Mimi Owens

Hi Dorit!  You share the same name as my daughter - her middle name, that is.  I love it and its origin!

About the fruit trees, we purposely chose dwarf trees (or semi) so that we would be able to access fruit throughout.  After selecting our finds, we planted all of them fourteen feet apart - in 3 rows of 5 trees each row (yes, that's how many we have!).  At our old house we actually planted them much closer, about half the distance, and each tree seemed to hold its own without "crossing" into other trees' drip lines or whatnot.  We just wanted to make sure we had more space this time so that we could create guilds underneath each tree circle and so far, the idea is working (3 years in).

Curious to see what others think, too.

Any in northern Utah, eastern Idaho or western Wyoming?  

My husband is the grandson of a cattle rancher down in New Mexico, and when the grandfather passed Hubby inherited all farm implements, truck and tractors.  Unfortunately before he was able to get down to NM to get everything some unscrupulous characters made off with a couple heavy duty farm implements, but he has always made things work with what we have (blessed!).  Shortly after, his city-loving Mom (an only child) sold off grandfather's 325 acre prime land with everything under the sun on it for far less than its market value - thinking we'd never make it down there to work the land and raise a few head of cattle.  Broke dear Hubby's heart and while we are grateful to have our just-under acre here in the burbs that I've created a food forest on, garden about half of it, with established fruit guilds/an orchard and am working on creating a pond while Hubby works a full time job then putters around in our field/the "barn" (oversized red shed).  We are only 10 years away from his retirement, 5 if he gets his way and will want to be full-time Otis/Oterra Owens!  We haven't found the "it" acreage (out of our price point by millions!) and our hearts truly want to carry on a tradition that has been around for generations instead of just looking at the land and what we get out of it.  After all, if we don't steward or work hard for what we're given, we are not worthy of what we have.  My two cents!  

*Side note:* I love this site, yet I get overwhelmed and overloaded with all the info and so I have the SKIP book (Thank you Paul and Mike).  Hubby would pass the program in DAYS - minutes! - with his skill set/background while I might need a few hand-holders to help me get "certified"!  With what I've gained (and this gal is a Los Angeles, California-born former high school drill team dancer and 80's pop aficionado - deaf or not - who dug deep into her absolute love for Little House on the Prairie life when she met her cowboy and never looked back close to 20 years), I'm amazed I've gotten this far!  But God!

Can't stay on.  Got bushels to put up from the garden.  Later gater!

As someone who first got her fingernails dirty in the tiny garden of our city home only 17 years ago, let me tell you.  Go ahead, pull up a chair.  I had to go s-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-wwww.

For much of that time since - and we had to move to a new place in late 2020 on nearly an acre to satisfy my need to homestead -, I've done pretty much water bath canning; freezing; dehydrating (just herbs), then about five years ago I finally buckled down and started pressure canning.  HOW I WISH I HAD STARTED YEARS EARLIER!!!  Especially meals in jars!  Dinner done is the best thing!

Just this year, I received and have maintained a sourdough starter - and have baked so much with it - that I am so very unwilling to bite into anything from a big box store.  My recipe box grows with "gotta try this!" lists.

New challenge for me this year, too: fermenting and sprouting.  Those two I guess I saved for last because there's an intricate relationship with a ferment and sprouted greens that I, uhmm, needed some time to lean into! HA.  I'm happy to say I made strawberry vinegar from our garden berries this spring and am totally hooked!  

And don't even get me started on seed-saving.... I do that every year, too, and it is probably one of the funnest things besides posting to a permie thread.  Especially when I open a box and see all my seeds in there, who needs the hidden gold of Montezuma when I have these???

~Mimi  

Honestly, I'm not fond of adding much beyond what is already present in fruit, with exception of lemon juice.  Adding cups n' cups of sugar to thickify a fruit spread.... not my bag.  With that approach I tend to lean towards making butters and preserves.  In fact, just this week I preserved 2c of raspberries with 1/2 cup honey and lemon juice, simmered until thick then put into the fridge (it was enough for nearly a perfect half pint).  One of my best memories of fruit preserving was when a few years back I made Pflaumenmus jam (slow cooked plum jam - easily 18-24 hours simmered in the slow cooker!) and the flavor was a burst of summer in winter.  So good!

Thanks, Edward!  I just purchased the SKIP book a moment ago then landed on your thread.  I had to take a while getting accustomed to the many ways one can earn a BB - and often feel overwhelmed - so your tips and links are soooo helpful.  I'll get started on my BB's!

...when I see my entire field covered in dandelions and the bees dance, and my heart feels like it's hit the jackpot.

...when I see my strawberries happily producing wildly underneath my fruit trees among the comfrey, lupines, chives, cosmos and columbines that all of a sudden decided to live in harmony together.

...when I can walk among the vegetables and see white clover growing.

...when I run out during hot days to check the birdbath I set out just for the bees and get all worried when it's dry, then I replenish that watering station and readjust the pebbles so the bees can have a place to sit and drink.

...when I realize that, in this second season of applying permaculture to my orchard, berry patch and vegetable gardens, as well as the perennials I plant both for ornamental and herbal use are all beautiful, harmonious and perfect, that I've finally found what the meaning of life on earth is: to steward, to share, to provide, to harvest and to survive together with nature.

Yep. I'm a permie!

I received some heat-treated (NOT pressure treated or chemically treated) pallets from my sister's remodel project and set about making compost bins in our field to replace the old wooden box we had been using to contain our compost.  I created it quite quickly, less than 2 hours and it is already paying back in dividends!  I just added some black compost to my vegetable garden rows and everything looks great!  This video is quite similar to how I made mine with the exception of chicken wire, which I was worried would "catch" the shovel or the pitchfork each time I turned the piles.  Aside from that, I adore Anne of all Trades!

Looks like I needed to resize my cover... here it goes!

Guess I'll join the tinkering with pics here...