Let’s face it. Farm families are a dying breed. More and more farm families are selling out to the large corporate farmers and are moving to town. Some of us, however, are here to stay. We believe in the old adage, “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” Country life and farming is in our blood. If you live on a farm, or have just moved to the country on a few acres, then you will find this page helpful. It offers advice on everything from raising children on the farm to raising chickens. It will talk about country cooking and making ends meet, and all the old fashioned Country way. If after reading this you have any helpful hints or suggestions, feel free to e-mail me. Maybe I’ll add some of your ideas to this web page. I’ll be updating occasionally.
A is for Acres- Let’s face it. To have a farm, you have to have
acreage; whether it be 1 or more. A farm can be any size as long as
it is producing something—fruits, vegetables, grain, animals, etc.
We call our farm “The Funny Farm,” because sometimes it’s pretty
nutty around here.
The price of land varies from place to place. Acreage is more
expensive around big metropolitan areas. Around Missouri, good
farm land (tillable) goes between $800-$2,000 per acre.Of course,
you can always come across better deals. You just have to look
around.
B is for Bottle-Fed-Calves— If you are planning on bottle
feeding a calf, whether to raise as meat or to keep as a pet, there’s a
few things you should know. 1) Buy good quality milk replacer. 2)
Don’t overfeed your calf , or it will scour (get serious runs.)
3) Have a shelter for your calf. 4) Feeder Beware! There is nothing
worse than a hungry bottle-fed calf. They chase , butt, ram and lick
you to death. (They have very rough tounges.) When they eat, they
butt you with their heads. I guess they think they are going to get
more milk that way—a natural instinct.
C is for Chickens—Ahh. There’s nothing prettier than a couple
of chickens standing on the lawn in front of a farm house. True,
chickens are nice to have around. You know you are in the country
when you see chickens. They are beneficial too. They eat all kinds
of nasty insects and keep things neat and trim around the
buildings and under trees. Plus, they provide you with eggs! They
do pose a problem if they are open range though. They do their
business in your yard, and if you have a side walk, they love to do
their business there. Then your kids (farm kids go barefoot most of
the time during the summer) step in it. When visitors come, they
have to maneuver around the piles.
D is for Dirt Roads and Dust—Let’s face it. On a farm, you have
lots of dust. Whether it be dust from the dirt roads, gravel roads,
fields or animal lots. Farms are dirty places, so get used to it.
When it rains, the dust turns to mud, and it get tracked into the
house from boots and shoes. Sorry to say, you will just have to live
with it.
E is for Entertainment—On the farm, there is a lot of
entertainment. You just have to know where to find it. On a farm,
there is a lot of hunting, fishing, gardening, picnicking,
swimming, hiking, berry picking, bird watching,exploring, etc.
Kids have fun doing these things as well as biking, tree climbing,
flower picking, insect hunting. If you are lucky enough to own or
know someone who has a lot of acreage, you can even go
arrowhead hunting. Some farms along creeks and rivers have
caves that offer spelunking. It’s just a matter of finding enough
time to do everything offered on a farm!
F is for Fruit Trees— If you are fortunate enough to buy a farm
with fruit trees already planted on it, you are in luck. Fruit trees
take several years after planting before they begin to produce fruit.
Fruit trees require a lot of maintenance too. They have to be
pruned and sprayed regularly. Plus, fruit trees are very expensive
to purchase. They are, however, a good investment, especially if
you plan on freezing or canning the fruit.
G is for Grocery Shopping—Don’t think you are going to get
to run to the grocery store every day once you are on the farm
(unless you work in town, of course.)Most farms are several miles
from town (10-15 miles,) and it wouldn’t be economical to drive to
town daily.When grocery shopping, or shopping from other
supplies, you will have to plan ahead and buy for a week or two
worth of supplies. You’ll be surprised in the long run on how
much money you will save using this approach. You will eliminate
a lot of spontaneous buying this way. To make your trip to town
worthwhile, you will need to make out a shopping list before you
go, so you will not forget anything.
H is for Harvesting Vegetables—If you live on a farm, chances
are you have a garden. And, chances are if you have a garden,
you’ll need to harvest it. What will you do with all of those
vegetables you get? Well, visit my other web page, Canning
Garden Produce, and you’ll find out.
Basically, you’ll know when it is time to harvest when the veggies
are big enough to eat. Veggies like carrots, cabbages,beets, turnips
,and radishes are ready when they reach an appropriate size.
Compare them to the ones you have bought at the grocery store.
Leaf lettuce is ready as soon as you can easily cut it. Don’t cut it off
at the ground. Leave a couple of inches standing; it will grow back.
You’ll know the tomatoes are ready when they turn red. You can
pick them sooner if you want, and let them ripen in a window.
Melons are hardest to know when they are ripe. The end of the
melon turns brown, and it has a nice melon smell.
I is for Isolation— A pretty good size farm is usually isolated
somewhat from every one else. Stuck on a country road
somewhere even traffic is at a minimum. If you like lots of action,
have to party regularly, and be surrounded constantly by people,
then an isolated farm is not for you. To be happy on an isolated
farm, you have to be your own best friend and enjoy your own
company.
J is for Jam Making— Do you like “putting up jelly?” Chances
are if you live on a farm, or know someone who does, you can get
lots of things to make jelly with: Peaches, Pears, grapes,and apples.
You can find fruit growing wild which is suitable for jam too:
Blackberries, wild plums and even elderberries(I’ve heard about
it,but I’ve never tried this one.) For instructions on making
preserves, follow this link. Home Preservers Newsletter
K is for Kids on the Farm—A farm is a good place to raise kids.
Kids learn responsibility, and they learn how to work. It’s a good
place to learn problem solving and about life in general. A farm is
a fun place for kids. They can have lots of pets and can go outside
without fear of some stranger picking them up. A farm, however,
can be a dangerous place. Farm machinery and livestock can be
deathly.Loose clothing can get caught in machinery, and livestock
can kick, butt, and trample.
L is for Livestock—Livestock can be any animal raised on a
farm. Some farms raise ostriches and even buffalo. Mostly, when
we hear livestock, we think of cattle and hogs. When considering
raising livestock, you have to think about feeding and sheltering
the animals. You have to have a lot of acreage if you want to raise
cattle. They require a lot of pasture for grazing and a lot of hay for
winter feeding plus grain for nutrients not found in or lost in hay.
M is for Machinery (Safety)—It is very important to be safe
around farm machinery—especially when it involves little kids. So
many farmers and their children have been killed or seriously
injured on the farm. Little kids like to play on farm machinery and
might fall on a sharp piece of the machinery. They may fall off too.
Please instruct everyone on the farm on machine operation and
safety. Women, take notice. You may need to know how to shut
off or move a piece of machinery in an emergency!
N is for Nature—There is lots of nature on the farm. You have
to learn on a farm to co-exist with things from nature, or nature
will get the best of you. Wild animals will destroy your livestock,
garden, crops. Birds will eat grain. Without annual brush cutting,
your farm will look like a wildlife preserve. One thing is for sure, if
you love nature, a farm is the place to be.
O is for Oink— Hogs. Swine. Pigs. Whatever you want to call
them, they are a major money maker for the farmer—just like
cattle and crops. Hogs are good. They feed the country. But they
STINK. Hogs are a lot of work! Especially if you faro them and raise
them ready for slaughter. It’s hard work, but what else is new?
It’s no different from any other hard work on the farm. Sorry if I
haven’t said enough on hog farming. I grew up on a hog farm. I
personally like row cropping and cattle better.
P is for Processing Veggies from your Garden —Processing
your own garden produce is the best way to insure quality food at
cheapest prices. If you can get someone to sell you their canning
equipment, you will really have very little starting up expense. The
pressure canner and jars will be your major expense. The lids and
bands are relatively inexpensive. For know-how on how to can,
follow the link above.
Q or Quilting—Quilting is such a genuine art. It takes talent
and dedication to finish a quilt. Quilts can either be handstitched
or machine sewn;it’s up to you. If you handstitch your quilt, you
will be able to do it while visiting or watching television. Once it is
done, you will have a beautiful heirloom to hand down or to sell for
a nice profit. Sometimes people just piece together the quilt tops
only and hand them down or sell them. This is a good idea too.
R is for Rain—It seems like on the farm, a farmer is always
complaining about the rain.(I’ll admit it, we’re hard to please.) It
seems that we either have too much rain, or not enough. No rain
will cut crop yields and so will too much. Oh well, such is the life of
a farmer.
S is for Soapmaking—You are not a country farm wife until
you have tried your hand at soapmaking. This old craft was a
necessary one back in the pioneer days and was a lot more difficult
then than it is now. Now we can go buy our lard or oil at the store
(and the lye too.) Back in the old days, people had to make their lye
out of wood ash and had to render lard for oil. Then they had to
cook it over an outdoor fire and try to keep the dark ash from the
fire from blowing into the soap and making it dark. Now you can
just cook it indoors on the stove and in a couple of hours you have
soap ready to cure.
T is for Trespassers—I don’t care where you own your farm,
you will always have trespassers. I don’t understand why people
trespass. I don’t guess they realize that someone owns the land
they are walking on. Where I live, it is a very common occurrence
to see an unfamiliar vehicle parked along the road, especially
during mushroom and hunting season. These people have not
asked permission to be on the farmer’s land. What if the farmer
who owns the land wanted to find the mushrooms that were
growing there and someone without permission just took them?
In my opinion, this is stealing. Would you go into someone's
property, like someone’s home, without permission and just walk
around and take whatever you wanted? I’d think not. Going onto
someone’s land without permission is no different.
Usually, a farmer will let you go or do whatever you want on their
land, as long as permission is granted. Fishing, hunting,
exploring, etc. all needs to be cleared with the land owner. There
must be rules too— no trash dumping, no driving through planted
fields, no vandalism.
U is for Urban Farmer—You don’t have to live in the country
to farm. If you live in town or in a city, and you’ve always wanted
to try farming, you can use containers to grow vegetables on your
patio or in a window box. Plants like tomatoes do very well in
containers. Just make sure they get plenty of water and sunshine.
Want to learn more? Visit The Urban Garden.
V is for Vegetable Gardening—The biggest problem I have
with vegetable gardening is weed control. I hate weeding. It is so
time consuming. Even with a rear-tine tiller, I can’t keep the
weeds out. Other than weed control, gardening is fairly easy. You
till, you plant, you weed, you harvest. Sometimes you will need to
add pest control, especially to cabbage, beans, and tomatoes.( A
good chicken or two will take care of bugs on tomatoes and worms
on tomatoes.)
Remember, however, don’t plant the same vegetables in the same
place in your garden year after year. Crop rotation is very
important. Each crop robs certain nutrients from the soil. When
crops are rotated, a different crop will rob different nutrients, so
the depleted nutrient will have time to be restored.
W is for Walnuts—Walnut harvesting is fun. If you are
fortunate to have walnut trees on your farm (around here we have
black walnuts)you should try gathering them if you have never
tried this. It gives you the feeling of getting something for
nothing. Once you have gathered the walnuts, you can either sell
them or hull them for your own use.
If you decide to keep the walnuts for yourself, you’ll need to hull
them, crack them, and pick out the nuts. Black walnuts have a thick
hull over the shell that needs to be removed. I always spread the
walnuts out in the driveway and run over them back and forth
until the hulls are removed. Then I put on rubber gloves (if you
don’t wear rubber gloves, your hands will be stained a lovely
brown for about a week) and pick the walnuts up. Once you have
picked up the walnuts (still in their shells) you will need to lay them
out in the sun to dry for several days. Once they are dried you can
get your hammer or whatever and crack the shell and pick the
walnut meat out. It’s easy! At Christmas you can add the walnuts
to cakes, cookies, candies, whatever you wish.
X is for Xmas—Christmas is very special on the farm. There is
something wonderful and magical about a farm country
Christmas. I think all of the open country covered with snow
makes it a magical affair. Outdoors the birds are singing and the
air is crisp and fresh. The scent of cedar or pine trees mingle
combined with the fresh air is wholesome and memorable.
Christmas on the farm is not about materialism. If you live on a
farm at Christmastime, and all you can think about is “What am I
going to get this year?” You should take a good look at yourself
and discover where you have gone wrong with your life.
Christmas in a happy farm house (as it should be in any house
,anywhere) is full of love, whether it be for God, family, friends or
country. We should all be thankful for our many blessings.
Y is for Yummy Food (Country Style)— Okay! Are you ready for
this? RECIPES! What is Country life without country cooking?
Just wait till you taste some of these recipes!
Country Beef and Rice, Country Style Venison Stew, Country
Pumpkin Bread, Lemon Meringue Pie, French Country Apple Pie.
Z is for Zucchini—If you have ever planted zucchini in your
garden, you will know why I gave it a slot in my “Farmlife from A
to Z.” One plant will feed a family of 5 all summer long. I have
made Zucchini Relish and Zucchini Bread and Fried Zucchini—all
great,enough said. Also try this Baked Zucchini with Cheese.
Contact Me
Tina Pickett