Small Home Farm Radio

Join us in our latest Episode for a discussion of what healthy soil is and how to get it with David Schleicher, author of the newly released gardening book, From Earth to Health. Erin also shares tips on preserving food in warmer climates, and some ideas to consider when designing or changing your garden to make your life a little easier!

If you’d like to try something new in the kitchen and in your garden, consider growing your own culinary herbs! Linda Esch from Turkey Hill Farm joins us this episode to talk about getting started growing and cooking with herbs. Erin talks about what’s going on in her gardens and her tool shed, and answers a listener question about interplanting garlic with raspberries and other fruit plants for protection! Plus – a medicinal herb already growing on your place? Join us for this latest episode!

This episode Erin talks to Justin Morgan from industry leader Morgan Compost about how they got started, their impact on the holistic food industry, and what goes into healthy seed starting medium.  What’s a girl to do when she gets second degree burn on her hand?  Rescue Remedy to the rescue!  Erin also shares a great idea for a garden bed cover that will keep critters out, and a discussion about why a fellow gardener’s pumpkin patch isn’t as prolific as it used to be, and what to do about it!  Listen in on the latest show for this and more! Check out Justin’s website, http://www.dairydoo.com

This week we listen to the second half of Erin’s interview with Ryan Walker from the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy about getting started with endangered and rare heritage breeds of livestock for your farm.  Erin also shares a tip about how to make your own soil blocker for seed starting! Join us for this and more! The Pick-a-Chick Chart at the ALBC website can be found at http://www.albc-usa.org/heritagechicken/chickencomparison.html And if you want to check out the Avalyn Garden Bed and Breakfast in Ann Arbor, Michigan, there website is http://avalyngarden.com/

This episode, Erin talks with Ryan Walker of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (http://www.albc-usa.org/). Small Home Farmers are in a unique position to help preserve – and to benefit from – including Heritage Breeds in their selection of home farm livestock and poultry.  This episode we learn about heritage breeds and next episode we’ll talk about getting started with heritage breeds!  Erin also discusses seed starting, horse and livestock care tips for early spring, as well as orchard care reminders for this time of year.  All this and more on this latest episode!

Join us for the second installment in Erin’s recent presentation on Small Home Orcharding at an Organic Gardening Workshop in Northeast Michigan. This episode, Erin helps you see that pruning, thinning, disease and pest control, and other routine maintenance doesn’t have to be scary or difficult! If you haven’t been paying attention to the calendar or the weather, it’s time to prune your orchard trees and to set up your taps if you’re making maple syrup this spring! Also, a listener shares a great tip for keeping your horses (and maybe your other livestock, too!) fly-free throughout the summer! Grab a cup of coffee or tea and sit in on this week’s conversations about your Small Home Farm! *As with episode #045, we must apologize that the sound quality is not very good. The Small Home Orcharding workshop presentation was recorded at a very low volume, unfortunately, and although we’ve tweaked it as best we could to be able to share the information with you, the resulting episode is rather quiet. You may wish to skip listening to these two episodes (#045 & #046). Thanks! Link to the tip George shared with us about using vinegar to repel flies: http://www.bragg.com/products/vinegarHorse.html

This episode is the first in a two-part installment of Erin’s recorded presentation on Small Home Orcharding* at a recent Organic Gardening Workshop in Northeast Michigan.  She covers planning, choosing varieties, and pruning in a way that encourages small home farmers and gardeners that orcharding can be much simpler than you might have thought!  She also urges a new homeschooling parent to “begin with end in mind” even before considering what kind of curriculum to use.  Join us for these topics and more! *We apologize in advance that the sound quality is not very good.  The presentation was recorded at a very low volume, unfortunately, and we’ve tweaked it as best we could to be able to share the information with you.  Next episode will have similar quality issues if you should wish to skip listening these two episodes.  Thanks!

What goes on during lambing season on a sheep farm?  Sue Carey joins us again for an informative chat about what you need to know about lambing!  We also talk about animal tracks, share a listener-recommended whole wheat bread recipe, and discuss some listener input about a few more important things you might want to know about paying for college – and making sure you’re not wasting your time and money taking redundant classes.  

There’s been a long cold snap in the AuSable River Valley this month, and the folks at Aspendale Farm are getting some new rooms in their basement, too. Is January really all that quiet on the farm?  There are still plenty of things to do!  Check your food storage, plan next year’s garden, gather your seed-starting supplies, cut timber for building, and that’s not all!  What’s your philosophy on paying for college?  Erin considers wise financial help for college-bound children as her oldest is making his way down the graduation aisle this spring.  You’ll hear about these things and more on this episode of Small Home Farm Radio!

When wintertime rolls around, the folks at Aspendale Farm like to spend more time in the kitchen enjoying all the food they’ve produced over the past year.  Join Erin as she tells you how to make your own homemade pork sausage.  In colder climes, you also need to be prepared for winter storms and power outages.  Erin runs through some items you’ll want to be sure to have ready just in case you need them.  Also, consider joining Erin on Saturday, February 9 in Fairview Michigan for an Organic Gardening Workshop, where she will be presenting information on Small Home Orcharding, along with several other topics and presenters.  Listen in for more information about the workshop … and more!

‘Tis the season for wintry festivities! Join us for a special Winter/Christmas/Holiday episode of Small Home Farm Radio. This week Erin divulges her family’s favorite homemade eggnog recipe, talks about winter traditions, and which varieties of Christmas trees hold up the best when you’re cutting your own. She also shares an idea for a “water catcher” to help keep bedding dry in the coop, tells how she keeps snow from balling up in her horses’ hooves, answers a listener question about stovetop heat diffusers and talks about medicinal uses for holly and cinnamon. If that weren’t enough, tune in for a special interview with none other than Charles Dickens himself – that great author of A Christmas Carol!

Sheep can be versatile animals to add to your small home farm, not only for meat and wool, but they can be used to clear brushy land, keep the grass trimmed, or used in rotation with other animals as part of a comprehensive pasture management program. Learn what you need to know to get started from veteran shepherd Sue Carey of Marble Meadows in Wallingford, Vermont. Did you know you can make flour from acorns? And pumpkins can give you more than just pies! This episode Erin touches on different – and maybe surprising – uses for pumpkin seeds! Has your stinky henhouse got you down? Tune in to learn about this and more!

L-R: The Canny Preserver, Chelsea Daniels; Barbara Lahey; Cecily Lahey; Jackie Agamite Rousseau; Erin Lahey Join us for a special Thanksgiving episode.  How can you not talk about food when you get together for a big Thanksgiving meal?  Erin talks with four generations of cooks in her family about some of their favorite recipes as everyone gathers at Aspendale Farm for a fun family get-together.  From old country recipes to make-your-own seasoning mixes, listen in for some family fun in the kitchen!

Have you considered stretching your home farming beyond the limits of vegetable gardening?  This episode Erin takes a look at the possibilities for growing small fruits, which can be done even in small-space and partly shady conditions.  Erin also checks in on the results of double-digging and amending her test plots with kelp, as well as growing potatoes in a barrel this year.  What have you learned about gardening and small home farming this year?  Several listeners share their experiences.  Join us for this and more on the this latest episode of Small Home Farm Radio!

Fall is the perfect time to review what happened in your garden this year!  Erin encourages you to take notes now to help you plan better next year.  She also shares a great tool to help you keep track of what needs to happen and when throughout the gardening season.  Learn three cool things to do with your microwave, including a recipe for Microwave Pumpkin Butter and how to quickly render pork fat left from butchering into usable lard for frying and professional quality baked goods!  Tune in for this and more!

In this one-year anniversary episode, Erin talks with Market Gardener Tika Cowie about producing a lot of food, and harvesting all year long in even cold climates, among other things.  Join us as we talk about growing garlic, getting three cuttings of hay when others are only getting two, and the merits of no-till gardening.

Last episode, Erin mentioned managing rabbit waste by suspending the rabbit hutches over a worm compost bed.  This week she talks about how to compost using worms, or vermiculture as it is known.  Did you know you can use cayenne pepper to increase your circulation or to improve a sinus infection?  Listen in for more about power outages, butternut squash, prolonging the tomato harvest after freeze-up and temperature control in a root cellar! Here’s the link to the promised recipe for Butternut Squash Soup (aka Cream of Butternut Bisque.)

You really can raise rabbits almost anywhere.  Learn how you can raise up to 180 lbs. of meat a year with one breeding trio, in as little as 7 1/2 square feet.  Has the drought got your garden?  Learn how to help your plants survive and thrive in the heat when water is scarce.  Erin also shares a time-saving way to can tomatoes!  Listen in as Erin talks about these topics and more!

If you have considered adding horses to your small home farm, you might have lots of questions about some of the basics.  What do horses need?  How do you find a good horse?  How much does it cost to keep a horse?  Join us this episode as Erin covers some of the basics of getting started with horses.

A listener shares a tip for making your own insulated livestock waterer.  Erin answers a listener question about what kinds of things she’d change about Aspendale Farm, then discusses how to apply these general ideas to the choices you make when buying or setting up your own small home farm.  She also talks about making venison jerky, the local county fair, getting in the hay, and preserving all the food she’s been bringing in from the garden.  Join us for this and more on the latest show!   If you are looking for Bach’s Rescue Remedy, click our affiliate link here or google “Bach Rescue Remedy”. If you are looking for Bach Remedy Crab Apple, click our affiliate link here or google “Bach Crab Apple.”