Gettin' Spicy!

 In September 2021, just over four years ago, I had never lived outside of suburbs. I had never really been near any animal other than cats and dogs. I had never successfully grown a head of lettuce. That continued, in fact, until we planted our first garden in May or June of 2022. It was in Northern Minnesota, so it might have been July. I had never gotten my food from anywhere other than a grocery store.

Today, less than four years later, we are starting to regularly have meals grown and raised 90% or more on our land. We have peppers, onions, herbs, yams and corn grown in our garden. We have eggs and meat from our chickens and we have lamb and rabbit in our freezer, raised by us. We know what is and isn't in the food we're eating. In recent years, many, including me, have become much more aware of how many unhealthy substances are being put in our foods by major manufacturers.

We chose to raise chickens, rabbits, and sheep because they can give us a variety of products and food--eggs, three kinds of meat, milk, cheese, plus hides and fur. We've learned to process both chickens and rabbits. We have the equipment to tan the rabbits' hides to turn into warm hats and mittens. We have learned to hatch new chicks from the eggs our chickens lay, to grow our flock as often as we like.

A year ago, we started selling our eggs privately. We have since started selling as many as our hens will lay to a local small private store that sells locally-grown meat and products. 

Today, we took another big step forward: I dropped off a dozen bottles of dried spices and herbs that I have grown, cut, dried and packaged. The store was elated to have locally grown spices to sell. So far, what they had was 'white label' in which someone buys the spices in bulk and slaps their own label on them, which really isn't the same as locally and organically grown.

I've been drying our spices for quite a while now but will only be packaging the most freshly gathered and dried ones to sell. Today I dropped off celery flakes, cayenne, English thyme, and spearmint. I have sage and moringa that need to be cut and dried.

It's an incentive to get the next batches of seeds sown for our indoor pots during the winter, knowing there is now a place to sell our excess. 

We started our journey because of the instability in the world in 2020. Chris and I both went from lives that had been totally and completely suburban to now raising a large garden, feeding sheep every day, learning how to process chickens and rabbits, gathering eggs, and being able to sell eggs, meat, and spices to others, including now at a store.

Life can make many turns. It's important to believe that we can adjust to fit our circumstances and never wait to be a victim.

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If you like this article, you may also like:

Goldenrod: Delicious and Nutritious

Health & Heat: the many surprising benefits of cayenne

Our First Rabbit Recipe

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