There are many reasons to begin saving seeds on your farm or from your garden. The most obvious one is monetary. Seed saved is seed you don’t need to purchase next year. A step of independence!

Another advantage is taste. To save seed you must use open-pollinated seeds. These tend to be the older, heirloom varieties. Translate that into “taste good”! Many plants today have been bred for shipping, storage and long shelf life with nary a thought as to taste. This explains the tomatoes from the grocery store….they look great….but they taste like cardboard. They have been bred to have tougher skins, to be able to ship long distances and have a long shelf life….but they have lost taste. The heirloom varieties are what grandma and grandpa use to grow, they taste wonderful, have those delightful names (I know there is a story behind each one!), and will reproduce true to what you planted.

By using open-pollinated seed, you are also assuring yourself that you will avoid genetically-engineered seed…..something you definitely want to avoid!! I’ll speak to this in depth on another day.

We have learned on our seed saving journey that there is a much more profitable reason to save seed from your own plantings. God has designed a marvelous thing in a seed! When you plant a seed and grow it on your own place, it “learns” about it’s microclimate. It learns about your pest problems, your growing conditions, your weather, your disease problems… and all of this information is passed on to the seeds that this plant produces.

The next year your plant will be a little stronger, a little more disease resistant and a little more tolerant of your local weather. That information will again be placed in the seeds by God’s great design! Consequently, if you keep saving seeds, each year your plants become more resistant to the pest and disease problems you have, more tolerant to your weather and your growing conditions. You will actually be producing plants in the future that are designed just for your farm…super plants! Isn’t God’s design an amazing thing….it just takes my breath away!

So, what more could you ask for? Plants that are specifically designed to grow, produce, thrive and set fruit…. and to do it better on your farm than any other place on earth!

Do we save all of our own seed? No, not at all. But each year we try to save a little more.
We do save our bean, okra, tomato (some not all), herb (some not all), tomatilla, squash, zuchinni and pepper seeds. Hopefully next year we will add a few more. I also attend seed swaps at local garden clubs – a great way to get seeds that have been grown in your own region.

To learn more about saving seed I recommend the book Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth.
This book will take you through all the steps so that you can begin saving seed from your own plantings. Also visit http://www.seedsavers.org to learn more about saving seed. Remember to buy open-pollinated seed, you can’t save seed from a hybrid plant.

Some of my favorite places to shop for seed:

http://www.rareseeds.com, http://www.fedcoseeds.com, http://www.groworganic.com, http://www.seedsavers.org,

In our journey here on the farm, we have been seeking freedom…freedom from relying on others for things that we can do for ourselves with God’s help. I have seen this mentioned on several blogs lately so it seems that other hearts are being stirred as well. Just when we begin to congratulate ourselves on achieving freedom in an area, we are brought up short (isn’t God faithful!) and shown another area that we need to work on. It has amazed us how many times this has happened!

For instance, when we began raising chickens for eggs we felt independent….but we still buy feed…. When we began raising our chickens for meat and butchering them ourselves we thought “freedom!”….but we were buying the chicks. When we bought some calves and raised them for meat we felt “we did it!”….but we still bought the calves. We began raising our own veggies several years ago but realized we were still buying the seeds. And the list goes on…

God was gently showing us that we weren’t as free as we thought! We have been taking steps over the years to change this where we can. Will we ever be completely free? I don’t know…I hope so. Each year we try to walk a little more in that direction with God’s help.

Historically, this seemed an achievable thing…in fact it seemed to be the normative lifestyle for most agrarian folks. If they needed something that they didn’t raise they were able to barter with someone else to get that item. Surely this is achievable again….

Last year we started taking eggs and incubating them and raising our own chicks….it was very successful. This year we robbed eggs from a guinea nest and raised the young ourselves. This year we will breed our milk cows to a black angus bull and raise our own meat.

We began saving seeds several years ago. Do we produce all of our own seed….no…..but each year we get a little further along. We learned a lot about seed saving and why every farm should be doing this ….it goes much deeper than the cost savings, the independence issue or the desire to disengage from “Big Ag”. But, that is another post for another day.

We aren’t “there” by any means but each time we do a little more for ourselves there comes a satisfaction that is hard to explain. I believe it comes from fulfilling God’s original intent for our lives. Each step on this journey takes us a little further towards our goal…greater freedom from the world and it’s system and a deeper reliance on God. We praise Him for this great journey!

Scott Terry has a great post on his blog (Homesteader Life) about getting rid of nursing homes.
Since we are in the process of walking through this calling, I thought I would share.

Nursing homes have always been abhorrent to me. I never understood warehousing our old and infirm. I attribute a lot of this warehousing to the me generation, the instant gratification culture and our lack of respect for all forms of life…especially those inconvenient ones.

Many years ago, after my Grandma passed away, we asked Grandpa to come and live with us. He didn’t want to leave his church, friends and the small town he had lived in for 50 years. We visited and kept in touch through phone and mail often. Three years after Grandma died, I got a call that Grandpa was in the hospital. Of course the hospital would not tell me anything over the phone. So…I packed up the kids (3 at the time), the school books (praising God for leading us to homeschool) and we left for Indiana. I got to the hospital and found out that he had bone cancer, very advanced and was given a few short months to live. The decision was made, by those in the family with decision-making powers, to put him in a nursing home. It made my blood boil. Grandpa and I were very close. I just informed the decision makers that I was staying, the kids were staying and we were bringing Grandpa home. His wishes were to spend his final days in the home he loved. I am thankful that we were able to give him that. He was a blessing to me and to my children. Many things can be said and learned in those final days together.

What amazed me was how much this upset the decision makers. What it boiled down to, in my humble opinion, was that the decision makers recognized the fact that this was their responsibility but it was a distasteful one…one that they really didn’t want to handle themselves.
They felt uncomfortable that I was stepping in and taking this responsibility…I think the truth was that they felt guilty. They were shirking their responsibility and they knew it. It was ok to pay someone to do this but not ok to have another family member take it on. I was told “this isn’t your responsibility”, but I felt that it was.

Well, then Dad came down with Alzheimers. A very difficult disease. He was kept at home for a very long time. I kept Dad certain days of the week. My Mom eventually placed him in an assisted-living facility when his actions became dangerous. I did not agree with this decision but had no power to change it. Thankfully Dad was unaware of his surroundings.

Now, here we are on the farm. My Mom lived with us for 2 years but she is very independent…and we have 4 boys. Mom had gotten used to quiet, complete order (a “never anything out of place” type of order) and she wanted her own place. She decided to put a small house here on the farm.

In the last 7 years, her health has declined and she needs more help. The boys help take care of the yard, empty the trash from her house, change her light bulbs, help her clean. We do all the repair and upkeep around her house for her, help her with her checkbook, take her shopping etc. We fix a lot of her meals or she eats with us. We check in on her several times a day. We call if we are away more than a few hours. She calls often…even when we are home. We ask for her help in small ways…mending…watching kids…slicing veggies for the dehydrator. It is important to her to know that she is contributing and she is important . We are very grateful for her help. She takes a great load off of my shoulders many times. My boys know that I need her, that she helps carry the load.

This is not an easy walk. Often times this is inconvnient…especially as her patience seems to decline as her age goes up! We don’t always handle things well. Sometimes we really mess up and have to retrace our steps, retract our words and make things right.

We know that the time will come when she will need to be back in our home. We are preparing for that. We look forward to that. The lessons in this walk have been invaluable to our children. They see that you can respond to your elders with respect and love, even when they are difficult. They know that her life is valuable, that she can still contribute, that she is important in the operation of this farm…even if she isn’t out pulling weeds and hoeing corn. They have learned to treat the elderly with dignity and this carries over to the elderly in our church and our community. They watch us walk through the difficult days and learn to persevere with gentleness and love. They see us apologize when we are at fault and even sometimes if we weren’t at fault. We teach them that within the family, it is more important to desire peace than it is to desire to be right. These are important lessons. They know that Grandma will be here one day again.

I know when I am old and infirm that my boys will value my life. I will have a place in their homes and hearts. I know these things because they are walking this path with us now. They are learning the lessons and the fruit is showing in their young lives. We are not doing an extraordinary thing. I think we are walking the path that God designed for families. This is the way things used to be….before big cities, dual incomes and the entertainment lifestyle.

I can honestly say that having multiple generations living together has added something invaluable to all of our lives. Each one of us has learned great lessons and has been blessed through this….God truly knows best….we wouldn’t change a thing!

Saw an awesome presentation tonight by a farmer friend, Paul Wiedeger. He is located in South Central KY .He and his wife Allison raise beef, chickens (meat and eggs), cut flowers and veggies. But tonight he talked of growing year round in unheated high tunnels.

During spring, summer and early fall, they sell at their local farmer’s market although they take pre-orders, via email, that can be picked up at that market. But during the colder months they grow the cool season crops in high tunnels. They service their customers 52 weeks a year.
As Allison says, “The good news is that you can harvest and sell 52 weeks a year.” As Paul says, “The bad news is that you can harvest and sell 52 weeks a year.”

They had a great video showing their farm, their marketing techniques etc. It was amazing to think of tromping through the snow, getting inside the high tunnel, shedding your coat and harvesting a salad for dinner, along with carrots, radishes, beets etc. Quite inspiring. They also use them come March to plant tomatoes, cukes, peppers etc into. They have BEAUTIFUL tomatoes by Memorial Day! You can check out Paul and Allison’s website to see their beautiful pictures….https://www.aunaturelfarm.homestead.com/

I am hoping that this is something we can add to our little venture here on the farm.

Well, the auction signs went up this weekend. It is being done by a local company that has a reputation for placing as many single wides as possible on the smallest pieces of land….sigh.
We are praying that this land will end up in the hands of a few instead of many. Many thanks to those of you who have offered to stand with us in prayer over this auction.

Another adventure happening right now in my kitchen…a great adventure…the trap has been set to catch wild yeast. We are working on trapping our own wild yeast for Sourdough starter…I’ll know in a day or two if our trap has been productive…this has been one of my favorite homeschool science projects…mainly cause it will taste SO good in the end!

We had very sad news this week. The people who own the land between our farm and the next farm are thinking about selling out. I have been amazed at the amount of farms that have been auctioned off since we arrived here 7 years ago.

This young man, Eddie, and his dad were dairy farmers. About 2 years ago, they had to sell off all their cows…the people producing the gallon jugs were making more on a gallon of milk than the farmers providing the milk! Eddie began working off the farm…he started taking contract work – all over the Eastern seaboard. He travels almost every week.. He leaves his wife, who also works full time off the farm, and his 2 young kids while he travels and tries to make enough money to keep things going.

Eddie’s farm is about 3 miles up the road but he happens to own this land next to us also. He used to plant tobacco on one field and bale the rest for hay to feed the cows. No cows…no need for hay. Eddie’s wife wants to move closer to her family. I’m sure she wants some support around her since Eddie is on the road so much.

It is a beautiful piece of land….backs up to a creek that runs at the bottom of the mountain ridge
along the length of this valley. The worst part…if they decide to sell they will auction it off. I don’t know what happens at an auction where ya’ll live but in this area it means only one thing…a mobile home park and unfortunately they usually end up pretty shabby….

My Mom, almost 80, is devastated…she has such a beautiful view from her screened porch and back windows. She is worried about noise, street lights, crime…..with good reason. We have seen it happen elsewhere in this little valley. She wants to move…I’ve explained that we can’t pick up and move every time a neighbor decides to sell a farm….just really sad news.

We are praying….

Wednesday we baled hay. Square bales. Hundreds of them. Baling hay is probably the hardest and most time consuming job here on our little farm. I know this is strange but I like baling hay. Granted, I am not out there hefting these bales onto the farm wagon. I am driving the truck or the tractor and pulling the hay wagon. Sometimes I drive the tractor and bale the hay while the guys load the farm wagon coming behind me.

This time my 7 year old rode with me in the truck pulling the hay wagon while Dad drove the tractor and baled the hay. My youngest decided that his job would be to tell me when to stop and when to go. (He needs a bit more experience!) My 15 year old worked putting the bales on the wagon while my 12 year old stacked them and kept the wagon neat so as to hold as many bales as possible (and pointed out any missed bales).

I enjoyed seeing the cooperation of my kids working together to accomplish a common goal. Of course on each trip back to the barn, my 7 year old had to climb out of the truck and onto the mountain of hay bales with his brothers for the ride. There is also some unusual boy custom that has each one sticking a piece of hay in their mouths to chew on for the trip to the barn. This I never understood….

I love the rhythmic thumping of the baler. It’s a comforting sound to me….usually I hate repetitive noise. I love watching the hay elevator taking all those bales into the hayloft while the older ones stack them there. (Occasionally a child will ride a bale into the loft…giggling all the way!) It is a comforting feeling to know that you can provide for your animals come winter. Clean bedding, good food…they will be happy.

It is, for me, akin to canning food. When I look in the hayloft and see the rows of stacked bales, it is the same feeling I get when I look in my pantry shelves and see rows of colorful food lined up and ready to eat. It is seeing a job well done. It is seeing the fruits of our labors. It is knowing that we have provided for our own for yet another season by God’s grace. It is being grateful to God for wooing us here, for leading us on this journey of self-sufficiency, for His creation, and for His provisions.

Norther Farmer (see link to the side) has a wonderful post today about dangerous eggs. It reminded me of when we first moved to the farm. Now, remember we were city people….we bought what the grocery store calls eggs. We moved to the farm and one of the first critters we purchased were some hens. My mom even bought a fancy little house for them to live in (another story!) They were so pretty! I loved the muted clucking sounds….such a comforting sound to me for some reason. Within a few days we had our first brown eggs! There were 3 of them. We decided to scramble them so we could all have a taste. What an exciting day! The 4 boys, my mother and I trotted off to the kitchen to sample these wonderful gifts.

We cracked open the first egg….oh no! Something was seriously wrong….we tried another…and another…something was wrong with all of them! Where was the yellow yolk? These yolks were all a very dark orange….and they stood up really high in the pan…and the whites were really thick…they didn’t spread properly….what had we done wrong? As a Mom, I was worried about letting my kids taste them….could it hurt them…poison them? Should I throw them out…..
suddenly it occured to me….perhaps this is what God intended an egg to look like….maybe we had been eating bad eggs all of our lives and this is what good eggs looked like.

A quick call to an experienced farmer friend assured us that this was the REAL DEAL! “The eggs from the grocery store were produced by hens kept in horrible conditions and therefor were anemic…go ahead and eat them”.

So we did….we were amazed….these eggs actually had flavor! GREAT flavor! Eggs on toast quickly became a favorite meal….runny yolks sopped up with buttery toast….DIVINE!

We look back now and laugh at our ignorance ….how sad that people think that what they buy in the store actually nourishes their bodies the way God designed….how sad that the majority of the population has been sold a lie by big AG and great marketing!

When we have “moderns” visit us on the farm we almost always crack open an egg and let them see the difference….the cry we always here is “Ooohhhh, what’s wrong with it…” We just smile and thank the Father for bringing us here and teaching us gently about His provisions. We pray we can do the same for others.