Growing & Preserving Food

It feels important to note that the following items may seem a bit excessive for beginner homesteaders — similar to how someone who plans to camp at the Rockwood Conservation Area purchases a six hundred dollar, 205 piece survival kit for an overnight stay.

We assure you that we are extremely competent and experienced small-scale growers. We’ve been confined to a 400 sqft yard and these are upgrades that we’ve been in need of for years. Of course, we’ll scale up production gradually, and thanks to Elise’s several years studying and practicing horticulture, we already know exactly how to construct and operate these propagation facilities to successfully produce high quality crops.

Free Standing Greenhouse

We are planning to start with a small 16′ x 36′ quonset-style polycarbonate greenhouse. We need to construct it with materials that can withstand occasional heavy snowfalls of up to 3 feet in depth, occasional hurricanes, and extreme temperature fluctuations. While using such materials and greenhouse features is essential for success, they are not cheap.

The amazing thing is though, with the mild seasons on the coast, we can extend our growing season to 9 months vs a greenhouse in Ontario which extends the season to about 6.. With a high yield of diverse crops and the right materials, appliances and such to preserve properly, we will be able to rely on homegrown crops for the entire year. Therefore, the greenhouse is the single most important addition to us becoming self-sustaining.

Preserving

Eventually, the trees we plant today will become top-heavy with fruit and our rhubarb patch will be ginormous. Keeping true to the permie laws, not a bit will go to waste. . After considering everything we intend to grow and hitting the cookbooks, this is what we’ll need to keep our home-grown goods on our plates year round.

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