growing 90% of your own food support group

Yes, I cann a verson of V8 juice.If you want to add other veggies you can. The thing is ,you will have to make sure your juice is still acidic or sweet enough that water bath canning is enough. If it's not,you will have to pressure cann it. I make plenty of Concord grape juice,very easy. Fill a quart jar with 1 cup of grapes,1/3 cup sugar and fill with boiling water,seal. Done this way with pie cherrys is the best juice I've ever had. A new one for me,was white grape and pear juice. I did not like the 2 diffrent kinds of white grapes I planted, good for Dry Wine, which I'm not crazy about makeing. The grapes themselves are not very sweet,so alot of sugar is needed to make wine. This year,I'm makeing rasins out of them. I figure dryed,they will condense the bit of sugar and flavor that they did have.

"So how do you figure what percentage of your food is at 75 or 90% self sufficiency?" I simply look at my food bill!

Forget calories, LDS calculators, etc....i look at before and after spending. Once everything has been put up, canned, dried, cured, frozen etc then i compare my grocery bill. When the only things i have to buy is coffee, personal hygiene stuff and chocolate (gotta keep the little woman happy) then i know ok my food bill has now dropped by so much percent.

I believe strongly in bartering. I trade chicken, eggs, rabbit and honey for pork, beef, lamb and fish. Even though i dont have the space to grow large animals i still consider this as being self sufficient.

We did. we are "MGs" but it was mostly geared at flower and pretty trees growers and only 2 hours of veg and 2 of how to spray your fruit trees
none on hoop house and the like.

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He who thinks he knows, doesn't. He who knows he doesn't know, knows.~ Joseph Campbell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeMrK...AE7062ADE5A19C

If you can grow flowers, you can grow veggies. You just need to learn about more pests that only affect certain plants. 40% of what you need to know is on the back of a seed packet. 40% is general good gardening practices like soil improvements and watering schedules. You're mostly there...

The hardest part of calculating food usage by anything but budget is the measuring. I can buy a 5 lb sack of potatoes 10x a year, and know I've got 50 lbs per year, but harvesting one row in a moderate year, I might not have a clue how many pounds that is, and mine have a bit more dirt on them so they weigh heavy anyway...

We are in zone 8, central Alabama. We grow biodynamically with deep beds wide enough to reach the middle from each side. We never buy vegetables from the grocery but have bought corn when our corn crop failed from the farmer's market. We don't eat much corn so didn't have to buy a lot. Typically a grocery store trip for us is for the following things: olive oil, coconut oil, coffee, tea, sugar, flour, spices, and some fruit. We are definitely short in the fruit department. We had two apple trees, but they were ancient and finally died. We have pears, figs, muscadines and strawberries. We typically get our blackberries and blueberries from a u-pick farm nearby. We used to have wild blackberries, but since we have had goats for several years most of those are gone. Most of our meat comes from the farm. I buy a couple turkeys a year from the store and a couple of chickens from the store. We raise rabbits, goats and pigs. When we replace laying hens the old ones become stew meat. We also hunt so venison is typically our beef, unless I trade some pork for steaks. Looking this year to raise more to feed the livestock.

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Come visit Homesteading and Homekeeping at Whisperwind Farm

Five pounds of taters would always fit in the same sack. So ya could estimate that way for volume.

I do wonder what that caculator was talking about? Sure seems ridiculously low on some and very high on others.

I am still a rank beginner having no idea what I am doing yet. I do know I need to be much better at watering though.

As far as where we are located, that would be West of San Antonio, TX and on the extreme Northern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert. My rainfall ranges from a couple of inches to 40 plus.

As far as planning, we figure how much of something we would eat in one meal and package accordingly. The we figuire how often we would eat that item and try to put up that amount and some extra .

Chickens we raise 25 at a time and start a new batch to come off before we eat up the last batch.

A hog a year but it could be 3 in 2 years. Like I said earlier, we are going to raise a steer, but that wont be in the freezer for a year plus.

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" Do or do not, there is no try. " - Yoda

Does bartering count?
I have milk cheese and yogurt but no honey. My friend has honey but no milk.

We grow all our veggies, Buy zero milk, cheese, yogurt. We butcher our own chickens and beef. We have butchered a few hogs but have not in a few years.
have some blueberries, lots of blackberries and a few apple, pear and peach trees, some are very young.

This season we will work to grow a small patch each of oats, wheat and barley.
Planted them last year. They came up nice ,I am sure the deer loved them.

We have been working towards this for many years but.... life gets in the way sometimes--jobs, babies, moves, illness and currently a horrendous drought.

I think that 90% would be very ambitious for us but after thinking about it, I am really not sure how much we already produce ourselves. I have the same question as Steph---- does bartering count?

Currently we raise almost all of our milk, meat and eggs plus a big chunk of our veggies. I have strawberries, black berries producing but lack of water made the yields less than impressive. There are young apple, peach, and pear trees started, figs, grape vines and blue berry bushes as well.

I milk both goats and cows and make cheese when I can fit it in. We hunt and process our own deer. We do have a large pond to fish but I am not a big fan of eating them.

My husband manages a large farm as his day job and part of our payment is beef and pork.

I used to get wheat straight from the combine when our neighbors harvested but we moved so I lost that source.

I think more than anything, I am going to make a conscious effort to do more but just as important--- keep track of it so I have more than a general idea of what we are producing.

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http://doremafarm.com

What I need is to find out what heritage cultivars work best HERE and when to plant.
when to start in hoop. when to take out to transplant.......
local stuff.

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He who thinks he knows, doesn't. He who knows he doesn't know, knows.~ Joseph Campbell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeMrK...AE7062ADE5A19C

This photo is from Spring 2012

The top two rows, I want to add (2) beds at the end of each row, and the third row, I want to add 1 more bed, make a total of 20--10x3 raised beds.
To the left, of the last row.....there is about the same amount of space fenced in that you can't see as the raised beds are in.
I also have extra fencing and posts to make the garden area larger if I want.

The main thing I grow and can are tomatoes. Last year was a total bust (drought and depression) so I didn't get one jar filled. This year I want to attack this like a lion!!

I don't know what to do.
I am not sure how to get the "most" out of what I have.
I am going to start composting this year...
I would LOVE to grow 75% of our food....ultimately 100%

I sure would love some ideas.
I am in Zone 5 Central Indiana.
There is NO wind break for this garden.
It is 100% sunshine from about 9am on.
It only gets sunrise shade.

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I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy

this is the closest to a mentor that I can get here. so that is where I started.
they also have these books for other states.
http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Carolina...rdening+Guides

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He who thinks he knows, doesn't. He who knows he doesn't know, knows.~ Joseph Campbell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeMrK...AE7062ADE5A19C

Beautiful garden!

It looks like you have more than enough sun, which is great.

I would start planting around the edges (fenceline). Grapes, hardy kiwis, runner beans, limas, passionflower, hops, vetch etc... At the base of the fence, I would plant comfrey and herbs like dill, fennel, savory, etc....

If it is possible to add a second row of fencing outside the other, you can create a "moat" to run chickens or ducks. The birds may help reduce any insect issues and can make easy use of any garden waste.

I would also plant nitrogen fixing shrubs that can be kept small, such as goumi and siberian pea shrub. Autumn olive works well for us, but can be invasive in your part of the country. If it is already in your area, it probably can't hurt to have improved varieties.

If possible, I would put the grass to use by bagging extra cuttings and using it for mulch or compost. If the woods in the background are available to you, the leaves, branches and rotten logs all can bring more organic matter into the garden to help you withstand drought.

Do you know your last frost date? Around here (western NY) it's memorial day.

I would take out the grass between the beds and put in either slow breakdown mulch like wood chips, or a living mulch like clover that will add nitrogen to the soil instead of using it. Some of your plants put down roots below the level of your raised beds and share nutrients with your pathways.

It looks like a very easy to use layout for a hand-tool garden.

We're just in this for fun, so it counts if you want it to! Personally, I wouldn't count it, because buying stuff at the store is an advanced form of bartering, so everybody that works for a living already barters their labor for cash, and cash for 100% of their food.

Is your goal to grow it yourself?
Is your goal to get your food locally?
Is your goal to get your food from the second economy and not use cash?
Is your goal to get food raised in the way you want it to be raised?
Is your goal to save money/resources?

The percentage is just a qualitative indicator of how close you are to the intrinsic goal. If the food you got meets the intrinsic goal, it counts as part of your goal percentage.

average here is April 15

first frost Oct 1

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He who thinks he knows, doesn't. He who knows he doesn't know, knows.~ Joseph Campbell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeMrK...AE7062ADE5A19C

This is our goal as well. Each year we make an effort to produce more of our food - both people food and animal feed. Each year we also try to plant a new perennial food source, like fruit trees, berries, nuts, etc. As far as food production, one of the best things we've invested in is a greenhouse. It keeps us in fresh greens all winter and helps us grow warm loving plants like peppers and cukes in the summer.

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Check out my husband's book!
http://www.amazon.com/Rebuilding-A-V...ding+a+village

East central Oklahoma. Zone 7
I'm in and so love this thread. DH and I set a goal of raising most of our own food this year. We currently raise grassfed longhorn beef, chickens for eggs, and garden. This year DH is more on board with the garden and we are increasing its size. We just planted some fruit trees and vines this passed fall we also will be starting our beekeeping efforts this year.

Everyone's preferred diet varies so your choices and quantities will vary. We made a menu and went from there. We excluded things that we would have to buy , like salmon, and replaced it with catfish or bass, etc. We set a goal to learn how to make things like pasta. We plan to build a solar dehydrator this year and to learn how to cure hams and such.

So much to do!

Belle