1 acre here, and 5 outside of town that I intended to expand onto before my health went sour.
At the home place I have a garden that provides much of our fresh food in season, but not enough for year-round veggies for 5. Since I have a 6 month growing season, I have greens for the first couple of months and then tomatos, spuds, fruit, and such later on.
I also have a greenhouse, Christmas trees and a few chickens. The kids AND the neighbors would object if I raised chickens and rabbits for meat, and the neighbors would object to a goat or cow for milk, so I do not.
I WAS wanting to move to the parcel outside of town for that reason: for milk, more eggs, a bigger garden, and possibly meat, but now I might not have the energy for that. So, I planted some asparagus out there for the time being, and I will have to wait and see.
My parents did a LOT! with 1/3 of an acre, but they had a much longer growing season than I do. I can pick tomatos from a plant for 2-3 months before frost kills it: they could pick tomatos from a plant for 9 months before frost killed the plants.
I plant 12 tomatos for fresh eating for a family of 5, they planted 4 plants and used 2 quarts of canned tomatos a week year-round, plus fresh eating for 9 months. and all from those 4 plants! After 11 months in the ground, their tomato plants would be HUGE!
The length of the growing season DOES count!
