Oh my! What a summer this has been! All I can say is that I have so much material and no time (or energy) to actually lay it out for all to see. For that, I am sorry, but long winter nights are on their way and there will be plenty of time in front of the fire...
The most important lesson I have learned through the last 16 months is that homesteading is a committed lifestyle. It is not for wimps! Or for that matter travelers, or households where everyone has a job outside the home, or families who have a myriad of other interest. Caring for a thriving homestead is a job and a half. No wonder the settlers were in such good physical shape...and died early. All kidding aside, homesteading is demanding to say the least but has many rewards along the way.
Once we got comfortable with the honey bees and planted the cool weather crops we headed to the Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup Washington. There we fell in love with Alpacas, learned to build an Earth Oven, bought some lovely vanilla fig balsamic vinegar from Leonardo e Roberto's, and explored ideas presented by green companies large and small.
I've played soccer for 21 years and gave it up this year to take up cycling. One ride we took this summer was through the Eola-Amity Hills AVA in Oregon. The area is a rural playground with farm fresh everything! We stopped at the McMinnville farmers market to purchase ingredients for a homemade dinner and ate one night at Recipe, in Newberg. Truly fantastic.
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| A Neighborhood Kitchen |
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| A chicken tractor at the McMinnville farmers market |
In the spring we made some lovely Salmonberry jam from foraged berries...
...and are now reaping the benefits of seed potatoes.
I used a compost bin with removable panels to access the potatoes at different points during the season.
We had plenty of baby and fully grown potatoes and some still in the bin. Also, our snap peas were extremely prolific and long lasting with the mild weather.
As for the rest of the garden, well, let's just say I had a lot of fun cycling and traveling! I will be sowing more cool weather vegetables for a late fall harvest.
In conclusion, I have determined that building a viable urban homestead takes more than one year or even two for the average, active, working family. So, relax, take it slow. My expectations were a wee bit too aggressive. There were so many projects I wanted to tackle. Looks like I'll be working till the snow comes!
