We grow pumpkins in our food forest as a ground cover, food for us, and as food for our cows, chickens and hogs. We make compost piles and plant them with pumpkin seeds, then let them run everywhere. They'll run over the grass and weeds, and we just try to mow in front of them so they can root in the ground and keep running. Seminole pumpkins are really good at this in our hot, humid, zone 8b climate.
I would compost them. Composting is very good at breaking down pathogens. You can also feed them to animals, or just throw them around non-apple crops to rot down.
One of the things that changed our paradigm from so-so to amazing is that we started growing the crops that love our region. We're in zone 8b, so instead of planting some of the "Yankee" vegetables, we started growing crops that were high-yield and liked our climate. Seminole pumpkins, true yams, mulberries, chestnuts, okra, tropical greens, cassava, etc. That gives us a great base yield.
As for chickens, Florida Bullfrog's new book "Free-Range Survival Chickens" shares how some of the old varieties of birds (game fowl, in particular) are much more predator-aware and can feed themselves mostly via foraging.
Pigs have done well for us, too, and we can keep them in a relatively small space and feed them the extra without a lot of work. They'll eat everything from sweet potato vines to spoiling pumpkins, Jerusalem artichokes, canna stems and leaves, etc. Plus food scraps from restaurants! We can raise pork for very little purchased feed.
I am very pleased to announce a brand-new book by "Florida Bullfrog." He has worked for years to recreate the survival chicken breeds of the past. Birds that can free-range in high predator environments without being locked in a coop. After multiple years of work, we were able to publish his new book Free-Range Survival Chickens. It's changed the way I look at birds! He told me, "if you're losing your flocks to predators, you have the wrong chickens!"
It's a fascinating book, and very useful for anyone who wants to raise birds that can survive and thrive without factory food, expensive coops, etc.
Free Range Survival Chickens
Very glad to see him write this book. It's definitely needed right now. You can find it on Amazon, or order it from your local bookseller.
If anyone has questions, ask away. I hope to post an interview with him on YT soon.
It's cane season again. We're planting and propagating cane right now as we don't have enough for syrup, yet the locals are doing boils right now to make cane syrup.
Last year I was able to interview a local and record the process from start to finish:
It's really worthwhile recording these methods before they're lost. That mill is ancient!
I have been reading Coppice Agroforestry all this week - half-way through.
Great information, Mark. I gave you a plug in my latest video:
I like the idea of infinite firewood and building materials. We have about two acres of woods on our new homestead, much of which is re-growth. Perfect for experimentation, plus coppicing/pollarding is going to open up lots of light for all the rabbiteye blueberry bushes we discovered in the understory. Thanks for the inspiration.
I like ginger, as it can take the shade. I've also had good luck with sweet potatoes. Another favorite are canna lilies, as they make a great repeat chop-and-drop in our warm climate. Endless mulch.
