Homestead Happiness is... eating a meal you have grown / reared yourself
One of the greatest joys of homesteading is sitting down with the family to enjoy a meal that you have grown, or reared, yourself.
This happily is becoming a more frequent event for us as our homesteading, gardening and stock rearing skills improve year by year.
Last year we achieved 'vegetable independence' for 4 whole months in the summer when we didn't have to buy any vegetables or salads from the store or supermarket.
We ate more healthily and with greater variety. It is so easy when you buy your groceries from the supermarket each week to get into a vegetable rut. You just get the same half dozen or so items each time - carrots, potatoes, onions, broccoli and frozen peas perhaps. And do you know what varieties of each vegetable you are buying - for sure no!
When we grow our own veg we like to try new things every season. This year we have kohlrabi, borecole and cucamelons for example - never had any of these before. And we have four different varieties of courgettes (zucchinis) - you can never have too many courgettes can you 😉
We have been 'egg independent' now for over three years. Our hens just keep on a-laying come rain or shine. Thank you ladies.
This year we got another batch of broiler chickens to raise for meat. Last year we tentatively raised five birds, this year we went up to 9. The birds we got were Ross Cobbs - similar to Cornish Cross in the US I believe.
We have got plans to move up to 50 meat birds in a year or two to give us 'chicken independence' with a bird a week in the freezer. But we would like to be able to rear our own meat birds rather than buying in the chicks each time.
Yesterday I dispatched the remaining five of this year's birds and today we had first of them for tea. We had let these last five free range and run to 14 weeks rather than the commercial, intensive feeding 8 week target to give them something of a better life.
We slow roasted the chicken for 2 hours and it was delicious. Served with our own potatoes, carrots, courgettes and beans there is nothing that beats a home grown meal.
That is my homestead happiness. What's yours?
[all images taken by the author]
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For me this is inspirational, it a very long road to any kind of food independence. I am working on being less dependent of supermarket food and try to find Local Food, and once or twice a week we eat a 100% local meal. I think anyone can achieve that. And it's really rewarding to know the story of your food.
Glad you like the post. That's how I started with local food. Then I started on an 'Eat Who You Know' program - only buying from local producers that we had met. Then it just got more and more local until I reached my own back garden.
Worth starting with some microgreens on a windowsill. They grow easily and quickly. About 10 days after sowing hey presto you have your own salad leaves. Salad leaf independence is pretty easy - even in the winter.
thank you @raincountry for resteeming this post :) even though I read it all I have to say this section got me "Yesterday I dispatched the remaining five of this year's birds and today we had first of them for tea" now I'm wondering what chicken flavored tea is like ? ;) good read @Pennsif thanks for sharing :)
Chicken tea is okay - just make sure you take the feathers off first 😊
lol good tip though now that I've had time to recover from thinking :P that tea might be a bit greasy ;) lol
Lovely post! We live in the city but grow some of our own vegetables and fruits too - not enough for independence, but certainly enough for a few meals now and then. They may not look as nice as the veggies from the supermarket, but it always felt special to eat something we grew ourselves!
Grow for independence, one carrot at a time...
Lovely! I was just thinking this same thing a few minutes ago about the independence and how much joy I get from serving food we have raised ourselves. This thought was while I was preparing our salad with all kind of goodies from the garden from lettuces to edible flowers, peppers and onions, plus some greens that are growing wild like the Lamb's Quarter. Even threw in a couple of amaranth leaves.
Soon we will be getting our own eggs too and I am very excited about that.
I NEED to remember to try growing kohlrabi next year. I have never had it but it sure sounds good.
The edible flowers sound good - what ones do you grow? I've recently learnt that Lamb's Quarter is what we call Fat Hen here in the UK - I believe the chickens like it too 😊
Kohlrabi is good as you eat both the leaves and the roots - although I don't know yet what it tastes like !
I grow pansies, borage, and nasturtiums for many reasons but these are the three I use most in my salads. :)
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I just finished dinner, but am hungry again. :-) Way to go guys! I love hearing the different names of veggies from across the pond, too. Your broilers look so much more healthy than the cornish cross breeds over here in the US... even the pastured/free range ones!
Glad it made you hungry - the chicken was good !
Might try some Sasso broilers next if I can get hold of them. They come from France but are a slower growing, good meat bird :
Yummy @pennsif
Thank you.
Well said, well done and bravo. The Pirates salute you. :)
Thank you.
Your veggies look soooo delicious!! I really wanted to grow fava beans this year, but I am glad I didn't try since most everything got eaten up by stupid critters. But, man, I hope to try again next near!
Don't forget the nice Chianti :-)
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The bugs and the critters are a nuisance - mainly slugs and caterpillars for us at the moment.
Put cheap lager in some yoghurt pots and bury them in the soil the lip of the pot is flush with level of the soil, the slugs get attracted to it and then drown in it. Diatomaceous Earth is good too. Put it around the plants you want to protect. The characteristics of it dry out and cut the critters so they die.
I tend to not have a lot of variety in my choices of vegetables by choice. There's a lot of veggies that I don't care for, so I don't grow them. For instance, in the past, I've grown some really nice cabbage, but I don't eat it and I have a hard time giving it away, so I stopped growing it.
Anyway, I haven't had to buy green beans in 5 or 6 years. I'm still eating the beans I canned in 2015.
We had potatoes that were grown in the garden until about May this year.
I won't run out of canned tomatoes this year.
Last year was a bad year for me for carrots, I've been buying organic carrots all year. I buy canned organic sweet corn because I don't grow it.
That is very true. Only grow what you want to eat.
Sounds like you are doing well with many of the veg that you don't have to buy anymore.
I'm with you, all the way! I really enjoy eating from my own yard, whether it's food I grow or wild plants that I know how to eat, including garden weeds, lol. It lets us eat a lot more variety than I could ever buy from grocery stores. And it's a lot more enjoyable than shopping! Enjoy all your produce! :D