Most people use the term “self-sufficient” today different than the actual meaning. Self-sufficient means to not rely on anything but yourself to produce the food and things you need to live.
It is common today to want to be as self-sufficient as possible. They want to rely mostly on their land to be able to produce for them and their family. Today when someone says they are becoming more self-sufficient they mainly are talking about creating a community of Homesteaders who help each other out by growing their own foods versus relying on a store as inflation rises.
Now being 100% self-sufficient is about near impossible. Is it do-able? Yes…but unless you want to start making your own clothes, shoes, using a horse as transportation then you won’t really be 100% self-sufficient, and that’s okay. You can do what you can and be as self-sufficient as possible! Those striving to be 100% self-sufficient right out of the gate aren’t going to be successful. It takes time to be “mostly” self-sufficient.
These last few years after the big 2020 more & more people are looking for other ways of relying on food. Especially with all of the store shelves empty as shipments are taking longer and issues arise. More people are looking to their local farmers versus buying from the store due to shortages of meats and veggies. People have started learning how to start their own homestead, buying property before they’re ready or have any clue how to run one.
Many people in the last two years have taken a HUGE plunge at homesteading and becoming self-sufficient. Resulting in getting their cart ahead of the horse and leaving them in a big mess and a lot of wasted money. That is why I encourage people to START WHERE YOU ARE AT. Don’t go buy that 10 acres unless you know how much work you’re getting into. Today industrialized Agriculture has made people think they need 100+ acres to farm and that’s just not true. You can farm on a very small scale and make money doing it. This book shows you how to start with what you have.
Permaculture is a method in the Agriculture world. It is a method that is used to grow a max amount of food and grow your self-sufficiency on 1/10th of an acre to 50+ acres. It is using a combination of growing crops, raising livestock, and even orchards so that it creates a natural ecosystem that works in harmony with one another. Not sure how you would start your permaculture journey? This book will help you get ideas!
Using the Permaculture method allows you to start where you are at. It can help you grow into that 10 acre homestead and help you get farther along to being more self-sufficient. Permaculture is similar to a regenerative Agriculture approach. This is a Blog Post on How To Start Your Own Permaculture Garden.
So how much land to be self-sufficient with food? This really depends on a lot of factors!
A lot of factors go into determining how much land you need. You can become self-sufficient with what you have and easily scale up. There are ways to expand the area you have upward with vertical gardens and such. You can have 1/10th of an acre to 50 acres and make a lot more self-sufficiency with your 10 acres if you know how to maintain and design out your 1/10th acre of land.
This is where new homesteaders get caught up. They have this big chunk of money to purchase 15 acres but don’t have a clue how to manage or scale it because they didn’t start managing their 1/4th acre.
Are you going to have the time and energy to keep up with those 15 acres? Most don’t realize how much time goes into a homestead. Not even including the money. It is easy to get caught up in all the cute pet livestock. Before you know it you’re spending most of your time feeding pets rather than livestock that will feed your family or other families that could make you profit. Are you the only one maintaining this homestead or does your spouse have time to help too? Factor in the time you have to work outside the homestead too. Most don’t quit their day job from the beginning of their homestead journey.
Crops to produce a self-sufficient homestead are important because they are another food item to take off your grocery list. Most think you need to have an acre garden and then some. It’s just not true. You can grow A LOT of food on 1/10th acre of land. You just need to know how to lay it out. There are many different ways to have a big success in your crop production. Raised Garden Beds, Vertical Garden set ups, Landscape with your food and Herbal Medicinals.
Raised beds are a good way to grow food because you can manage each bed’s nutrients. For instance, you can cater to your tomatoes’ soil PH level so your Melons don’t have to suffer because their PH is so different and that causes less production of one or the other.
Vertical Gardens are the ultimate way to scale your vegetable production on your homestead. This is how your little homestead on 1/10th acre will work until you can buy those 5 or 10 acres. You have to learn to manage your space. This is a post I did on my vertical garden planter that helps me produce so much produce. You can even Extend Your Garden Season with it.
Becoming self-sufficient on a small amount of land means you have to be able to manage your space well. Another way to do this is Landscaping your property with food and even Herbal Medicinal Plants. I have seen many create a medicinal garden space and it looks so nice as a landscape piece
It is so nice to have fresh fruit! Canning fruit for jellies and jams is my favorite. We eat so much Homemade Einkorn Bread, fresh jam just tops it off. Orchards may require more space than 1/4th acre but who is to say you can’t plant some blueberry or grape bushes? You may not have a lot of space now but self-sufficiency starts somewhere and if you can start a very small-scale orchard to harvest your own fruit, then why not?
I have read a lot of blogs and books on Livestock production as a homesteader. I did a lot of Livestock production growing up in 4-H but as I have learned more about it I have seen some misguided posts on it. It really depends on the livestock but I suggest for larger livestock (cows, pigs) you need about an acre of land for them alone. Most think, how so? The Polyface method.
Polyface farming is a pasture way of farming with a small piece of land. Let’s face it, most recommendations are an acre per cow. People these days want grass fed and pasture raised meats but the industrialized Agriculture world says it’s impossible and not realistic. Oh, I was one of them that thought it was definitely not possible or sustainable. Until I came across the Polyface method.
The Polyface method is a way of taking your amount of potential pasture and dividing it up into sections. You will want quite a few. An example of what I mean is if you have pigs and you only have 1 acre to work with, you’re going to divide that into 4-6 sections. Your goal is to move them every few days so that the grass from the last section has time to grow back, preventing a muddy mess and damaging the soil. The manure will provide fertilizer for the sections they have been in, and it will help build up the soil. Not only will this build the soil, but it will provide you with pasture raised pigs with little land. This can be done with cows, chickens, goats, or any livestock.
Extending your garden season is possible really in any climate. We live in a climate that gets snow in the winter and down past freezing and we use our vertical garden planter to grow indoors through those winter months. That way we can have fresh lettuce, spinach, and even medicinal herbs all year around. Check out my post on Extending your Garden Season.
The truth is you’re not really going to be able to go read a blog post and find the exact formula for how much land you need to be self-sufficient. You’re going to need to write down things like:
Those are some KEY things to think about how much land you need to be self-sufficient but there might be more. My advice is to start where you are planted. Practice what you need to learn now so you don’t spend that time learning it as you start having to spend huge amounts of time upkeep on a bigger piece of land. Work up to that big piece of land. Manage what you have now so you can be prosperous when given more!
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