Food sovereignity is a phrase I stumbled upon in 2009, right after I moved to Idaho, thanks to howling duck ranch. It is the phrase which encompassed part of the vision I had for our lives. We talked a little about it then and made a few  plans; at the time we had dairy goats, chickens, ducks, and turkeys. We got a newborn calf from a local dairy early in 2010 and raised him on goat milk. We ordered a feeder pig which arrived in June 2010. Newton was born, I sold the turkeys because the tom kept stalking me (seriously, doing chores with Newton strapped to my chest made me look intimidating to him I guess, and he stalked and challenged me repeatedly to the point where I refused to do anything with the birds, or anything near where he was). anyway. Fall 2010 we had the pig and one of our wethers butchered…mmmm, bacon, my favorite. I sold the steer winter 2011 as we needed extra cash. And for all of 2011, my focus was on Newton and the dairy, and that was it.

So now, it is the beginning of the year again. And being winter, and doing more reading, we are being inspired to work towards this goal more. We don’t have everything ironed out yet, but we want 2012 to be a year of prepping, practicing, and working towards 2013 being food sovereign. It takes time to do this, to raise animals, to can and freeze a season worth of veggies and fruit. Here’s what we’ve got so far.

Current resourses:

• dairy goats for milk and dairy products (we freeze extra milk so we have it year round)
• buck kids (you know they’ll arrive soon enough!), so we can butcher one or several in the fall.
• Chickens for eggs, and some rooster chicks for meat as of spring of this year.
• We’ll raise a bum lamb (I have a hook-up for lamb )with the kids once the milk comes in.
• The dairy is planning on raising pigs on whey, so we’ll have pork once summer arrives.
• Bees: Jeremy and Newton got their first hive last year, so I’m hoping they will be able to acquire another this year…we eat a lot of honey. Have you ever put honey in your coffee?? Sounds weird, but try it. Best. Thing. EVER! Seriously.
• Garden: we have access and will help with Jeremy’s mom’s garden, and if we end up in a place of our own where we can garden, we’ll do some more.
• Hay: we currently have 5acres of the in’laws’ pasture planted in hay, the cuttings from these will feed the goats through the winter…they’ve gotta eat, too!
•  Pasture access: again, we have access to his folks’ if we could find a steer to raise, or anything else for that matter.
• Drink: we do a lot of brewing of our own beer, and normally make wine in the fall.

I’d like to raise more ducks, I like the eggs and the meat, but I think caring for the goats, chickens, and pigs is enough animal husbandry for this year.  So that mostly leaves the garden, planning, prepping, planting, and caring for. I’m really excited this year. We’ve been helping his mom the last couple years in the garden, though last year I did hardly anything, but we have a lot of the same ideas, which makes working together easier.

Ideas on food sovereignity we’re still mulling: coffee and tea? Chocolate (a world without dark chocolate?)? Olive oil? Staple grains for flours? Sugar? 

At the moment, we’ll keep the coffee, but find a local roaster, there are several in So Idaho.

Part of the garden will include herbs for tea.

Dark chocolate, um yeah, I’m keeping that.

Olive oil, we’ll keep. I did process lard for the first time in November, even had a great blog entry on it, but it no longer exists…Anyway, seeing as we’ll be raising lard on the hoof, I will assume we will use less olive oil.

Fruit: we have a few raspberry canes, but that is it. Rodents ate my two blueberry bushlings. I intend to either trade with vendors at the markets, or go to a local orchard to pick my own. We did that this summer, and tried my hand at canning, with fair success…

Grains…that is where the pasture access comes in. We can’t till it all up to plant grain, but we could do a small amount. The stumbling block is the equipment to get us there. I’m sure I could find a way around hiring a tractor to harvest the grain, but we still have to rip up the pasture grass, pick rock, disc, pick rock, and get to the planting point. And it is hard to find someone around here with equipment small enough to do just an acre or two.

Sugar, well, that is where owning thousands of little honey bees comes into play. I did find stevia in  a garden catalog, but I don’t know how it is processed in order to use, other  than sticking a leaf in my tea cup. Do you know? I need to do more research on that. I am allowing a little bit of molasses (good for goats at kidding, and lots of iron) and maple syrup (I’m a sucker for maple syrup…didn’t you hear me lament my lack of “sugar bush??”).

Beer/wine, well, I said we make our own, but there is the part of obtaining the raw materials. We have a few sources for picking our own wine grapes, local. The beer…that’s a little different. We can grow barley, if we get the ‘grain dilemma’ solved, but some of the yummy things we put into beer…hmmm may have to get creative…

Other issues is equipment and space. We have one chest freezer, which will fill up quickly with pork, chicken, and chevon (goat). I don’t like canned veggies, but I do like frozen, which means a lot more freezer space will be needed. I just water bath canned this year, but would like to try pressure canning, which requires new equipment. We have a meat grinder which fits on our Kitchen Aid, and we have a food dehydrator. but that’s about it. I suppose we don’t need much more, though I do like kitchen gadgets.

I’m sure we’re missing other stuff, but that is where we are for the moment. any ideas?