Enjoy delicious, homegrown, organic fruits and veggies! Eat well cared for, organic, meat and farmfresh eggs! Use only safe, non-toxic, environmentally friendly household & personal products! Save money and time! Reduce your carbon footprint! Create & build a connected, cooperative or "share-operative" community!
Sound good? But how?
Well, it's simple, really. Make, grow or raise a little extra and share your abundance with a group of friends! Rather than planting a garden with all the veggies your family would eat, why not focus on one or two crops, grow more of them, and share the load. Rather than making every single different household product you need, why not make one or two, in bulk, and share the load. Each family will receive every other family's products and enjoy the abundance, variety and time savings of only having to focus on a few themselves. Make sense? It's reaping the benefits of simple division of labor.
So the nuts and bolts of getting our Share-Op started! We are starting off slow so as to build on our successes! We've invited ten families to be our Founding Share-Op-ers. To start we've asked each family to chose one product to make (household/personal ~ check out our "clean & green recipes" page) and one veggie to grow ~ enough for the group. Also, after our first meeting on Spring Equinox we decided that fresh eggs for the group would be great! Three families already have egg laying hens and more were interested in adding to the pot! Sooooo, we've taken the plunge! Nine little chicks have been added to our Mullins-Hoekstra family farm! So exciting!
Sound good? But how?
Well, it's simple, really. Make, grow or raise a little extra and share your abundance with a group of friends! Rather than planting a garden with all the veggies your family would eat, why not focus on one or two crops, grow more of them, and share the load. Rather than making every single different household product you need, why not make one or two, in bulk, and share the load. Each family will receive every other family's products and enjoy the abundance, variety and time savings of only having to focus on a few themselves. Make sense? It's reaping the benefits of simple division of labor.
So the nuts and bolts of getting our Share-Op started! We are starting off slow so as to build on our successes! We've invited ten families to be our Founding Share-Op-ers. To start we've asked each family to chose one product to make (household/personal ~ check out our "clean & green recipes" page) and one veggie to grow ~ enough for the group. Also, after our first meeting on Spring Equinox we decided that fresh eggs for the group would be great! Three families already have egg laying hens and more were interested in adding to the pot! Sooooo, we've taken the plunge! Nine little chicks have been added to our Mullins-Hoekstra family farm! So exciting!
We've also decided to produce enough tomatoes for ourselves and the group. On Equinox our group got to help plant those in our garden beds!
.....and this is just the beginning!
i am coveting your garden boxes! i need to find a great place for ours and get to work! i'm very inspired!!! anyone want to come help us pound t-posts and pull some fencing for some pigs?? :)
ReplyDeleteDeborah - That's great to hear that you are sharing produce and cooked products with your neighbor! Sounds like you already have your own share-op going. To make it more useful to you, what about seeing if your neighbor would be willing to raise chickens since you, at least currently, aren't doing so and offering to raise, grow, or make something that they may want that you either like or don't mind producing? Even easier, would be if you know of or can find someone that is already raising cluckers and asking them if they have an egg surplus or would be willing to raise more. You are already growing veggies and may have some produce, or other products that you are making, that they would like. What do you think?! You already a mini share-op, why not try to expand it?
ReplyDeleteLuke
Joni - Yes, we are definitely willing to come and help pound post, pull fence, or whatever else you need. Let us help you produce! WheeHaw!! Too much going on this weekend, but next weekend should work.
ReplyDeleteSo glad that you are inspired and getting into this with us. Can't wait to see your chicken coop! I was up until 2 am last night watching chicken coop building vids on YouTube again. Leesa calls it my farm porn (D I think now I just need to see a real one (chicken coop that is) to help me narrow down all of the designs that I am considering.
Tell you what, if we help you put in garden boxes and pig pen, would you help us build our chicken coop?
Luke
THANKS! this part i left out of my second time posting is that my neighbor across the street raises the chickens. she lets my girls pick eggs them themselves when she has extras. wish it was more though. i do love hearing them and watching them at her home...from my yard ;)
ReplyDelete