Holmberg Family Homestead

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Holmberg Family Homestead Homestead, specializing in natural practices, local food, native plants, and enjoying life.

Some of the folks from RISE Community Services came out today to plant garlic. Of course we also visited Bernadette and...
10/14/2026

Some of the folks from RISE Community Services came out today to plant garlic. Of course we also visited Bernadette and Bill, who quite enjoyed the pumpkin snack.

Assisting folks develop skills is quite a honor and a homestead is a great place to learn.

Life is good.

Peace.

Quite frustrating and I am not even sure where to go with my thinking. In 1713, Hans Carl von Carlowitz wrote Sylvicultu...
10/14/2026

Quite frustrating and I am not even sure where to go with my thinking.

In 1713, Hans Carl von Carlowitz wrote Sylvicultura oeconomica. His writing was the first specific mention of sustainability, nachhaltigkeit.

His work was on forest systems. His basic premise was that forest should not be used faster than they could regenerate. Unfortunately they were being consumed at an unsustainable rate.

I tend to apply what many would consider strict definitions to the concepts of sustainability and regenerative.

Recently the USDA deregulated a corn variety genetically engineered to tolerate 5 different herbicides. Synthetic fertilizer will also be used. Farms that plant this variety and use herbicides yet don't till will be considered regenerative.

The winter squash we raise are being naturally bred to resist squash bugs and grown organically with no herbicides, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, etc.

In no way is this corn sustainable nor fits the new definition of regenerative that isn't directly tied to sustainability.

On my worst days I believe that the USDA hates small farmers but I try not to ascribe malice to ignorance. That said, I don't believe that the corporate capture of the USDA is in total ignorance.

I will continue to grow real food with a consideration of nature and hope that the industrial agriculture changes before much more damage is done.

Industrial agriculture cannot feed the world.

Peace.

Farm Action Real Organic Project U.S. Department of Agriculture

Oysters on willow and elm. This is good for us because we have several trees that can be coppiced. Hopefully the hackbe...
10/11/2026

Oysters on willow and elm.

This is good for us because we have several trees that can be coppiced.

Hopefully the hackberry logs will fruit as well. There are a few trees that must be taken down and I would like to use them for mushrooms.

Peace.

Mushrooms, why more about mushrooms?Subsistence farmers live a great deal by the seasons. The type of mushrooms we grow ...
10/08/2026

Mushrooms, why more about mushrooms?

Subsistence farmers live a great deal by the seasons. The type of mushrooms we grow tend to fruit most heavily in the fall. Our log mushrooms can produce into December.

The environmental conditions are basically as follows.

High humidity mostly from rain.
Filtered light, typically shade.
A temperature drop of 10 to 20 degrees.

The issue with living by the seasons is that in Missouri there is a food gap from late winter and early spring.

To help get through the food gap with mushrooms, farms and gardeners of older times built mushroom sheds and grew them through the winter. Note, that the mushrooms were different varieties because they were grown on barn manure, mostly horse manure when horses were more widely used.

We built a mushroom cellar and have began learning how to grow in it.

For the mushroom cellar we will use mostly a straw based substrate from wheat and barley straw grown on our farm.

This makes mushrooms possible at some level across the year in addition to the naturally occurring fall fruiting.

More on the straw substrate process in a future post.

Peace.

Another mushroom lesson. Log bark and tree maturity.I had to take a trunk off of one of the coppice trees and wanted t...
10/06/2026

Another mushroom lesson. Log bark and tree maturity.

I had to take a trunk off of one of the coppice trees and wanted to see how it would respond over time.

Unfortunately the bark dried and peeled with minimal mushroom production.

The bark plays a critical role in moisture retention and protection of the mycelium.

Learning how to judge when a coppice is mature enough to cut is a skill of its own.

So many skills to learn on a subsistence homestead.

Peace.

Exciting news for us. In April we inoculated several species of logs with oyster mushrooms. This willow logs is fruit...
10/05/2026

Exciting news for us. In April we inoculated several species of logs with oyster mushrooms. This willow logs is fruiting.

What is important about this is that it gives us a wider opportunity for mushroom logs.

Our farm has a number of willow trees that can be coppiced without over harvesting them.

True sustainably is not harvesting more than can be regenerated.

We have enough willows to harvest a few logs each winter without causing harm to the overall stand of trees.

This is cool for us.

Peace.

10/04/2026

Video of the storage cellar and mushroom cellar.

Currently we are loading the storage cellar and beginning to grow mushrooms in the mushroom cellar.

I need shelves and there are a few other tasks to pull it all together.

This has been quite a learning experience for sure.

Some of the tasks include adding electricity for supplemental heat and humidity in the mushroom cellar. It won't need a great deal of heat but in the deep winter some will be required or I can just let the mushrooms stay dormant until spring.

The doors will need to be replaced at some point because oyster mushrooms eat wood but I currently don't have the metal doors needed.

I have to cover the front of the roof will metal siding, which I have but that is a better winter project after harvesting the squash and planting the winter wheat.

Mostly documenting the progress.

Peace.

Oyster mushrooms in jars experiment. Mushrooms are pinning. September 1st, I put the remaining spawn into glass to learn...
10/03/2026

Oyster mushrooms in jars experiment. Mushrooms are pinning.

September 1st, I put the remaining spawn into glass to learn how they would respond. My goal is experimenting with reuseing glass over plastic.

Quart jars will probably not be the answer because they will be harder to clean. Maybe. I don't know yet. Wide mouth may be better for cleaning.

Thrift stores are full of various glass containers.

Who knows where this will lead but it will be a tasty journey.

Peace.

Documenting. Planting 1st winter collars and kale for high tunnel. Better said is that I am planting some specific vari...
10/02/2026

Documenting.

Planting 1st winter collars and kale for high tunnel. Better said is that I am planting some specific varieties that have known cold tolerance to save seeds from. Other seeds have been planted directly in the soil.

The timing is a balance between daylight hours and cool enough to prevent cabbage moth caterpillars from eating everything.

This balancing dance is a yearly event based on the weather of that year. A planting calendar can serve as a guide but nature doesn't work on a perfect schedule.

Peace.

Saving sweet potato tubers for next year's garden. Size is not critical but the tubers need to be big enough to hold moi...
09/30/2026

Saving sweet potato tubers for next year's garden.

Size is not critical but the tubers need to be big enough to hold moisture through the winter so I select on the larger side.

I wrap in newspaper and then put in a box and store in the basement on the cool floor.

I will check the tubers every couple of months and remove any that begin to rot. Rotting is not a very common problem but once it sets in the entire batch can quickly become spoiled.

Sweet potatoes are one of the best crops for warmer climates as in mid Missouri. They do well in the heat, the leaves are edible for greens, and the store well in the winter.

They are relatively disease and pest free. Groundhogs and deer are our biggest challenges.

Peace.

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Warrensburg, MO
64093

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