Canning with Farm Girl

Canning with Farm Girl
Host: Nick and Don “We Grow Ours”

This week on the We Grow Ours show, Nick and Don have Ann with ”A Farm Girl in the Making” Ann is discussing homesteading and canning. A true rebel canner she will teach us about this crazy canning community, and educate us on “Rebel” canning as well. We believe that canning is a big part of homesteading and prepping. Knowing how to preserve your food without the need for power is a skill we should all have.

About “A farm Girl in the making”
“From gardening to canning, raising chickens, ducks & goats! Join us as we are creating a self sustaining homestead out of 2 acres. Its our simple life.
Her mission is to encourage as many people as possible to slowly start living off the grid. This means taking your suburban backyard and grow produce, learning the lost art of canning, or raise some backyard chickens. You will have to dig deep in order to remember the traditions and values that this great country was created on.

If this suburban family can do it, then so can you.
Here is her story, its a long one, but a good read.

There was this husband and wife, who decided one day that they wanted to give their children a different life. A simple life that involved chickens, ducks, goats, gardens, land, preserving your harvest…a simple life, out of mainstream America.
With this ‘new’ life, they knew that it was going to be a homesteading life vs. a pick up and move to the country and ‘get these things’ kind of life.

The wife learned to can and preserve their harvest, tend gardens (and has failed in certain aspects of it, but hey, it’s all part of the process), and she learned about treating chickens, ducks, & goats holistically.

The husband works a full time+ job, and then comes home to work his second job of clearing land, building needed structures, helping to attend to the small farm animals, and garden beds.

Together they are teaching their children to live simply.
Now, I mentioned this couple was learning how to ‘homestead’. That includes, keeping chicken & ducks in a way that was done 100+ years ago, through herbs and organic care. They love their 2 flocks, and are doing right by them.
Then this couple decided to add goats to help clear the land. They are working with 2 acres, that needs to be cleared in order to maximize their dream of becoming self sustaining. With hopes of one day adding solar panels, and are currently utilizing wood as their primary source of heat. Have you seen the cost of oil?!

Now with goat keeping, the lessons on how to raise them are a bit different than raising ducks and chicken. Some decisions on having them are harder than most; let’s say, the decision to turn them from bucks to wethers.

This couple loves their farm animals, but remember, they consider themselves homesteaders, and with that decision will come meat birds & a pig for personal consumption. They are not vegetarians, and will often post items such as, how much they LOVE bacon.

But know that they would do whatever it takes to humanely treat and raise the small farm animals under their care with respect, love, and every ounce of humanity in them. Soooo, a decision as to whether they wanted to keep their goats as bucks or wethers was a hard one to make. But after much research (cause that’s what the wife does, is research and talk to specialists) they decided it was in the best interest of their family to have wethers instead of bucks.

If for some reason, it could not be done humanely, they would have taken the goats to a vet to have it done, AND gladly paid the cost of $145 per goat.
Through their research and the guidance of their goat mentors, they realized that it would be safe and humane to band their goat, and to learn the process of how to do it themselves. Because that is what homesteaders owning a homestead do.

They learn how to do it and do it; being self reliant in their actions.

This couple, has decided to share their lives with you. Not to be judged, but to encourage as many people to learn about this self sustaining life, and all that comes with it. They eat meat, they castrate their goats, they humanely treat their animals. And they love each other, their family, their lives, and their farm animals.
Either be one board with them, or not. They are here to help you see what it takes to be self sustaining, step by step.

This couple, surprise surprise, is us. We enjoy your company, advise, applaud, tears, words of encouragement, and words of disappointment. But we do not take to being judged. This is our life, and I think its a pretty good one, and if you like it, stay. We would love to have you. Thanks for being here, and we do hope you enjoy our everyday life story.” Be sure and visit her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afarmgirlinthemaking and at www.afarmgirlinthemaking.com!
Visit We Grow Ours HERE!

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