First, let me say I’m always a little reluctant to use the term “home farming” when describing what I do, because I know what I do is negligible compared to what true farming is. Although I spend several hours a week in my garden and working on projects associated with growing things, I’m not out in the fields before dawn (unless I want to be), I don’t work at it all day (unless I want to), and my livelihood doesn’t depend on the success of my gardening efforts. It’s an avocation, not a vocation, and I could certainly be described as a dilettante in my “farming.”

Also, as we discussed in the intro to our book, what I do isn’t much different from what all but the most urban or nomadic of folks used to do as a matter of course: keep a few chickens, have a patch of garden out back, plant a few fruit trees and berry bushes. They didn’t consider themselves special at all.

Nor do I, and I wish I didn’t need a special term to designate what I do, but I guess “home farming” is as good a term as any. You could also call it suburban or urban farming, sustainability, or homesteading, but I fall short of embodying those terms as well.

Whatever it should be called, here are a few of my favorite things about it:

Having the ingredients for the most “exotic” recipes. I can make an organic French sorrel, kale, strawberry, mulberry, lemon balm, peppermint smoothie any time of day (in season). I may may not be rich, but I can at least smoothie like a superstar.

Having bunnies come hopping over to enjoy the clover, comfrey, & lamb’s lettuce bouquet I just brought them. Bunnies cannot do anything without being cute at it: move, eat, drink, look at you, calculus, you name it, it’s helplessly cute when a bunny does it.

Weeding. It’s also one of my least favorite jobs, but when I forget about the fact that I will never be finished weeding and just sit and slowly weed one little patch at a time, and listen to the sounds, smell the smells, and feel the feelings, it’s the best.

1. The daily Easter egg hunt. Prettier, and certainly tastier than regular Easter eggs, and I can have them every day (well, when they’re laying). And being able to look the hens in the eye and say thanks for the eggs.

Fertilizer. I sometimes wonder what’s in prepackaged organic fertilizers and I hate the price tag. Homemade chicken and rabbit manure and worm castings and homemade compost can’t be beat for quality.

Plant diversity. I can walk ten feet and see a fascinating, ever-evolving world of plants. In the typical suburban yard I only see the usual suspects: hostas, crepe myrtles, liriope, boxwood, nandina, and the same boring annuals, blah blah. None of which I typically eat. Here, I can nibble my way through the yard and never get tired of it.

What do you like best about your home farm?