Sam Shade

+ Follow
since Jun 02, 2024
Merit badge: bb list bbv list
Biography
urban farming
For More
Memphis (zone 7b/8a)
Apples and Likes
Apples
Total received
In last 30 days
0
Forums and Threads

Recent posts by Sam Shade

I've had good luck with elder berry growing and producing in almost complete shade (two story house shading it from the south, mature redbud blocking the west and a grove of paper mulberries  to the north). Definitely an easy one to stick in shady spots next to the trees that will grow big.
3 days ago
I couldn't get mine to survive overwinter in Memphis and the ones I tried to save in the basement to  plant this year got eaten by rat invaders.

Really nice sweet flavor - like a carrot with the texture and juiciness of a pear - but I'm spoiled by the ease and hardiness of Jerusalem artichokes and Chinese yams as perennial root crops.
3 days ago
This stuff takes over any new clearing in my forested areas and moves in on most of my garden beds. Gotten really aggressive over the last two years after never really showing up before.

The smell is so good I don't want to get rid of it completely (I'm similarly minded towards Japanese Honeysuckle).

My goats refuse to touch the stuff, but I didn't know feeding to rabbits was a possibility. I'm going to try a small batch on my Californian/Silver Fox does and see how they respond. Will report back!
1 week ago
My dream is do this somewhere tropical and then find a way to visit a couple times a year to live off the bounty.

Even in 7b, there's a lot that will grow with virtually no care and input.  For root crops, Jerusalem artichokes and Chinese yams outcompete even the goldenrod at my 7b place. Amaranth and sorghum do the same among the grains. Asparagus, creeping cucumber, cardoon, oregano among the greens. Egyptian walking onions.  Fast ripening melons (before the vine borers), moschata varieties of pumpkin/squash, and sweet potatoes will also do well if you plant them and harvest at the right times.


Chestnuts, pecans, persimmons, figs, plums and mulberries will do fine with no care. Just about any berry you can think of will do well.
1 month ago
I'm currently at about 10% of my food (youngish family of 7), thanks mainly to super productive chickens. That percentage is creeping up as we figure out how to work with our small goat herd. Goat meat is already putting a dent in our meat budget; just need the dairy to replace grocery milk and eventually butter/cheese/yogurt. Been struggling with disease in our meat rabbits, but once that's fixed we'll be able to add rabbit meat, and, along with the occasional duck and fish from our pond, our animal product needs will be totally self-sourced.

Our fruit and vegetables are still mostly grocery buys, but I can see phasing that out over the next few years as our fruit trees and perennial garden get bigger and more established and we find out which kind of annual bumper crops will survive the neglect and pest pressure in our area. So far Jerusalem artichokes, chinese yams, sweet potatoes, asparagus, blueberries, mulberries, figs, tomatoes and okra all do consistently well, but we haven't established good systems for preserving them to cover the whole year. We also have pecans and chestnuts that we mostly leave to the animals which we plan to start keeping for ourselves.

Nothing in the works yet to replace grocery sugar - my eldest daughter is keen to start bees next year to rectify that.

Cereals are a major part of our diet and daunting to replace on our 5 acre, part-time human powered operation. My hope is that we can make grain amaranth - which grows easily, vigorously and self-seeds in  our area - a staple in our diet, but it has to pass the "can't be a huge pain to process" and "tastes good" tests. Also doing some experiments with lotus and growing corn on chinampa style floats on our pond to add to our grain arsenal.


2 months ago

Ed Lewis wrote:

Sam Shade wrote:A few more plants to add to the discussion:

Mulberry - fruit, greens, animal fodder, lumber, firewood, silkworm starter kit.

Kudzu - edible/medicinal root, great animal fodder.

Cardoon - vigorous artichoke cousin that takes some work to process for food but grows big and survives with zero maintenance.

If you have a pond...

Duckweed - nutritional powerhouse that grows at insane rates and can't be killed.

Water lotus - seeds and roots, and the most beautiful plant out there.




How would you eat the Duckweed? On a salad or cooked?



I mainly feed it to my chickens but I've read people throw it smoothies.
3 months ago
A few more plants to add to the discussion:

Mulberry - fruit, greens, animal fodder, lumber, firewood, silkworm starter kit.

Kudzu - edible/medicinal root, great animal fodder.

Cardoon - vigorous artichoke cousin that takes some work to process for food but grows big and survives with zero maintenance.

If you have a pond...

Duckweed - nutritional powerhouse that grows at insane rates and can't be killed.

Water lotus - seeds and roots, and the most beautiful plant out there.

3 months ago

Ed Lewis wrote:Perennial tree collards. Propagates like a succulent. One stick in the ground makes a 10'x10' patch or more if it's happy. In Socal it's a year around green machine.



Is this the walking stick kale Baker Creek sells or something else?

3 months ago
Rabbits are great but they die remarkably easily.
3 months ago