Dennis Hillier

I was in a similar situation and was with someone that dramatically increased the amount of different animals on the homestead. When things ended I was driving truck 12-13 hours a day for a big orchard operation making deliveries. The solution that worked best for me was to rehome a lot of the critters down to a handful of breeding stock and offer my neighbors free vegetables so there was little waste. I then took a year to regroup and find a better work life balance and slowly rebuilt things as I got into another relationship. It worked for me and still allowed me to keep a few critters that could be utilized to breed when I was in a better situation

We have also grown comfrey from the same source and sell some trees and plants but honestly the shipping, digital payments and everything that you need to be on top of to sell online doesn’t trip my trigger and it definitely hinders us financially. I ran into one issue selling through facebook marketplace where the customer sent a check and we shipped her comfrey out the next day. Like 3-4 weeks later she messaged us and says she never received anything, normally I am fairly organized but we think we misplaced or accidentally threw out the post office shipping information. We were traveling to her state so we arranged to bring some comfrey and meet her about half hour from her home but last minute she couldn’t make it. It’s nice to earn a little money but wish we could just sell locally and earn a living.

Hi, we’re a middle aged couple renovating a farmhouse on a one acre homestead in Vermont. We have had a few experiences with a woman joining us and like your personal experience we to found them to be wearing a mask so back to square one. In an ideal world we are looking to connect with a woman that is open to love, maybe has an alpha personality and wanting a positive long term relationship. Happy to chat if you’re open to unconventional partnerships.

I haven’t tried storing Jerusalem artichoke in sand or compost, my experience is they don’t keep very well and storage space would be difficult for a winter’s worth stored in the above scenario. I do feed them Jerusalem artichokes May through October along with my other animals, supply starts dwindling by the end of the season.

I’m all ears, please continue

The only place I have is the seller in my old farmhouse, but I typically don’t store things down there. It can get a little humid. I have an unheated workshop area that I keep most of my stuff in inside milk crates, and it stays typically in the low 40s there winter.

I did a little research on the suggestions from people in this post and there seems to be a pattern of not recommending certain turnips and other root crops as a steady diet due to high sugar or starch levels. I read an article from the 1940’s that said many meat rabbit farmers fed a regular diet of these French turnips with no issues. It sounds like it’s one of those just try it scenario’s, our rabbits are pretty well versed in eating root vegetables and greens so I am hoping a transition away from
pellets might not be to difficult.

I seem to recall the particular article referencing a turnip variety that was pretty large. I will check out the beet variety that you mentioned as that might be an option as well. Thanks!

We have a small homestead in Vermont and have raised meat rabbits for many years, recently cut back to about a dozen. I typically feed them Jerusalem artichoke leaves and tubers during the warmer months and we are trying to get away from dependence on bagged feed in the event of a major disruption to the supply chain. Unfortunately Jerusalem artichokes doesn’t store well.
I had read somewhere about a fella that grew a type of turnip, French variety possibly that stores excellent all winter and supplies his rabbits with adequate nutrition. Anybody have any experience growing a turnip that fits the bill and could possibly be grown this year to stock up for winter? We have extensive gardens but are on a small one acre property so it limits growing some crops. Thanks

I agree that making value added products is a must, we are planning on smoking peppers to make a spice mix for sure. We are also dedicating a portion to producing pure seed for sale and had a couple seed packets designed to give us a more professional appearance. We definitely weren’t planning on picking the produce and then trying to sell it, our thoughts were to advertise heavily in advance of certain varieties being 100% ripe and letting people pick their own vegetables straight off the plants. Our gut feeling is we probably won’t get the traffic to make a sustainable income but thought it would be worth a try as we had a couple people ask if we were going to sell any produce.
Another idea was a mobile farmstand possibly advertising to be parked in certain areas on certain days to sell produce directly to customers. I do have some connections with co-ops and selling wholesale is potentially worth it, we are in the process of getting certified naturally grown as well.