uBuilder Plans

"Stop Dreaming About the Good Life and Start Living It!"

Question: How can I start a hobby farm aimed at self sustainability?

The first step is not to wait for that farm. Urban homesteading is a way of life for many of us. Begin by learning skills that you would need if you ever do find that perfect farm.

Sustaining your self begins with food. Try buying your foods in season from local farmers markets. Learn to can and preserve those foods to last you throughout the year. I can everything from your basic vegetables to making my own soups, catchup, spaghetti, bbq, picante and other sauces. Buying locally grown produce in season is VERY cost effective and helps your local farm economy.

Next while at those same markets ask around about locally grown meats. By joining with other families buying even large amounts of meat like a whole cow or pig becomes quite affordable. Friends at work regularly join with me to buy a whole grass fed beef. By sharing the costs and the meat we all profit. We gather money to pay the farmer for the beef and the farmer hauls the cow to the butcher shop for us. Then we simply tell the butcher shop who the partners are and how much each partner is buying, they will divide our cow into even portions. Our butcher shop will even cut and wrap each half or quarter just the way the buyer wants it! So sharing a cow is even easier. When the meat is ready we pick up the frozen wrapped meat and each pay our portion of the butchering costs. Our last beef cost about $2.99 a pound. This is everything from hamburger to inch thick T bones! Buying meat bulk in this way keeps me in WONDERFUL meat for about a year. My family also buys 1/2 a pig, and two sheep this way each year.

Herbs are a good way to start gardening in a small space. With a good dehydrator (MUST HAVE - well worth the money)
you can raise fresh herbs enough for your family, and even to sell, in a few flowerpots. I also dehydrate onions (purchased from the Shriners), mushrooms and celery (on sale at the grocery store), and (fruit from a local u pick ).

Even a SMALL yard can be productive. I raise as part of a very decorative landscape: grapes (enough to eat fresh, freeze, and make jelly), Peaches (my dwarf tree produced 60 pounds of peaches last year!). I also have bush cherries for jam and a grafted dwarf tree that can produce apricots, plumbs, nectarines and peaches on the same tree. There are also apple and cherry trees available that produce several different kinds.

I have a small garden plot. I grow tomatoes, peppers, climbing beans and I have two half barrels (recycled Pepsi syrup containers) that I grow salad in.

In my area chickens are legal. I keep three hens in my backyard as pets. They provide all of the fresh eggs my family of three can eat and part of the year I have eggs enough to freeze or give away.

Broilers are also relatively easy to raise I lease a space at a friends farm to raise my own chickens to eat each year. I can raise enough chickens for my family to eat as well as pay my lease in chickens. It takes less than 4 months from start to freezer to raise broilers. I do the butchering myself. While it takes some getting used to, it is not difficult and I especially like the fact that I can package the chicken like we eat it. Currently I package the necks and backs together to use as soup stock, and 1/2 a breast (my chicken breasts average 1 1/4 pounds each!), 2 wings, 2 legs, and 2 thighs in a package. The extra breast halves are packaged for my daughter and her spouse who will only eat breast meat. In this way I have 1 soup/stock meal, 2 chicken dinners and a dinner for my daughter for every two chickens I clean. Pretty handy and no leftovers!

In the past we also raised rabbits for meat. They are very productive and take only a small amount of space as well. I personally gave up raising rabbits, because I found a 4-H member near me that raises them to sell.

I make my own soap and laundry detergent, I compost my grass clippings for the garden (with the litter from my hens it is nice indeed!), I drive paid off older vehicles, I buy clothing on sale or recycled (thrift stores). This is how I urban homestead and I am not alone!

Some day I hope to own a small farm - until then I learn!

"Stop Dreaming About the Good Life and Start Living It!"

How do you homestead? We would like to know! Contact us and tell us your story. Farmfresh@uBuilderPlans.com