Homesteading with Heritage Breeds
“Old-fashioned” livestock provide us with delicious, sustainable food.
February/March 2008
By Mary Lou Shaw
 |
Heritage breeds of livestock, like this pair of Dorking chickens, make a great addition to a back yard or a place in the country.
MARY LOU SHAW
|
Rare breeds of farm animals have come into our lives in the same serendipitous manner as our farm itself. We’ve discovered perfect heritage breeds for homesteaders — Dorking chickens, Dutch belted cows and Guinea hogs.
RELATED CONTENT
Ten breeds of rabbits are now included in the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s mission to pr...
Many people interested in sustainably raised meat are concerned about the need to preserve heritage...
Do brown cows give chocolate milk? Do Milking Devon cows give more healthful milk than Holsteins? T...
Selecting A Breed And Getting A Start March/April 1976 by G.T. KLEIN One of my greatest inspiration...
Get to know these 23 heritage breeds of chicken – one or more could add diversity and fun to your f...
My husband, Tom, had been a building contractor who insisted on recycling materials and using superinsulation. I was a family practitioner who emphasized preventive medicine and universal health care. He was discouraged by people’s indifference to conserving energy and materials. I found it difficult to give good care in a system that was becoming more focused on profit than health. Then we bought a 13-acre farm near Washington Courthouse, Ohio. That was almost 11 years ago.
We continued to work at our “real” jobs for the next decade, but the farm offered us a place to be completely true to our values. We poured energy, money and time into restoring our farm’s seven buildings. We nurtured the large vegetable garden and orchard. It wasn’t long before we realized the joy of sharing our experiences with others — and our own enthusiasm grew.
City children came on farm tours and had their first experience of potatoes coming out of the ground and green beans on bushes. We began beekeeping; bees confirm our belief that nature and chemicals are not compatible. Last year we put up a windmill to grace the pasture and to reassure us that we can have water without electricity.
We bought the field adjacent to our meadow with money from selling an old house Tom rebuilt. We turned those 40 acres, which were mono-cropped with heavy machinery and chemicals, into grassland and wetland. In addition to giving refuge to many animals, these acres now help purify water that overflows into the meadow.
Perhaps it was after we purchased the additional land that we stood back and thought, “This place deserves something special!” At any rate, four years ago we read about the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC), and our adventures with endangered breeds of poultry and livestock began. We didn’t realize then how much enjoyment awaited us.
Roamin’ Roman Chickens
I remember looking on the ALBC’s priority list to search for the rarest breeds of chickens. (Visit ALBC to see criteria for the priority list.) I saw Dorking chickens listed, and when we read that Julius Caesar had written about them, I knew they would be worthy of our beautiful, refurbished chicken house.
Page: 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Next >>
