Isidore Farms

With the acquisition of the land that is to become Saint Isidore Acres, we have move the main focal website to SaintIsidoreAcres.com…please visit us there!

We hauled in 44lbs of Concord grapes — just over two-thirds of one of our neighbor’s four rows of grapes!

We made our own Granola the other day…

We borrowed a dehydrator from the neighbor, and we’ve sliced up a bunch of (de-wormed!) Apples. After they sit in here for a few days, they should be dried apple slices.

I tend to think of Isidore Farms as a dream, a dream shared by Donal and Emma Jo, but really Isidore Farms is a living dream. It contains not only the future, but also the past, in what we have done and what we have accomplished, and the present, in what we are doing now that is sustainable and self-sufficient.

The past has produced a cohesive and fairly complete philosophical grounding for our ideas and our future. It also has produced some nuggets of insight that undoubtably will prove helpful in achieving our goals in the future.

The present seems bleak, but really there are many things we have done or are doing that are steps towards sustainability and self-sufficient living. Every time you rely on yourself to do something, you get stronger. Every time you innovate and craft a creative solution, you get better at innovating, become more crafty, and more creative. You get better at solving situations, and adapting to present needs.

What have we done recently that aims at these lofty goals of ours? Directly agriculture has been hard in the city; it will be more achievable now. Nonetheless, we have grown a variety of kitchen herbs, and have also been farming out wonderful Aloe Vera plants. We have several thriving specimens now, and have been making cuttings, growing new plants, and handing them off to our friends in our unwanted (we have too many!) coffee mugs.

Also, I have been making our own Kombucha (though I am the only one in the household that consumes it), made an attempt at Ginger Beer last year, which ultimately failed.

In the last week though, we have been picking apples, and making and canning Apple Sauce. Soon we will have to recruit our friends to come down for an Apple Cider extravaganza.

We also have been ‘eliminating the middle man’ once again, by teaming up with a group of like-minded folk on Portland Green Parenting to order produce and such in bulk.

Though these activities pale in comparison to the myriad wonders we hope soon to be engaged in on a small Farm, they are a firm step along that path.

We’ve moved — from our small apartment in the middle of the city to a (slightly) larger place. The new place is a cottage or small house on a large lot. It is set back from the road, and there is a garden, a shed, a workshop, and a bunch of fruit trees!