Four Acres and a Dream Part 4

Four Acres and a Dream

Our Homestead Journey

Feeding the Family

Every successful homestead starts with the basics food, water and shelter. Of the three I find that growing, harvesting and storing food for a family of four to be the largest task due to the learning curve. Most homesteaders don't build their own home. Water in most cases it a matter of getting it from point a to point b but food, well that's an entirely different story.

For me this will be a steep learning curve. One of the first things I planted on the homestead was string beans and peas. It didn't occur to me that in order to grow enough beans and peas for four people that would need a lot more seed. Buying packs of seeds from the dollar store wasn't going to cut it anymore.

After using up every pack I had I purchased the pack shown above.

My long term goal is to grow 75% of our food. My short term goal is to grow enough of these 5 vegetables to take us through the year. Green beans, tomatoes, peas, carrots and potatoes. I will actually grow carrots, peas and beans in the spring and fall. The issue is not knowing how much I will need to grow and store.
As a baseline we have planted about 100 seed potatoes and 100 beans and pea seeds.

As a baseline we have planted about 100 seed potatoes and 100 beans and pea seeds. Some of these seeds were old so the germination rate my not be so great.

The next issue is how to get enough water for the gardens. Yes, I have more than one. We are not expected to have water on the homestead until June 15th. I started planting a month ago. Mid June would not be an ideal time to start planting so we have been bringing water for the garden. We do have a makeshift water catchment system but on average we use about 30 gallons per week. That will increase due to the fact that I have been adding more crops the the gardens each week. Here is what we have planted so far


Potatoes ( various varieties )
Sweet potatoes
Tomatoes
Watermelons
Green beans
Peas
Blueberries
Strawberries
Blackberries
Goji Berries
Grapes
Spruce trees


Within the next week I hope to get carrots, eggplant, cantaloupe, ghost peppers, white sage and more tomatoes into the ground.

I positioned these troughs at the top end of the main garden. Each holds 170 gallons of water. Eventually I will use a drip irrigation system to water the garden below. I will also be using the 5 barrels from my current house. By placing them around the homestead watering the garden will be much easier.

You may have noticed that Ghost peppers and sage are on my list. I am planting these as a deterrent to the local critters. It is only a partial solution. Along with the plants I will use fencing and netting.