How hard is it to produce your own food?

A while back, I came across this site that was the closest to self sufficiency that I've seen:

www.pathtofreedom.com...

With the economic problems, peak oil, and other threats, how practical would it be to return to "on the land" self sufficiency? Is it even possible in modern life?

I grow some things on my small lot, but I doubt I could even come close to growing everything I would need.

A recent article I read that said wheat had gone from $5-7 a bushel to $25 a bushel. As prices go up, the ability to buy commodities is decreased. Are there even any alternatives to growing it yourself?

What kind of strategies could someone employ to improve their chances of staying fed in a crisis?

I don't grow my own food currently Becasue I don't have the land to do so. I am however working on purchasing a large parcel in the future where I will be able to do so. For right now I am simply preparing myself for that point by learning and studying about it as much as possible. I would suggest first working on your survival preps. Start from simple bug out bags then moving onto long term food strorage. Once you have the basics covered you can then expand your preps into differant directions.
However this does not stop you from learning along the way. If your interested in growing your own food then start by growing a few things in your yard or even a few plants in your home. YOu may not produce enough to feed your family but what you will learn in the process goes a long way towards survival.

In my opinion to be truely free means that I have the ability to survive or to live without relying upon anyone or anything else. If I live my life debt free and have no house payment, car payment, credit card payments I am then free to choose how I will work, when I work, what work I do, and how much money do I require from working. If I am able to feed my family without going to the grocery store every couple days I am able to provide for them better food at a better price.

Preps are not just for an end of the worls scenerio they should be integrated into your lifestyle to give you and your family a better way to live.

I'm not a farmer, but I know many who are or were. First of all it's a lot of hard, sweaty, dirty work even with modern equipment. Planting a field is not something you do and then sit back on your laurels and wait for harvest time. You have to regularly cultivate the soil, weed it, fertilize it, protect it from insects, hope it gets enough water, and pray a lot in between times.

In Sitx without a tractor or draft animal, I think planting a crop of any significant size would be almost impossible. You might be able to grow enough to sustain yourself and your family with hand tools a great deal of hard work.Even if one had a horse, mule, oxen etc. how many have the harness or knowledge necessary to utilize the animals?

Lastly, how would you defend a field or any significant size from raiders, squatters, etc. ?




[edit on 3/2/08 by LLoyd45]

I have plans to buy a cheap but fairly large parcel of land that would be good for hunting on and also have a fairly large garden to grow my own food. (As I do not have family my garden would be considerably smaller than that of others'). I have done a little research, and it seems that starting and tending a garden, though seemingly entail a lot of work, are not actually as much work as one might assume. Once you have the know-how, as long as you are persistent in taking care of it, it shouldn't be too much work. I grew up with my grandma and grandpa and they had a very large garden, (much larger than I would need to grow enough food for myself.) My grandpa spent a couple hours a day at most working on it, though he was doing it more because he enjoyed working in the garden than that he had to. I'd venture a guess that for one person to cultivate a garden of sufficient size to become self-sufficient, an average of maybe an hour a day at most would suffice. (Of course, this may be considerably more during planting season and also when harvesting, though not necessarily.)

Another thing you need to take into account is how you're going to preserve the food. My grandma would do all the canning and freezing of the harvest, and that entailed quite a bit of work, though we harvested a ridiculous amount of food. If you have a spouse or children to help with this it can take up a fairly small fraction of your day, and is only done during harvest, of course.

The fact is, it's definitely a trade off. You may become self-sufficient so you don't have to go to work as much, but you will have to work for yourself. In my opinion, between working for somebody so I can buy food or working for myself and having better food, I'll take the latter. Gardening can be a lot of fun: working outdoors and becoming closer to the Earth. It can also be very meditative and whatnot, as I think it was for my grandpa.

One thing's for sure, though: if you're going to do it, you have to go all the way through with it. When the crops are ready to be harvested you gotta do it right then and there. And when it's planting season, you gotta do it right then and there.

I hope this doesn't scare you away from it. I think when it all comes down to it it's definitely worth doing. As soon as I can get a piece of land I'm going to be all over it!

If you don't become self-sufficient you may one day end up resorting to things like dumpster-diving, (not necessarily a bad idea in the first place anyway...) Self-sufficiency is key to living a good life this day and age, I think. Good luck!

reply to post by AWingAndASigh

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I recommend you get a copy of All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. It is geared towards people who do not have much land ,and have never farmed before in their lives.Traditional gardening methods require intense soil preparation which takes too much time for most urban gardeners.

I was fortunate enough to grow up w/ depression era grandparents that were dirt poor and they did a great job supporting their large family w/ meager means. Growing their own food then freezing and canning it. Chickens and a couple of pigs provided food. Fishing and hunting provided a lot more.

It takes a lot of time and energy to do these things but they are doable.

Just an example last year I grew everything to make my own spagetti sauce. processing the tomatos took the longest time then peppers the herbs...it took a lot of time to make the sauce once I began. Now granted it was close to 5 gallons of sauce and we canned it in qt jars...but man is it good. That was 2 days worth of work for the spagetti sauce...Now I have to mention that I used store bought mushrooms and sausage and ground beef. With the amount of effort it took we have decided that it is easier to buy the ingredients or buy the sauce out of the jar. We had so many tomatos last year (my roma plants grew like crazy) I sundried a bunch...I have several gallon ziplock bags full. My son eats them like candy...waste not want not, right?

I have also cured my own hams and they were excellent. I will do this again this year aslo. I was unsure how well they would turn out so I didnt do it this past winter...so I have to wait until early winter to start the process again. That whole process took over a month...plus several days on the smoker after that.

So it is possible but it takes a lot of work to process what you grow. The gardening isn't so bad if you enjoy doing it. I love to be outside and love to cook so I dont mind either but just remember that it is time consuming to be self sufficient but you have great food when you are done.

It's certainly possible to produce a pretty good amount of food for your own personal use. It takes land, water, seeds and planning. You just need to get better at canning and preserving what you grow. It's not rocket science, since people have been doing it for thousands of years, but it does take some planning.

It may ultimately be difficult to grow everything you need for a balanced diet, however, which is where establishing basic trading networks is important. Somebody who lives by a lake and can get a lot of fish might want to trade you some for a few jars of your tomatoes. Trading for basics is also a very old practice. It all depends on how isolated you expect or want to be.

Look at the Amish. They do pretty well scratching a living out of the soil without having to depend too much on outsiders. Of course, they're religious zealots and are working to save their immortal souls, so they work pretty damned hard. But you can learn what they know, if that's what you want to do.

I have been gardening organically for 16 years and it is a fun and satisfying hobby. The soil is the most important. Feed your soil compost and corral a bunch of leaves every autumn for composting those as well.
Three things I would recommend for comfortable "survival living" in regards to producing your own food:
1) Learn about organic gardening
2) Learn about season extension and creating microclimates
3) Learn about food preservation.
These would be in addition to foraging for food, hunting , snares and fishing.
With a greenhouse (could be improvised), and with only the sun for heat, people up here in New England can harvest greens all winter.

A simple way for the novice to start gardening is to buy some tomato starts (the young plants) in the spring and plant a tomato plant in a 5 gallon bucket with a couple holes drilled in it and full of potting soil. Just keep it watered when it gets dry and give it a stake or trellis to grow up. Home grown tomatoes will get you hooked on gardening.

I've read a few threads on being able to self sustain their own food. I applaud anyone who attempts this. My family hunts, gardens, and purchases both a cow and 2 pigs a year. Between the costs of doing those, I would say it only supplements about half of our food budget. Health wise, I have no idea. The areas of time, effort, space and skill have all been covered well in the thread, so my input would be about having to be prepared if you were to loose the whole crop. (Weather, bugs, theft, vandalism etc).

When deciding whether to attempt farming a large parcel of land or not, don't forget to factor in the cost of the fertilizer, seeds, fuel, and routine equipment maintenance. Your labor is the only freebie you get.

Since It's not Sitx, I'd assume you plan to use a tractor or some other gas-powered implements to cultivate the soil. If you're going to use hoes, rakes and spades, you'd better buy lots of Ben Gay. Gardening by hand is back-breaking labor that seems to never end. Plan to spend at least a couple of hours per day weeding, hoeing, and picking the bugs of your plants.

There's also the deer, rabbits, and other critters (including people) that have to be kept from reaping the fruits of your labor. A few deer can strip your garden bare in a matter of days if not stopped. Nothing is more frustrating than to find all your melons and corn eaten before you have a chance to harvest them. People driving by have a tendency to stop and help themselves to your crops as well if you happen not to be around. The few ears of corn or the bags of tomatoes they take isn't the real problem however, it's the damage they do to the other plants that really takes a toll. I had a pumpkin patch last year that was ruined by theives. They not only stole several pumpkins, but smashed and trampled an equal number as well just for the heck of it.

If you're lucky enough to make it to harvest time, then factor in the cost of a good-sized canner, dozens of mason jars, lids, freezer bags, marking pens for labeling, spices, etc. The costs adds up quickly when you're starting out. Some of your vegetables like corn will require refrigeration as well, so add in the cost of a deep freezer.

After all that work, hopefully you have a large enough place to store all those breakable jars. you may as well add in the expense of a few shelving units for good measure.

People just don't appreciate all the hard work and effort that goes into gardening and farming for some reason. Our forebearers were virtual dynamos when it came to hard work.

Now if you're ready we can talk about the cost, time, and effort that goes into raising basic livestock like hogs or cows.

[edit on 3/3/08 by LLoyd45]

reply to post by AWingAndASigh

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At the risk of stating the obvious: first of all, you have to take into account the fact that your serving sizes and variety of flavours would shrink dramatically.

That's not necessarily bad - quite the opposite, actually - but it does take time to adapt, and there is no better time to start that NOW.

On the other hand, there would be no need for you to produce ALL of the food you wanted. Barter trade would likely flourish.

And finally, before growing any plant, try growing a taste for their sprouts. They are absolutely delicious because their taste is much more pronounced and they take much less space to grow, of course. (Needless to say, their nutritional value is also infinitely higher.)

You might want to visit and bookmark some of the many websites about window-box and balcony gardening.
(I remember reading about the experiences of a group of people who even grew their own potatoes on their balconies, using tubs or barrels. ; ))


N.B. Just for the record, I do NOT think there are any impending, inevitable catastrophes which would force anyone to grow their own food.






[edit on 3-3-2008 by Vanitas]

I think you make a valid point. I plan on becoming self-sufficient, but people seem to be trying to scare me away from doing so by telling me about the hard work that's going to go into it. I've thought I've been aware of the amount of work, and justified it by saying I could either be working hard for somebody else to buy my food, or work hard for myself and get my own food.

However, people have still been making me question my own ability to do just that. Perhaps some of us are too agriculturally retarded to do these things, based on the fact that we've become dependent on Wal-Marts and microwaves. Evolution suggests that when a body part or brain function becomes useless and dormant it normally begins to disappear over time. Perhaps the part of us that was once used to do these things ourselves and make it on our own is beginning to dissolve and we no longer have the skill set or perhaps mindset to do them.

But I think that's doubtful. We probably just need to lower our standards, as you said. (Though it could be argued that our standards are lower now.)

[edit on 3/3/08 by an3rkist]

reply to post by an3rkist

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I'm not trying to discourage you An3rkist. It's a great idea. My point is it's a lot of work. I grew up in a large city and never did a day of farm work in my life until I got married and moved to the south.

I ran 6 miles a day, worked out with weights, and did calisthenics. Was this sufficient conditioning to do farm work, not hardly. My Father-in-law put me in a field loading hay on my first visit, and I about puked my guts out 4 hours into the job. Man was I embarassed! Farm labor is very intense and involves a tremendous amount of lifting, walking, bending, twisting, etc. No workout will adequately prepare you for the task believe me. It took me a year to develop the stamina to go all day shoulder to shoulder with guys who had been doing this all their lives.

Point is start small and work yourself up to the task. The mental ability is still present in people, it's the physical part that needs some work. A sedentary lifestyle really does a number on one's endurance.

reply to post by AWingAndASigh

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About a month or so ago, I participated in a thread, I believe it was something like "The middle Class, how to fight back." There were quite a few posts with some great suggestions about growing food, etc.

reply to post by an3rkist

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"However, people have still been making me question my own ability to do just that."(sorry my quote thingy isnt working)

I hope that I wasn't one of those people. My intent was to add some input, one person never thinks of everything. I comend anyone who even considers this, let alone does it.

Skip

reply to post by AWingAndASigh

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I would feel a whole lot better in your position if I knew enough survivalist information to actually be able to keep myself alive through an entire year with nothing but arms, legs, and a mouth. If you pick up a book on wild edibles in your area and start learning to recognize the plants and learn their uses, you should find that most plants are edible and provide at least some nutrition (lots of them are actually high in various nutrients), and even ones that don't have other practical uses.

If you can supplement gathering with trapping and fishing and be able to sustain yourself for a full year (as well as provide yourself shelter for the cold, etc., winter is really the only hard part, especially until around February/March), then you can screw up farming in a disaster X situation and you won't be dead within the same year.

I think it helps in these kinds of situations to think of food purely as a chemical energy source. With the kinds of things you may have to resort to eating you definitely don't want to be in a picky mentality.

"How hard is it to produce your own food?"

If you're a woman who's lactating, pretty easy I would think

Sorry - couldn't resist!

Seriously though, you could produce/grow your own food fairly easily with a little knowledge, but if you are clever, you can supplement that and safe-guard against disasters that might affect your own produce by taking a leaf out of the hunter-gatherers book.

They often lived close to the coast, which is potentially one of the richest sources of food available to us if we know what to look for. Everything from mollusks to sea-weed is on the menu, and much of it takes very little effort to gather/catch if you know what you are doing.