Thursday, April 8, 2021: Someone Check My Math...
Well, we didn't have work last night. My boss texted me, but in my order of operations for the evening, I woke up, drank my energy drink, and then checked my text messages. From here on out, I'll change that up a smidge. Since I was up all night on my regular schedule, I used the time to do some much needed catching up on non-garden things. I ran the printer all night, changed the dies on my reloading press to start running 9mm, chatted with friends, and built guns. All quietly, because everyone was asleep like humans tend to be at night.
In the morning, Melissa went off to Bible study like normal, and I stayed up with the kiddos and fiddles with projects and chores here and there. Nothing particularly noteworthy. When Melissa got back, I went to the gun store to get my friend some reloading components before he came over.
When my friend got here, his kiddos went straight to play with the rabbits, and he and I got straight to work digging plants. Last week he got away with I think eight mulberry trees and a few plums. Today I think we dug him a dozen oaks, two or three pecans, probably 25 strawberries, two goji, a couple more mulberries, and about five thornless blackberries in exchange for some fun parts and a couple rabbit cages. After we dug the plants, he helped me set up the rabbit cages so that we could move blackberry to her own cage and move ALL nine of the grow-out bunnies into the grow out cage. Next order of business for the rabbits will be to bring in two more grow out cages to accommodate more rabbits.
I did a little rabbit math earlier this evening out of curiosity. The last rabbit we cooked for enchiladas gave us nine servings. Bear in mind that there was Rotel, cheese, tortillas, and sauce made with butter, sour cream, broth, and flour, so the rabbit wasn't the only thing in the meal. We also had a side dish of mexican rice.
With one rabbit providing the meat for nine individual meals, each animal provides nearly one percent of one person's yearly meals. So raising out 200 rabbits in a season would yield nearly 33% of the whole family's meat portions for the year. Well managed, with an average litter of eight a month, and a seven month Texas rabbit season, that can be done with The four does we currently have. It's a stretch, so as I'm thinking things out now, I should probably add two does. That would push us into the "30% easily" range. Feed conversion is something I'll be thinking on more coming up, because the fodder to raise that many animals will be significant. All that's saying nothing of the increased quality over soy-fed industrially farmed meats from the store.
Now add in chickens.
When we cook eggs for breakfast, we cook about eight eggs for the family. We add salt, pepper, and cheese usually, and there's usually toast or biscuits or something of the sort. With our seven hens throwing we'll say six eggs a day, there's nearly a quarter of my family's food for the day. Every day, fresh out the butt. Again, saying nothing of the increase in food quality or the fertility that process adds to our gardening.
I'd be remiss if I failed to mention the garden. We're trying this year to grow all our own tomatoes and peppers. As a garnish for eggs, there's nothing finer than fresh chopped tomatoes, onions, and peppers. In Texas (and probably Mexico too) we call that pico de gallo, meaning rooster's beak. That also happens to be what's in Rotel, like we had on the enchiladas. And in our family favorite: pasta sauce. And that's leaving out our potatoes, peaches, corn, berries, and other various yums we're growing, as those won't really be a significant percentage of the family's yearly diet. Maybe a few percent, but not a lot.
I don't know if y'all see where I'm getting with all this, but I'm anticipating we'll be raising a significant amount of food for our family this year, maybe even half of our diet overall. I didn't mention the pigs because they'll be part of next year's diet, and I know nothing about what kind of yield to expect there, but it'll be significant when they're in the freezer. Freezers.
We're getting somewhere this year.
Anyways. It's 630 Friday morning, so I'm gonna call this one a wrap. Someone check my math...
Love from Texas
Nate 💚