time to take stock of our project

The growing season is over and it is time to take stock of our project, and of us.

Although we are not as close as we would like to be to our original goal of providing most of our foodstuff’s from the farm, in retrospect, the education we gained through trial and error was more than worth the price of the effort.

Herewith (and in no particular order) are some of the important points we would like to share with others:

• It takes a MUCH bigger garden than we had expected to furnish a family of four with 80% of the vegetables they would normally consume in a year. Although it seems like simple math, i.e. if your family consumes 2 heads of broccoli each week you need to harvest 104 heads, and plant somewhat more for insect damage and loss. Well, 104 harvested heads of broccoli takes up a lot of space, and requires a great deal of weeding, watering, and manuring of the soil (to be self sufficient really means no commercial fertilizer). Now do the same exercise with tomatoes, spinach, cucumbers, carrots, beats, radishes, cabbage, etc… and this does not include the much bigger ground area needed for your “calorie crops” corn, potatoes, and wheat. We grew enough vegetables to feed us for just over 2 months – not exactly self-sufficient. We are expanding the size of the garden and are leaving 2 horses in the area with hay bales to feed on (they can dung up an acre pretty well over the winter, but will need to be removed around the first of March to allow time for their manure to compost in early spring before we turn it under).

• Speaking of soil, you can screw up just about everything else, and if you have composted and properly amended your soil you will still do well – but if you plant, water, weed, double dig, etc… perfectly, and you don’t fertilize your garden’s soil, your yields won’t be worth a darn. The problem is that it can take several years to get a garden's soil to the point of top production.

• Fruit trees take several years to produce, so unless you buy a place with mature fruit trees… it will be a while before you are self-sufficient in this regard.

• Self-sufficiency also means growing your livestock’s feed. This is relatively easy for cattle and goats – they are quite happy with hay and grass – but it means you need enough land to grow it. We had too many horses and could not support them, so we had to cut back, and besides, our horse are for pleasure - they don't help us to be self-sufficient at all as they ae not draft animals. Chickens will provide more than half their own feed in the warmer months if allowed to free range. The problem is finding their eggs becomes a Ground Hog’s Day Easter egg hunt every day. We compromised, and built a moveable chicken coop that I can drag over new pasture every day (more like twice per day) and this resulted in them getting a 1/4 of their feed on their own and ¾ from commercial feed. Next year we hope to grow enough field corn and wheat on the property to care for 50 chickens. Each chicken will need 100 lbs. of food per year (and will give you 50 pounds of eggs); I expect them to forrage for ¼ of that, so we will need to grow 3,750 pounds of corn and wheat. That is one full acre of corn at 70 bushels per acre (a bushel = 56 pounds) or some combination of wheat and corn. Or I can spend $550 on feed, which sort of defeats the purpose. If you don’t eat your chickens (we have not) a family of 4 only needs 15 or so laying hens to keep you in eggs. Or I can build them a one-acre chicken run and let them forage as much as possible… I’ll let you know.

• It is relatively easy to produce all of the eggs and milk a family of 4 will need. 2 dairy goats and 15 laying hens should do it (Goats only give milk for 9 or so months per year), and you will never have to run to the store for milk and eggs (or bread, if you grow wheat and have a grinder). If you want to grow your own meat you will need more or different animals depending on your preferences.
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• You need water on your property. Either you have it, or you have to dig a pond. No water, no animals. (A well works, too, but is a lot less convenient. A rain water catchement system works if you live in an area with sufficient rainfall.)

• Food preservation is as important as food production. It is easy to keep the fridge full at the end of the growing season. February and March are another story. Some things are easy and safe to can - like tomatoes. I do not yet feel comfortable canning meats. We have not made cheese yet, but will begin doing so this spring after our goats have fresshened (gave birth).

• Truly self-sufficient means animal power traction, not my Ford 4000 diesel tractor. I have met several folks who actually farm using draft horses, and the Amish and Menonites in the area ONLY farm with animal power (fascinating folks, I bought our tack from them). That is next year's project.

• One needs to be in good physical shape to be self-sufficient. The more so the better. Animals don’t always cooperate, round hay bales weigh over 1000 lbs. and do not walk out into the pasture for you…

• While doing this, I worked my day job from the farmhouse as much as possible. Not needing to commute, not commuting to restaurants (and waiting to be seated, and waiting to be served, and waiting for the check, and waiting for the valet… these things we think of as normal or convenient… if they were ever subjected to an impartial time/motion study would not make a great deal of sense) nor go grocery shopping more than once per week left us with a great deal of time on our hands (even though we had an infant to care for). At first we were somewhat lost, and then we polished off several good books, practiced our musical instruments, learned how to bake, I learned to draw (a little, anyway), and I learned about gardening, and carpentry, and animal husbandry, etc… it was delightful - once we got over the “I am bored I need to be entertained now so I will turn on the TV” mentality. It is hard to comprehend how much time commuting, dropping off dry cleaning, fueling your car; etc… takes up – until you are no longer doing it.

• Did we feel isolated? Sometimes (It is a big change from living in downtown Boca Raton, FL), but as time went on we felt less and less so, to the point that we did not really relish leaving the farm after the summer was over. Still, one had better have an ability to entertain oneself, and an ability to gather interests, or I would imagine a less satisfying outcome. Still, we have not “over wintered” at the farm yet, and I would imagine that that would be the true test. Still, we are only 35 minutes from a major American city if we were jonesing for some sushi.

• We derived a great deal of satisfaction from little things; like my first pot of homemade spaghetti sauce with 100% of the ingredients coming from the garden, collecting seeds for next years garden, repairing the barn, unloading the hay into the loft, raising day old chicks into laying hens, and watching our animals give birth and raise their young. Cool as can be.

So next year we need to scale the garden up, build a rainwater catchments system for the garden and the livestock, and maybe for ourselves, and try using animal power instead of a diesel powered tractor.

Cya

Almostselfsufficient (at) yahoo.com