Keeping Track

Keeping Track

I saw on a blog somewhere a while back where the homesteader kept records of how much food he produced and thought it would be a good thing to do.  It sometimes seems like all the work around the farm isn't yielding much, but if written down, I might find out otherwise.  My start date is June 15, 2017 because any date will do and I'm ready to set this thing up.  Mid-year is one of my least productive times because of living in the Deep South.  Heat and rain limit what I can grow right now, so harvesting won't be so overwhelming that I can't keep up with production records.  It should give me time to develop the habit so it won't seem like such a big deal come January when things start really kicking out in the garden.

To make it a bit more interesting, I am making production estimates at the beginning to compare with the actual numbers.  My estimates are:  100 gallons of goat's milk, 3,000 chicken eggs, and 1,000 pounds of produce from the garden (this includes all fruits, vegetables, and herbs).  The data will be organized on a spreadsheet to make it easy to analyze.  I'm curious to see how many pounds of fruit I produce, which vegetables provide higher yields than others, etc.  There's always things to learn as a hobby farmer, and this might be a great learning tool.

Basil harvested 6/17/17

This basil will be dehydrated, then hand-rubbed into a powder for use in cooking.  Sage and rosemary were also snipped a bit this morning.