self sufficiency

what would be the most effiecient way to be self sufficient?
by this i mean having a lot/place growing neccessary foods, having any neccessary building materials etc? what combinations of foods/materials would be best? how big of a 'crop' would be needed to support a person? maybe i sound like a loon, but i am a bit of a recleuse anyways, and was just wondering how feasible such a lifestyle would be.

You dont sound like a loon to me m8

Many people enjoy the peace and quite that comes with their own company.

I am not 100% sure but i know that, when i was a kid, we grew enough vegetable in our Garden to keep us fed most of the year... Our garden was only 100sq foot and we grew Gabbages, beans, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes etc...

We had no livestock though so if you wanna have some meat i recon you would have to take a close look at what animals you are considering... Rabbit, chickens etc, would not need as much land as cows, goats etc...

Of course this is just a guess so i recomend you read up on it before starting out.

Self sufficiency should be the ultimate goal of a survivalist, it is most probably no a realistic goal for anyone livening in the city, but a goal worth striving for. There are many way to work towards this objective.
When I retired I moved to a rural area so we could have a buffer from the greatest threat, cities and city people. We have a garden and barn, wood burning stove and a wood lot. I have been given free of charge emergency training and equipment ( clothes, radios, gps, first responder medical training, survival and land navigation training and much much more ) by being a volunteer firefighter and a medic for the local sheriff's search and rescue team. I also read and try to practice low tech skills : wood working, blacksmithing, ect... there are a great many sources for this like backwoods home magazine, the old mother earth news and such and there are tons of books on how to do just about anything( something everybody should try is if something is broke fix it yourself). It really blows my mind when I see how many people don't even know how to use simple hand tools, I'm not talking rocket science here just screwdrivers and hand saws hammers and nails pliers and bailing wire, hell man who do you think you are going to call if something breaks in the situations we all talk about here. One of the things to do is buy tools and learn to use them. They are not either expensive or complicated. Look at garage sales or eBay. Ask friends to help, while self sufficiency is the goal it does not mean you are or should bee a loner (see the don’t be a loner thread) independence and interdependence are not mutually exclusive. You need others to assist you now and in the event of some of the situations we invasion here, but you need to be self reliant as others are not always available to help.

I've been working on this as well and understand your question. I found this site very helpful and even had a lot of my questions answered. www.homesteadingtoday. Anyway the consensus seems to be that around 100 acres is the ideal amount of land for self sufficiency. That gives you enough fuel,building supplies, gardening land, orchard land, as well as room for some animals. I've been researching land and there are still some very nice pieces that sized from 1K to 5K an acre. IF you have 150K equity in you house theres your land free and clear. Then I have been researching solar power and low cost environmental building techniques. The plan is to gradually aquire the property and tranistion our lives into that within the next couple years.

There's a man here in the UK who has his own series on how to live off nature, which may be shown on BBC America.

I think more people will turn to nature, different factors will conteibute to this, as to survivalism, living of nature may be harder (if you think of a nuclear strike or something similar occuring) unless you've got the know-hows.

Originally posted by undercoverchef
You dont sound like a loon to me m8

Many people enjoy the peace and quite that comes with their own company.

I am not 100% sure but i know that, when i was a kid, we grew enough vegetable in our Garden to keep us fed most of the year... Our garden was only 100sq foot and we grew Gabbages, beans, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes etc...

We had no livestock though so if you wanna have some meat i recon you would have to take a close look at what animals you are considering... Rabbit, chickens etc, would not need as much land as cows, goats etc...

Of course this is just a guess so i recomend you read up on it before starting out.

Actually, you can have 4 goats on less than an acre. A goat will produce about a gallon of milk a day. More than enough for a family to consume and plenty for cheese.

Chickens will lay on avaerage an egg a day.
Theres nothing as good as a fresh laid egg.

Two goats, half a dozen chickens, maybe a couple of sheep for wool, throw in your 100sq ft. garden and your good to go.

Also, midget fruit trees make it possible to have nearly a full orchard on less than an acre of land.

All or just 1 of these things will give a family of 4 plenty and then some for trade or sale.

Property taxes on the other hand have killed my chances of a self sustained existance off the grid. Maybe I can just walk out into the woods, clear some land and just hope nobody catches me and shoots my family to death ala Ruby Ridge.

the best book that I have is the Encyclopedia of country living, you can get it on amazon and it is great. Look into heirloom seeds also, amish heirloom seeds is a good site. Living a self sufficient life is a good thing, it is good to know how to eat if you cant go to the store. Plus the food you buy in the store now is nothing short of poison, corn feed, steroid filled garbage. My family eats only the purest of protein, either meat I have taken with my own hands, or raised by me. You arent a lunatic, you are smart to know how to keep yourself going if the SHTF.