The broccoli, spinach, and cabbage are coming in nicely, as are the tomatos and peppers. The problem is quantity.
A family of four will consume 2 heads of broccoli per weak, 104 per year. Since you get only 1 true head per plant, it follows that you will need 104 broccoli plants, at a minimum as you will lose some to bugs and disease, or about 10 raised beds with 10 plants per bed. That is a lot of digging. (We define a row as 15 feet long and 3 feet wide and raised about 8 inches before settling.)
Tomatoes? Same problem. In order to supply our family of four with all of our own tomato sause, pasta, salsa, ketchup... we figure we need 64 plants. Another 8 rows with 8 plants, and several more for losses.
Did I mention you will need several hundred jars to can all this stuff? Actually we freeze the broccoli after blanching but you will need to can tomatoes...
Meanwhile, back at the ranch... So you need a 35' by 30' foot garden area just for the tomoatoes, more for the brocolli, slighly smaller for the spinach, 15' x 15' for the peppers and another for the cabage. Carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, egg plant, etc... each will take an additional 15' x 15' area.
Potatoes for a familiy of 4 will require a minimum of 50' x 50'. Wheat requires a 100' x 100' plot and Corn requires 40' x 40' (and that does not include animal feed).
Again you must prepare all of these items to store over winter.
I hope that I am not discouraging you by posting this but it takes A GREAT DEAL OF WORK to grow most of your own food, and several acres of land. How much land? I will have a better idea next year but for right now I would say that a minimum of 5 very productive acres for a family of four.
1 comment:
You might want to take a look at Path to Freedom. This family of four grows all their food on a 1/5 acre lot in an urban city. They also provide greens to local restaurants. So I think your assessment is off as far as how much land you'll need.
I like your blog, though. Keep up the good work.
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