Hi from south Italy!

Hello everybody!

It was wonderful discover this forum. And it's great to know that in the world there are many people who decide to take their own life to make it a rich treasure of happiness.

We are a couple of south Italy who loves nature and animals, both vegetarians, and we live on a small farm that is spread over 2 hectares of land surrounded by nature, mostly planted with olive trees and almond trees.

Since last year we made a synergistic garden (self-taught) and we are trying to realize a small foodforest (always self-taught) and alternative cultivation techniques (such as tomatoes in bales of hay and aquaponics system).

The idea is obviously to achieve self-sufficiency, especially being away from the hustle and the daily grind, but it seems very difficult and complex doing ourselves, especially considering that we live with so many dogs, four goats, two sheep, 1 horse, 6 ducks, 13 chickens and two cats which implies a high volume of expenses to bear.

We would like to confront, by Skype, here on the forum or even live hosting for short periods, loyal and sincere people, preferably couples with whom to have an exchange of experiences and ideas and sustainable farming. All animals are of course welcome.

Thank you and sorry for the grammar mistakes.
Have a nice day

Hi Claudia
I hope you can find lots of ideas here on Permies , as you can see here on permies its a very friendly community . Like your self, my partner and I have very little money to do stuff so I am always on the look out for cheap or even better free plants and equipment If you can click on the link below you can see what we get up to in France.
What sort of plants have you got already
Do you milk your goats ?
Have you got bees ?
What fruit trees have you got ?

David

Hi David,
this is really a beautiful place to learn, have fun and improving yourself

I saw the link. Congratulations for the wonderful work you are doing! (and for the beautiful place you live)
maybe one day we could organize an exchange of seeds

like you, I'm always looking for plants and trees.

We currently have these types of fruit trees: olive and almond trees, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, mulberry, strawberry, jujube, walnuts, hazelnuts, figs, lemons, oranges, mandarins, apples, elderberries, carob, pink pepper and many of acacia trees, maritime pine and leyland.

different kind of plants: rosehip, sunflowers, onions (white and red), carrots, chicory, tomatoes, basil, mustard, celery, radishes, chicory, eggplant, zucchini many, marigolds and nasturtiums, rosemary, thyme, celery, chard, mint, sage, oregano, potatoes, pepperoni of all kinds, strawberries , arugula, lettuces, lavender, beans and green beans, and plenty of clay balls scattered full of lots of kinds of plants and trees which I hope will bear fruit soon

Vanda, the "goat mum", has given birth for the first time this year and so i decided to not milk to avoid stress. But in future we'd like.

We don't have bees yet, but if I learn how to handle them, with the acacia trees i think it would be a good idea.

Claudio

I am always wanting to push boundries and would like Avocado , citrus and pomegranates . But I fear its too cold here
Nice dogs . Do you have problems with Deer Wild Boar or rabbits etc where you live ?

David

Hi David,
Fortunately I do not have these problems, except with the foxes. They are very clever!
And you?
Do you have problems with boars?

Have you truffles in your land?
Claudio

I have only seen wild boar once when a dozen crossed the park looking for safety when the farmer cut down the maize next to the orchard . I am glad they did not stay as they can make a mess of your veg patch . Deer are rare visitors . No foxes all our neighbours keep chickens dogs and guns . We have no rabbits although we do have gorgina the hare , but she is mostly by her self and does little damage

No truffles alas as they are a big cash crop and being english I dont know how to cook them anyway

At first read, this seems like too many animals for that much land. Do you/can you access off-site browse, hay cutting, or other sources of fodder for free? Are you processing all on-farm wastes through the animals, including all grass, prunings, coppice, crop residues, etc.? We have about .6 hectare, also in a Mediterranean climate, and I think I'm at max right now with three sheep, 5 to 10 chickens depending on if a hatch is being raised, and four geese plus the two of us. The cat and two dogs are basically superfluous, eating off-site feed. We're blessed with a lot of oak trees and the acorn feeds the chickens and to some extent the sheep and ourselves.....