NYS Wannabe Joining - FarmingForumSite.com

LeslieH · #1 11-07-2009, 07:45 PM

Hey everyone.
I hate introductions. I'm an 8 year disabled workaholic trying to convert a very small chunk-o-land into something I can live off of and hopefully profit from - even just a little!
My process is slow, but felt it was time to reach out and learn by some other form than reinventing the wheel.
Right now, I'm researching raising heritage turkeys - starting with family use and then maybe becoming a breeder. That will depend on if I can afford to buy the chunk of land next to me. It would all be very small scale, but that's the way it has to be.
I'm very much a sustainable type grower - have been since before the word applied to gardening/farming/etc. My grandparents were farmers and they never used chemicals - couldn't afford them! So I guess it's just part of MY heritage.
Anyway, I hope to learn a lot, and possibly even help a little.
My disability - vertigo. Constant, never ending vertigo.
Leslie

Murray in ME · #2 11-08-2009, 01:03 AM

Welcome to the forum Leslie.

EditorBob · #3 11-09-2009, 07:56 AM

Leslie, welcome to FFS! Great to have you here, and look forward to your imput. We hope you'll find all the help you need to succeed!

LeslieH · #4 11-09-2009, 02:19 PM

Bob,
Thank you! I do appreciate it.
While I know I'll never have enough acreage for NYS to consider me a 'farm', I am able to do agriculture do to the zoning in my locale.
At the moment, I am focusing on getting the soil viable again for both vegetable and fruit production.
The vegetables for my parents and me, the fruit to make jam to sell at a local farmer's market. What jam I made this summer allowed me to have the 36 pines and a couple of walnut trees taken down - that's the soil I'm working on now.
I was fortunate enough to run into a fellow who wanted the pine logs to shave into horse bedding, so I didn't have to find uses for them! The walnut I'll use for heat since it's not big enough for lumber, and the pine bows will be both fencing and mulch as I have time.
So, I will have questions about fruit trees/bushes as time goes on.
I will also have questions re: turkeys as I'd like to have a *small* flock of Jersey Buff (they appear to be the right size. I have no use for a 30# tom)
The turkeys will be another year, but am doing the research in dribs and drabs as I have energy.
So, I hope I've struck gold by finding this site! Thanks again.
Leslie

EditorBob · #5 11-10-2009, 10:20 AM

Leslie, if you're producing food for others, you're a real farmer, then

I hope we can help you with your various endeavors, for sure. There's lots of great people here, for sure.

mommagoose · #6 11-11-2009, 09:00 PM

Leslie do you have any experience with turkeys at all? I have raised chickens since 1996 but they did not prepare me at all for turkeys. I hatched 45 Royal Palm poults two years ago on shares. I sold all but 7 keeping them for breeders. What a disaster. I had a hard time keeping them contained . The turkey hens would fly over every fence. They beat up my chickens, scratched my car and anyone elses who came to the house. I got sick and tired of the phone calls telling me to come and get them from the neighbors. When the first fall came I sold them all. I have had geese for 10 years and they were never so much trouble as the turkey terrorists were. Just a warning be sure to buy and install netting over your pens to keep them home.
Linda

LeslieH · #7 11-11-2009, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mommagoose

I have had geese for 10 years and they were never so much trouble as the turkey terrorists were. Just a warning be sure to buy and install netting over your pens to keep them home.
Linda

Linda,
You cracked me up! Thank you for the great name - turkey terrorists!
That's why I'm doing as much research as possible now rather than just buying them and having to reinvent the wheel.
My area won't be ready for them until '11, so I have time to call the whole thing off.
Plus, I'm not looking for anything greater than 2 dozen. Not that it's easier to herd 2 dozen than 4. So, thank you for the experience! I do appreciate it. It sounds like a less-than-pleasant learning experience that I will have weigh heavily on my decision. Thank you!
Leslie

LeslieH · #8 11-11-2009, 09:14 PM

I forgot - do you eat the geese? If so, how is the taste? A friend says they're greasy and foul (no pun intended) tasting. I've seen geese, and know they can be mean as snakes, but do make great guards and don't go far. Except I do have a creek across the road from me....
L

Murray in ME · #9 11-12-2009, 03:06 AM

Goose is great to eat if prepared properly. My favorite way to roast them is to put them on a rack inside the roasting pan. A cookie cooling rack or anything similar will work. The idea is just to keep them off the bottom of the pan. Then poke several holes in the skin with a fork. Season with salt and pepper and roast. Don't overcook them as that will dry them out and change the flavor a bit. There is a lot of fat in most geese but poking the skin with a fork allows more to drain out and cooking them on the rack keeps them from sitting in the fat. The fat is wonderful for sauteing potatoes in or making fries.

mommagoose · #10 11-12-2009, 07:03 AM

No, I have never eaten goose. The geese are my hearing helpers. I can no longer hear when a car comes down the driveway or someone knocks on the door but I can still hear the geese "greeting" them. I rely on all of my animal friends to tell me of danger now. When I take a walk in the woods I take my pet pigmy goat Matilda.
Linda