Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Nice!
I'm getting several bare root elderberries next spring. Getting your berries and fruit trees established early is a good idea. I wish I had done the same, but we didn't have a master plan and have had a lot of tree clearing to keep us busy in our spare time.
I do have several mature apple trees now though that produce way more than we need in a good year. A little more variety would be nice, but I think now I'll probably focus on berries as they are much faster to get cropping.

We definitely plan to get fruit trees going this first year, but we still haven't finalized the layout of everything yet. There's a lot of oak and pine that need to come down to open up the area and let the new fruit trees get some sun. There's a local fruit tree nursery just down the road from my in-laws, mother-in-law actually worked there several years back. They do stone fruit trees mainly commercial quantities but they do have regular retail; they start selling the bare root trees in January/February so we need our desired tree layout by then.

I already have a bunch of trees in pots just ready to be planted. The little fig I started from a cutting in winter 2019 had fruit on it this fall. I'm hoping it'll bounce back great once we get it in the ground and we'll actually get a decent crop, at least more than the 4 it grew this year.

I recommend blue berries, the ones I got fruited the first year I had them. They are in pots though.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

You could also look into dehydrating the apples, or canning them, or making apple sauce if you get too many to eat in a year. Or trade with other folks who might have something else you haven't got on your property yet.

 

[Bruce]

The different berries are supposed to be good for making jam.

The gooseberries are good because they provide the pectin the other fruits need. We've made raspberry/blackberry/gooseberry jam in the past.

 

[thistlebloom]

You could also look into dehydrating the apples, or canning them, or making apple sauce if you get too many to eat in a year. Or trade with other folks who might have something else you haven't got on your property yet.

Check check check, lol. I have dehydrated gallons of apple slices, and canned applesauce ad infinitum.
And yes on the blueberries. I have somewhere around 18 +- in containers. They do much better for me in barrels because I can control the soil acidity better. My star performer is a blueberry bred for patio containers called Jelly Bean. That thing is absolutely loaded every year and the berries are very tasty.
It produces enough for fresh eating and freezing. I should say they, I have two of them.

I want to get more thornless blackberries, dh prefers them to raspberries, which I also have. I like them all.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Check check check, lol. I have dehydrated gallons of apple slices, and canned applesauce ad infinitum.
And yes on the blueberries. I have somewhere around 18 +- in containers. They do much better for me in barrels because I can control the soil acidity better. My star performer is a blueberry bred for patio containers called Jelly Bean. That thing is absolutely loaded every year and the berries are very tasty.
It produces enough for fresh eating and freezing. I should say they, I have two of them.

I want to get more thornless blackberries, dh prefers them to raspberries, which I also have. I like them all.

I'll have to look for the Jelly Bean, the green acres near me just put out a ton of berry sleeves. I was good and didn't buy any but... That might change this weekend.

I have a thornless blackberry I've managed to keep alive, it's in a pot but I think will do better in the ground. Just need to figure out where I can let it go nuts it won't be in the way. Ugh, really hating the lack of daylight, I want to play in the yard.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Check check check, lol. I have dehydrated gallons of apple slices, and canned applesauce ad infinitum.
And yes on the blueberries. I have somewhere around 18 +- in containers. They do much better for me in barrels because I can control the soil acidity better.

OK, Miss @thistlebloom, my Texas Aggie I/Q got in the way, because when I started reading about the blueberries, I thought you were talking about blueberry jam, so 18 containers (such as jars) didn't sound like too much, but when I read that they do much better in barrels, then I thought "Huh? That is a LOT of jam!" It took a moment before I decided that you were talking about blueberry plants!

Ugh, really hating the lack of daylight, I want to play in the yard.

I completely understand. But as Kung Fu's teacher might have said, "Patience, weed hopper, patience."

 

[Bruce]

Weed hopper? I thought it was Grasshopper.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

I thought it was Grasshopper.

It was. I remember hearing the weedhopper variation in a commercial and thought it funny, so I used that version to cheer up Miss @Larsen Poultry Ranch. I hope it worked, but maybe not.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Spent all day working in the yard with hubby and family. We split a lot of the wood and cut up some of the remaining trees we dropped last weekend. Still didn't get the area cleared off completely for the rabbit zone. I'm hoping we can get that completed tomorrow morning to start moving the rabbits.

 

[Baymule]

What I see in the background is very pretty!