The 39-blackberry challenge

First, a note on my last post, about what there is to eat. It is indicative of how far out of whack things have gotten in our culture that I ever feel deprived at all. I mean, look at the list of things we’ve been eating: that’s good food! It’s not as if we’re eating cornmeal mush every night, or (a more modern rendition) ramen noodles. Another note: the potatoes buried in buckets didn’t make it through the deep freezes of January. They looked okay till I cut them open and discovered their black interiors. I haven’t checked on the remaining cabbage bucket recently, feeling rather overwhelmed by the four feet of snow I’d have to dig through. Once we finish off the sauerkraut I may be motivated. But a root cellar is clearly a need and not just a desire.

My notebooks are filling with ideas, plans, and “to-dos” for the coming growing/grazing season. These include
> the possibility of getting pigs and using them to till up new planting areas until they reach slaughter weight;
> choosing a likely hen to hatch and brood chicks for us this spring;
> a scheme for raising pastured broiler chickens that can be harvested weekly for six months, providing enough meat for ourselves and our dogs through the warm season without requiring a freezer.
More on all of these plans in future posts.

My most pressing questions right now have to do with the 39 bare-root blackberry transplants and 400 asparagus crowns I ordered last September. My original plan was to establish a couple of small, specific cash-crop plantings to continue multiplying and diversifying our small income streams. So I started sketching out blackberry and asparagus beds for our north slope, which has fertile soil, faces roughly south, and receives full sun.

Focusing first on the blackberries, I read through as much blackberry production information as I could find. Here is what I found out.