Kalin Brown

I’ve been using Libreoffice for 15 years give or take. I haven’t missed Microsoft Office even for a second.

I’m in zone 3a northernish Alberta. Clay soil. Not as dry as southern Alberta/prairies were in the boreal forest. About 100-120 growing days. It’s a new climate for us since we moved from coastal BC, zone 8b, 211 growing days, temperate coastal rainforest. Our plan is:

Potatoes. Lots and lots of potatoes. They grow well here and store well and we like them a lot.

Dry beans. Lots of varieties and we like to eat beans a lot in all sorts of dishes.

Winter squash. Everyone around us grows them and they seem to do well. They keep well and we like them.

Corn. We don’t have the heat units for a lot of corn, but there are shorter seasons varieties. We wouldn’t rely on this entirely as if we still don’t get the heat we’d be in trouble.

Jerusalem Artichoke because my husband and I can both eat them without the gastric issues many have. We ate a lot of them back in BC. I’m not sure about our kids yet.

Sweet Potato. There are some varieties that are being developed for shorter seasons. I wouldn’t rely on this as my main calories because of the chance it could fail catastrophically in our climate, but we do like them a lot and they keep well.

If we wanted to get into grain, which I don’t even though we have 70 acres and could, because I don’t want to be scything and a combine is too expensive. But if we wanted to the ones grown around us (so that would presumably do well) are: rye, oats, wheat, barley.

Meat & eggs. We have 70 acres including 15 acres fenced pasture (only half of which is pasture the other half is trees) and 15 acres hay so we have highland cows and chickens currently. We also plan to add sheep (grazing the orchards so we don’t have to mow), pigs, and maybe ducks, emu, and turkey. However when we were on 1/4 acre lot we had meat rabbits and ducks. There’s still options that can fit on smaller properties. We also hunt and have lots of deer, rabbits, grouse and even moose coming through.

I haven’t built one yet (it’s on the to-do list but we’ve had a lot more pressing issues like repairing our foundation) and we’re not as cold as you here in northernish Alberta. We get down to -40c/f. However I know there is someone in St. Albert, Alberta (just a little south of us, similar temps) growing nectarines in a walipini.

When I lived in town 1/4 acre lot coastal BC Canada, zone 8b/9a, 211 growing days I grew all my own fruits & vegetables (approx 2000lbs for vegetables 4-500 of which were just tomatoes, and that included enough for canned/frozen/dried for winter and many sauces/condiments including bbq sauce, salsa, ketchup, etc), eggs (duck), and provided all our own meat mostly from hunting but we did raise meat rabbits. We did not produce our own grains or dairy.

Now we just moved and live in northern-ish Alberta, Canada almost 70 acres. Zone 3a, 120 growing days. It feels limitless what we will be able to produce in time. For the first time ever I even grew nice, pest free potatoes! Haha I don’t know why that matters so much to me, but I’m thrilled about it. The goal is to produce not only for us, but also local food for the community (we did run the saskatoon berry u-pick this year.)

We have chickens and cows, though I don’t plan to add a dairy cow and milk for a few years at least until kids are in school full time. I’d like to add ducks (we have a great pond - no more pools!), turkey , emu (my favorite meat as I remember it when I tried it as a kid and they are just really really cool), sheep, and eventually a couple pigs.

We’ve started mushroom beds and logs (Winecaps, various oysters, and shiitake so far, hoping to at least see winecaps next year.) Hoping to add more types over the years. More strains of shiitake, lions mane, chestnut, more types of oysters. I love growing mushrooms. Probably my second favorite thing after tomatoes, which is funny because when I first started growing tomatoes 16-ish years ago I didn’t even like eating them. I just loved growing them. I like eating them now though.

We have 3 acres of Saskatoon berries and more than enough raspberries. We have maybe 9 crabapples, a couple cherries, one regular apple variety unknown, caragana. I planted another 24 apple trees this year as well as hazelnuts.

Next year I’m adding pears, plums, sour cherries, haskaps, black raspberry, seabuckthorn, goji, currants, Russian olive, hackberry, butternut, give or take to the orchard. I may put off some to the following year. We also have plans to in future years add hops, Arctic kiwi, grapes, Aronia, Nannyberry, apricots, linden, more hazelnuts, sumac, Jostaberry, gooseberry, etc. Not everything will do well here, but I don’t mind since we have so much space I’ll take some risks.

Our forest (approx 30 of our acres mainly poplar and aspen with some birch, spruce and tamarack) produces firewood, wild rose, sarsaparilla, Highbush cranberry, various mushrooms, and much much more.

I don’t think we’ll ever bother getting into grain. Lots of grain farmers around us. If I did it would more just be an experiment in uncommon grains, scythed… but honestly, we have our hands so full I can’t see getting bored enough to try.

I have about 3 acres I need to fence off for my orchard and considering doing a junk pole fence because it would be significantly cheaper than game fencing (lots of deer, moose, elk in the area) plus we could clean up some of our treed area to reduce fire risk…

So for those who have done it…

Is it actually effective at keeping out deer?

How does it hold up to high winds?

Bears Head (Hericium abietis) grows primarily on fir, but is supposed to also be able to grow on other conifers like pine.

Nicolas Derome wrote:
Some of those feel like they might take a bit long to bear fruit (for my situation), which of them transplant ok? And I think blueberries wouldn't do well in neutral soils?

I haven't really thought of growing mushrooms before but I suppose it's worth a shot. I've been cutting and pruning trees and bushes, so I have quite a lot of logs, branches and twigs. I could probably get my hands on some straw, pine needles and leaves for finer material too. I'd probably grow them in the moist sandy soil under some dogwoods (which are themselves understory below some maple/willow/tree of heaven). So pretty heavy shade, and my climate has a fairly ordinary temperate climate (avg high of 80F/low of 68F in mid-summer, down to average high of 32f/low of 20F in mid-winter, 2-3 inches of precipitation per month year-round).

I will be trying a lot of the carrot family vegetables (dill, cilantro, bulbous chervil, skirret, carrot, parsley, root parsley, parsnip) although it seems more of those require protection from voles/rabbits. This year I didn't have any and the tops kept getting chewed down, so this year I'll try surrounding the beds in hardware cloth. I'll also be growing garlic, welsh onion, walking onion, maybe bunching onion and leeks, maybe crosnes (tuberous mint), and have already been growing mint family herbs (spearmint, basil, oregano, sage, rosemary, lavender, thyme).

You can also grow some mushrooms in straw/woodchip mulch and they are super easy to start. I just put in winecaps and blue oyster in straw mulch, and am putting shiitake and lion's mane in logs.

Can I grow  kiwi on a 4' chainlink fence? Will it be happy growing horrizontal instead of vertical? I have about 80' of fence, but it's only 4' high...

I haven't gotten to eat them yet (maybe next year for some, the following year for others), but I am very excited for my mushrooms. Winecaps, Blue Oyster, Shiitake and Lion's Mane!

Wow, I'm impressed that this can compete with the grass. I may have to try this.