Updated Aug 20, 2024
Seeking
- 0-5 Total acres
Desired locations
Plan
Greetings! We are a husband & wife with 6 children ages 4-16 in search of an agricultural opportunity for our family.
We have gardened nearly every year for the past 18 years, beginning with a 5'x20' plot in a community garden, to eventually around .25+ acres of garden space. We've raised rabbits, chickens, ducks, and turkeys for meat and eggs, kept a few Saanen dairy goats and Jacob sheep. We kept a Jersey cow and learned the many facets of home dairying. We've learned to butcher poultry, rabbits, venison, to shear sheep with traditional hand shears, make kombucha, lacto-fermented vegetables, kefir, and dabbled in top-bar beekeeping.
We became friends with organic raw milk dairy cow farmers Edwin and Dawn Shank of The Family Cow (http://www.yourfamilyfarmer.com/) in Chambersburg, PA and gleaned a lot of understanding and interest from them about organic raw milk, Westin A. Price priciples of nutrition, direct customer sales via farm store and delivery drop points, "knowing your farmer" methodology and customer relations, rotational pasture-raised meat, dairy and poultry, and the overall daily grind of farming life.
The travels of Weston A. Price and his research have been an inspiration and invoke our interest in a simpler and more natural way of life.
We would like to explore working with as little fossil fuel energy as possible and become better prepared to survive a situation of resource scarcity. However, we realize that fossil fuel may always be a part of our lives to some degree and may serve as a catalyst to help reverse ecological damage. Our oldest son has had some experience with draft horses and has an interest in farming with horses. Overall, we'd like to take the concept of sustainability beyong an accessory fad and into full-scale reality, namely, in alternative energy and food production and preservation.
Photo Powerpoint presentation of homesteading endeavors available upon request!
Ryan has a certificate in permaculture design and has been self employed for the past several years as a wild food and medicine educator, garden design consultant, arborist, landscaper, and general handyman.
Thank you so much for your consideration!
Ryan & Siobhan, David, Lea, Anna, Julia, John-Mark, & Daniel
Desired infrastructure
Equipment and infrastructure details
Smaller home would be OK within reason for a family of 8 (husband, wife, & six children ages 4-16). Open to alternative housing arrangements "outside the box".
Preferred type of opportunity
Desired farming practices
Production goals
Farm experience
Years of experience
14 total years of experience
Experience details
Certified in permaculture design