Up Close and Personal | Second Installment

It's hard for me to believe that my last post was, almost to the day, one year ago. Last April I thought I'd create a post that was, well, just about me. I called that post "Up Close and Personal". The idea was that business building is about building relationships and what better way to start building relationships than to let people know a little bit about...you! So here I am with another installment! As you'll see below, my wife and I have been homesteading now for the past few years. I would like to use this new stage in our lives to create content which, hopefully, will lead to a following that I can develop into a new business.

Last year's "Up Close and Personal" focused on the homesteading venture my wife and I and our two dogs began in 2023. Happily, it is turning into an extraordinarily satisfying lifestyle. It is obviously a physical life, there is never any shortage of things to do around the yard and I'm thrilled to report that I'm in better shape than I have been in decades! We had an incredible harvest last year and the plan is to expand this year with the addition of other crops, most notably carrots, peas, brussels sprouts and asparagus. Flowing directly from last year's success, our pantry's and freezers are full. We have, effectively, become food self-sufficient and, over the next couple of months, we will be adding solar. Once that system is complete we will be completely 'off grid'. I'm really excited to share that new development with you.

We are going into our fourth year on our little one-acre slice of the Garden of Eden and, man, have we learned a lot! I do the outside work and my wife, Penelope, does the inside work. She does, of course, help with the outside planting but after the plants are in, the rest is up to me. Penelope starts many of our crops as seeds she puts in containers to germinate in the front sun room and, when the seedlings have hardened off, they go directly into the garden. We added a small greenhouse this spring to help with the process.

One of the things we've learned and one of the things we're really looking forward to very soon is harvesting dandelions. Yes, you read that right...dandelions! You can harvest the leaves, the flower heads and the roots. All parts of the plant are edible. The florets you can coat with a batter and deep fry (incredibly delicious). The leaves you can put right into a green salad and the root you can grind up and use as a tea. The incredible thing is that dandelions are very highly nutritious, often considered more nutrient-dense than kale or spinach. They are packed with vitamins A, C, and K, along with significant amounts of calcium, potassium, iron, and manganese. The entire plant is edible, providing fiber, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory benefits.

All of our produce is 100% organic meaning that we do not use chemical fertilizers or insecticides at all. Being purely organic, the taste and nutrient value of our crops is, if I do say so myself, outstanding! There is nothing quite like pulling a bunch of carrots, for example, out of the ground and have them on your dinner plate an hour or two later!

I hope you have enjoyed this little glimpse into our new homesteading lifestyle and I'm anxious to report on the installation of our new solar system. That will be the next installment of "Up Close and Personal"

Grant & Elijah