Raising 70% on a Half Acre

Rob Croley at Sentimental Farm, in Niagara Canada.

Rob and Chris Croley at Sentimental Farm in Niagara, Ontario, Canada grow about 70 per cent of the food they need on their 1/2 acre urban homestead.

An interest in self-sufficiency that started with growing vegetables has grown to include chickens, bees, mushrooms, goats, preserving, and making soaps and cosmetics.

They know that their garden is more than some people will undertake, but they hope that people who visit their garden will see something that inspires them to produce food at home.

Visit the Sentimental Farm website to find out more about their spring 2020 plant sales.

Connect with Rob and Chris at Sentimental Farm

• Website: www.sentimentalfarm.com

• Instagram: sentimentalhomesteading

• Facebook: sentimentalhomesteading

Hens, Hay, and How to Cook Cardoon

Signe Langford talks about her food garden in Port Hope, Ontario

Food writer Signe Langford joins us from Port Hope, Ontario to talk about her passion for growing food, her food garden, cooking, and how her garden connects her with her community.

Hay

A fan of straw-bale gardening, Signe talks about how she experimented last year using bales of alfalfa hay instead of straw bales. Hay is normally NOT recommended for the straw-bale technique because all of the grass seeds within can make a bale look like a big chia pet. Signe tells us how that went. She was pleased with the results.

Hens

Signe is the author of Happy Hens & Fresh Eggs: Keeping Chickens in the Kitchen Garden.

The author of the book Happy Hens and Fresh Eggs: Keeping Chickens in the Kitchen Garden, Signe considers chickens to be, “a symbiotic member of the garden.”

She talks about common myths such as noise and smell that she often hears.

Cooking

Signe talks about edible weeds and edible native plants—and her love of the dandelion.

Signe also helps Steven with cooking advice for cardoon, explaining how to make Cardoon Gratin.