growing 90% of your own food support group

I do not know about 90% but maybe 75%.
But I can always hope.

I'm in.

__________________
I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy

I am in. I think we probably are already at 75%, but would like more. We do fall short in the fruit department since our apple trees kicked the bucket, but we are planting berries this year and possibly more trees. We already have pears, figs and hopefully bananas. Our muscadines are just starting to produce and so we don't get too many of those, but more every year. 95% of our meat and veggies we grow and raise. Blessings, Kat

__________________
Come visit Homesteading and Homekeeping at Whisperwind Farm

I am definitely interested and will follow this.

Where to start? Who is growing what? What is the climate and or Micro climate you find your growing area in? How are you watering? I am looking into leeks this season and finishing my hoophouse. I am definatly following this if I can find it again.

__________________
:cool: :angel: TRUTH & MERCY
www.dixieflowersoap.com
www.mollyjogger.com
Big D Farm Blog

ooooOOooOooOoOoooo
good thread! I'll be watching this one.
The problem I have here is that no one is really doing this and I need a mentor in grow veg and fruit.

__________________
He who thinks he knows, doesn't. He who knows he doesn't know, knows.~ Joseph Campbell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeMrK...AE7062ADE5A19C

I'm with Dave, post up in the right where you live,it really makes a diffrence for us to learn what others have to deal with as far as weather,seasons,soil,even the salt air matters.

Yep, you need to include at least the state where you live for the info to be beneficial to each other.

Ok I live in Central Nova Scotia near the tip of the Bay of Fundy. My growing area is listed as 5b however we see temps at -20F a few times through the winter and often get late frosts in june had a killing frost on june 24th two years ago.
For me my 90% goal is a goal Iwould really like to reach, I will not be dissapointed at say 75% because thats a whole lot better than where I am now. I will be buying things like oil sugar salt etc, and some treats and going out for dinner on special occasions so just day to day I would like almost all of my real food to be homegrown, and I really want to cut out all the garbage in my diet that isnt real food.
I am more of a planner and day dreamer than an actual doer, so by starting this post I hope to finally kick my butt in gear and fulfill some of my goals that homesteadingtoday has helped me dreamup in the last 8 years. Ive been planning so much since I joined here but am disappointed in my lack of progess I always say I will do this next year haha.

I will of course have to buy such things as animal feed this year because I have none stored up but would like to really start growing my own this year. I am not counting that as going against the 90% because I will be raising the chickens and hens myself, and either free ranging them or in a chicken tractor.

Im really going to concentrate on food that stores well such as beans, peas, squash, turnips, cabbage, and of course tomatoes because of how much they can be usend in and processed into delicious meals, for me I love homemade tomato soup, and will probably make gallons.
For now I garden at my parents place which is about 8 miles away, as I own a condo with my wife, and it only has a tiny back yard however my parents gave me 14 acres on the same road they live on , I may do most of my gardening and farming there this year it is currently all pasture.

Here is a link to some gardening I did two and three years ago I have no pictures from this past year. http://postimage.org/gallery/6264kotq/

Check to see if your local cooperative extension has a master gardener program. They often have classes available to the public, and a help line.

I found this food storage calculator online, not sure how accuarte it is and obviously some things are left out http://www.thefoodguys.com/foodcalc.html . I have no affiliation with the lds church, just this is a neat calculator to help guide us.

We are using Eliot Colman's methods. We are growing in raised beds in a high tunnel. We planted radishes, carrots, bak choy, turnips, kale, swill chard and beets. When it gets too cold a frost cover gets put on top of the beds and this, so far, seems to keep the temp in the beds above freezing. So stuffs growing, it's just really slow. As for flowering, we are having a similar issue in the main greenhouse that we sometimes heat to a whopping 38ish, just so the hoses don't freeze.
I picked green house verities so I wouldn't have to worry about pollination, but we are having difficulty setting flowers. The peas I planted end of September just now flowered. But it's not a lot of flowers and there is no rhyme or reason for how they are flowering. I think it may be a nutrition issue, as they are growing well and large. I keep meaning to check the nitrogen levels but haven't had time yet.

Flowering can be related to daylight hours. Check to see if those are long day or short night plants. If short night plants, a short lighting period in the middle of the night may help blooming. If long day, you'll need longer lighting periods to extend the day after dusk.

I would be miserable on that diet. I'd shrink the grains, legumes, sugars, and processed oils, up the veggies, add sizable quantities of butter and lard, and of course, add meat.

LDS is coming from a prepper mentality, I'm coming from a high quality affordable food mentality, I've got no problem with keeping a freezer full of meat as part of my plan. Also, I have the space to grow meats humanely, so I don't see why I shouldn't.

I did put light in to extend daylight hours [red and blue] Didnt know a thing about short day verses long day plants. Where would this info be? On the seed package???

Already Ive learned something from this group

janetn I know there are short and long day onions, but can't recall what other plants are like that. Update, here's a nice link:

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gar...ong-day-plants

I was only using that as a basic idea of how much food one would actually need to grow to get near the 90%. Just so people could see in pounds how much food we actually eat in the run of a year "more so myself because I didnt really have an idea". I will also deff. be adding much more meat to my diet as well which will be home raised. I also dont plan on consuming that much sugar or processed oils. Thanks for bringing that to my attention

I am probably around 75% ,I love looking in the pantry and seeing mostly home canned items. I am very interested in extended growing seasons, root cellaring and smoking / curing meats for preservation. Put a pig in the freezer this year and am in on beef but would like to increase my skills as far as being independent of freezer. Should be fun to discuss and keep track of

In the summer and fall I like to juice some of my extra vegetables, does anyone know if you can freeze it or can it? I think this would be something good to have on hand im sure its possible especially if you have tomatoes in it etc, but i wonder about like fruit and berry juice and kale etc.

There is a book, Preserving Food without Freezing and Canning. Good for other techniques.