Any other hobby farmers out there???

[Nodlenor]

I don’t consider myself a farmer but I have raised a large garden for over 50 years. I don’t know what I would do without it. It keeps me going and helps feed me. I’m 76 years old and counting and just bought a new BX2380 last fall. It should take some of hard work out of it. I raise sweet corn, tomatoes, green beans, squash ( both winter & summer) onions, radishes and whatever else I venture to try. I live in a rural area and have the utmost respect for our farmers and I feel they deserve it.

 

[Poohbear]

We have a 5 1/2 AC hideaway west of town. A small 24 vine vineyard with . Carlos & Snuppernog muscadines, peaches & plums. We had sugarsnaps , Alaska bush peas, & onions doing well until last week . I haven't been out there yet but between -16 & snow will need to replant. Also had taters planted but they are deep so maybe going to make it.
One thing our garden has going for it is the honeybee hive we have. It's in a dead sassafras tree that when was alive was supposed to be largest of it's kind in Texas. That tree died a few years after my late MiL remarried and moved off the place. My Wife bought her siblings out as she is 4th generation to own the place but it started as 75ac

 

[random]

Kinda borderline here. Got maybe 3/4 acre so far, increasing this year. We grow stuff for ourselves with the intent of selling excess, mainly farmer's market. But I've been trying to get a hot pepper farm going last couple years. It figures that the weather goes wonky when I start: first year lost half the crops to a June hailstorm, second year everything drowned because it wouldn't stop raining. Hopefully third year will work out...

 

[shiraz627]

I grow blueberries, lemons, limes, satsuma, and figs. In the veggie patch I cultivate tomatoes, eggplant, squash, peppers and some pole beans. It's a tough environment in the swamp lands of the Southeast USA. The Spring growing season ends June 30. To hot to grow anything in the Summer.

 

[Ikc1990]

Well I'm not sure what we are considered. We have 12 beef right now, 20 laying Hens, we raise between 300 and. 500 meat chickens per summer, and have 10, 30 plus yr old blueberry bushes, 1 acre of black berry bushes, 1/2 acre of raspberry, 1/2acre of strawberries small asparagus patch, 25 large assorted apple trees 1 cherry tree, 1 small peach tree, and about 2500 and growing sugar maples tapped. But we all still work full time jobs too. Lol but. Cutting down on the 3rd job.. oh and we usually grow about 2 acres of assorted veggies too. But not sure what we are considered hobby farmers, small farmers or crazy vermonters trying to make a living lmao... you guys tell us balmy -6 and dropping and windy tonight..

 

[TX Chris]

We live smack in the middle of the city on 8 acres. We raise Nigerian dwarf goats (6 females right now, all pregnant), around 20 hens to feed us and some close friends fresh eggs, 2 Great Pyrenees to keep the coyotes at bay (tried a donkey first but she was useless), and are strongly considering breeding Golden Retrievers.

We have several small raised beds with blueberry bushes, blackberries and we tried grapes but they didn't take. My wife has a whopping 12'x12' garden in the back yard with several small raised beds around the perimeter. She grows a small amount of a lot of stuff, from cantaloupe and watermelon to tomato, cucumber, peppers, potatos, you name it.

We have 5 young kids so she intentionally started small, but we'll be building a house in a few years and plan to enlarge the garden after the house is done and we know where everything will go.

We also have 6 bee hives and growing for fresh, local-as-you-can-get honey (and the bees get us agg exemption - $$$ - on the whole property).

We planted several fruit trees two years ago but they were too far from the house and didn't get taken care of and none took. We'll try that again soon with a better game plan.

The property has a decent pond/tank on it with plenty of catfish and a handful of bass, plus bait fish obviously. I intend to enlarge the pond to triple or more the water volume to grow larger fish (catfish for eating, bigger bass for fun), but I don't know if 'catfish farming' is a thing.

 

[Old_Paint]

Would it count if it’s not on my land? Raised 3 pigs with a friend of mine last year, and plan on doing the same this year. None for profit just for our own freezers. This year there will be a lamb as well hopefully going into the freezer. He purchased 2 ewes and 1 intact ram and a fixed ram. I help with mechanics and odd jobs in exchange for raising some food there/ access to the land to hunt. He is working on a small orchard and I’m working the food plots for deer. we are both learning. This year I will be helping do hay, never done it before and neither has he, as the fields used to be done buy a neighbor who rented land for his cows.

Hay is one of the easiest things you'll ever do. A lot of hard work after it's baled, but otherwise, not much to it. Lotsa driving in circles.

 

[Old_Paint]

I don't know if 'catfish farming' is a thing.

Umm, have a look at Hale, Perry, Marengo, and Dallas Counties up close with Google Earth. Particularly, in the triangle made up by Uniontown, Marion Junction, and Safford. Those pretty green fields are not fields at all. They're ponds. That used to be dairy and beef pasture land, but it's all catfish farms now.

 

[Crash277]

Hay is one of the easiest things you'll ever do. A lot of hard work after it's baled, but otherwise, not much to it. Lotsa driving in circles.

his farm came with a bale piling machine that attaches to the square bailer. We’re gonna attempt to use it. Should be interesting.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

Hobby tree farmer here. Plenty of work available thinning pines, controlling weed trees, and maintaing trails. Better than paying a gym. Unfortunately, its 100 miles from my house.

 

[Old_Paint]

his farm came with a bale piling machine that attaches to the square bailer. We’re gonna attempt to use it. Should be interesting.

A stacker is nice, if you have something big enough to pick up the stack. I'm going to assume you have a flat-bed truck or trailer to load on.

 

[skeets]

I quit hobby farming years ago, all the kids gone, and health being what it is I dont need an acer of garden any more. Now all I grow is deer, ground hogs and wabbits. I think this year I am going to try hydroponic stuff, so I dont have to bend over and pull weeds

 

[ItBmine]

I have five acres as well. We grow and sell blueberries and pecans. We always have a garden where we grow vegetables and then small areas when we grow tomatoes and peppers. The tractor gets a workout with a six foot Wooks disk harrow, bottom plow, Coleman planter and cultivator. We usually get two crops in every year with greens, peas and other assorted stuff in the spring and then a big planting of turnips and collards in the fall. We do all organic with no pesticides but plenty of mulch that gets turned under each spring. It been to wet here to get into the garden so far so I’ve been bucking and splitting firewood for the past couple of weeks to get ready for next year. Oh, yeah, and I mow a lot in the spring, summer and fall.

Got any pics of your planter Captain13?

 

[RCW]

Can’t claim credit, but I looked at the lot next door as a good sugar bush for many years.

My friend and son did the same, as they make maple syrup commercially.

Bought it a couple years ago, and my friends have tapped it since. Just a couple acres.

We barter the lease...no need to exchange $$ for 130 +/- taps. They hauled my dad’s old Minneapolis Moline last fall.

Nolan tapped in today....hard to see the blue tubing.

I love Maple and mud season; it’s an indication of better weather to come.....

 

[Killingitcountry]

My wife is the farmer in our household. Her garden is about 1/2 acre. It is fenced to keep the deer and rabbits out. She has food growing all year long. Just yesterday she harvested some cabbage from her garden. She grows medicinal herbs (not the smoking kind), onions, garlic, grapes, tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, and a bunch of other vegetables that I don't recognize. She uses heirloom seeds for everything. We vacuum seal and store seeds that we are not going to grow the immediate next year.

We don't use much fertilizer, we compost everything that we can. If we are lucky enough to get chicken manure, we use that, but if we can't get that we use Milorganite.

We do not sell anything that she grows. She trades her produce with friends and family. I think that they plan out what they will be growing each year, and what one does not grow this year, the other one will. It's almost like crop rotation but on different properties.

I built this garden last year just as the pandemic was ramping up in May/June. The ground was uneven so I used a self leveling laser to make custom legs for each bed. I love the result! There is a raised-bed garden for tall and short, young and old! We get out there together and work/snack as often as possible as a family! We also use heirloom seeds! Once things start growing I will post back with some pictures! I may also do a video this spring!

- James

 

[armylifer]

I built this garden last year just as the pandemic was ramping up in May/June. The ground was uneven so I used a self leveling laser to make custom legs for each bed. I love the result! There is a raised-bed garden for tall and short, young and old! We get out there together and work/snack as often as possible as a family! We also use heirloom seeds! Once things start growing I will post back with some pictures! I may also do a video this spring!

- James

View attachment 55878

That is some really great carpentry. You have a great looking property.

 

[Mike9]

We have two gardens. One is 16 x 50 feet in the back field next to my garlic patch and the other is smaller for greens, peppers, etc. in the lower yard and we have chickens too. The fence around the upper one is to keep the deer out. Funny story - two seasons ago I had a fabulous tabasco pepper bush and it looked like a Christmas tree. For some reason my wife left the gate open and the next day it was down to the stalk. I can't believe they ate the whole thing as these are really hot, but I always say I like to seasons my venison from the inside out.

 

[Killingitcountry]

That is some really great carpentry. You have a great looking property.

Thank you! It's definitely the biggest carpentry project I have taken on. About 75% through the project - I wished I'd ever started as it was getting pretty over whelming.

- James

 

[D2Cat]

Hey James, nice work but I don't see the hammock hanging anywhere! Got to have some place to rest.

 

[Njtool]

Has anyone noticed this question was asked 12 years ago!!!

And she hasn’t logged onto this site since 2014!!!

I’m sure she’s getting lots of use out of everyone’s suggestions.