The Stories of Seeds

I believe strongly that growing our own food, using the seeds we choose, and eating the way we believe, is about not only about personal freedom but also about food and health safety.

Our firewood edged raised beds in our 2014 garden.

Is not our right to farm and is not our freedom to farm stated in the second amendment? I am very alarmed about the corporate and agribusiness take-over of our seeds and seed banks.

Early tomatoes in the low beds and in bags, an experiment.

This year I made a conscious decision to purchase heirloom and open pollination seeds to use on our homestead.

Scarlette Runner Beans growing up a pole.

Not only do I want to support the small business owners who are working to save old seed varities, I just love the stories of the how those older varities of seeds came into being and were saved. Older seed varieties absolutely intrigue me.

I also want to save my own seeds for the following season. I can save a bit of money and more importantly I know exactly what I am growing.

Our fenced in vegetable garden that adjoins the chicken coop and run area.

I want to help preserve the genetic variety of our heirloom seeds one grower at a time.

Our pole beans did very well in 2014. I allow the butterfly plants to flourish in my garden bed.

This year I purchased our seeds from Mary at Mary’s Heirloom Seeds and from Jo at Seed Treasures. These are seeds that will grow healthy old-strain plants that are easy to care for and taste great.

Our sunflower patch is part of our vegetable garden for beauty and to help pollinate the plants.

In Michigan the Right to Farm Act used to protect small farmers and growers like the Small House Homestead but this act has recently been altered. This change directly affects homesteaders and farmers who keep bees and chicken keepers and sell their products. Agribusiness is trying to put the small growers out of business. This has forced many of us to go underground.

If you are not yet aware of these natural wonders of the world – heirloom seeds I hope that I have educated you. Seed’s are the original gift of nature, so please join those of us who want to keep them around.

Will you join me?

Small House Homesteader, Donna

 

The Small House Homestead

As our life changes our blogs change.  Previously I wrote for The Small House Under a Big Sky blog which focused on my restoration of and hand-painting of vintage furniture. Recently I after realizing that our property and garden is a homestead and that we are really rural homesteaders I decided to change the focus of my blog.

For years the word homestead referred to a free government land program and the skills necessary for pioneer living. Today the word homesteading is more apt to refer to a lifestyle that promotes greater self-sufficiency.

By the 1970s, the word homesteading evolved to mean a back to the land movement and creating a lifestyle as tens of thousands of young adults and other adventurous souls threw off the cultural mantle of urban and suburban living and returned to their ancestral rural roots. Over the next three decades, the character of the term homesteading has emerged to include self-sufficient living in urban and suburban settings as well as on rural acreage.

Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of foodstuffs, and it may or may not also involve the small-scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale. Pursued in different ways around the world — and in different historical eras — homesteading is generally differentiated from rural village or commune living by isolation (either socially or physically) of the homestead.

Modern homesteaders often use renewable energy options including solar electricity and wind power and some even invent DIY cars. Many also choose to plant and grow heirloom vegetables and to raise heritage livestock. Homesteading is not defined by where someone lives, such as the city or the country, but by the lifestyle choices they make.

In our case, we grow and put up organic vegetables, harvest rainwater, build soil, keep chickens for eggs, plant and grow native plantings and create eco-climates for the birds and invertebrates. We feel a sense of commitment to steward our small neck of the woods and to leave this land a better place than it was when we moved here.

 

We are truly part of this group of ‘back-to-the-landers’ who desire to live a greener and more independent and self-reliant lifestyle.

Thank for checking us out!

Donna & Gene Allgaier-Lamberti