5 Garden Goals

... and the entire focus of our farm this year.

I’m not trying to torture myself (it is still January, after all), but even here in Zone 7b, it’s time to think about gardening! It’ll be another month or so yet until any planting takes place, but before that begins, I’ve got to ask myself:

What’s the point?

I’ve set myself 5 goals this year in the garden, based on what’s worked for me in the past and what I’d like to do different. In this week’s video, I’m sharing with you exactly what those goals are, why I’ve set them, and how to go about achieving them:

I’ll be sharing specific vegetable varieties that I’ll be growing this coming week on the blog (I do a post like this every year), but this year is a bit different because…

…spoiler: the vegetable garden this year is all about heirlooms and seed saving.

So those F1 varieties that you see listed in the post above? Those are not invited to the garden this year. Not because I don’t love them, but because seed saving (read: not spending any money on seeds) is the name of the game. But more on that in the video.

Here’s something not mentioned in the video:

A huge focus of our small farm is given to our animals. There is no amount of garden produce that can sustain us and provide for us calorically and nutritionally like our animals. We’ve added three ewes to our Katahdin Meat flock of sheep this year and hope to have a bountiful lamb harvest come next fall. We expect Cece, the family Jersey cow, to be back in milk in late May and hopefully, this will provide us with a calf to raise for meat as well.

Milk and meat is my bread and butter.

(I’ll take the bread and butter too, though.)

So this year on the farm, we’re focused on meat, milk, and eggs. I finally invested in an egg incubator so that instead of shipping in expensive chicks and ducklings, we could hatch our own. If any roosters hatch, we will raise them up and use them for meat. We do keep some ducks for laying eggs, but also grow a few dozen each year for meat (duck meat is my favorite meat) and I want to share more on this in the coming year.

(Pst. Does anyone have any fertile meat duck eggs I can buy?)

So while I love my vegetable gardens dearly, I’m learning to give them the attention and energy they’re due, without wearing myself out. That’s the reason I just ordered this whole Homesteader seed package (less than $1/package) and didn’t spend hours and hours and hours pouring over seed catalogs this year.

Instead, I’m working on sourcing some dairy ewes for the farm and watching YouTube videos on how to sheer sheep. Stuart and I are both fairly keen to expand our sheep herd by bringing in some dairy ewes. I’m telling ya’ll: meat, milk, and eggs.

(Pst. Does anyone have any dairy ewes I can buy?)

William and Owen (my 8 and 10 year old) are also hoping to start growing meat rabbits again. We raised and harvested meat rabbits for years and years - before they got lost in the shuffle of raising toddlers. We’re all very excited to bring them back to the farm and begin this new line of meat production. I love rabbits and I love eating rabbits.

(Pst: Does anyone have a breeding trio of meat rabbits I can buy?)

Lots of work to do before lambs start hitting the ground and plenty to do to keep our farm up and running! I’m ready!

Cheers,

Shaye

PS: What are your garden goals? I’d love to hear them! I’m forever gathering inspiration from my fellow gardeners…