Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

What a wonderful feeling it is to eat a meal harvested largely from one's own yard

I have long felt the drive to grow my own food but the huge step up when you realize that the meal you are eating is mostly from your own space is amazing.

I just needed to share a little bit as gardening has done so much for me and AP turned what was pleasantly keeping me fit into a true workout during the digging/gravel washing. Now I need to keep expanding my AP system for the motivated fitness that seems to provide.

Today the cook roasted veggies that tasted soooooo gooooood. Turnips and carrots freshly harvested, sweet potatoes from this past season, and an apple for sweetness. Only the apple and olive oil came from the market. We had greens from the garden. Turnip tops, some broccoli and broccoli greens, broccoli raab, onions, kohlrabi and herbs right out of the garden. MMMMMMMMM

We had talipa from the AP system yesterday. Caught in the afternoon and baked, coconut crusted for dinner. With that we had sald and sweet potato from the garden.

Regularly we have been pulling 2-3 lb catfish from the system for smoking. My favorite lunch is smoked catfish patties popped into the toaster.

I'm feeling very lucky being able to eat so much from our 1/3rd of an acre sand lot. (Mushroom compost is a wonderful thing, luckily we live about 2 miles away from a mushroom farm where we can get a huge scoop (about 3 yards) of compost for about $5.)

Now if only a few more of out hens would get on with it and start laying. Currently only one hen from our backyard flock is bothering to lay eggs. She does very well managing about 5 very large eggs a week but we should be getting far more than that from 12 hens (at least 8 of which are definitely old enough to be laying full on), anyone know any good tips? We have added a light in the hen house for this winter time of year. We turn it on early in the AM to give them a few more hours of light a day. We have ping pong balls and other fake eggs in the nest boxes to hopefully give them the idea of where to put them. They get laying crumble and have grit available. They get green treats and other treats. They have a large yard for digging around. It is getting on time to move their run area to a new bed though as they have pretty much cleaned up that garden area.

I hope others are able to enjoy wonderful harvests and meals from their own gardens. I am still learning what works well here in our particular location and at what seasons it does best. My AP system is still in it's first year but is definitely effective growing fish and seems to be getting better for the plants.

I know where your coming from...
I love the less waste factor, pick what you need
Mmm... smoked fish is nice eh??
Very filling too( ) smoked trout and AP salad and veg..
Can't beat it
... 2 day old smkd trout is sooo nice...
You are a credit to yourselves and the BYAP community in general.
...and I don't wonder why you feel so good about BYAP
and eating nice stuff

Congradulations, It does take a commitment to accomplish the kinds of rewards a healthy garden can bring and keeping the fish and animals all in sync with it. I know some of your hurdles were leaving home for extended periods and storms. The auto feeders were well researched and effective. A lot of fore thought and as Dan would say working smarter. Good job I hope to have something as nice or similar in the near future. Your thread has a lot of info in it for others (me) to learn from. It's something for me to work towards

It is a fantastic feeling to eat from home

Its ok but i am getting sick of tomatoes

F&F can't you swap some

Hi TCL.....re your hens not laying eggs (yet)......you seem to have done all the right things. I would have said it could be the temperature there - but you are in Centr.Florida, so it is not all that cold as in the rest of the States. Another reason could be that they are moulting, they will take a few weeks to get over that.
If their food has not enough calcium in it - give them some extra shellgrit or something similar.

heka

Or high protein dog bikkies...
for a week.
Don't put more sown than they eat.

Yep, you need high protein laying pellets.

I get 3 or 4 eggs a day from 4 chooks. Just have to take them off the pellets every now and then, and switch back to greens and grains.

'down'

Was wondering if you were suggesting dog biscuits could be sown and grown
My dog'd love that, not bad enough that she eats any garden she can get her mouth into.

+1 for that feeling TCL!

Even if it cost the same as whats in the store I would still grow my own.

Hydroponics veggies cost about 3 cents a pound. I have not have yet set price per pound to AP. Perhaps I can do that this spring.