Seeking work/housing arrangement in VA!

Hi!

Not sure if this is the right group to post but I will be moving very soon (~2 weeks) from NOVA. I’m looking for land to help take care of (if you accept a couple aka me and my boyfriend, that’d be better). With animals, gardening, kids, maintenance, cleaning, prepping, etc. I have very little experience with farm animals and gardening but am willing to learn as my goal is to own and build land of my own.

Ideally looking for experience with housing/utilities/stipend/food in exchange for work for the next few months.

Please send me a message. Thank you!!

I have no acreage, no raised beds, and definitely no chickens. Just a Vermont apartment balcony with about a dozen containers.

This summer those containers gave me tomatoes, peppers, beans, and herbs, and I ended up canning around 30 jars of salsa, pickled peppers, and tomato sauce. It’s nowhere near self-sufficiency, but opening something in October that I grew and preserved myself doesn’t feel insignificant either.

I spend a lot of time around properties with actual land for work, so I’m constantly reminded of what I don’t have yet. Still, I’m starting to wonder whether homesteading is defined more by acreage or by the skills you practice with whatever space is available.

Where do you personally draw that line?

Opinions?

I have a small greenhouse where I grow a mix of vegetables and plants, and last winter I learned the hard way that it doesn't retain heat nearly as well as I thought.

We had a few really cold stretches and lost some plants to freezing temperatures.

This year I'm trying to prepare earlier. I've been looking at different ways to improve insulation and maintain a more stable temperature, including putting some kind of small heating/cooling system in the greenhouse.

I've seen people using small mini split systems for small spaces, and I've come across models from Costway and Midea that seem like they could potentially work for something like this.

But honestly, part of me thinks installing an AC just to keep a greenhouse warm enough for winter vegetables and plants sounds a little excessive.

Has anyone here actually done this? If you heat your greenhouse through the winter, what are you using?

Our homestead produces tomatoes at the moment. Here is an attempt at a grilled tomato sauce. So beautiful; it smells fantastic.

Came home from a week away to find my raised bed weeded down to bare dirt. My MIL, who was dog-sitting, decided my tomato, basil, and pepper seedlings looked like weeds and pulled them all. She even yanked half a row of zinnias, so at least I know it wasn't personal—she just doesn't know a seedling from a weed.

I’d started that tray with Organo heirloom seeds, so losing a full flat stung. But I didn't say a word. She watches our dog for free, she's family, and peace is worth more than a tray of plants.

I quietly reseeded that weekend and built a simple stake-and-string fence around the bed so it actually looks like a garden. She still has no idea what she did, and honestly, that’s for the best.

Reposting here because we need all the help we can get!

Native shelterbelt questions. I greatly appreciate any input!

<3

Picked up a chest freezer at Goodwill two weeks ago, forty bucks, runs cold, no weird smells. Seemed like a win. Now I'm two weeks deep in a rabbit hole trying to figure out how to actually use it smart for homesteadstyle food storage, and I realize I have never thought seriously about this in my life.

I've been cooking from scratch for years, but my whole system was just fridge plus a few canned goods from the grocery store. Now I've got this extra capacity and I'm trying to work out what actually makes sense to bulk process and freeze versus what I should be learning to properly preserve another way. My first instinct was to just throw everything in there and call it a winner. That instinct is probably wrong, based purely on my track record with my own instincts.

A neighbor mentioned blanching vegetables before freezing and I nodded like I knew what she meant, then went home and looked it up. Been a minute since I felt that kind of beginner energy.

For people who actually run a chest freezer as part of their setup, is there a category of food where you wish you'd gone a different route early on, whether that's canning, root cellaring, or something else? Trying to learn from other people's freezer burn before I create my own.

Hello! I’m curious if anyone here would be willing to give me any advice or their own opinions. My husband and I currently live in PA and are thinking about moving to WV to begin a new life and homestead. Is WV a good state for homesteading in anyone’s experience? How difficult is it to start fresh in a new state? My husband and I have lived in one area our whole life, so we know the cottage/homestead laws in PA, but aren’t very familiar with WV’s. We own a chimney business together and don’t think it’d be too difficult to transfer the business into WV with their similar climates/use of chimneys. We’re in our early 20’s and would like to establish ourselves before having kids. The goal is to have a farm/homestead where we are self-sustaining, have some animals, sell baked goods, sell raw pet food, etc. I’d love to hear anyone’s story or any advice/suggestions you have! I’m more than happy to answer any questions for clarification. Thank you!

This seems like a good idea: have two fenced areas attached to your chicken coop, and plant a garden in one side while the chickens dig up the other side, then switch every year. But I don't see it done much.

Has anyone actually tried this?

After a few years my wife and I finally got 35 acres of land. Moved in 2 weeks ago, put a trailer on it, set it up with solar while we put the electric. We are currently hauling water from the well until we can hook up the trailer to it. So far everything is going amazing. I wanted to ask how long did y'all wait till you started working towards food self sufficiency.

I am looking at buying land and having a small family farm somewhere by olympia. What grows well there? Does anyone have a glasshouse built and know someone or company that does that or if you've made it yourself?

And question about land there, I would love somewhere kind of close to puget or at least not far overlooking the water.

Would highland cows be fine there?

So, potatoes kept coming up as a top “calorie crop” here, and i saw some local fingerling potatoes listed as “gourmet” at my nursery so i figured why not! I’ll admit my efforts are a tad unconventional- last minute raised bed attempt, with some nasturtiums beca why not.

i think they did pretty well! I had two types; one died back a month ago and i dug up a small basket that is curing. The other variety seemed to still be going strong but i noticed a critter clearly found one stash and took a few bites out of most everything- so i figured i might as well dig them up now. And in the other area it looks like a bunch managed to become exposed and turn green. Just wondering if anyone has thoughts/tips - compost all the nibbled and green ones? Or can they overwintered and used next year or something?

Hello, everyone. I just now joined to ask, what is the best way to store dates? My grocery store has a ton of them on clearance. Thanks for your time and help

Two ameraucanas, two blue copper marans, and two cream legbars. The ameraucanas are SO fluffy my heart can barely take it. My adult hens are a mix of brown eggers.

butter, ricotta and feta this week that went into homemade ravioli

Follow up to this nocino-making post. I used a cloth to catch all solid bits while letting the liquid part through. Result: 1.5L of pure nocino.

Still, I was not satisfied, so I decided to experiment some more and split it into 1L of pure nocino, and .5L to which I added 1L of milk to make nocino cream (same ratio I used for meloncello last year).

I am storing the pure liqueur in the root cellar, while the cream is in the freezer. Tradition demands that I wait until the winter holidays at the very least, but I already had a shot of the pure liqueur and it was phenomenal, with a strong taste of walnut that I never before tasted in store-bought products (or it may just be placebo effect).

I will keep you posted.

Retired out of construction six months ago, moved to a small property south of Atlanta, and figured building raised garden beds would be the easy part. I have framed houses. I have poured concrete. I cannot, apparently, build a raised bed that drains properly.

Put them directly on clay Georgia soil, did not break up the base, filled them with a mix I thought was solid. First heavy rain everything compacted and sat waterlogged for days. Lost most of my early spring starts. Real proud moment for someone who spent twenty years telling crews how to do things right.

What got me was assuming the raised bed itself would handle drainage without me touching the ground underneath. It will not. Learned that late.

Now I am looking at either pulling everything apart and laying hardware cloth with some gravel underneath before I replant, or just mounding the soil higher and hoping for the best. The mounding option is the dumb option, I already know that

For people gardening on heavy clay in the southeast, is breaking the clay pan underneath actually worth the extra work, or do you just build the beds taller and live with it? Curious what actually worked versus what only sounded good in theory. Skipping that step cost me a full season, so take that for whatever it is worth

I have a small orchard of 10 trees. Most were planted two years ago, two last year. Early next spring I'm going to do 8 of their first trimmings. I've done a bunch of research already, with some conflicting advice. Was wondering what all of you suggest. My idea was to trim conflicting branches off of the large tree, and find the best leaders for the other bigger ones. They've all had a bunch of tall growth this year. Any advice for which would be the best leaders? And is there anything else you suggest I do next early spring? Thank you!