We say our work needs to be fun while we’re doing it. At least for us: that means we can see the results of the work, and we care about those results. Lee’s work on the driveway qualifies, as does Amanda’s seed starting. Not so the weeding

Mother's Day is always time for our annual review, this year in three parts. Today it's all about approaching but never reaching subsistence. We look at fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, clothing, transportation, medicine, electricity, and tools

Sunn hemp is a great summer cover crop, but what to plant in the winter? Today we share what we know about sweet lupin, which has worked well for us. We share what we did wrong in our planting, and we finish with whether you can eat the lupin beans

Amanda and I are getting more excited now as we watch the lodge we’ve dreamed of, argued about, and planned for take shape. We are far enough along now to share with you why we’re building it, what is informing its design, and how we hope to use it

Amanda describes her work on Veg Hill pulling the bolting collards and rescuing that lone kohlrabi left over from the fall. Lee talks about bush-hogging and taking down the magnificent cover crop of lupin and black oats on the orchard floor

Chickens make so much sense for subsistence farming. The manure, the soil fertility, and of course, the EGGS! As soon as we finish the lodge, we’ll build one chicken tractor and begin finding out whether we have what it takes

We’ve dropped the description of ourselves here as “BEGINNERS Learning Subsistence Farming.” We reflect on what we didn’t know when we started, on our chicken wire veg “cage,” and on the startling growth of our asparagus ferns

If the planet is getting hotter - and we think it is - we will have fewer fruit chilling hours in the future. The muscadines, figs, and blueberries will be fine, as will most of the blackberries. The apples? The pears? Not so much

Our friends make us jealous when they talk about their asparagus, so we planted our crowns this week! Asparagus tastes great, and it’s a perennial that needs remarkably little care once it’s established. It’s just a tad intimidating.

Something turns up missing around here nearly every day. Tools, the Spring veg Amanda planted, and those trees on our neighbor’s property sacrificed for the timber money. Good news, though: the missing daikon radish seeds turned up!