onmiwei
04-22-2009, 05:54 PM
Hello, I am new here so I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Laura and I am an Army transplant to Clarksville TN (Fort Campbell 101st area.) My husband is retired now but we chose to stay here. I am orginally from Oregon but grew up in Idaho.
Growing up my grandma raised pretty much everything she ate. I helped wring the chicken's necks and pluck feathers at a very young age...though I think I just gave them whiplash and my grandma finished most of them off ;) She had the best tasting food! She had 80 acres with cows, chickens, turkeys, bees, rabbits, pigs ect...as well as a very nice garden. (churned her own butter, eggs, milk, meat, honey, canned, ect) She lived 30 miles from the nearest town so neighbors who lived out in the middle of nowhere bought their food from her and she might have went to town perhaps once every 2 months or so.
When we moved to Idaho we raised our own cattle to eat but not much else. But we always went back to grandmas and had good home grown food.
Now I live in town but I have a large wooded lot in a huge subdivision. My neighbor cut down most of her trees so I have a sunny spot for a garden. I can't have chickens but have found a lady who sells me her farm fresh eggs. We are still searching for local farmers for pork, chicken and beef though. I am keeping part of my woods down to a creek natural for the wildlife but my "backyard" part is partically landscaped/partically wild for the birds.
My garden is in the works due to the fence builders taking a while. I sectioned off an area with a tree we had cut down instead of buying wood to make a raised bed. I had a compost pile that I put all the leaves, lawn clippings and kitchen veggie scraps in last year so I am filling it with that. I have my seeds started and ready to go but the fence builders are slow...if I do it now the deer with make a quick snack out of it all.
I have a new compost pile I have started with the tons of other leaves on the forest floor. We bought some flag stone for our front flower beds and the way they were shipped to us made a great compost container. It is a pallet with wire stapled to it. I have three of them and I put them far enough from my house that the smell/sight won't bother us.
My 13 year old daughter is supposed to be helping me with all of this but I am not sure if that is going to happen.:rolleyes:
On a side note I read on here about not naming animals that were to be food. Wilbur, Dorkus, Texas, Chewy, ect were all very tasty. Wilbur was the first...my runt pig I got from my grandma when I was in 1st grade. I always knew he was to be butchered but our teacher had just read Charlette's Web so he was named Wilbur. My parents and grandparents were sure I knew what 'butchered' was. My mom still tells of the story when I first tasted Wilbur. They had explained to me that we were going to butcher him with in the week. I asked if that meant we were going to kill and eat him. They told me yes. I cried a bit then went on. We had ham a while later. I ate a bite or two and asked where ham came from. My parents hestitated then said "pig." I ate a few more bites and said "is this Wilbur?" My parents braced for me to freak out and said "yes, it is." I took my fork, dug in and said "He sure is tasty!!!!" My parents couldn't eat anymore ham that night.
We named a steer every year we were going to eat too. The ones we raised and sold to be butchered we didn't. Just what was going to end up on our plate.
Well I wrote a book...but I sure hope to learn a lot from all of you on how to be a great urban gardener!
Growing up my grandma raised pretty much everything she ate. I helped wring the chicken's necks and pluck feathers at a very young age...though I think I just gave them whiplash and my grandma finished most of them off ;) She had the best tasting food! She had 80 acres with cows, chickens, turkeys, bees, rabbits, pigs ect...as well as a very nice garden. (churned her own butter, eggs, milk, meat, honey, canned, ect) She lived 30 miles from the nearest town so neighbors who lived out in the middle of nowhere bought their food from her and she might have went to town perhaps once every 2 months or so.
When we moved to Idaho we raised our own cattle to eat but not much else. But we always went back to grandmas and had good home grown food.
Now I live in town but I have a large wooded lot in a huge subdivision. My neighbor cut down most of her trees so I have a sunny spot for a garden. I can't have chickens but have found a lady who sells me her farm fresh eggs. We are still searching for local farmers for pork, chicken and beef though. I am keeping part of my woods down to a creek natural for the wildlife but my "backyard" part is partically landscaped/partically wild for the birds.
My garden is in the works due to the fence builders taking a while. I sectioned off an area with a tree we had cut down instead of buying wood to make a raised bed. I had a compost pile that I put all the leaves, lawn clippings and kitchen veggie scraps in last year so I am filling it with that. I have my seeds started and ready to go but the fence builders are slow...if I do it now the deer with make a quick snack out of it all.
I have a new compost pile I have started with the tons of other leaves on the forest floor. We bought some flag stone for our front flower beds and the way they were shipped to us made a great compost container. It is a pallet with wire stapled to it. I have three of them and I put them far enough from my house that the smell/sight won't bother us.
My 13 year old daughter is supposed to be helping me with all of this but I am not sure if that is going to happen.:rolleyes:
On a side note I read on here about not naming animals that were to be food. Wilbur, Dorkus, Texas, Chewy, ect were all very tasty. Wilbur was the first...my runt pig I got from my grandma when I was in 1st grade. I always knew he was to be butchered but our teacher had just read Charlette's Web so he was named Wilbur. My parents and grandparents were sure I knew what 'butchered' was. My mom still tells of the story when I first tasted Wilbur. They had explained to me that we were going to butcher him with in the week. I asked if that meant we were going to kill and eat him. They told me yes. I cried a bit then went on. We had ham a while later. I ate a bite or two and asked where ham came from. My parents hestitated then said "pig." I ate a few more bites and said "is this Wilbur?" My parents braced for me to freak out and said "yes, it is." I took my fork, dug in and said "He sure is tasty!!!!" My parents couldn't eat anymore ham that night.
We named a steer every year we were going to eat too. The ones we raised and sold to be butchered we didn't. Just what was going to end up on our plate.
Well I wrote a book...but I sure hope to learn a lot from all of you on how to be a great urban gardener!