Backyard Farming Forum
Bringing food production home

Quiet here, how about some discussion

Was catching up on a bit of reading on aussies living simply and came across an interesting question posed by a journalist about what is simple living. I like my mod cons but do what I can to be sustainable so I would not say I am a great advert for simple living, but this got me thinking about the reasons I and others people on here like to have a "backyard farm"?

For me I know it is not to save money as I think it probably works out about the same if not more expensive if you buy seedings and keep changing gardens around as most here seem to do. If it was truely to save money or for sustinance I think we would all have open dirt plots worked with a hoe and planted from seed.

The garden for me is a great place to wind down and I get some kind of strange connection and inner peace when I am working in the garden, whether it be to the environment or my forefathers who were primary producers I don't know. Funny thing is, I don't get the same feeling if it is pruning rose bushes or tending some other non-food garden. If I can't eat it it doesn't interest me

I am not a spiritual person, more of a scientist so have never really thought about it before, I just know I like doing it. It seems to be in my blood, kind of like dirt under my nails, I just can't clean it out for any length of time, even if I don't go outside it magically reappears.

Much I think, is the idea of doing it myself, being that little bit self sufficient and the food is definitely better. Having a grocery store in your backyard is certainly a big convenience when you look at the price of small ticket nice to haves like parsley and basil and how long the big box "fresh foods" lasts these days. I like the idea that I am maintaining a knowledge and skill learnt and developed over generations and hopefully passing it on to my kids. I think it is an important life skill, why I am not sure.

So why do you do it and what do you get out of it?

Cheers,
Burnsy

all very good reasons Burnsy

the enjoyment of watching the plants grow and knowing the kids are learning useful things too

each child has a new wicking bed that will get planted up soon, they get to look after them and choose the seeds themselves

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contentment

I am pretty much the same as you Burnsy, I get a sense of satisfaction at picking fruit off a tree I planted, harvesting a years worth of potatoes or making a meal from my own eggs, fish and veggies. Also digging holes, laying reticulation and constructing raised garden beds gives me some thing to do with my hands that makes me feel manly given that my job is predominately office based. Wasn't that long ago that humans were still hunter gatherers thats a lot of genetic programming to try and overcome and I think that many men need a creative outlet hence the "mancave" phenominum.

I also like fresh produce, being able to have a healthy meal on the table at short notice even if I havn't been shopping for a week, It is good for the environment and a small amount of self sufficiency will help in a crisis. Most importantly my family have been farming in WA for 5 generations and I feel like I have a connection to the dirt, I like showing my kids where food comes from and I feel like I am creating a legacy that my family will be able to benefit from for years to come maybe even after I am dead.

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Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

I have the same thing as mentioned Simo. Be keen to hear from others about whether they have this feeling of a link even if they are not from a farming background. Maybe you are right in that we are only so shortly removed from being hunter gatherers it is genetic for everyone, they have just not realised it.

I have a few tools that belonged to my grandfathers and I often think about them and how they lived while constructing in the garden or just gardening. There is something special about using the chisel that use to be held by one of my my Grandfathers to notch out a post or similar. I only wish I had a few more tools with this link. It is silly I know but just knowing they held, sweated and bled on them gives me great satisfaction.

I can at least say that, my family can survive. They have learnt how to produce food to eat, so if anything happens to us as parents or the world collapses at least we know they should survive to live another day

I also like to shock people, with my "freak" children who can hand their father a rooster and say "kill this one now Daddy"
and are well aware that the muscovy drake in the separate enclosure is called Dinner for a reason

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contentment

How old are these little realists Jaymie?

9 and 11, but they started helping with the birds about 5 years ago

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contentment

Since my childern have been able to talk I have always made sure they know where their meat comes from, if they were eating chops I would ask them which animal it came from and if they understood that the aminal had been killed so they could eat it. We always go to the farm for calving season to see the cute new borns which the kids love and it doesn't bother them a bit when I tell them that most of the same calves they are seeing will be killed and processed into supermarket meat trays in a years time. I think because we have normalised the animal to meat connection (as it used to be) they don't have a problem with it and have never asked to be a vegetarian even though I have brought up the subject and offered it to them as an option. Suburban kids who think meat comes from a plastic wrapped tray and not the cute animal at the kids birthday party petting zoo would probably be more likely to not want to eat meat on making the connetion because they have never thought of animals as food.

One of my proudest moments as a father was when my daughter scaled and cleaned a fish on her own, my son looked inside the guts and said it was gross and didn't want a go but was haappy to watch.

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Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

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