Mini Farming for Beginners: A Beginners Guide to Build your Mini Farming

Introduction

Home food production is an important skill, that makes positive contributions to the family's physical and financial health. At the same time, it re-establishes our connection with the roots of our ancestors by reaffirming our connection to nature and natural laws, and provides a sense of ability by ensuring the supply of basic necessities (food), thus playing an important psychological and spiritual role effect. It is also important that, for a variety of reasons, the quality of food produced by households is superior to that provided by supermarkets. Commercial demand has driven many factors to reduce the nutritional value of commercial food. Since almost no food is produced during use, the fruit and vegetable varieties are selected according to the suitability of machine picking, long-distance transportation and refrigeration, so that they still look good when entering the supermarket.

This results in a uniform appearance, products with attractive appearance that look better than their taste, and nutritional value is much lower than similar products produced locally.

Spinach is a good example. With proper care and refrigeration, fresh spinach can deteriorate for three weeks or more. However, even at 39 degrees in the dark, it can only lose about half of the B vitamins in a week. Therefore, in a brightly lit refrigerator in a supermarket, the attractive baby spinach bags actually have

fewer nutrients than their own spinach that turns white and frozen on the day of harvest. The same situation applies to other fruits and vegetables.

Considering the time it takes for packaging, transportation and storage, home-grown products that are quickly canned, frozen or dehydrated after harvest will pack more nutritious food than so-called fresh products in supermarkets. Nutritional density is not the only factor promoting household food production.

Pesticide residues are another important consideration. The company's farms and orchards use a variety of pesticides to protect the quantity and appearance of their harvest. According to a 1999 report by the US Government ’s Consumer Alliance,

"Apples grown in the US usually contain four pesticides, and There are as many as 10 residues. The same report lists several common vegetables, including butternut squash and spinach, which often contain multiple pesticide residues, some as many as 14 residues. The report also cited data indicating widespread use of illegal pesticides and the continued existence of carcinogenic chemicals It was banned in today's corporate harvest decades ago. In addition, small home gardens are ideal for using organic or semi-organic materials and methods, which can significantly reduce or even eliminate the need for synthetic pesticides.

In any case, if the family gardener decides to use the over-the-counter pesticides that are usually available, the gardener

personally ensures proper use and schedules to ensure that the amount of residues in the food is far less than typical commercial planted products. Excellent taste is the main benefit of home-made food. The two main factors that affect taste are freshness and the variety actually planted. With the backyard garden, vine-treated tomatoes can be served within minutes of picking eggplants from the vines, while supermarket tomatoes are harvested when they are green and mature during transportation. For any kind of food store, it is impossible to exceed the freshness in the backyard garden.

In addition, due to the selection of vegetable varieties used in corporate agriculture (also known as agricultural integrated enterprises), because they have the advantages of transportation toughness, mature and easy mechanical harvesting, some of the most delicious varieties of fruits and vegetables are even It is not available in the United States.

Supermarkets because they are not very suitable for mechanical picking or scraping. On the contrary, family gardeners are free to choose thousands of common and / or heirloom varieties according to their personal preferences. Commercial growers do business.

Therefore, the US dollar is its value standard. Your health (even beyond their minds) is a secondary issue. Their main goal is Produce goods at the lowest cost, sell them at the highest price, and get the most profit. This process does not automatically

bring evil, but it is obvious that you can invest a lot of energy to ensure that the food is safe, delicious, and healthy, which is far more than a company on half a continent. Finally, the economy is an important reason for producing and preserving food at home. The mini-agricultural production method described in this book only produces fresh agricultural products, and only accounts for the percentage of the cost of purchasing similar food in supermarkets. This means that growing your own food can add valuable funds to your family ’s budget, while keeping your own food can guarantee healthy food during periods of barrenness.

It is conceivable that the use of intensive technology to transform from vegetable gardening to large-scale micro-agriculture can provide more than 80% of the food for households and reduce the cash requirement by thousands of dollars each year. I have met many people who have planted gardens but have since given up planting. Although the details are different, in all these cases, the former gardener has encountered unrealistic or unrealistic goals. Many people move to houses with small courtyards, so traditional gardens are not suitable. Some people are injured causing mobility problems.

Others encountered problems with harmful insects or other pests.

In the end, many people just gave up because gardening takes too much time and trouble compared to gardening. The lesson I

learned is that people need to have reasonable prospects to achieve their gardening goals, otherwise they wo n’t bother. The goal of the miniature farmer is similar to that of the family gardener, but more emphasis is placed on economy. The purpose of micro-farmers is to reduce the income needed by providing most of the household ’s food needs. This can enable parents to stay at home with their children, make it possible to go to school at home, improve living conditions under fixed income conditions, or act as a buffer against uncertain economic conditions.

In the following chapters, I intend to demonstrate how to achieve the goals of gardening and small farming. Although any obstacles may be encountered, how to come with more fun and less time, energy, money and equipment than you expected achieve. The methods used in this book are a combination of traditional methods, biodynamic methods, bio-intensive growth methods, French intensive methods, square feet methods, and other methods using elevated beds, which I call intensive agriculture. It stands on the shoulders of many great, dedicated gardeners, thinkers, philosophers, and farmers, so I have no special praise for it, but it is synthesized based on my own experience, hoping to save the reader a lot of trial and try. error.

The contents of this book can be used at all levels. It can be used for efficient amateur gardening to improve nutrition and enjoyment, more devoted to gardening, and perfect mini

farming. Therefore, my goal is to help readers start to develop more economical, nutritious and safe food with minimal effort, and at the same time help readers reconnect with the natural and heritage cycle in a spirit-enhancing manner.

Chapter One

What is mini farming

Mini-farming ensures that whatever is farmed, raised and grown on the field is eaten by the farmers themselves. They live off the soil and have all the food they need for their own consumption.

In other words, they are fairly self-sufficient when it comes to what they eat. You can also also learn that sustainable farming and self-sufficient farming are used interchangeably because they are one and the same. The size of the land they own is generally, but not always relatively small, compared to the more economically driven farmers. You can also find such small farms referred to as mini-farms or micro-farms.

Commercial farming, on the other hand, is where crops are grown and cattle are raised for others to make some income. Not because farming is a profitable, well-to-do business, it is not, but by becoming a small farmer on one farm with the goal of making a well-known market, understanding what the existing prices are for their crops and livestock, and what the niche market can offer to them income, both now and in the future.

The principle of mini-farming

The core theory of mini-farming-land management: First and foremost, as has already been stated, there is no need for a big piece of land to become self-sufficient. So how small is it? Okay, on one acre of land, one can potentially become self-sufficient very happily. One acre of land can be used for small-scale farming on mini-farms that are very happily self-sufficient.

However, since self-sufficiency can be exercised on mini-farms, land conservation is essential. It will then become the most critical concept for sustainable farming and the development of your mini farm.

The hint, of course, is, in the very word, sustainable meaning to keep things running. If the land you use to cultivate is not maintained correctly, you will never be able to maintain any crops or livestock at an reasonable degree of productivity. This covers both large-scale and small-scale farming.

Mismanagement is going to give you the same outcome. What you will end up with will be both alive and stable plants and livestock, and your aspirations for self-sufficiency will be unfulfilled.

In running a micro farm or a small farm, there needs to be a balance between the animals and the plants, because hopefully, you want to build a food chain where they feed each other. You need manure from farm animals to enrich the soil so that the

soil can then grow healthy crops and, in effect, go back to feed the livestock.

There is a need for crop rotation with small-scale farming on mini-farms for sustainability. It is difficult to cultivate crops on the same piece of land year after year. Crops dress like this and quickly succumb to illness. However, the issue does not end here, because what happens is that the disease agents that invade the plant grow to such an degree that the disease ultimately becomes uncontrollable. So prepare your small farm carefully, and make sure that every