Ask Granny
by Katherine Grossman
http://www.granny-miller.com/how-much-time-land-is-needed-to-survive-off-the-land/
Granny –
You have a lot of canned goods that you did yourself and seem to farm quite a bit. How much time (in hours per day on average) do you invest in order to successfully be food self-sufficient over the course of a full year? To go along with this question, how much land and time would you have to have in order to survive off the land? (as in pay your bills by selling food)
Lee
Lee –
Your first question is easy to answer the second is not so easy.
It is not possible to enjoy what is considered a modern and varied diet and be 100% food self-sufficient.
A life without sugar, coffee, olive oil, oranges, lemons, coco and other products that aren’t native to Pennsylvania, would be hard for me to tolerate year in and year out.
It is possible to live off of just the food you raise but it’s horribly monotonous.
Much of my home food production is seasonal especially during the late months of summer.
But some of the food production is ongoing daily throughout the year.
The home canned food that you see comes from a very large vegetable garden, small orchard, grape arbor and assorted animals. I rise at 5:00 AM most mornings and each season brings different work.
During the summer months many hours are spent in the kitchen and garden.
During canning season ( June – October) 12 – 14 hour days in the kitchen or garden at least 2 or 3 times a week are not uncommon.
It is more than a full-time job.
During the rest of the year the animals must be taken care of every day.
The morning and evening chores to feed and care for them takes about 45 minutes twice a day; with all day most Saturdays and Sundays devoted to barn work, fence repairs and animal health.
In the spring I’m in the barn for about 3- 4 hours every day during lambing which can last 3 or 4 weeks.
Washing eggs is another daily chore.
Except for hard winter, 10 to 15 minutes a day is spent washing eggs.
On average two to three hours every day is spent cooking, baking and cleaning up the kitchen mess that comes with food self-sufficiency. And that’s not including my regular housework; cleaning, ironing, laundry, sewing and other domestic household tasks still must be done.
During the cold months I spend about 1 or 2 hours a day (spread throughout the day) tending to a cook stove to cook the food and the wood stoves to heat the house.
In the spring my husband & I spend a couple of weeks with a few 12 – 14 hour days plowing, tilling, sowing and planting.
Right now we are making hay which is another couple of 12 hour days spread out 2 or 3 times during the summer.
Just so you know what I have described above is not considered “farming”.
What I described is the labor and effort involved just to feed two middle-aged adults – no children and nothing much extra to sell.
We are using diesel engine equipment and not horse power. If we used horses or mules it would be less expensive – but much more work.
We sell some eggs, apple cider,chicken, beef, pork and lamb but the income is nowhere near enough to live on.
It won’t even pay all the taxes and auto insurance.
What my husband and I do, I would call a closed and sustainable domestic economic system. Some people call it homesteading and now a days the new name for it is “prepping“.
It works because we have embraced traditional agrarian sex roles and a traditional “cottage economy”.
You don’t need lots of land to produce some of your own food.
Many people produce much of their own food with a large garden, a dairy goat, backyard chickens and rabbits and a few fruit trees.
Two generations ago that’s what most people did whether they lived in towns or in cities.
Your second question cannot be answered in general terms.
Making money from your land depends upon where you are located, what type of ground you are working, your markets, and how healthy and strong you are.
I know of people who can make a living on 5 acres and those who can’t make it on 500 acres.
The key to self-reliance and living off the land by your own efforts is to as much as possible have no debt, needless bills and to own everything out right.
Barter your time for goods.
The powers that be have yet to find a way to tax our time or cabbages.
Grow as much of your own food as you can and learn to do without.
There is so much that people use every day and they don’t need it to be happy.
There is no shame in bagged lunches, no cell phone, thrift store clothes and living very modestly.Thrift is a forgotten virtue.
If I had to make a living (Federal Reserve Notes) from just farming I don’t believe it would be possible given my location and circumstances without cheap labor.
The farm labor issue is an almost insurmountable problem for small family farms. We are hamstrung due to over regulation.
I own good fertile farm land and 2 tractors, but I would need to hire at least 2 or 3 dependable people and pay them sub minimum wage to even stand a chance to break even by farming.
Some small farmers are using an unorthodox approach to the labor issue.
Certain well-known persons in direct sell circles (who shall remain unnamed but whose initials are JS ) are able to make a go of so-called direct sale family farming because they are using “interns” and “volunteers” for farm labor. These farmers/gurus/lectures/authors live close to extremely wealthy metro area markets bloated by federal tax feeders. Most small family farms don’t have the benefit of those types of markets.
In my opinion these folks are not really addressing the farm labor issue in a way that I would be comfortable with.
Good Luck to you in the future!
0 comments:
Post a Comment