People have been asking me for years to create a blog and I have resisted doing it for years. However, I have reached the point where I talk too much for just simple Facebook post and I want to convey more than a few pictures and excerpts than it will allow. So let's try this out for a bit and see how it goes.
You may notice the title of this blog is about planning a farm and then you are scratching your head if/when you realize our business name, website, facebook page with close to 4000 followers and other social media account names includes the word "Farm". You have assumed we were already a farm. So have we been lying this whole time or what? Well, technically yes and no. We have a good size pecan grove, but we don't harvest and sell them (yet), my daddy grew 8000 square foot vegetable gardens over the years, but we didn't really sell any of that either. We have fruit trees and assorted berries, nope not that either. What about livestock? Well, we have had 14 chickens for about 1.5 years, but we don't sell them or their eggs either (yet). Two dachshunds and two cats are not really consider livestock. See where I'm going with this? So now you are asking yourself, how and why do we consider ourselves living on a farm and it's not really a lot of acreage compared to some of the other farms around here either.
Now that Barry retired from his corporate job in January 2022 and is only working on his sawmill/pallet business part time and I have my online plant shop up and running for a year (this month) and am getting comfortable with caring for the plants, a good inventory process, bookkeeping, etc., a little bit more of our time is getting freed up as well. We have both enjoyed the chickens so much that we have been thinking... Shoot, why not add some livestock? Plus this will make us a little more self sustainable too! If you have followed me any amount of time y'all know I always enjoy doing things from scratch and/or the old fashion way.
So now is when I get into the good stuff... I'm just going to touch on the things we are looking into. There's a lot, it will take years to invest and do, but now y'all will know when I disappear from posting that I typically have my head in a book, watching youtube, or something, researching and learning all the ins and outs of the things to come for the FARM. Yes, I said it again, there's that word. Barry and I plan on making Smoot's Farm a proper farm. Mom, dad and I have always referred to it as THE farm or A farm. There's even a sign out in the driveway the past 37 years that reads "Smoot's Farm". I will share more history about the land that has always been farmland since the early 1800s in a later blog post.
Our goal is first to provide for us and then if there are extras, to be able to offer our wares in a self service farm stand out front. Our hopes are to let the farm produce some income to offset it’s expenses as well.
What kind of things will that bee? (pun intended)
- Chickens
Chicken products to use and sell - Fresh Eggs, Hatching Eggs, Baby Chicks, Young/Adult Chickens, Compost for the Garden.
- Geese
I only want two geese to use as guardian geese mainly for the free range chickens. They should protect the chickens and other livestock on the property not to mention unwanted two legged and four legged visitors that show up on our property as well. I'm not sure how much product there will be to use or sell, if any. I do want a male and female (I think), so far unless I do more research and find out differently. I'm leaning toward brown Chinese Geese. This is also a heritage breed goose. (I plan on getting these this spring as well.)
Geese products to use and sell - Guardian Geese for the Property, Goose Eating Eggs, Hatching Eggs, Young/Adult Geese, Feather Quills for Pens and Other Craft Products.
- Honey Bees
This seems like the most complicated endeavor of them all. So much to learn and so many different ways to do things. We have been reading and watching YouTube videos on bee keeping for a year or so. Barry and I both like the horizontal type beehyve instead of the traditional stack on top. Another thing we are looking into is pressed honey instead of extracted honey. (more on all of this later and we want to get started toward this this year.). We may only gather the supplies we need and then move forward with the actual bees next year. There is a lot of research do with this one.
Honey Bee products to use and sell
If you do pressed honey you mainly get nutrient rich honey and some wax.
If you do extracted honey like most people, you get Honey, Honey Comb, Beeswax, Bee Pollen, Royal Jelly.
- Pecan Trees
We have a little over 30 pecan trees now (we started out with 42 when we moved here). Even though we have one of the largest crops this year that we ever have had. Our trees were planted in 1900. After 123 years, time and weather are taking a toll on them. So we have plans to add more pecan trees. The trees we have now are 50-60 feet apart and you can actually plant 30 feet apart so plans are to eventually add new trees between the old trees we have now. Plus add some in the field on the backside of our house. We purchased a small nut picker this week and we are going Saturday to pick up a pecan cracker. We hope to eventually add another 100 trees.
Pecan Tree products to use and sell
Pecans -shelled and unshelled, cracking services
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These next two items will probably be the farthest down the line. We have to put in fences, build outbuildings, and learn a whole lot!
- Mini Milk Cows
Neither one of us know a darn thing about livestock so this is another big learning curve. Even though as of July 1st of 2023 ,Georgians will be able to sell raw milk to the public with a license, from my understanding, jumping through all of the red tape to sell to the public is not worth it so these will be for personal use only. We are leaning toward Mini Jersey breed milk cows.
Mini Milk Cow Product we can personally use
Milk, Buttermilk, Skim Milk, Ice Cream, Sour Cream, Cheese, Cottage Cheese, beef tallow, (Let's face it, just plain ol' cuteness too!). We should be able to sell cows and meat that has been process by a certified processor.
- Hair Sheep
We haven't completely decided on what breed yet. Here again we have to have fencing and out buildings built.
Hair Sheep products and by products we can use
Sell sheep and meat. Hoping these will help cut some grass too! lol
Well, that’s all for now. It’s a lot to think about and do. We plan on taking it on a little bit at a time, learn about the project, get comfortable with what we need and what to do and pay for everything as we go.
I hope y’all follow is on Facebook and Instagram as we make progress. We feel with God’s blessing these are the right steps for us and with his guidance we will one day make Smoot’s Farm a proper farm again.