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Description:
We’re Derrick and Paula from Ontario, Canada. After getting married in the summer of 2014, we decided to give up our apartment, move into a camper van, and travel across this magnificent country of ours for our honeymoon. Upon our return, we decided to keep it up a little longer to save money and continue living a more simple life… Then, fast forward 2 years, and full-time van life helped us save up for a little house and a piece of land to call our own. And now, our focus has shifted to building a self-sustainable lifestyle, where we grow our own food, get back to nature, back to basics, and Back To Reality. And we sure hope you’ll join us! :)
Location: Canada
As some of you will recall, Paula and I were recently away from the homestead for about a week and in hopes of keeping our feathered (any fury) friends fed in our absence, we decided to create an inexpensive DIY automatic birdfeeder. Check it out!
We were out in our garden, “hilling” our potato plants with mulch, when we discovered something pretty cool… POTATO FRUIT! Did you know that regular old potato plats sprout little green tomato-looking fruit? Check it out!
Earlier this spring, we companion planted a whole bunch of radishes, carrots, and onions in a former lawn which we covered with hay. A little over a month later, the experiment seem to be successful! (So far, at least)
Hey, America. You know, your nation’s birthday has got us thinking. Since we’ve already conquered Canada, maybe it’s time we expand our travel map a little further south. We’re trying to set aside some time for another short road trip, and if we can swing it, we’d love to know where YOU guys think we…
Our permaculture garden maintained itself quite well during our week-long absence. However, our Broccoli that was ready for harvest when we left, had fully bolted and gone to seed by the time we returned. But all is not lost, this gives us a perfect opportunity to talk about plant life-cycles and self-seeding crops.
Broccoli Rabe is easy to grow, quick to prepare, and absolutely delicious! This is our first harvest of the year, and so we chose a simple recipe that would allow us to taste the natural flavour. Slightly bitter, a little bit earthy, and 100% natural. Recipe: – Fresh Broccoli Rabe (1 – 2 bunches) -…
We continue our Ruth Stout permaculture experiments by companion planting carrots, radishes, and onions. The Ruth Stout Method of Permaculture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfi-n0Oq38E&t=3s Planting Garlic in a Modified Ruth Stout Permaculture Garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1TXfeq9wdc&t=34s Winter Ruth Stout Permaculture Update and a Bit of Q&A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-A1gNNjen0&t=1s Spring Garden Update: Hugelkultur, Ruth Stout, and Garlic Sprouts! : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t1FCsF-iAI Planting Potatoes…
We built a couple of Ruth Stout gardens in the fall by simply laying some old spoiled hay over the grass. Today we peeled back some of the hay to find healthy worms and a layer of top soil – the perfect conditions for planting POTATOES!
Even when our path seems so certain ahead of us, it can still fade into the realm of “what might have been”. But by discovering my new favourite tree on our homestead, I’ve also found the inspiration that we need to persevere.
In our continuing quest to experiment with a multitude of permaculture techniques, this time we decided to construct a Back to Eden style garden bed… and in doing so, also prevented desertification! Back to Eden Film: http://www.backtoedenfilm.com Our past videos… Constructing Our Hugelkultur Vegetable Garden : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR7wMao-PxI Planting our Hiugelkultur vegetable garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gm69Cqs-tw Hugelkultur Vegetable…
We previously constructed our new germination station in our basement. But now it’s time to start planting some vegetable seeds indoors, so that they can eventually be transplanted into our permaculture gardens later in the spring. This is our definitive guide to starting seeds indoors.
Now that it’s finally spring, we decided to inspect our permaculture gardens to see how well they weathered the cold winter months. Plus, we also checked on the garlic that we planted last fall, and were surprised how well it was doing!
Ever wondered how to make maple syrup? Curious about why maple sap is sweet, or where it comes from? Then this is the video for you! Homemade maple syrup is a wonderful free treat and an excellent use of your property. It could even be a source of income if you have enough trees!
Snow Fleas aren’t actually fleas and they spend most of their time in the soil and under leaf litter. So what’s up with their name? In this episode, we’ll explore what makes these friendly little helpers so fascinating.
If we hope to someday become fully food self-sufficient, we are going to have to begin taking part in the process from seed to harvest. So check out how we built our germination station in our basement, to start our seedlings indoors.
When the craziness of life gets to be too much, it’s sometimes nice to just look out the window and watch the birds. We think of it as a “Reality Break”, away from the hectic man-made problems of our daily lives. But it occurs to us that not everyone has a plethora of wild animals…
One of our favourite ways to get Back to Reality is by getting Back to Nature. So we strapped on our snowshoes and went for a nice long walk in our woods. But while we were there, we also set up some trail cameras to try to catch a photo of some deer.
A full account of our cross-canada road trip, from the east coast to the west coast to the arctic coast. Plus, how this epic adventure convinced us to live in our van for 2 years and eventually start homesteading.
Since you guys had so many wonderful questions and comments on our previous Ruth Stout Method video, we figured it a Question and Answer video was in order! Hay vs Straw, Pesticides, and more. Plus, a quick update on how our Ruth Stout gardens and our garlic are doing in the winter.
Nothing ever goes as planned, but everything always works out. 🙂 Happy New Year Everyone!
Our knack for always being late has finally paid off! Because it’s so close to Christmas, we got a great deal on a pair of 10-foot inflatable decorations, and we just had to set them up right away. The only problem was that it was freezing raining outside…
Though Hugelkultur is a very low maintenance method of permaculture gardening, there are a few things you have to do throughout the year. So right now, as autumn draws to an end, it’s about time we prepared our garden for the winter, using a simple technique called: Chop and Drop!
What better way to celebrate our first Christmas in our new home, then a Christmas tree from our own forest!
UPDATE – Here’s a video of our results: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhpvMg5d1OM Fall is garlic planting season in Canada, so we took what we learned about the Ruth Stout method and customized it for a 260 plant garlic garden!
After spending our summer building labor-intensive hugelkultur mounds, we decided to try our hands at a MUCH simpler form of permaculture, using the Ruth Stout Method: Simply growing our food in hay!
We’ve reached TEN THOUSAND SUBSCRIBERS! And we can’t thank you all enough! Here’s a short poem to express our gratitude 🙂
We’ve got a lot of leaves, so why not collect them for mulch in our vegetable gardens. But leaf baggers are expensive, so I decided to try to build one. Follow me through my thought-process and trial and error, while I attempt to collect leaves on the cheap.
A scary campfire story about a terrifying adventure through the woods, on Halloween night. ooooooOOOOOooooo
It’s time to build some new hugelkultur mounds in our garden so that they’ll be ready for planting in the spring. But after constructing the first one entirely by hand with shovels and rakes, I promised Paula that we’d rent a backhoe for the next ones. And my goodness was it ever fun! 🙂
Just a quick video to wish all of our fellow Canadians a Happy Thanksgiving!
