs so the exporter will buy and sell to you.
double your garden folks, its about survival......now that ya'll think im a nut case i'll get off the soap box....hehehe

its really not so bad, and i do have help. i hire local students to help plant and pick. i have helped two thru collage while working here. for me its a labor of love....i do what i love and i see my kids, i was allowed to go to every school funtion every award day. i took my own path.

fantastic

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contentment

amen big worm, you're preaching to the perverted here

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Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

You bloody rippa.....

That is phenomenal Worms........ I had no idea of the extent of your setup, it's HUGE.

Excellent, really looking forward to seeing more of what your doing and what you've done..... Great work...

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www.backyardfarming.com.au
Bringing Food Production Home

that is the life it is just so hard to give up that "apparent" security of a job! At the end of the day gotta have some form of an income to live the way we do.

i so agree, i just left the rat race...no retirement or insurance. i still have a live bait biz., and work for my self.

What a fantastic set-up you have
Really enjoying reading your posts and getting a look into your lifestyle

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Cheers
Tristrin
our aquaponics http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... =18&t=6875
backyard viewtopic.php?f=24&t=107