The Farm Gets Goats
Temperate Climate Permaculture Blog
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11M ago
We finally added a couple goats to the farm. This was a long time coming, but was just one of those things I didn’t feel like dealing with yet. Until it became easy. We currently have about 60 sheep that we graze across our pastures using intensive rotational grazing… sheep are moved to a new paddock every 2-5 days. Our current breed of choice for East Tennessee is the Katahdin Hair Sheep. They are a meat breed. These sheep have hair that sheds, not wool, so there is no shearing. They were developed in Maine from sheep originating in the Caribbean combined with established British breeds. They ..read more
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Permaculture Showcase Garden
Temperate Climate Permaculture Blog
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11M ago
Here are a couple photos from a garden area next to our house… what I am calling our Showcase Permaculture Garden. It’s only a couple seasons old, so there is still a lot of growth and development to come, but I thought it would be fun to share it so far. This garden has multiple functions: Showcase – This area is next to the main driveway next to the house. Since it is prominent and convenient for all visitors, it serves as a great example of a “permaculture design”. We have a mixed planting on multiple layers that is useful as well as beautiful. Aesthetics – Many of the plants here have larg ..read more
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Straw Bale Garden Beds
Temperate Climate Permaculture Blog
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11M ago
We have two 40-foot x 40-foot garden beds cleared on the hillside where we have our annual vegetable garden. This year we decided to install raised beds. There were a number of reasons for this, but the big one is that when gardening on a hillside, everything wants to slide downhill… our garden beds have slid downhill almost a foot a year! Our plan is to have raised beds filling both garden plots, but we knew this wasn’t going to happen this year. And this project is still taking longer to build than initially planned… pretty much like every other project on the farm! We’ve only installed fiv ..read more
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Cheap Food is an Illusion
Temperate Climate Permaculture Blog
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11M ago
My small farm is a tiny breeze blowing against the hurricane that is coming. But I will not sit idle knowing it is my children and grandchildren that will have to deal directly with that hurricane when it hits. Our society keeps passing the bill for “cheap food” on to the next generation, and the tab keeps getting larger. The bill must eventually be paid. Permaculture is not the only solution. But the ethics and principals of Permaculture make the most sense to me in practical terms. This is why I call our farm, the Bauernhof Kitsteiner, a Permaculture farm. Our food is not cheap. It is not su ..read more
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The Bones of Our Forest Garden
Temperate Climate Permaculture Blog
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11M ago
We have finally planted the majority of the foundation trees and shrubs in our forest garden. These trees and shrubs make up the “bones” of our forest garden/food forest. Most were planted in the Fall of last year, and the rest were planted late Winter/early Spring (within the last month or so). We have planted about 70 trees and over 50 shrubs so far. We are combining the concepts of a traditional orchard and a Permaculture food forest… we call it a “mixed species orchard” to those who are not with familiar with Permaculture, and we call it a “food forest with a formal design” to those who ar ..read more
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Cushaw Squash Volunteers!
Temperate Climate Permaculture Blog
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11M ago
We occasionally find a volunteer squash or melon on the farm. “Volunteer” meaning we didn’t plant it… well not on purpose. Over the last few years since we’ve been on our farm, we will collect Fall pumpkins and squash from friends and neighbors. We then feed them to our animals. The pigs enjoy them, but the chickens go crazy for them. Our flock of 100+ laying hens will take one down in just a few minutes… like a school of piranha on an unfortunate cow! A spaghetti squash I found a few weeks ago.   These Cushaw Squash are huge! This year, my wife stumbled (almost literally!) across ..read more
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More Results of Rotational Grazing at the Bauernhof
Temperate Climate Permaculture Blog
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11M ago
We have been managing our pastures with rotational grazing for the last few years. I was out moving our ram lambs this morning and took a few photos that I thought I would share. Rotational grazing is not a difficult thing to learn or to do. It is more time intensive than open grazing (i.e. no subdivisions of a pasture… all animals in one area all the time). But it is significantly cheaper than conventional animal management. We do not own a tractor. I do not hay my pastures. I believe I fed our sheep one and a half square bales of hay in total for the last 365 days. And that was just because ..read more
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Product Recommendations from the Bauernhof
Temperate Climate Permaculture Blog
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11M ago
I have finally gotten around to putting together a list of the products we use on the farm. We raise Katahdin Sheep with rotational grazing/holistic management. We raise mixed heritage breed pigs on pasture. We raise free-range, mixed heritage breed laying chickens. We raise Cornish Rock Cross broiler chickens on pasture in Salatin-style “chicken tractors”. We raise Broad Breasted White Turkeys on pasture. The following are the products we actually use every day/season. . Power Flex Fencing PolyBraid 1320’:  This is the perfect length to use with the O’Briens reels (see below). Very ..read more
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Wildlife at the Farm
Temperate Climate Permaculture Blog
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11M ago
We recently had some of our ducks and geese killed overnight. This happened last year as well. But we were never able to determine who the culprit was… fox, coyote, raccoon, opossum, owl? I had found various piles of scat (animal droppings/manure) around the pastures, but they were too indistinct for me to tell which animal they came from. We tried to go out late at night and really early in the morning to spot an animal. We never saw anything. One of our farm volunteers even stayed up all night with a large spotlight in an attempt to catch a glimpse of a possible predator. Again, nothing ..read more
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Edirne Eggplant
Temperate Climate Permaculture Blog
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11M ago
I never ate eggplant growing up. It was just not a vegetable we used. But when I lived in Turkey for a few years, I was surrounded by eggplants. I learned to appreciate these versatile vegetables… technically a fruit, and even more accurately, eggplants are berries! Actually, I really fell in love with eggplants. They are delicious! Most people are familiar with the common “Black Beauty” or “Black Bell” varieties. These are very good eggplants, which is why they are so common, but there are so many other varieties from around the world. They range in shape from small and round, to long and thi ..read more
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