How To Live A Country Lifestyle And Become More Self Sufficient

November 2nd, 2011

How To Live A Country Lifestyle And Become More Self Sufficient

Author:

Debbie

Have you ever wanted to move to the country and become more self sufficient?  If so, you are not alone.  More and more people are choosing to move out to a more rural setting and acquire some land.  You don\’t have to go crazy and buy 10, 15 or 29 acres.  Even 5 acres will allow you to live a country lifestyle and become more self sufficient.

You have your land, now what?  The first step you need to take to become more self reliant is to grow your very own garden.  If you have never gardened before, small may be better the first year.  Any garden can be a lot of work and a very large garden can be a huge amount of labor so be sure you know what you are getting into.

Once your garden is lush and producing abundantly, you should consider learning to preserve your harvest.  There is really no sense in growing lots of veggies if you can\’t have them through the winter months.  You can also talk to your neighbors and maybe trade some of your abundant veggies for some you didn\’t grow this year.  It is also possible to learn to harvest your own seeds to put up for next year.

Living in a more rural area usually means that you can find wild fruit trees and berries like black berries, cherries, plums, apples, etc.  You may also check with your neighbors to see if they have any fruit trees that they don\’t mess with or that maybe have an overabundance of fruit.  This is a great free way to be able to put up jambs, jellies and juices for the winter months.  Just be sure that you don\’t ’steal’ from your neighbors by getting permission first.

The next thing that all small farms need to become more self sufficient are livestock.  Chickens are perfect animals to start with because they are small, easy to care for and they can provide eggs and even meat for the not faint of heart.  You will need some chicken fencing, a chicken coop and a chicken run if you have a lot of predators.

Depending on how adventurous and strong of stomach you are, you can also try your hand at raising a few rabbits, goats and hogs for meat as well.  The goats are also a great source of milk that you can drink or you can sell in your local area.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/how-to-live-a-country-lifestyle-and-become-more-self-sufficient-3401181.html

About the Author

You can live a country lifestyle and become more self sufficient.  Living this kind of lifestyle can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.  CLICK HERE to get more information on how to become more self sufficient.

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You Can Achieve Self Sufficiency

October 25th, 2011

You Can Achieve Self Sufficiency

Author:

Debbie

Have you ever wondered about self sufficiency?  It is very easy to get caught up in the ease of day to day life and being able to purchase whatever you want on a whim.  It\’s so easy to get in your car and run down to the grocery to buy what you want to fix to eat that night or to just run through a local drive thru.

Self sufficiency sounds so hard when you think about it and many people are just ‘too busy’ to bother.  It just doesn\’t seem like a realistic goal to some people and it just doesn\’t seem like a doable thing.

But, self sufficiency doesn\’t have to be this impossible dream.  The common thinking is that you need at least a couple of acres to grow your own food.  That isn\’t true though.  As long as you have access to a plot of land, you can grow enough fresh food to feed your family and even raise a few chickens. 

If you are lucky enough to own or have access to an acre or two or three, you can obviously do even more to gain more self sufficiency.  There are millions of people around the world and in the United States who have gotten tired of the high cost of qualify fruits and vegetables and have decided to till up some land to plant some of their own food.

The initial labor of setting up your garden can be intense but the rewards are great.  Depending on how much time and energy you want to put into this project, you can grow your own plants from seeds or invest a little more money and buy plants from a local store.  All in all, invest a weekend or two of your time and then an hour or so here and there for weeding, maintenance and harvesting and you too can achieve a degree of self sufficiency.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/you-can-achieve-self-sufficiency-3401172.html

About the Author

The work can be hard at times but the rewards far outweigh the hardships.  Check around in your area and visit some local ‘farms’ to get some ideas for implementing your own self sufficiency plan.  You can go small or you can go as big as you want.  CLICK HERE for more tips on self sufficiency and homesteading,

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A Start in Self Sufficiency

October 25th, 2011

A Start in Self Sufficiency

Author:

KristHiles

 You may also generate a little additional income. This article will give you some tips on starting on the road to self sufficiency.

To begin you need to look at your reasons for wanting to take on a more self sufficient lifestyle. These could be a desire to leave the ‘rat race’ or be more environmentally friendly, you may want to generate an additional income or simply be less dependent upon the global society in which we live.

So what do we mean by self sufficiency? Well, most of the people I speak to think of self sufficiency as generating your own power, growing your own food, and using as little commercial produce as possible. Of course complete self sufficiency is very hard in the world we live in. But there are many things you can do to put you on the right road such as:

1) Grow your own food – This can be done in anything from a window planter to a whole garden. You can save hundreds, by using fresh produce from your garden and have the added benefit of really tasty vegetables or fruit. I have personally grown carrots, beans, peas, parsnips, raspberries, plums and apples and with each of them I found the flavours 100better than the store bought produce.

2) Generate power – this could be a simple solar cell to power a shed light or a complete solar and wind power system through which you could even sell power back to the national grid. Many companies around the world are offering the opportunity to sell them power and whilst the initial set up costs can be high, generating your own power could pay for itself in a short period of only a couple of years.

3) Use less – recycling maybe all the rage but do you actually go out of your way to use less? You will be surprised how much you can save by simply using less commercial produce such as over-packaged foods. When you buy many commercial produce you are paying a large amount just for the packaging.

4) Brew your own drinks – you can create some delicious drinks by following a simple method and brew nearly any kind of fruit or vegetable into an alcoholic drink. But be careful, I have made Blackberry and Plum wine at home from my own grown fruit (The first batch I made could have stripped paint!), after a little experimentation you will find the right process.

There are so many ways for you to become more self sufficient and using the above tips as a starting point you may even save enough money to reduce your hours at work; freeing up more time to spend on your new self sufficient lifestyle.

Thanks for reading.

If you have found this article useful and would like to know more Go here for more information.

Rob Carr is an analyst and self sufficiency advocate living in England UK.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/a-start-in-self-sufficiency-4042362.html

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Facts on Self Sufficient Living

October 25th, 2011

Facts on Self Sufficient Living

Author:

Gregorio Russell

The mantra need to be ‘conserve just before you generate\’ — and there is much a lot more possibility to lower the sum of power essential to heat the home than there is to lessen ability or hot h2o usage. The 1st step is design and style. Placing power at the centre of the layout signifies that you will know what you are likely to will need. It gives you the option to handle insulation, airtightness, warm drinking water use and ventilation — all of which have a huge influence. 2nd is to take into consideration what assets you have available. A windy environment presents the possibility to make sufficient vitality for an all-electrical house, maybe using warmth pumps for area heating. A sunny internet site may possibly make it possible for passive and energetic photo voltaic vitality. Photo voltaic thermal power will often be necessary for self-sufficiency but photo voltaic PV (photovoltaic) can be high priced and wants a ton of area.

Growing your own foods can support minimize the price tag of the grocery invoice. As a substitute of spending hundreds of bucks and month at the grocery retail store on meals that really don\’t definitely nourish you, spend time in the garden, external, exercising, discovering to expand your private foods. While comprehensive self sufficiency calls for a reasonable total of land and consequently suited to a extra rural environment, a lot can be carried out with a really smaller room and an even smaller spending budget. A windowbox is a excellent put to commence in producing your personal foods. It can be acheived with little information of horticulture or useful expertise, and the small scale presents you a good setting up point in the principles of nature.

Self-enough dwelling is not just about becoming thrifty, rising your individual fruit & greens or preserving hens & ducks: it is really about earning, shelling out, budgeting, bargain hunting and the pursuit of credit card debt free of charge living. It\’s the full ethos of \’make do and mend\’ combined with \’reduce, reuse, recycle\’. Frugaldom is a complete way of living, it\’s about living within just your usually means, even if people signifies are meagre, and helping other folks to do the similar. Self-sufficincy is about the economics of dwelling your dream. We uncover the most secure approaches of managing a household while earning a dwelling from dwelling – some may call it subsistance, but I uncover very little \’sub\’ about it. There\’s a zero tolerance on waste, a dislike for squandering and all of this is blended with an insatiable will need to be credit card debt cost-free and mortgage free of charge. Only then can your daily life actually be your unique.

Self sufficiency is a rising movement that brings together a sustainable way to live with a excellent satisfaction of staying ready to supply for most of your needs with out needing any outdoors assist. New technologies has made it a great deal cheaper, less complicated and extra smart to attempt to offer for your self as modern answers to requiring like huge sources are increasingly favoring lots of modest producers in addition to the large scale farms and factories already in use. From a suburban family members to a large rise city dweller, anybody can increase their self sufficiency in some way. Self ample living lessens your Carbon Footprint by doing little variations in each and every spot of your everyday daily life.

 

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/facts-on-self-sufficient-living-5012093.html

About the Author

A keen interest in developing your very own food, conserving funds and caring about the setting brings together into a passion for self sufficiency and self sufficient living in the modern day planet. self sufficient living

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Being Self-Sufficienct to Survive

August 13th, 2009

I am so sorry that I haven’t been posting lately. Our family has had a lot going on as far as deaths in the family and family friends, car trouble and I have been having health issues.

I was reading recently that some people believe that in just 5 years the cost of living could go up to 10 times what it is now. Even worse is that these same people are forecasting that even with this incredible increase in the price of everything that there may be no increase in salary.

OMG! That is a scary thought- isn’t it?

Now I have always said that you should prepare for the worst but hope for the best.

What can we do?

Well, some people think that there must be something that we can do to avoid this happening.

If you have any ideas about what we all can do to keep this dramatic price increase from happening then please post your ideas here and let’s see what we can all come up with.

What can you do to prepare for such and event?

First of all try to pay off any and all bills that you possibly can in the next few years. This will give you more of your income to be able to use in the even that this does happen.

Insulate your home to cut back on energy waste

Switch to fluorescent bulbs and shut off lights when not needed

Switch to solar and/or wind power

If you don’t already then you should try gardening. Don’t have room? Maybe you can find someone that does and you can work something out about the seed, plants and work and then divide up the produce accordingly

Plant fruit and nut trees, shrubs, vines NOW. Most of these will be producing something, even if it isn’t at full capacity, in 5 years. A friend of ours planted a cherry tree 3 years ago. They canned something like 30 quarts of cherries this year. That’s in just THREE YEARS!

My best advice right now would be to start planting as many different kinds of fruit and nuts in your yard as you can. With your own fruits and nuts and a vegetable garden you will know that no matter what happens in the world and with the prices of food that you will have something to feed your family. AND it will be good healthy food which can cut down on medical bills so it is a WIN WIN situation.

If you have the room and can afford to you should install a root cellar and build a greenhouse. This will help you to be able to feed your family year round with home grown fruits, nuts and vegetables

If you are on low income you might also want to try to become educated and/or certified in a career that will increase your income.

Cut down on wastes wherever and whenever possible.

Raise some chickens and rabbits. These don’t take up a lot of room but will provide you with eggs, chicken and rabbit meat for protein. Homegrown NATURALLY Raised meat is actually more filling than much of the meat that you buy at the market. Rabbit meat is also one of, if not THE, leanest meat that you can eat.

If you have a pond you can also grow your own fish. Fish is becoming VERY expensive and I am sure that it’s price will only continue to go up so this could be a very good investment for you if you have the room. A pond will give you entertainment, fire protection, you can use it to water your garden or your animals if needed AND you can grow fish.

These are just some suggestions for you. Anything that you can do to raise your income, lower your outgo and be able to provide for your family will help you to become more self-sufficient. Anything you can do to become more self sufficient will help to increase your family’s chances of survival and their comfort level during tough economic times.

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Self Sufficiency List

July 5th, 2009

If you are thinking of self-sufficiency and being self reliant then the list below will be of special interest to you.

This list does not mean that you have to have absolutely every item on it in order to survive if the worst would ever happen. It is simply a list of items that will help you to be able to survive in times of disaster or economic struggle. The more items that you have, thus the better prepared you are to face adversity and the easier it will be for you and your family to get through tough times.

If you are well prepared then it won’t matter if there is a storm, an earthquake, loss of a job, illness-whatever happens you WILL get through it.

There is no better insurance than to know that no matter what happens that your family is prepared.

You may already have health insurance and life insurance so why not add your own brand of survival insurance?

Okay, Josh & I have researched and talked about it and here are the items that we want to have in order to be self sufficient.

 

An alternative heat source

 

-wood

-corn

-pellet

-solar

-wind

-generator

For the best protection it is a good idea to have 2-3 extra alternative heat sources

Alternative energy source

 

-solar

-wind power

-generator

Alternative water source

 

-hand water pump

-water barrels

-cistern

Storm shelter/root cellar

 

-protection from storms

-storage for canned food

-storage for garden produce

-area to grow mushrooms

Greenhouse

 

-to extend growing season for months

-when attached to your home could provide extra heat during winter months

Garden

 

-provide food during the growing season

-grow enough to feed your family during Winter months

-control over how fresh your food is

-control over whether your food is organic or use of less pesticides

Fruit trees, shrubs or bushes

 

-grow a wide variety of fruits

-use for fresh eating; can or dehydrate for use later

Nuts

 

-growing your own nuts can save you LOTS of money, provide protein and good nutrition

-good for snacking, make nut butters (like peanut butter) and add flavor & crunch to dishes

With nuts costing $8 and more per pound it won’t take long for a nut tree or shrub to pay for itself

 

 

Once you know that you have food, water, heat & lights no matter what happens you will have peace of mind.

Other items to help you to be more self sufficient:

 

A means of protection to keep your family safe is another good idea

Pay down your debt and try to be debt free

If you can then try to get your home & your car paid for asap. This could mean buying a little older model vehicle or a less expensive home.

When you are debt free and have food put aside as well as alternative heat, lights, etc. then if you would lose your job or have an illness in the family you can get by on little money but still be able to eat well and stay warm

If you can, it is nice to have a bit of property so as to raise your own chickens for fresh eggs and meat or to raise other animals and to grow your own food.

If you don’t have much property then you can still grow at least some of your own food. Plant a fruit tree or two & maybe a nut tree. You can grow a nice amount of vegetables by growing upward. Grow beans, squash, cucumbers & such on fences and you will be able to grow a LOT in small spaces.

You can also tuck vegetables into your flower bed, plant a strip of vegetables next to the garage. Every spot that you can grow something will help you to be more self sufficient. AND home grown foods will help you to be healthier too

Mushrooms are another crop that you can grow. These can be grown either in your basement or root cellar. They can also be grown outside in a shady area

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Want to be Self-Sufficient?

July 2nd, 2009

If you really want to be self sufficient or if you just want to keep your right to be self sufficientthen you need to sign this petition RIGHT NOW!

Big companies are trying to take away our rights to be able to raise animals and grow our own meat, dairy and eggs.

How?

They want to force us to have to tag every single animal under the premise that this is for our own good to stop the spread of disease.

The fact is that dieases are more apt to be found in animals being raised by big corporations than what they are when the animals are raised by small farmers or families trying to be self sufficient.

This is all a ruse to make it imposible for us to raise animals ourselves so that the big companies have control over our meat and dairy products. This way they can charge whatever they want to and there will be nothing that we can do about it.

If you have 12 chickens you will have to have 12 seperate tags.

The big corporations buy 100,000 chickens at once. They consider this 1 unit so they only have to have 1 tag.

Is this fair???

If your child has a rabbit that they want to take to the 4H fair to exhibit they will have to submit a report to the government before they will be able to do so.

Want to have a chicken for supper? You will have 48 hours to submit a rteport or you will be penalized. There is nothing definite on what the punichment will be but there are talks of fines and seizure of property.

You can read more about this in the current issue of Back Woods Home Magainve.

Mother Earth News has also been talking about this too.

Please help me to spread the word about this petition so that we can all put a stop to this NOW!

Do NOT let big companies or the government take away our basic human right to raise animals for food or pets.

Stop NAIS! Sign the petition and then tell every one you know

Thanks! :0)

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Self-Sufficiency Garden

July 1st, 2009

Ok, so you are here because you want to become more self sufficient, right?

And you realize that growing your own food is a great place to start and  and is probably the best way to be more self sufficient. What better way to be prepared for the worst than to have the knowledge that you and your family will eat no matter what?

But, if you don’t have a lot of room you may wonder what you should grow. What will provide the most food in the least space? What provides good nutrition? What is easiest to store?

Well, to get you started you need to make a list of what you and your family love to eat. It dies not matter how great a vegetable is if no one in your family will eat it. It will be a waste of time, space and money.

The less space you have the more careful you need to be about that.

If you have more room you can grow some other things but concentrate the most of your favorites and those that can be used in numerous ways.

So, I will give you a list of some top crops to grow in a self sufficiency garden but always check it against what you and your family will actually enjoy eating.

The best self-sufficiency garden will start with crops that can be turned into a wide variety of dishes.

Potatoes tops our list. You can grow a lot of potatoes in a relatively small space. For years people have talked about growing food crops in used tires.

Some people think that it isn’t safe while others think that it is. Use your judgement as to what answer you are comfortable with.

Personally I have read that you can grow as much as 50 pounds of potatoes in an area less than 2X2 ft.

How you wonder? Well, you plant 4 potatoes evenly spaced inside a tire. WHen the potatoes get tall enough you simply add another tire and fill in around the potato plants being sure that the tops are above the soil line. Keep doing this all summer untill you have it 4 tires high. Let the potatoes flower and grow all those fabulous potatoes. In the Fall they are so easy to harvest.

Potatoes can be baked, fried and boiled. You can use potatoes in so many ways that it is hard to get really tired of them. That is the mark of  a great self sufficiencey crop.

 

Next?

Beans

Personally I prefer pole beans as you can grow more in less space and you don’t have to bend over to pick them. Grow them on fences or use posts to make bean tepees. Kids love them.

You can grow all types of beans. Yellow beans, Green beans, Purple beans, dry beans, soy beans, mung beans.

You can grow beans for fresh use, to freeze, to can, to dehydrate. You can evenn pickle them. Yes, I said Pickled Beans.

My Mom used to can pickled beans for me. They make a great side dish or snack and they are super easy to can.

Dehydrate and not only are they super easy tostore but they are quick amd easy to refresh too. You vcan use them in soups, stews, casseroles or as a side dish.

Beans have long been considered poor man’s meat as they are high in protein but they are very low cost.

Your best bet is to grow several different colors and types for a nice variety of meal choices.

Mung beans can be sprouted for using in stir fries or chop suey. You can use different types of bean sprouts fresh or in dishes.

Sprouts are also a great way to take a small amount of seed provide you with a large amount of food.

I cup can be turned into 2-3 cups and, depending on the seed you can turn as little as a spoonful into several cups of sprouts.

During the Winter a wide variety of dried seeds can be a great insurance policy that your family will have fresh vegetables to eat. When you can’t grow fresh vegetables you can still eat fresh vegetables and it is very low cost while providing great high quality nutrition.

You can use them fresh to snack on, use them in sandwiches, meatloaf, soups. There are a wide variety of ways to prepare them.

So, while saving seeds for next years crops remember to store some for soups and fresh eating.

Always make sure that any seeds that you use for cooking whether they have been sprouted or not, are NOT TREATED with chemicals.

Well, I must get to bed as it is late and I am tired.

I will add to this asap as there are lots of other great vegetables to add to the list for your self-sufficiency garden.

Free $20 Garden seed & plants with any $40 Order

Save $20 on any order of $40 or more!

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Root Cellar- Low Cost (Cheap) That Work Well

June 19th, 2009

Josh & I live in a trailer. We have always wanted a root cellar/storm shelter for obvious reason. I mean, we all KNOW that trailers are not a good place to be in the case of storms (ie: tornadoes)

But, more recently we have decided we want one as much for it’s being a root cellar as it’s being a storm shelter.

Our freezer quit and we lost a freezer full of food- which is a huge loss with the cost of food nowadays.

Anyway, we want a root cellar so that we can take a bunch of our produce from the garden and store it for Winter use without havingto can or dehydrate everything.

So, with a tornado getting a little too close for comfort last Sunday we decided it was a good time to start checking out alternative root cellars to see what would work well and yet be low cost.

One thing that we have found that sounds really good is a cargo carrier We read that these are usually only used once so it is recycling and the are built strong.

Since they are so plentiful we read that sometimes you can getthem for free or just for the shipping cost.

In looking around we found a nice sized one for about $1300 not including shipping. We would then need to make a concrete slab or fill in with gravel to help with support and drainage.

For extra security we would want to install support beams inside although some people say that with a cement slab that it is not necessary. You should check into this further for safety sake.

One person said that theirs was well worth the money and effort. They live atthe bottom of a hill and get everyone’s runoff yet their root cellar remained dry inside

 

We will bring you more info on this after we do more research

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Seed Saving =Money Savings

June 18th, 2009
Like I already said, I read that for every $60 you spend on garden seed and transplants you can grow over $2,000 worth of food.

Think about that.

Can you imagine how quickly your savings can add up?

But, image how much money you can save if you don’t need to spend that $60 or $120 or $180 a year for garden seed and transplants.

I am talking about saving your own seed and starting your own transplants.

You could virtually cut your food bill down to nearly nothing just by saving seed, starting your own transplants and growing your own food.

First of all, saving your own garden seed need not be anything difficult. For centuries people have saved their own garden seed and handed it down to their children

Saving your own garden seed not only saves you a ton of money over time but will actually produce crops that are best suited to YOUR growing area.

Years ago I saved my own garden seed but then life got the better of me and I forgot about it for a while. But, with the cost of everything going up I decided to turn back to that old way of gardening in order to save money

Now, we spent around $20 last year on garden seed and around $50 on transplants for the garden.

This year we spent a bit more on garden seed but we bought it with saving our seeds in mind. This meant buying seed that was NOT hybrid seed and buying seed that will do well in our area.

We spent less than half of what we spent last year on transplants and wouldn’t have had to spend that but something got into our first batch of transplants and we lost pretty much every one of them.

We did things different with our next transplants and had much better success. It is not hard and we will br bringing you that information soon so keep watching for it

Most seed is not hard to save. It can be as simple as cleaning the seed from the seed cavity of your melons and squash and then drying them for next year.

Some plants like carrots and cabbage are biennial and take a bit more work.

Biennials will require more work and more commitment than the easy to save annuals. Biennial plants do not send up seed stalks until the second season.

Biennial Plants include:

Beets

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage

Carrots

Cauliflower

Celery

Onions

Parsley

Parsnips

Rutabaga

Salsify

Swiss chard

Turnips.

 

If you are put off by that then just saving the seeds from the easy plants will save you money and when you get more comfortable with the process you can move on to the biennials.

Some easy seed saving crops?

Beans

Cucumbers

Eggplant

Pepper

Radish

Squash

Tomato

Watermelon

So, when planting your garden this year keep in mind which kinds of seed you would like to save and be sure that they are open pollinated or heirloom seed. You CANNOT save seed from hybrid seed as it will not grow to be like the parent plant. You will not know what you could end up with. It may be completely uneatable-no flavor, off taste, tough, etc.

Be sure that you only plant 1 variety for each type of :

Squash

Peppers,

Melon

Cucumber

Pumpkin

Spinach

You CAN pant more varieties but you will need to cover the blossoms before they bloom (open) with a paper bag, piece of cloth something to keep insects from pollinating the blossoms. Then YOU need to pollinate them yourself.

This is not as difficult as it may sound. Many people just use a small paintbrush to get the small bits of yellow pollen onto it and then transfer it to another blossom. Keep doing this until all blossoms on each plant that you are planning to save seed from have been pollinated.

Either wash the brush thoroughly or use a different one for each different crop to prevent cross contamination of your seed.

These can be washed, dried and re-used each year.

Or, I have used my finger to pollinate the plants. Stick with one type of plant and just keep spreading the pollen from one plant to another until all are well pollinated. Then cover each blossom and wash your hands well before moving on to the next crop.

Tie a piece of yarn or cloth to each plant that you will be collecting seed from so that no one will accidentally pick it and eat it resulting in the loss of your seed for next years crop

This is just a basic primer to get you started so that you can plant items that you will be able to save the seed from come Fall.

We will be posting more in depth information soon on how to save seed from biennials, how to process, dry and store seed for next years crops.

We have loads of information from life experience and years of research, it just takes time to get it all posted on here

 

 

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