restoring the roost

North Carolina Country Living and Farmhouse Style

North Carolina Country Living and Farmhouse Style
since 2010

Homesteading

Garden Harvests

· gardening, Homesteading

Below are some pics of our recent harvests!!

radishes
We haven’t gotten too much yet, but are hoping to reap quite a bit here soon! We have a lot of tomatoes coming in, our beans and peas are growing well, squash is flowering, okra doing good, and a lot more almost ready to pick! Some of our colder-climate crops like kale, beets, cauliflower, etc. don’t seem to be doing as well. We may have planted them too late with our unseasonably warm winter.

lettuce

my new harvesting basket!

we have several green tomatoes getting ready to turn. So far we have had two fully ripe tomatoes already!

Local honey!!!! I’m SO excited. We don’t keep bees ourselves, but our friends from church that live not far from us do, and these are jars from their hives. It is interesting that they are two different colors, isn’t it?

local honey from our friends in Snow Camp, NC

What kind of harvests have you been getting from your garden?

Depression-Era “Live at Home” Program: A Revival?

· Homesteading

During the Great Depression in North Carolina, Governor O. Max Gardner established the “Live at Home” program, a state-sponsored initiative to encourage rural struggling farm families to produce what they would need for sustenance at home, or, as we know it today, to homestead!

Governor O. Max Gardner,  Image Source

The trying economic times during the early 1930s meant that cash crops like cotton and tobacco were no longer bringing the sums farmers once knew. The “Live at Home” program encouraged and helped to train families to devote more land to growing foodstuffs that would be needed for survival rather than using that land for cash crops. That way, families could spend less on food and essentials produced at home that they were formerly buying at the general store or local market. With fewer cash crops being sold, this would help prices to rise.

Governor Gardner partnered with the College of Agriculture from what is today North Carolina State University, the Department of Agriculture and the Extension Service to assist him in his efforts to grow and consume locally-grown food, train families in the arts of raising livestock, canning and preserving, and cultivating successful vegetable gardens. Home demonstration agents and 4-H clubs helped spread the campaign and educated local communities. The program proved to be very popular, so much so that local and county groups began hosting their own Live-At-Home training events and homegrown feasts.

Governor Gardner especially promoted the Live-At-Home program in public schools, implementing curriculum that taught children basic homesteading, gardening, and animal husbandry skills. Don’t you think this is a GREAT idea for today’s youth as well?

In this time of economic recession and financial hardship for many, perhaps we need a revival of the “Live at Home” program. Tutorials, educational resources, classes, training–all of these things could help families get started with homesteading to ease their pocketbook and make their home a healthier place.

What do you think? Is a revival of the “Live-At-Home” program needed? Would it make any difference?

(For more information on the Live-At-Home program, please visit http://ncpedia.org/live-at-home for a wonderful article written by my former fellow co-worker and Associate Curator at the NC Museum of History, Diana Bell-Kite.)
Linking to:

Depression-Era “Live at Home” Program: A Revival?

· Homesteading

During the Great Depression in North Carolina, Governor O. Max Gardner established the “Live at Home” program, a state-sponsored initiative to encourage rural struggling farm families to produce what they would need for sustenance at home, or, as we know it today, to homestead!

Governor O. Max Gardner,  Image Source

The trying economic times during the early 1930s meant that cash crops like cotton and tobacco were no longer bringing the sums farmers once knew. The “Live at Home” program encouraged and helped to train families to devote more land to growing foodstuffs that would be needed for survival rather than using that land for cash crops. That way, families could spend less on food and essentials produced at home that they were formerly buying at the general store or local market. With fewer cash crops being sold, this would help prices to rise.

Governor Gardner partnered with the College of Agriculture from what is today North Carolina State University, the Department of Agriculture and the Extension Service to assist him in his efforts to grow and consume locally-grown food, train families in the arts of raising livestock, canning and preserving, and cultivating successful vegetable gardens. Home demonstration agents and 4-H clubs helped spread the campaign and educated local communities. The program proved to be very popular, so much so that local and county groups began hosting their own Live-At-Home training events and homegrown feasts.

Governor Gardner especially promoted the Live-At-Home program in public schools, implementing curriculum that taught children basic homesteading, gardening, and animal husbandry skills. Don’t you think this is a GREAT idea for today’s youth as well?

In this time of economic recession and financial hardship for many, perhaps we need a revival of the “Live at Home” program. Tutorials, educational resources, classes, training–all of these things could help families get started with homesteading to ease their pocketbook and make their home a healthier place.

What do you think? Is a revival of the “Live-At-Home” program needed? Would it make any difference?

(For more information on the Live-At-Home program, please visit http://ncpedia.org/live-at-home for a wonderful article written by my former fellow co-worker and Associate Curator at the NC Museum of History, Diana Bell-Kite.)
Linking to:

A Growing Garden and Eating with the Seasons

· gardening, Homesteading

Our garden is coming along nicely! We have planted lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, onions, garlic, kale, collards, beans, peas, radishes, cauliflower, cucumbers, okra, summer and winter squash, pumpkins, and a “three sisters” garden of beans, corn and squash growing together. Whew! That’s a lot. The only thing still left to be put into the ground are the tomatoes and pepper plants that we started from seed. 
garden beds and cold frame- the trellis pictured here is for the cucumbers
peas are popping up
All of our gardening efforts have really got me thinking lately about trying to eat more with the seasons.  I know I have talked about this before, but I really think it is important when trying to maintain a local and wholesome foods diet, especially if you are aiming to grow as much food on your own as possible. What we can’t grow ourselves, we can purchase from the local farmer’s market, which always provides produce that is in season in our area. Of course, there are a lot of foods and other dry goods that you will have to purchase at your grocery store or market that you can’t make on your own. I’m hoping to whittle that list down as I learn to be more self-sufficient on our little homestead. 
This bed is all ready for tomatoes and peppers to be planted
Since we are growing springtime veggies right now, our meals would revolve around produce such as lettuce and greens, kale, collards, asparagus, spring onions, snap peas, spinach, broccoli, and other crops that can tolerate colder weather. Our chickens are always laying eggs and we keep milk, cheese, free range chicken, pasta, and fresh bread on hand, so those ingredients are a staple in our diet and often contribute to our meals. So, a weekly meal plan for us in the spring might look something like this: 
-asparagus, pancetta, and cheddar quiche

-Asian chicken salad  (lettuce and greens, cut up seasoned chicken with curry powder, candied and toasted sliced almonds, mandarin oranges, spring onions, toasted sesame dressing)

-White bean, bacon, and kale soup with fresh bread

-Poached eggs over crispy marjoram toasts smothered in an herb tomato sauce

-Pecan crusted pork loins, southern spoon bread, sauteed collard greens with garlic

-chicken salad sandwiches (a mayonnaise based recipe with spinach and grapes) with raw veggies like broccoli, snap peas, and carrots

-strawberry pie
The hardest part about eating seasonally sometimes, at least for me, is giving up fruit when it is not available locally. Are you willing to do that? The earliest bearing fruits in the spring are strawberries and rhubarb. 

In the early summer and again in the late summer and fall, I will post more about how our garden harvests affect meal planning for our family, so do stay tuned.  Do you try to eat seasonally? 
Linking to:

A Growing Garden and Eating with the Seasons

· gardening, Homesteading

Our garden is coming along nicely! We have planted lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, onions, garlic, kale, collards, beans, peas, radishes, cauliflower, cucumbers, okra, summer and winter squash, pumpkins, and a “three sisters” garden of beans, corn and squash growing together. Whew! That’s a lot. The only thing still left to be put into the ground are the tomatoes and pepper plants that we started from seed. 
garden beds and cold frame- the trellis pictured here is for the cucumbers
peas are popping up
All of our gardening efforts have really got me thinking lately about trying to eat more with the seasons.  I know I have talked about this before, but I really think it is important when trying to maintain a local and wholesome foods diet, especially if you are aiming to grow as much food on your own as possible. What we can’t grow ourselves, we can purchase from the local farmer’s market, which always provides produce that is in season in our area. Of course, there are a lot of foods and other dry goods that you will have to purchase at your grocery store or market that you can’t make on your own. I’m hoping to whittle that list down as I learn to be more self-sufficient on our little homestead. 
This bed is all ready for tomatoes and peppers to be planted
Since we are growing springtime veggies right now, our meals would revolve around produce such as lettuce and greens, kale, collards, asparagus, spring onions, snap peas, spinach, broccoli, and other crops that can tolerate colder weather. Our chickens are always laying eggs and we keep milk, cheese, free range chicken, pasta, and fresh bread on hand, so those ingredients are a staple in our diet and often contribute to our meals. So, a weekly meal plan for us in the spring might look something like this: 
-asparagus, pancetta, and cheddar quiche

-Asian chicken salad  (lettuce and greens, cut up seasoned chicken with curry powder, candied and toasted sliced almonds, mandarin oranges, spring onions, toasted sesame dressing)

-White bean, bacon, and kale soup with fresh bread

-Poached eggs over crispy marjoram toasts smothered in an herb tomato sauce

-Pecan crusted pork loins, southern spoon bread, sauteed collard greens with garlic

-chicken salad sandwiches (a mayonnaise based recipe with spinach and grapes) with raw veggies like broccoli, snap peas, and carrots

-strawberry pie
The hardest part about eating seasonally sometimes, at least for me, is giving up fruit when it is not available locally. Are you willing to do that? The earliest bearing fruits in the spring are strawberries and rhubarb. 

In the early summer and again in the late summer and fall, I will post more about how our garden harvests affect meal planning for our family, so do stay tuned.  Do you try to eat seasonally? 
Linking to: