128: Ryan Leach on Pursuing Self-Sustenance on One Acre

Making the transition to a healthier, self-reliant lifestyle.

Ryan is a Golf Course Superintendent by profession, and a homesteader by passion.  He and his wife own the Live Simply, Live Richly Farm. His wife of four years works from home raising their two small children and supporting his farming addiction. They are pursuing a simpler, more natural, God-Centered lifestyle in west-central Ohio on their one-acre homestead.

In This Podcast: Ryan tells Greg why he and his wife decide to start growing their own food and how that has developed into a virtually self-sustained homestead for his young family. Ryan explains about how he transformed his greenhouse, do their own canning and even raise their own meat birds so that they know exactly what they are eating. His story is one that is sure hit home for our listeners in one way or another.  Greg liked it so much that Ryan is one of our Featured Farmers!
 

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Listen in and Learn About:

• How he and his wife were both getting Agriculture degrees in college when they met and how that made an impact later
  
• How becoming a parent made him take a really good look at the foods they were eating
• Their decision to reduce or eliminate processed foods from their diet
• How they started with a small garden, added a couple more beds and are now not needing to get their food from the store.
• How they are even making their own toothpaste!
• What they do when they can’t grow or make it on their own and why
• Why he says we should support the farmers at farmers’ markets
• Why the numbers 300 from 130 in 1/2 is significant with his tomato plants
• Meat birds and why he raises them and how he can do that without medications

  

• How long it takes to raise the birds to get to ideal weight
• The difference between a store bought bird and a pasture raised bird
• What other animals are now and are going to be raised on their property
• What his dream farm is and what he plans to do with it
• The importance of mentors and the recommendation to be one or find one
• How they manage to take care of the farm with his full time job and their two young kids

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  Why pre-planning is important and when he does his planning

• When he plants his crops and how he makes his food last all year long
• What he does during the non-growing seasons
• His geothermal greenhouse and what he grows in this
• Why he thought his greenhouse was a waste of real estate and what he did to change that
• A semi-detailed explanation of how his greenhouse was modified
• How he is managing his weeds with a rotary hoe on his large farm
• What they feed their 7 month old from their own yards and how they manage to prep many meals for her
• More about fermenting and what they did when they saw sauerkraut at the store one day

As well as:

• His explanation of geothermal warming for farming
• Why he feels their decision to expand his garden might have been one of his failures because nothing grew and what they learned from it
• Why he thinks the geothermal greenhouse has been his biggest success and why he no longer buys any lettuce from the store
• What his two biggest drivers are to do what he is doing
• What his advice is to podcast listeners and why he wants us to keep learning

Ryan’s book recommendation:

Ten Acres Enough: The Classic 1864 Guide to Independent Farming by Edmond Morris

How to get in touch with Ryan:

Facebook: Live Simply Live Richly Farm
Email: livesimplyliverichlyfarm@gmail.com