Subsistence Farming - Hawaii

Well, it’s been three years since we have written about how our food experiment is progressing at Evening Rain Farm. In these years, we have learned a bunch, and planted many more varieties of plants. We have gone way beyond what we need to meet our basic needs into an exploration of nearly every tropical […]

These are the blogs that I frequent. The first three are filled with a blend of opinion, wisdom, proposals, perspectives. The fourth is a daily updated series of newslinks.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/
http://www.kunstler.com/blog/
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/BreakingNews.html

Q: Will the commercial ‘factory farm’ breed of egg layers fare well in a free range enviroment?
A: The White Leghorns:  I did a brief bit of research on them several
years ago, and was inspired enough to buy a dozen day-old chicks for our free range
flock. They are good layers, industrious, good foragers, and did quite […]

Q: How much land would a family of four need? Any wildly ranging estimates and/or completely blind guesses would be greatly appreciated.
A: In a lower Puna environment,which is where I live on the Big Island, a family can grow all their own food in a permaculture style orchard  on a 3 acre parcel with no […]

Q: I was thinking about you guys again, as my life becomes so unpleasant here, as I contemplate whether I could ever actually live a simple sustainable life, as you all do.
A: Firstly, I’m sorry you are unhappy with your life. I, too, spent over ten years feeling sad, scared, hopeless, and disconnected with my […]

1- INFRASTRUCTURE

Pond House (new ferro cement building w/barrel vault roof- our main living space)

make form for plastering the gable edge
dig footings for reflecting pond/catchment
dig footings for entry
pour last (3rd) layer of concrete on the barrel vaults and apply water proofing
plaster/burnish interior and exterior surfaces
continue building rock retaining wall between pond and building
decide on design […]

We live in an unusual tropical environment (near Kapoho, on the Big Island of hawaii) where growing our own food is enjoyable.
Sustainable food production is different in Hawaii than in most of the mainland United States. In many parts of the world, growing all of one’s food without the use of machinery for farming or […]

I was talking with my wife, Karin the other day about how I feel about our farm and the world situation, and she said,”We need to revise our mission statement. We’re not telling the truth about why we’re doing this project”.
I’ll tell you: I used to have lots of idealistic energy about teaching people how […]

evening rain farm meals from the land, some we have regularly, most we have tried when we had the ingredients and some are ideas (modifying other recipes i have used from the continent with tropical ingredients).

green drink (katook, honey, ginger, lemongrass, mint, perennial cilantro, ice, water, lemon or lime w/ a quarter of the skin) […]

food related for the main homestead:
maybe a cow or two in a few yearshedges to hold a flock of sheep in the orchards
the driveway turned into an enclosed pasture for horses or sheep
corn crop for drying and millling
peanut crop
sugar cane crop
sweet potato patch
more taro patches from roof or sink runoffs
pond plants (water cress, water chestnut, […]