Food that costs a lot at the store. Growing food you love that you often pass up due to cost is a great way to make the most of your garden space. It can be a waste to grow something that won’t produce a lot for the space it takes up when you can buy it for cheap locally.
Food that grows year after year. If you are not an avid gardener and want food that can grow its self for the most part perennials are the way to go. Some common options are fruit buses, strawberries, asparagus, and mushrooms. These hardy perennial options only need to be planted once and with water and the occasional fertilizer they can thrive providing you with food for years to come.
If you have the space you can keep animals that are a major benefit to your garden. Some small animals are legal in many cities or can even be considered pets while providing your garden with fertilizer or even pest control. The two most common pets for the garden are Rabbits and Chickens.
Rabbits make a great pet for gardeners, Rabbits are legal in most areas as a pet. Many homesteaders raise them for food as well. A rabbit’s waste is a great fertilizer for your garden to help improve your garden soil. Rabbit poop is safe to go directly into the garden without composting and will help your garden grow. You can feed your rabbit most vegetable scraps from trimming food you grew in your garden.
Chickens make a great backyard livestock even for people with a relatively small back yard. Chickens make great pest management tool. Chickens will happily roam your garden clearing away hornworms and grasshoppers. They are best supervised when in the garden to prevent them from eating your produce. Chickens also provide great additions to your compost and fertilize your garden while they run through it. Though the best advantage of having chickens is perhaps the eggs that can feed your family while shells break down and add calcium to your garden.
Once your garden is thriving you will hopefully be producing more than you can eat before it goes bad. This means you need to make an effort to preserve your garden harvest. How you preserve your harvest really depends on how much space you have and the supplies you can find for preserving.
Freezing is the best way to preserve the quality of your preserved food but this can be a major limitation for storage space. When opting to freeze your food use a vacuum sealer to lower the amount of space your food takes up while protecting your food from freezer burn.
After freezing, canning is the next best way to preserve the quality of food for the long term. We like to make our own jams, jellies, and tomato sauces for canning because these products can be canned using the water bath method which is incredibly easy for people like me that need something that takes less focus. If you have spare time learning to pressure can is a great way to preserve your harvest.
Dehydrating is a great option for anyone with severely limited space. Dehydrated food takes up only a small chunk of space compared to frozen and canned. If you have limited space a dehydrator can be a great investment. Then you can vacuum seal or use jars with oxygen absorbers, for your food for long term storage.
If you have access to a freeze dryer you can take up less space while having better quality food than a dehydrator. Freeze-drying provides a great texture and can reduce additives needed to preserve flavor in foods. A freeze dryer is a great investment for groups to help reduce the cost.
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