Becoming Self-Sufficient

Check out this book from the 1940's detailing one family's move to the country and the things they learned about becoming self-sufficient along the way. There's a lot of information in this book showing everything from how to set up a homestead correctly, designing the ideal home, to the different roles that each family member is expected to play in making this successful. This book and the one I've linked to below, even though they were both written decades ago, have some very good ideas for those who are interested in learning how to be more self sufficient.

War Vegetable Garden

This interesting book, published in 1918, has a lot of good information about home gardening. It's fascinating to see how some things never change....they were advocating using compost and rotating crops to prevent insect and disease problems even in 1918. However, some of the chemicals they recommend to control insects and diseases are very toxic and are thankfully no longer available. Some of the ideas for ways to store vegetables are still useful today. Apparently there were severe seed shortages and everyone was being urged to use their seed carefully and not waste any. This is an interesting window into a difficult time in our country. Maybe we can all learn useful things from old documents like this, especially as we face the possibility of difficult days ahead for us.

Feels Like Summer Inside Greenhouse

With the sunlight we've been experiencing, the interior of the greenhouse feels like a summer day. The plants are doing well....especially the weeds. When the temperatures get too high in here, we have to open the doors and vents to allow some of the heat to escape. The automatic ventilation system isn't wired in yet, so this has to be done manually. We will plant some tomato and pepper plants in here very soon in an effort to have really early veggies at the market and for our CSA.

Sunshine At Last!

The inversion has disappeared.....for a while anyway... and we are enjoying the glorious winter sunlight. The snow has melted and even though the temperatures are still very cold, the hope of spring feels even closer! It's hard to believe that this greenhouse had a snowdrift halfway up one side just a few weeks ago.

Seeds Are Starting To Arrive

Finally, the seeds are starting to arrive. All the hours spent searching the catalogs for just the right varieties, figuring out how much seed to order, and then placing the orders, are now starting to pay off. As each order arrives, they are inventoried to make sure we've received the correct seeds and amounts ordered. Next, we'll begin the process of putting the seeding dates for each veggie on the calendar....to be started under lights inside or seeded directly to the market garden field.

A Little Cheer During The Winter Months

All the Christmas decorations have come down and been put away in storage except for the two big pots of evergreens and branches by the front door. These pots add a bit of color and interest to our front porch during the bleak, winter months. As spring arrives, they will be planted with beautiful flowers.

Beautiful Winter Sunset

We've been blessed with some really spectacular sunsets this winter. We really appreciate them after we've had several days of inversion where the only thing you see is gray sky and no sunlight. The days are gradually getting longer and spring will soon be here. We've even had a few robins visiting us lately. The crabapple tree just outside the kitchen window has become a favorite hangout for many different varieties of birds. We keep a watch out for the early spring bulbs - they usually bloom in February and are soon followed by warmer days.

Snow Removal

Just a few days ago, we were trying to keep the snow cleared off the driveway with the help of our little garden tractor, Hank. Now, with a few days of warmer weather, most of the snow is gone and we're dealing with an inversion (lots of fog). The temperatures don't fluctuate a lot from the highs in the daytime to the lows at night. It's just a cold, dreary time of year. It does provide an opportunity to get those seed orders sent in, work on equipment and get it running well before spring arrives, and prepare for the new CSA.

Drying Peppers

These beautiful Hungarian Wax Peppers were allowed to ripen naturally on the plant in the fall. Here they've been placed on a round pizza pan and are going into a very low oven to dry. Our food dehydrator was completely full at this point with drying peppers, and we were loading the remaining peppers on cookie sheets and pizza pans to dry in the oven. This takes several hours (up to two days!) depending on the size of the pepper.

When the peppers are completely dry and crackle when you push on them, they're ready to either store or grind into the best Hungarian paprika you've ever had! We store ours in gallon size zip lock bags until we're ready to grind them.

Using a coffee mill or spice grinder, remove the stems and the seeds if you prefer a mild paprika. If you like more heat in your spices, add some or all of the seeds when grinding the pepper. That's the beauty of making your own....you get to choose exactly how hot you like it! After you've ground everything into a fine powder, store it in a canning jar with a tightly closed lid, in a cool, dark place. Don't store this on a shelf near your stove. The light and heat will negatively affect the quality of your stored spices.

The uses for this type of spice are endless. Keep in mind that these are pure spices without any added fillers, so go easy at first until you find out how much you should use when cooking with them. You will probably find that you use much less of this spice than you would spices purchased in the supermarket.

In addition to the Hungarian wax peppers, we dried both green and red jalapeno peppers, negro peppers, mulato peppers, and chimayo peppers. We spent one day grinding all of the dried peppers and storing them in glass jars. If you prefer a smokier flavor, you can put the peppers in a smoker before drying them. What a great way to extend the flavors of summer all through the winter months!

Remembering Past Success

This picture, taken in June 2008, shows part of our first year's market garden. We deliberately started with a small area, 50'x120'. It was our goal to figure out if we liked growing veggies on this scale and if we could make any money doing it. This small garden proved to be very successful and that success has encouraged us to dramatically increase our growing area to 1.5 acres this year. We've also expanded the number of varieties that will be planted this year. We want to provide lots of variety to our customers including the veggies that are so delicate they can't be shipped long distances as well as varieties that aren't being grown commercially. There is something so satisfying about selling that beautiful, freshly harvested tomato or bunch of lettuce to a grateful customer. They know that what they're buying from us was growing in the fresh air and sunshine just hours before they take it home to eat it. They know it's safe to feed to their children....no pesticides or chemicals were used to grow it. We love educating them about the importance of buying locally - not only are they getting a superior product, but they're also helping small farms remain sustainable.

Growing A Healthy Soil

One of the elements of small-scale, sustainable farming is trying to reduce the amount of compost you have to purchase to improve the fertility of your soil. We have a small flock of fine wool sheep and alpacas that we keep for this purpose. They provide us with top quality wool for spinning and felting, but also with lots of wonderful manure. Alpacas are unique....they prefer to pick a spot in the pasture to use as a latrine. At some point (only they know why!), they decide that spot is filled to capacity and they choose another area to begin using. This makes the collection process pretty simple! We've heard of other alpaca owners who routinely use a shop vacuum every weekend to collect the pellets to use in their compost piles. We find a shovel and wheelbarrow suit our needs.

Another way we try to improve the health and fertility of our soil is by growing green manure cover crops. Green manures are often a mix of two or more types of seed - oats, buckwheat, winter rye, sudangrass, hairy vetch, etc. These are allowed to grow and then are either cut and tilled into the soil or just tilled in without removing the top growth of the plant. Nutrients are released into the topsoil as the green manure decomposes. Each type of plant adds something unique to the soil. The legumes (vetch, peas, alfalfa, etc.) add nitrogen to the soil.

Having a healthy, vital soil is our top priority. Healthy soil means healthy plants and healthy plants don't have as many disease and insect problems. That's critically important when growing produce without using pesticides!

Seed Catalogs Are Pouring In

During the month of January the seed catalogs have been pouring in. While it's cold and snowy outside, it's great fun to sit by a warm fire with a cup of tea dreaming about this year's market garden and planning what to plant. Being very conscious of what our customers WANT is our first priority. We keep a list of their requests during the summer months of what they'd like to see us grow next year and we make every effort to bring those products to them at the market.

As with any small business, we must be very careful how we spend each dollar. Comparing shipping costs, keeping track of germination rates and where the best seeds were purchased, and each year trying to improve our knowledge and skill as growers. Sometimes we've had great success, bringing a product to the market that sells exceptionally well and other times we've brought in products that we thought would be good sellers, only to have very little interest in them. Last year we planted some very extraordinary hot peppers (12 varieties of them!), and while they were beautiful and delicious, we found it difficult to sell them because our customers were unfamiliar with them. Providing them with free weekly recipes and sending them home with free samples helped to build a market for these peppers. We will continue to teach people about these wonderful peppers at this year's market.

More Winter Projects

Another winter project....repairing our two Cub Cadet garden tractors in preparation for spring planting. The engine on our Model 169 Cub Cadet needs to be rebuilt along with some other minor repairs. The Model 169 will be our main tractor, used for tilling, cultivating and mowing. Our other tractor, a Model 105, is used mainly for snow removal and some mowing.

The Beauty Of Winter

Yes, I'm anxious for the snows to melt, the weather to warm, and the soil to dry out enough to be able to plant this springs seeds, but winter has a quiet, serene beauty that I sometimes forget to enjoy. We've been experimenting this winter in our unheated greenhouse to see what will grow in our 6a zone during the winter months. Even with a snow drift piled against one wall of this greenhouse, the spinach, radishes, mache, and claytonia are snug and happy. The carrots even sprouted, although they haven't put on any growth to speak of. We planted the seeds a month later than we'd have liked because we hadn't finished putting up the greenhouse until October. Walking through the piles of snow into this greenhouse is like walking into spring, and I breathe in deeply the smell of damp earth. For now, I remind myself to enjoy this quiet, restful part of the farming experience because VERY SOON it will get really busy and I'll remember these days wistfully.

Welcome to the Dragonfly Farm Idaho Blog

Welcome to the Dragonfly Farm Idaho blog - Adventures In Sustainable Farming. Please join us on our journey as we begin our second year of small scale, sustainable farming in Idaho. Our first Market Garden was planted in 2008. We sold our naturally grown produce at the local Farmer's Market every Saturday from April through October. We are expanding our growing area this year to about 1.5 acres and will be offering a limited membership CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in addition to selling at local farmer's markets. We hope this blog will provide an opportunity to share our experiences with you. We look forward to seeing your comments.