Keep your friends close and your food closer!

Something is reassuring about being able to walk out of my back door and see food.  Whether it is my chickens, quail, eggs, cherries, grapes, or food that is growing in my garden.  The closer that you are to your food source, the better off you are.

Here are a few pics of some of the food that I have been working on.  Some of it doesn't take much because I have already put in the work to get it started such as my grape vineyard, cherry tree's, blackberry patch, or my grove of wild plums.

You may not be able to make out the tiny green cherries in the crappy picture above, but my cherry tree's are loaded.  

Above is a picture of some of my grapes.  Should yield plentiful abundance to make a ton of grape juice and raisins.


However my garden is my main local food source and something that takes time and energy to get it to yield.

In the past 3 years I have had about 3500 square feet of garden space, but I cut that down to about half this year because my job really cuts into my day and I plan on doing a few more projects this year that will eat more of my time.  I will highlight those additional projects in the coming months. 

Above is a picture of my garden space this year.  I have plowed it once, but want to go through a few more times before I plant, but rain has kept me from doing that yet.

Because of the reduction of space, I have to cut down on what I will be planting, so here is the list: 

Okra (I ADORE FRIED OKRA)
Tomatoes
Yellow Squash
Zucchini Squash
Acorn Squash (after the Yellow and Zucchini are done)
Cucumbers
Peppers (Bell, Banana, Jalapeno)
Sunflowers (my kids love the huge flowers, plus they are great to keep the birds away from the other things and to keep the bee's coming in)

Due to the much warmer than normal weather, this time next week I should have my garden planted which is about a full month earlier than normal.

I will keep things posted.