No one did EVERYTHING. That's how you got tradesmen. Some ran a mercantile others a black smith, etc. They did barter but also spent money when necessary and that meant on food too
Great feedback! I love involving the others too, we are where we are thanks to our Homesteady community and I like shining the light on them, but also wasn’t sure if the data, graphs, etc are what people want to watch, thanks for letting us know it’s enjoyed!
A lot of the reason I am able to grow such a high percentage of what I eat, has to to with CHANGING what I eat. I no longer eat high processed snack foods, and my vegetable variety is limited to what succeeds in the garden, this was a no broccoli year for example, but I had sweet potatoes in many, many meals and thank goodness for the abundance canned the year before, when this was a drought year. Also, both reducing the amount of meat I consume, and changing recipes to use different meat than called for has made it easier to produce nearly all I need.
I think that’s fine and I’m glad it works for you, but why does the 100% number matter to you? Why is it worth it? And is that a choice you make for yourself or your kids too? I think extremism is off putting, and most people are going to be happier in a moderate middle ground.
@@alexandradickman6838is it fair to conflate extremism with priorities? Producing what i eat, for me, is a two main parter. First, no matter what uncertainties happen, me and mine continue to eat well and what we are accustomed to. Physiologically and psychologically, that's a de stressor in times of outside stress. Second, I know what I'm eating and what I'm feeding my family. I don't have to worry about my bagged salad or hamburger being contaminated (how many recalls can YOU remember?). I can make sure that my animals and plant are as healthy as possible and live good ethically treated lives before they become fill my freezer and pantry- which isn't true of supermarket food. It's costs a large producer too much. I don't have to worry about finding out that a common additive is working against the health of my family. Calling that extremism is like calling extreme wanting to drink clean water and breathe clean air.
@@alexandradickman6838 Why didn't you make your comment as a separate one? As a "reply" to my comment, yours makes little sense. Who mentioned 100%? YOU did, you made an assumption. Who mentioned kids? YOU did. You made an assumption. YOU are framing what I do as extremism but that insinuation has no rational basis. Your thoughts do not follow as a reply to what I said at all.
Thank you for this realistic (and humorous) insight on growing your own food. We’re in our late 60s and find some things too challenging and can’t imagine reaching a 90% goal as some u-tubers claim. We do what we can and feel good about that. Blessings.
I always enjoy and learn much from watching your videos. I am much older than most of the homesteaders that have programs on RUclips, so I have a very different view. No one in the past ever was totally self sufficient and independent. Everyone had to buy foundational foods like flour, rice, sugar, coffee, etc. With starting out, start slow and build. Learn how to grow a garden that provides you with staples that will keep you going, corn, squash, beans and potatoes and how to preserve them, along with raising poultry. With just that, you can keep yourself going in a pinch.
Exactly this. My parents were pretty self sufficient but went to the general store once a month for all their grains, spices, sugar and coffee. It was also a social event of talking to the local farmers and the feed and grain man. I think they were partially successful because they didn't buy snacks, didn't eat out. If it's left off the menu, do they really get the credit for not buying it?
@Annie Cole I would say they do get credit. We do not buy lots of prepared snack foods. When we do eat out, I'm all but starving in two hours. I always say I can eat better food at home and eat for less money 💰
@@fourseasonshomestead9819 Us kids didn't actually know we was missing out on anything until after they lost their farm and shopped at grocery stores but can't eat candy to this day and I'm 64 now. I think we can all get closer to self sufficiency if we drop the prepared food isles.
I definitely think that you can be self sufficient with a lot of work. However, I think what we need to really focus on is building community and realizing that we dont have to do it all ourselves. If you build community one family can take care of dairy the other can focus on fruits etc... What are your thoughts?
WOW! I’m so glad you did this poll! We got a rocky start as my husband was diagnosed with cancer 10 days before we moved to our homestead. So although we’ve been here for 2 years, we are behind about a year because of the surgery, treatment, and recovery from chemo. I harvested our first meat chicken (and extra rooster) and it’s still in the freezer. I also harvested our first quail the other day and we had that for dinner on Valentine’s Day. I felt the same way about maybe making our family sick by butchering myself. But I even made appetizers out of the quail hearts and the kids liked them. 😲 Now they’ve gotten nutrients they otherwise would not have gotten from our meat. Becoming more self sufficient is so exciting. Love the self sufficiency meter! 😂. Also this affirms for me the thought that if we suddenly had to go back to victory gardens of old, America would be in BIG trouble. Hopefully everyone is slowly starting to build skills.
Jennie, I wouldn't say you are behind (although I know what you mean) I would say you have a smaller lead on the rest of the world than you were hoping to... Way to still push even with your husbands Cancer. A lot of people would have done NOTHING to produce with a surprise cancer diagnosis. You guys still produced. That is awesome. You will be much further ahead for doing what you did, and things will only get better. Best to you all, and here's to a healthy and productive 2023+
We got our food, water, and energy to 100%. It took lots of planning. We’ve been scaling up our model over the last ten years. We started with just an acre. Now we’re growing out of the 12 we’re currently on. Making systems that maximized outputs. Trees produce most our food. Hazelnuts are one of the most important things we mass planted. We made detailed plans on how many calories we needed. I eat 4K calories a day which requires about 2 full cows a year plus fish, eggs, and wild game. All of the animals are raised on site in the woods and pastures. All the animals waste is composted and then turned into BSF food or worm composter food. BSFs go birds and fish. Worm castings go to trees and garden. The homestead produces so much we sell the excess off to local restaurants owned by friends we’ve made. We live below the 37th parallel so we can grow year round. This would be way harder if we lived up north like these brave souls do.
Wow, impressive, first I’ve ever seen make it to 100% Still time to get on our next video, please share your experience with our audience www.thisishomesteady.com/self-sufficiency-poll/
After seeing this, I am extremely proud of my family. We are at 50% year 1-2. We started chickens and pigs and sheep right away, butchered 3 Rams and a pig in 6 months. (Got rid of the sheep already...little troublemakers 😜) Didn't get a deer, but got a black bear for the freezer. Meat birds and eggs really took off (large incubator) Lake beside us has a lot of Kokanee in ice fishing season. Got some Ostrich for a fast producing beef-like meat. Got lucky with fruit - our farm can produce mass amounts of wild Saskatoon berries and small wild strawberries. Can easily get 5-10lbs a day in summer. Our garden didn't do well with some items, but was crazy good with squash, pumpkin, peas, beans and spices. We are on-grid, but heat with wood. This video was really informative, and encouraging to me (I'm always pushing for better & BIG thanks to my new neighbor, he's been a godsend - don't forget how much local guys with experience can help you along) My son says to say hi to Super Mario! Thanks for the content, always look forward to it!
@@mandiehuns1602 I'm no expert, but a few things... tall fence - electric doesn't seem to work well due to thick fur. They easily clear 4' - at least mine did. Ration feed, as opposed to free feed - they'll eat themselves real fat, real fast if they have free access. When you butcher, make sure to remove the glands... and no spaghetti with the meat grind, tastes really sheepy...like dirty wool. I used a 65/55 (.270 approx) rifle as the rams had real thick skulls I didn't want to chance a mishap with a .22 that everyone seems to recommend (I couldn't do a knife only as some say that is best, but its a bit much for me atm) but they seemed to bleed out just fine after the rifleshot/then knife. Also, mine seemed to like stealing grains from the pigs, they'd hop right in there and bully the pigs off it, so make sure good controls in place between animals too. Hope it helps!
It's easy to fall in love with the idea of only eating what you grow and raise yourself. It feels wonderful to get to a point where you CAN do that(if the supply chain collapsed tomorrow, nobody here is going to starve). But there's a reason we've evolved as a society, and work in groups. The buying freedom that comes from being even 50% self-sufficient is huge. Even if you don't shrink your grocery budget at all, it feels GREAT to support that local coffee roaster, bakery, neighbourhood deli, etc., and not give that money to the faceless Wal-Mart billionaires that actively look for ways to exploit their employees. And before long, you want to become part of that food community(or we did, at least). For the last four years, I've been packing CSA garden-share boxes. We delivered fresh fruit and veg to a hundred and twenty families every week for six months last year. We showed up at every in-town farmer's market and sold produce there. We made significant contributions to the local food bank and helped get something green into the diets of the low-income community that depends on them. We supplied salad greens and grape tomatoes to a local restaurant to be enjoyed by all of our friends in the neighbourhood. For us, it feels way better to be actively supporting other people in our community with local, responsibly and sustainably-grown produce and buying other locally-made products than it does to be off on our own little food island.
This is such an important key in even self sufficiency, supporting a local food web that will be there when you need it! We are planning on covering this in a future video! Keep up the good work, I wish more small farms had someone like you to help em sell their stuff (us included!)
#askhomesteady what healthy snacks do you keep on hand for yourself/your kids. And what make ahead convenience meals/foods do you make. Also I have noticed that as I have started homesteading and becoming more self sufficient, I use a lot more of certain ingredients (and fewer of them). For example, I have noticed I’ve been using a lot more fresh onions, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce than we ever did before. What are your farm pantry staples? WE NEED TO KNOW! Recipes please!
Dont forget : buying in food for your animals is no different from buying your own food. If you spend hundreds a month on feed ... that's equivalent to spending hundreds at your groce4. Buying in feed ain't "self sufficient" at all.
78% is something to be proud of. Did you see our survey? Still time to share your experience before our next video is made www.thisishomesteady.com/self-sufficiency-poll/
@@SgtSnausages This! We have changed our diet to eat what we can grow, but we are still buying hay and some feed. Trying to plan now for a future where we can feed the animals more from our land.
Great video. I read years ago that you can get to 90%, but that last 10% will take 90% more work lol. I think another way to look at this is calories and nutrition. A lot of folks want to grow everything themselves because they are preparing for SHTF situations. In which case carb dense foods like grains and potatoes are gonna be important to. Also, off farm inputs need to be addressed. How many of us could keep chickens if we didn't have a feed store? All of which to say, it's complicated and building an inner connected locally resilient community is more important than trying to do 100% on your own.
Loved this! More like this please!! Data and realism is what us dreamers need. It makes it feel more achievable not less honestly!! Love the advice of “just start”! We have a small yard in Chicago but have worked for two years to get it set up for layer chickens. We have placed the order and are getting them in April and I can’t wait!
Yeh I think the most you could probably do yourself would be like maybe 85% or so. Depending on where you live and what kind of foods you tend to eat more or less of. If you're a big fruit person tho and you live in America's Bread Belt then you're probably gonna still have to go to the store for that. Same thing for most Seasonings and Chocolate.
I feel pretty good about myself after watching this. Egg layers year 1, Meatbirds year 2 along with a move to more land, which lead to 3 fruit trees and raspberry bushes. Plan for year 3 is to add veggies so I feel ahead of the curve as of now and going to give myself a pat on the back
Awesome videos. Y'all are doing great! Side note: I think y'all could SURVIVE with what you have 100%! But we all strive to thrive, not just survive. It's a blessing to have that "back up" though. Good luck!
The problem with this analysis that homesteaders do is that, one they don't realise that social media tells you to eat what isn't essential at all such as land hogging grains (bread, pasta, cookies, cereal, biscuits), or dairy (nice but not needed). Addictions are emphasized such as coffee, chocolate, beer, wine. There is a tendency to overlook eating many parts of the plant such as pumpkin leaves, carrot tops, turnip greens, mulberry leaves, apple leaves, amaranth leaves, purslane, mushrooms because they are not sold in supermarkets. It's not that the homesteaders are producing more food over time, it's that they learn to eat what is available and their diets become modified to fit. Often they start to formally grow less because it's such an effort to process and sell the food to others.
This was a very interesting video and Homesteading study. I was one of the participants who responded to your poll and just the questions alone challenged my own thinking. I think it’s so interesting that no matter how long you have been Homesteading and how much experience you have, you could still learn and grow from others. My thinking is starting to shift from being self-sufficient completely to being community sufficient. There are a lot of amazing farmers and homesteaders in our community that also provide us with food. One of my most favorite parts of what we do is trading or bartering with those folks. Thank you for taking the time to really delve into this subject matter.
This really makes me feel good. In 56, health issues, living alone and moved from the centre of a Dutch town to a village in Hungary to start my own little homestead. It has been 10 months now and I have 18 chickens for eggs and meat when necessary. So grateful they kept laying eggs all winter! Never under 3 eggs a day in the coldest darkest period. Now starting up a vegetable garden, and have a few old fruit trees in the garden. Maybe I will start with a milk goat next year. My savings are gone now, had to buy a new roof... So it will be interesting to see if I die of hunger or will make it and flourish. 🤣😅😂 I laugh but to be honest, I am scared as hell! But I rather die here of hunger than stay alive in the overcrowded Netherlands. Love your video's!!
That's amazing! Keep working hard and also do plenty of research! If you really need money, Dutch is in great demand for remote telephones work. Good luck!
Milking our first goat was exciting, I ordered a half gallon less weekly of our family’s raw cow’s milk… then 1 gallon less, then 2. It was exciting to have a goat finally saving us money instead of costing! (She ended up being a jerk to other goat’s kids… to the point of injury- not just showing She’s boss.) Because she was in milk, I sold her for $100 more than we bought her for, and she gave us a couple months of milk contribution and two beautiful doelings we’re keeping. So she was a wonderful investment as well as all the hard work. Very excited to be living this life. We’re still getting 8-10 daily eggs from our 17 chickens. Very excited about that. Learning to butcher our own pigs would be awesome!
#askhomesteady …. How long do you think running your homestead will work? How old will you be when you retire? Or will you bring your children into taking over the homestead? Do you have a long range plan?
It really comes down to what you eat in a year. If you can live off of chicken and veggies, then it is possible. First year on land that was not very fertile at all, my first year we grew 20% of our food until winter hit., but that was 90% of our produce. We only had to buy berries and fruits since we only have strawberries on property. Did 1 run of meat chickens to see if we like it or not, and this year will be buying 4 times as much meat chickens. Aiming to over double our produce production to make it into winter. Our goal is 50% of our groceries grown by ourselves. Saving half our annual grocery bill is pretty tremendous. Growing even 1% is 1% savings, 1% self sufficient, and 1% of a start.
I just closed on an (almost) 2 acre property and it should be ready to move into this summer. With my chickens and gardening experience I'm hoping to be well over the 25% mark by the end of year 2 on my food production as I don't eat a ton of meat. Meat birds and goats are definitely something I will be doing next year! I will consider myself very successful if I am growing 50% by year 5.
Sounds very realistic. Depending on free time you might get there sooner than year 5. Especially with resources like books and RUclips around. Enjoy and God bless!
I feel like unless you live near the ocean or a salt lick, there will always be small things that will need to be acquired at the store to make food more flavorful. Salt, and spices being the big ones that really are hard to grow in North America. Sugar can come from bees. Are grains truly necessary for life or can smaller amounts be grown to be incorporated into a meal rather then being the main part of a meal. I bet that is the actual "paleo diet", what could be harvested. I was pretty happy with my indoor garden this year, and I hope I can be more successful both outdoors and indoors this upcoming season.
Yes you can grow grains in your garden on a small scale and grind them yourself. It gives you a heavier flour so it's a whole new learning curve for baking.
@@joanxox4191 Maybe try sifting it to lighten up the flour. Removing some of the bran might help. But what I am really getting at is, why grind it at all? We can eat barley whole, and whole wheat berries are really good too, A RUclipsr just did a Neanderthal food prep (Emmy Made) and roughly ground pulses to make a patty then cooked it. I think wheat berries would work in the mix too and likely they only threw in handfuls of stuff because that is what they harvested. I bet the small plot you grow of wheat would last a very long time if you only used a handful in your cooking and didn't actually grind it down to make any bread products.
You also need to buy feed for the animals you grow. Full self sufficiency is almost always an illusion. Not saying it’s not a good goal to grow a lot of your food, it’s just important to remember 100% self sufficiency isn’t realistic. Especially if you include clothing and other non-food materials.
Very helpful and encouraging video, thank you! One of our challenges in planning is we are starting after retirement, in our late 60s. We also live in the city. But we still began! Also, we focus on what can be easy to manage as we age. So we are building a perineal food forest. For meat, we raise quail and rabbits. We raise chickens for eggs but city ordinances make it difficult to raise meat birds too. (No such rules for quail though).
My family is very large. We were so blessed this hunting season to get 6 deer, plus have 1 or 2 given to us. It has been amazing! I Am trying hard to put in much more of our food this year. It is such a challenge to grow even 50% of our food!
😂😂😂 That part with the chickens and keeping them alive is so true. How to have a chicken NOT DIE is more difficult than I ever thought before having birds. Plus, the whole double in size every week, nonstop eating and well... Uh.. fertilizing. Chickens were more difficult to learn than I ever would have thought. This was very in depth, thank you for sharing the realities.
I'm in year two, and have egg chickens and meat chickens. However, I struggled with my garden last summer (we had a drought and I exhausted all three of my wells trying to keep it alive, before I finally had to let it go). I had a garden before we moved to our homestead, so I know how to do it. This year I am putting in a water catchment system so I can catch some spring rains - fingers crossed that I can catch enough this year. I have also learned how to put old hay in my garden to help hold water. I also have a horse, which is just an eating machine - but I did compost horse and chicken manure with leaves through the winter, and it is dirt down deep in it, so I will be top dressing my garden with that, and putting in deeper mulch this year. If my garden does well this year, I plan to add feeder pigs later in the year. I'd like to try some dairy goats, if only to help clear some more of my land.
New fan here. Love all the data. I’m 6 years in, on 2/3’s acre (only 1/3 for farm) city and work full time. I’m at about 30-40% for two of us. I have chickens, did meat chickens last year, pig growing now. Have 22 fruit trees, and am in a Herdshare where I milk every other week and get 4 gallons. I’m even doing hard cheese!!
You are my enthusiasm-therapists 🙂 Veggies almost self-sufficient, fruit sadly not yet, maybe 20%. Chickens provide eggs and the food forest is in development. Year 6 ;-)
I just realized how lucky I am to homestead in the tropics where food is apparently much easier to grow. Coconuts = free milk , steak, bacon (don’t believe it till you try it Bananas = free potatoes Papayas = free salad veggies and greens And a long list of other things that grow to production very very quickly
The phrase “homesteading” covers a broad range of endeavors. Many want to produce a fair amount of their food, while others concentrate on other aspects of self sufficiency, like forestry and hunting. The one aspect you touched on really needs to be emphasized to newbies, that of infrastructure. While there are really minimalist approaches to most things, minimalist and productivity don’t belong in the same sentence. If one is going to be a homesteader it is a commitment to becoming a jack of all trades. As such, one should have the good tools of those trades and develop the skills to use them efficiently. This is particularly true as you age. I’m 69 and to dream I can do what I could at 39 when we bought our farm would be pure delusional. I acquired a rototiller for our tractor last year to do the large crop garden (corn, squash, and asparagus). I’m not retiring our little rear tine tiller, but I’m not going to spend hours behind it doing our quarter acre main garden. Similarly I now have a bucket on the tractor and use the wheelbarrow and shovel a lot less. These coming year’s projects include a new wood shed and a dedicated food processing/preservation structure to move the mess out of my barn (which isn’t the cleanest) and out of my kitchen. This is particularly important to me for hygiene getting the heat of canning out of the house in summer. Even if you buy all the tools, equipment and construction materials on the cheap, it is a whole lot more money than most people imagine….and a whole lot more work if you cut corners. If I had it to do over again, I would have built a root cellar when I last had an excavator on the property and still might if I live long enough.
People forget Fruit and Vegetables are seasonal on the homestead. Sure canning is a great option but it’s hard to make stuffed peppers in February when all the peppers were turned into Salsa months beforehand. And you can surly wait to make stuffed peppers until august. Stuffed peppers are only one example. Being self sufficient is not about losing quality of life. To me it’s about elevating your life. So yes you will likely never be 100% out of the produce isle at the store. People don’t need to beat themselves up over it.
This is why I don't particularly like the term "self-sufficient" and avoid using it when thinking about my urban homestead goals. No one person was meant to do it themselves, at any point in human history. Humans are meant to have communities, and community-building is my goal.
Get fruit trees planted first thing as it takes 3 to 5 years sometimes longer like mangoes avocados etc that takes about 8 years for mangoes. I rent and planted 3 fruit trees I’ve been here six years and am enjoying the fruit.
Ooooh I'm actually early enough to comment. My partner(fiancé now!) And I are starting our journey soon. We will be moving in with my grandparents living in a small room in their house with my son, paying little rent and saving as much as we can. My partner will be going to school to become a teacher and that will take about 3 years. In those 3 years we will be learning the skills needed to move onto land and start that life style. But we won't start there, we're starting now. Gonna garden in the Gparents backyard, I'm gonna start growing mushrooms from buckets, get chickens, maybe a bee hive(my city actually allows it). Wish us luck
@Homesteady oh fun fact, I'm sure you guys know this but in case you don't. You guys made a joke about not gathering your own gasoline yourselves. But you actually can go to restaurants pick up their used cooking oil(often for free since disposal costs them money) and turn that used cooking oil into bio diesel.
I have had my farm for nearly 40 years here in Alberta Canada. We're at about 85% overall on self sustainability and 100% on meat. This is partly due to our climate we can get winter for 8 months. Things like salt yeast vanilla and spices we will always need to buy can we live without them yes if we had too. We still are attached to our power grid . We have neighbors who are not and it's a very expensive setup here because of our winter.
This is SUPERB information! Thanks so much! I definitely feel encouraged by this. We have chickens and SO many predators, we lost entire flocks in the first couple years. Also my garden skills are not great. (Also I am fighting the marmorated stink bug, it destroys squash and tomatoes.) I have started using more weeds, which are actually feral garden plants such as dandelion, wild garlic, and mache or “corn lettuce”. My only big success so far has been strawberries and cilantro. Both of us work full time now so I expect our self sufficiency will be a gradual accomplishment.
I don't normally comment or like any video. But this is an amazing value on RUclips. I have just enough experience to know exactly the pain and trajectory that you are talking about. Great job.
When you talked about planting your food forest then leaving that, thats us! Two years ago I planted over 20 fruit trees on our property and grape vines and now we have to move due to a job situation.
im curious what your feed bill is, if you have a bunch of money to pay for feed then you can be pretty self sufficient but trying to be 100% off the homestead (my land) im finding pretty hard..
In our second year, we grew about half of our vegetables for the year. 🌱🥒🫑 Animals are expensive, and can turn into a full time job that doesn't pay very well, or that actually costs more money. We have opted for a lower meat diet that is based on vegetables and whole foods. We can easily live on $400- $600 a month for groceries. Our focus is more on living a simple lifestyle without debt, utility bills, or consumerism. I realize there are non financial reasons for wanting to raise all of your own food, but financially it often doesn't make sense. Anyway, just a few thoughts. I found your channel about a month ago, and love your content! 😊🏜️
I like your thoughts here. You're right about the cost of producing your own meat. The same is often true about vegetables if you place a value on your time weeding, planting, processing, etc. Producing your own of both can also increase the quality as you control inputs, take back control of decisions made during production. You also gain self suffiency, meaning that you have access to some items not available in today's environment of shortages etc.
I agree that it costs more to raise your own meat. That’s why we hunt. For $50 (totally for both my husbands and my hunting licenses) and a couple hindered dollars on fuel to visit family for the entire week of Thanksgiving... we put 8 deer in the freezer. We are a family of 6 and still have half our freezer full of meat. And we eat keto, so lots of protein every night. I don’t favor in guns or ammo. We’ve grown up hunting, so I use my childhood gun and we have a stock of ammo for each of our hunting riffles. We’ve raised beef cows and sheep too. If you have the grass, cost isn’t to bad. But, we don’t have a large enough pasture anymore. I do not mind having milk goats and laying chickens though. I can’t get that quality of food anywhere. The babies pay for the feed.
@@jasonschannel9017 True! 🙂 Gardening is seasonal, and it is more of a hobby for me. There is just 2 of us, so it's not a huge garden. It produced way more food than we expected last year, but it isn't too big of a loss if it doesn't do well, but animals are a different story. We considered getting laying hens, they are pretty easy, but they still require housing and year round care.
@@brandynash1409 That's awesome! Our son-in-law's family are avid hunters, but it's an expensive hobby here in Arizona. The tags are expensive, and most don't get drawn.
Great job with everything you guys, youve always been self sufficient in my mind and Ive always been so impressed by the hard labor you do to remain that way. But this was definitely an eye opener that no one is 100% self sufficient! We all need a community of some kind to thrive and support each other and thats just as inspiring. Keep up the awesome work and share at least 75% of those oreos with everyone Aust!! 🤣🤣
How do you dispose of the dead chickens you find? Love love love the video. Great quality in editing, graphics, presentation, knowledge & simple enjoyment of watching. Thanks to your family for sharing. Huge inspiration and data source.
Dead chickens with no explanation head to the big compost pile. (we have a giant pile that gets hot enough to do meat carcasses) If it's not sick (like was killed by a predator or something obvious) we can use it for animal feed.
I would love to hear your advice and tips for welcoming homestead animals to your homestead on a budget. We are growing our homestead from scratch and everything seems to be so expensive, especially structures. #askhomesteady
Hi Guys, Love your channel. Can you do a video about hard cheese, with your challenges, fails and what you have learned. I love vintage and mature cheese the most. Or a series would be even better about cheese making and different types of cheese. Love the stats it is really helpful.
This was a fantastic video. It is always interesting because the data just helps put things in perspective. The conclusions you have made are really good ones. I loved the sharing of your story along with this. You are so right that there are so many parts that you can't skip ahead on, but starting now is the best way to get there.
As a carnivore, I could be 100% today (and I should, that is my goal). It’s when I factor in my hubs and stepson that % drops dramatically (but those are their choices and commitment, or lack thereof). But I don’t consider myself “self-sufficient” at all, because what do ny animals eat?! 90% of my “shopping” is for them. I am fervently researching what and how animals were fed before the local feed mill, and the big chain feed stores existed. My fellow carnivores (dogs and cat) eat what I eat, but I’m still needing to supplement their meat from store (that is getting less and less). But for 5-6 months, there’s feet of snow blocking the chickens and everyone else from foraging. We don’t have enough land to grow our own hay for the steer, goats, rabbits, and pasture pigs, nor to grow grains for them either. This is where I get stumped.
I plan to grow roots crops to supplement my animals feed over winter. That's especially easy with goats and rabbits. Mostly Jerusalem artichokes but all crop residues like leaves and stalks can be dried and fed to the animals as well. People had tree fodder coppiced above head height to harvest in Sommer and feed in winter like a second pasture on top of the one you have. If you can find a nut producing tree that would also be excellent for winter feed, but those trees make shade on the pasture while fodder trees do not. I think there are a lifetime of techniques from around the world to try so you could achieve it eventually.
I've had a chance to live overseas and see the sustainability habits of others. Whereas in North America we have the rugged individualistic idea of a family going out to claim some land and go it alone, self-sufficiency works elsewhere as small groups of complimentary producers. Certain things like berries, potatoes, cabbage, apples....everyone can pretty much do that, and have a regular day job to boot. But if you have enough family or neighbors in the village, one woman will specialize in dried mushrooms, one will have the goat dairy, uncle so-and-so is the beekeeper, cousin makes wine....like that. The overflow from your own production ends up either as symbiotic giveaways, or sold in small markets. I think we Americans lack this mentality, but if the situation every forced us to take self-sufficiency seriously, long-term, I think we'd be specializing and bartering. Which seems right and natural.
Yeah this is super important. I don’t really like watching “homesteading” channel’s because most of them I’ve found are just so individualistic and it’s a nice thought sometimes but for the vast majority of people it’s just not realistic of a goal at all no matter what people say. Not that it can’t be done, it’s just that most people can’t dedicate all the time or have the space or money that is needed to produce/everything/. It’s far more efficient if you have a village structure that has many different households fulfilling more specific roles. But America just isn’t built like that.
@@CampingforCool41 I think it's valuable to take steps to be more independent for sure, and producing your own food to a certain degree is an attainable goal. Even living in the city, you can bake your own bread, ferment some cabbage, etc. It's a spectrum depending on what resources you have access to. The sad truth is this: if you don't have some family land or money, you're behind the game. That's another communitarian aspect people don't think about. Self-sufficiency is also a generational as well as a communal project. If you have larger families, these two things grow naturally. This is one reason why bigger families had value in times past. Family values are truly the root of sustainability.
One thing you did not address as far as becoming self-sufficient was “what am I willing to give up or change”? We have become accustomed to many conveniences that seem like necessities. Three years ago we bought a farm that was built over 200 years ago. It has since been adapted to include so many of the “necessities”. But, what is required to keep those necessities functioning? Such as, paying for electricity, water, sewage, waste removal, toilet paper?! Also, all the food we have become accustomed to eating out of season Or imported from other countries. Well, I guess you sort of hit on it… Oreos anyone?? You are certainly beginning to explore those options for your new Homestead. There are so many things we could barter and trade for as we build our Homestead communities. This whole area is worthy of in-depth exploration for the wider community.
Hey Kristy... Those are free range locally raised Oreos! 😆 Yeah, you are right, there is a big difference between conveniences and necessities! Focus on the important stuff so if you need it and can't buy it, you have it!
My husband and I will cheer you on as you make decisions that will result in living gently on the earth. I am trying to get my daughter to help us subscribe so we can encourage you that way. We are not very adept at electronic technology.
I'm starting an urban homestead this year/from the last two months of last year. What veggies and fruits do you recommend for beginners to start with? Especially when there is space constraints?
90% in 100 days. But we went from commercial farming to downgrading to homesteaders. We did it backwards. We first started producing enough feed for all the animals
We are a year and a half in to homesteading (if you don't count the years we have been hunting), and we grow 50%! We grow Rabbit, Quail, Chicken and eggs, Did 3 pigs, and shot 3 deer over this past year. We also did a garden, my goal is to have more of a regenerative garden. I need to look up your fruit tree videos because those are on my list!
One acre mini-homestead here. Fruit trees (30,000 cal.), vegetable garden (30,000 cal.), and layer chickens (100,000 cal.) in 2019. Working to expand orchard/garden production, but realistically won't be able to harvest more than 250,000 cal. from just those three areas (which is 33% of a single person's calories). Raising your own meat seems to be the biggest caloric achievement. It makes up about 50% of the calories in my diet (grains 25%, fruit/veg. 25%). Thanks for sharing your data and experience.
We are on a 1/10 acre city lot….in Pittsburgh…..we have 5 hens and a small backyard garden…completely started FROM SEED….…when the approximately 20x25 garden does good and produces things like, sweet potatoes, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, pumpkin…basil…we are quick to can and dry the fast yield of copious amounts….it’s not about how big, but how a much skill at growing, preserving…..we have set a date to move to our second new home on 4 agricultural zoned very weedy acres in Hawaiian rainforest come June of 2024….where we plan on expanding to hair sheep, fruit orchard, pigs, of course chickens, rabbit…
My thinking has always been....IF the world were to come to a standstill today, would you be able to stay alive for a year? That's a success. Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you do. In my case, I just don't have the space now for grains for bread, flour, animal feed and such, and our quail makes up just 20% of our meat, but they make up 100% of eggs. But in the event of an zombie apocalypse, I COULD utilise a neighbours yard and actually do it.
I was very shocked when I read that it takes 40,000 SQF of garden to feed 1 person! Watching this video I thought Ahh Duhh that's because your lucky if half of it make it to harvest and I'm assuming that acre includes veggies herbs and fruit with room for failure. Also I imagine 50 to 75% was very common before box stores what you didn't grow you bought from your neighbor or local store of canned goods, sugar coffee and flour. Love this video. Could you do a video on how many pigs chickens and cows you have to raise to feed your family and make a profit? That would be great! Thank you!
This is very interesting! Loved this topic! I wonder if you could add in how much you purchase from friends and local (under 60ish miles). Building community is really important to me as I'm currently stuck in a city. BUT...I have chickens, a garden, and one fruit tree. Growing where currently planted. New subscriber.
Even the Original homesteaders bought stuff. Historically, grain wasn't something everyone could grow, salt was never something everybody could harvest, same as sugar, fabrics, tools, and even some produce!
Thankyou, Thankyou for this video. Sometimes I feel like I'm getting nowhere fast, but maybe I am making progress. I still have to work and try to garden and already have chickens So maybe, I am getting there. Thanks again. ❤️
As a homesteader and homeschooling family we always have serious discussions abt what we have to have to live and what’s not necessary to have. I’ve termed it “when the bell rings” what will we have to have to live on when the bell rings😂👩🏽🌾we have a pond that keeps drying up-we are in Texas-great information guys
I'm only seeking some clarity. I'm definitely producing much less than 25% of my own food. So I'm curious, when you say you are 100% self sufficient when it comes to your meat production, are you buying feed for your animals? If so, doesn't that reduce the % of self sufficiency? Does the same apply to buying meat chickens when you have to purchase then feed the chicks? I'm struggling and often feeling overwhelmed trying to get set up on a very restrictive budget and living in the high desert of NM.
Great video i would love if you did the percentage on expenses, if your covering all your meats eggs and dairy probably already covering 85% of your grocery bill
Where I live in the tropics, I have found some locally grown greens that are not susceptible to any bugs. I use them every day with my meals. They are cassava leaf, insulin plant & blue ternate. With the blue ternate I pick the blue flowers. All three grow all yr round like a weed. Cassava leaf I eat raw, which is supposed to be high in protein and I am told it needs to be boiled first, which I don't do. No side affects so far, been about 2 yrs of doing so. Also coconuts for fresh coconut milk, used in place of cows milk. Makes the best creamy hot coffee or iced coffee. Grow a lot of fruit and make a lot of fermented fruit drinks....particularly using guava, pineapple & lime. But I would still say I am under 25% of food products purchased. . . Although the food bill is under $300 a month.
Pioneers weren't self sufficient either. They still had canned and dry goods, coffee and tea, fabric expenses, etc. Granted it was less dependent on modern convenience life but people romanticize the days of old like it was just "pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you don't need anyone". You NEEDED community to survive.
1 chicken in a year is phenomenal, I live close to... well, several rivers. the area I live is known as the Four Rivers, but not the biblical four rivers. :) with all those rivers coming together nearby there are minks, not a ton immediately near us.. But we never just lose one, We have to run quite high security especially at night, because we will lose the whole flock in a single event. Its always rough to realize that amount of losses. But we keep rebuilding and hopefully we can keep these ones which have been around a while now.... Last spring.
Check out Red Gardens on YT and his Simple Garden video series. It’s a plot of low-effort, one time harvest crops with a few years of data to compare results. Y’all could easily add a few more % points by following something similar
My opinion on meat chickens.. I do not care for the Cornish cross variety. I know they are efficient and fast and easy, but.. I wanted a source of meat chickens that I could "close the loop" on. Meaning, I wanted something that would lay eggs, fertilize those eggs, and allow me to hatch them myself and then raise to maturity. No dependence on another source (hatchery/farm store) to have to supply those chick's to raise. Same with turkeys and ducks. We are looking at longer growing but heritage breeds for this. I just didn't feel very self sufficient relying on an outside source for those birds.
I think it's easily POSSIBLE for a homesteader to be at 100% food self sufficiency, you just have to be willing to give up a lot of luxury items to do it. In terms of nutrients and raw calories you can do it for sure. But you have to give up caffeine, chocolate, most likely non fruit sugar of all kinds, a lot of spices, lots of nuts that we're used to eating, and your variety of fruits and veggies you'll have access to is going to go down. If the zombie apocalypse happens tomorrow and the stores disappear you'll survive, it just won't AS nice of an existence as it would be with access to a store. If you can access a store and afford to buy those luxuries that aren't easily manageable on your own I think that's fine and doesn't count against anyone. I for one could never be 100% self sustainable because I can't manufacture my own Coca Cola or Dr Pepper.
You know, with what is coming everyone needs to start preparing in some way NOW. Nobody needs to buy land to do all these things. Get creative, start grouping up with neighbors if you live in like apartments, etc. Everyone is going to be forced into these situations like it or not. I'm just saying.
Love the American Gothic thumbnail. I think that the goal should be to take control of more and more over time. Things like salt are probably never going to be possible for most folks. There is one aspect we usually don't really think about which is the demand side of the equation. We usually focus on producing more different types of food but we can also get closer to self sufficient food production by eliminating some things we think we need from our diets. If we stop consuming processed foods, grains, processed sugars, and similar questionable items we have reduced the demand side. If one mostly consumes meat, eggs, veggies, and occasional fruit then a garden (including berries), animal husbandry, fishing, and small and large game would cover a lot of it.
Something that I discovered purely by accident. Visit your local farmers market and your neighbors. You may produce an abundance of something that they will trade for. As an example : I trade eggs to my friend and in return I get fresh baked bread daily.
We haven't been homesteading for 10 years only gardening. My kids are self-inflicted vegetarians though, so that can make a big difference for us 🤷🏻♀️
I have been homesteading for about 8 years. I dont know how much percentage we grow ourself. But, there are things I no longer buy at the store now. We don’t buy eggs, tomatoes, spices(except cinnamon, cloves, cardamon and turmeric. Basically hot climate spices.) We were doing better before we stepped back to get the goats pens set up. Things take time to get infrastructure set up. People forget that. Where we moved there was nothing, just flat land. I have had to battle the gophers for every scrap of food.
First of all : grow what you eat and eat what you grow (directly or by feeding it to your livestock/barter with neighbours). That part is the same advice as with building a pantry, buying it only because it is cheap is just as bad an idea as only growing it because it is an easy crop to grow. But if you want to do without the supermarket mostly you'll need to get creative with your cooking. You can certainly grow/raise/hunt a lot yourself, but then you'll need to eat it, store it or trade it for something you want to/can eat. Yes, you can pretty much live of eggs, potatoes, greens (although back then most likely the other part of the diet was small beer (for lack of safe drinking water). Note that if you want to grow so much yourself you need an energy source in carb or fat form, so either grain/potatoes or nuts/animal fat/butter. It may be easier to either up your meat/animal fat source or buy grain and a grainmill since grain stores longer than flower does. The simple veg greens like chard, kale and so on cost less, space and machine wise than grain/potatoe growing does, but require way more if you depend on them for calories (the density is just not there and hard work burns plenty of calories). I bake my own bread (or most of it), if only because what i want is either expensive or not sold. Meat is easier than veg & fruit, untill i lost the land i rented i could keep myself in meat and eggs (milk was planned, but failed due to no lambs the last year). Even now i could have more than just the rabbits i still have by looking around for animals people don't want anymore like ramlambs, bucklings and roosters, the small breeds of sheep and goat are often pretty much given away at the end of the pasture season when they start getting ideas about their dams, sisters, aunties, ... But hauling a lamb home to put in the freezer would upset the neighbours. Maybe need to inquire with the slaughterhouse i used for buying direct from them. I don't have enough land to grow all my own veg and fruit, although i can/should grow more than i do now. Mostly i grow what is expensive in the store like softfruits, or what i use a lot of and does well in a veg garden fairly reliably on little work (courgette). I need to do more asparagus (from seed so multiyear thing, buying crowns is costly), rhubarb i have plenty of by now i think (don't use it that much yet). Add some herbs and other can take care of itself stuff along with can harvest long like well into next spring for some fresh to add to everything. Canning i don't do, i leave that to a factory and buy what i cannot grow (enough) but is cheap and goes well with everything (passata tomatoes for one). If i had to limit what i'd buy from the store i most likely end up with : herbs & spices, tea, chocolate, condiments, baking stuff (like flower, yeast, baking powder), raisins, canned peaches, passata, apple sauce, pulses (canned & dried)... Gleaning after the big harvesters here could be interesting depending on the weather, in perfect conditions there is nothing left, but wet soil and slipping in a corner can provide someone with a winter supply of potatoes pretty easily. If there are enough cornears left to sprout for rabbitfeed that to could be worth it. But then the story is always it costs (mainly) money or time.
I love this video! I have a question for you though. How do you get the work done with young children? I have a toddler and I find it very slow going... some days impossible to do my chores. Especially when tractors, or other dangerous equipment is involved or very bad weather. I keep thinking I'm missing something because so many homesteaders have lots of kids.
How much food you can grow is important. What I believe is it is more about what you grow and not so much how much you grow. I have a spinach chard that comes back on it's own every year . Or Egyptian Spinach that grows in hot summers and produces tons of seeds. I have "collard trees" that will last for years I eat from. I have 5 Moringa Trees (Tree of Life) that provide all the vitamins and nutrition a person needs to live on in it's edible leaves. I grow a potato like plant called SunChokes that are just as prolific as corn and come back every year. Amaranth is another very prolific plant that reseeds itself so well it is almost invasive. You can eat the leaves and mill the gluten free seeds for bread. I have lately started to find the wild plants we got all are tame down vegetables from and grow them. If one spring I did nothing but water my garden beds plenty would come up and with the "food trees" and fruit trees I have enough to keep fed just in the things that sorta grow on their own. A Food forest is the best if I had the land to do it. 👍
Thanks for the insights, really puts things in perspective. Could you do a video explaining the animal food costs and other animal related expenses you have. And can you also reduce this bill by growing their food such as hay, corn… thanks!
You can be grocery store free a lot quicker than two years. You just have to live on a vegetable garden and some hens and maybe bees and a dairy animal, and do without all the things you can't grow. Doing without is an undersung skill these days. But I still love my pot of Ceylon Tea, and I won't ever be able to grow that here!
We did pretty well by raising rabbits and growing all of our veggies, and making our own suaces, (speghetti, hot sauce salsa, etc.) And we traded for eggs and other meats. So bartering and gardening plays into this as well. ❤😊
This (and all of your content) has been super helpful as we plan on moving our family of 8 to our first homestead this summer. Overwhelming and exciting all at once!
I've been homesteading for three years and I'm still massively learning. I just bought ten acres and added dairy goats for the first time! I had to learn my new environment for gardening but I eat alot of my own veggies and eggs from my farm. I'm probably at 25%
Even before grocery stores farmers and homesteaders still purchased pantry staples from mercantiles.
At the time they did food trade. In exchange .. I like to do that..
No one did EVERYTHING. That's how you got tradesmen. Some ran a mercantile others a black smith, etc. They did barter but also spent money when necessary and that meant on food too
Don't feel bad guys!
I’m really enjoying these polled videos where you get other homesteaders involved. Nice way to involve the community and gives a nice variety
Great feedback! I love involving the others too, we are where we are thanks to our Homesteady community and I like shining the light on them, but also wasn’t sure if the data, graphs, etc are what people want to watch, thanks for letting us know it’s enjoyed!
A lot of the reason I am able to grow such a high percentage of what I eat, has to to with CHANGING what I eat. I no longer eat high processed snack foods, and my vegetable variety is limited to what succeeds in the garden, this was a no broccoli year for example, but I had sweet potatoes in many, many meals and thank goodness for the abundance canned the year before, when this was a drought year. Also, both reducing the amount of meat I consume, and changing recipes to use different meat than called for has made it easier to produce nearly all I need.
That. It takes discipline to stick to eating what's in the pantry and freezer.
That's great advise! I'm working on that too
I think that’s fine and I’m glad it works for you, but why does the 100% number matter to you? Why is it worth it? And is that a choice you make for yourself or your kids too? I think extremism is off putting, and most people are going to be happier in a moderate middle ground.
@@alexandradickman6838is it fair to conflate extremism with priorities? Producing what i eat, for me, is a two main parter. First, no matter what uncertainties happen, me and mine continue to eat well and what we are accustomed to. Physiologically and psychologically, that's a de stressor in times of outside stress. Second, I know what I'm eating and what I'm feeding my family. I don't have to worry about my bagged salad or hamburger being contaminated (how many recalls can YOU remember?). I can make sure that my animals and plant are as healthy as possible and live good ethically treated lives before they become fill my freezer and pantry- which isn't true of supermarket food. It's costs a large producer too much. I don't have to worry about finding out that a common additive is working against the health of my family. Calling that extremism is like calling extreme wanting to drink clean water and breathe clean air.
@@alexandradickman6838 Why didn't you make your comment as a separate one? As a "reply" to my comment, yours makes little sense. Who mentioned 100%? YOU did, you made an assumption. Who mentioned kids? YOU did. You made an assumption. YOU are framing what I do as extremism but that insinuation has no rational basis. Your thoughts do not follow as a reply to what I said at all.
Thank you for this realistic (and humorous) insight on growing your own food. We’re in our late 60s and find some things too challenging and can’t imagine reaching a 90% goal as some u-tubers claim. We do what we can and feel good about that. Blessings.
I always enjoy and learn much from watching your videos. I am much older than most of the homesteaders that have programs on RUclips, so I have a very different view. No one in the past ever was totally self sufficient and independent. Everyone had to buy foundational foods like flour, rice, sugar, coffee, etc. With starting out, start slow and build. Learn how to grow a garden that provides you with staples that will keep you going, corn, squash, beans and potatoes and how to preserve them, along with raising poultry. With just that, you can keep yourself going in a pinch.
hopefully people
Exactly this. My parents were pretty self sufficient but went to the general store once a month for all their grains, spices, sugar and coffee. It was also a social event of talking to the local farmers and the feed and grain man. I think they were partially successful because they didn't buy snacks, didn't eat out. If it's left off the menu, do they really get the credit for not buying it?
@Annie Cole I would say they do get credit. We do not buy lots of prepared snack foods. When we do eat out, I'm all but starving in two hours. I always say I can eat better food at home and eat for less money 💰
@@fourseasonshomestead9819 Us kids didn't actually know we was missing out on anything until after they lost their farm and shopped at grocery stores but can't eat candy to this day and I'm 64 now. I think we can all get closer to self sufficiency if we drop the prepared food isles.
@@anniecole6348 , this is so true!!
I definitely think that you can be self sufficient with a lot of work. However, I think what we need to really focus on is building community and realizing that we dont have to do it all ourselves. If you build community one family can take care of dairy the other can focus on fruits etc... What are your thoughts?
WOW! I’m so glad you did this poll! We got a rocky start as my husband was diagnosed with cancer 10 days before we moved to our homestead. So although we’ve been here for 2 years, we are behind about a year because of the surgery, treatment, and recovery from chemo. I harvested our first meat chicken (and extra rooster) and it’s still in the freezer. I also harvested our first quail the other day and we had that for dinner on Valentine’s Day. I felt the same way about maybe making our family sick by butchering myself. But I even made appetizers out of the quail hearts and the kids liked them. 😲 Now they’ve gotten nutrients they otherwise would not have gotten from our meat. Becoming more self sufficient is so exciting. Love the self sufficiency meter! 😂. Also this affirms for me the thought that if we suddenly had to go back to victory gardens of old, America would be in BIG trouble. Hopefully everyone is slowly starting to build skills.
Jennie, I wouldn't say you are behind (although I know what you mean) I would say you have a smaller lead on the rest of the world than you were hoping to... Way to still push even with your husbands Cancer. A lot of people would have done NOTHING to produce with a surprise cancer diagnosis. You guys still produced. That is awesome. You will be much further ahead for doing what you did, and things will only get better. Best to you all, and here's to a healthy and productive 2023+
Quail are awesome fowl to keep. I'm so glad that's what I started with. Easy, productive and delicious
Wow..... and you all kept going? Wonderful. Powerful.... God bless you!
We got our food, water, and energy to 100%. It took lots of planning. We’ve been scaling up our model over the last ten years. We started with just an acre. Now we’re growing out of the 12 we’re currently on.
Making systems that maximized outputs. Trees produce most our food. Hazelnuts are one of the most important things we mass planted. We made detailed plans on how many calories we needed. I eat 4K calories a day which requires about 2 full cows a year plus fish, eggs, and wild game. All of the animals are raised on site in the woods and pastures. All the animals waste is composted and then turned into BSF food or worm composter food. BSFs go birds and fish. Worm castings go to trees and garden. The homestead produces so much we sell the excess off to local restaurants owned by friends we’ve made. We live below the 37th parallel so we can grow year round. This would be way harder if we lived up north like these brave souls do.
No grains at all ?
Wow, impressive, first I’ve ever seen make it to 100% Still time to get on our next video, please share your experience with our audience www.thisishomesteady.com/self-sufficiency-poll/
This is a great encouragement, especially for those of us who tend to expect too much of ourselves. Give it time girl.
After seeing this, I am extremely proud of my family. We are at 50% year 1-2. We started chickens and pigs and sheep right away, butchered 3 Rams and a pig in 6 months. (Got rid of the sheep already...little troublemakers 😜) Didn't get a deer, but got a black bear for the freezer. Meat birds and eggs really took off (large incubator) Lake beside us has a lot of Kokanee in ice fishing season. Got some Ostrich for a fast producing beef-like meat. Got lucky with fruit - our farm can produce mass amounts of wild Saskatoon berries and small wild strawberries. Can easily get 5-10lbs a day in summer. Our garden didn't do well with some items, but was crazy good with squash, pumpkin, peas, beans and spices. We are on-grid, but heat with wood. This video was really informative, and encouraging to me (I'm always pushing for better & BIG thanks to my new neighbor, he's been a godsend - don't forget how much local guys with experience can help you along) My son says to say hi to Super Mario! Thanks for the content, always look forward to it!
Wow! Nice work Dallas! And tell your son… “here we go!” (In your best Italian accent )
Hey, do you have any tips on sheep? Thinking about getting a couple.
@@mandiehuns1602 I'm no expert, but a few things... tall fence - electric doesn't seem to work well due to thick fur. They easily clear 4' - at least mine did. Ration feed, as opposed to free feed - they'll eat themselves real fat, real fast if they have free access. When you butcher, make sure to remove the glands... and no spaghetti with the meat grind, tastes really sheepy...like dirty wool. I used a 65/55 (.270 approx) rifle as the rams had real thick skulls I didn't want to chance a mishap with a .22 that everyone seems to recommend (I couldn't do a knife only as some say that is best, but its a bit much for me atm) but they seemed to bleed out just fine after the rifleshot/then knife. Also, mine seemed to like stealing grains from the pigs, they'd hop right in there and bully the pigs off it, so make sure good controls in place between animals too. Hope it helps!
It's easy to fall in love with the idea of only eating what you grow and raise yourself. It feels wonderful to get to a point where you CAN do that(if the supply chain collapsed tomorrow, nobody here is going to starve). But there's a reason we've evolved as a society, and work in groups.
The buying freedom that comes from being even 50% self-sufficient is huge. Even if you don't shrink your grocery budget at all, it feels GREAT to support that local coffee roaster, bakery, neighbourhood deli, etc., and not give that money to the faceless Wal-Mart billionaires that actively look for ways to exploit their employees. And before long, you want to become part of that food community(or we did, at least).
For the last four years, I've been packing CSA garden-share boxes. We delivered fresh fruit and veg to a hundred and twenty families every week for six months last year. We showed up at every in-town farmer's market and sold produce there. We made significant contributions to the local food bank and helped get something green into the diets of the low-income community that depends on them. We supplied salad greens and grape tomatoes to a local restaurant to be enjoyed by all of our friends in the neighbourhood.
For us, it feels way better to be actively supporting other people in our community with local, responsibly and sustainably-grown produce and buying other locally-made products than it does to be off on our own little food island.
This is such an important key in even self sufficiency, supporting a local food web that will be there when you need it! We are planning on covering this in a future video! Keep up the good work, I wish more small farms had someone like you to help em sell their stuff (us included!)
#askhomesteady what healthy snacks do you keep on hand for yourself/your kids. And what make ahead convenience meals/foods do you make. Also I have noticed that as I have started homesteading and becoming more self sufficient, I use a lot more of certain ingredients (and fewer of them). For example, I have noticed I’ve been using a lot more fresh onions, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce than we ever did before. What are your farm pantry staples? WE NEED TO KNOW! Recipes please!
I keep a spreadsheet.
Despite 2+ decades of trying to be 100% ... my best year was 78% of our Family Calories coming from our own.
Dont forget : buying in food for your animals is no different from buying your own food.
If you spend hundreds a month on feed ... that's equivalent to spending hundreds at your groce4.
Buying in feed ain't "self sufficient" at all.
78% is something to be proud of. Did you see our survey? Still time to share your experience before our next video is made www.thisishomesteady.com/self-sufficiency-poll/
@@SgtSnausages This! We have changed our diet to eat what we can grow, but we are still buying hay and some feed. Trying to plan now for a future where we can feed the animals more from our land.
Finally this was a winter that we barely bought any veggies. We grew enough potatoes and didn't have to buy any this winter
Great video. I read years ago that you can get to 90%, but that last 10% will take 90% more work lol. I think another way to look at this is calories and nutrition. A lot of folks want to grow everything themselves because they are preparing for SHTF situations. In which case carb dense foods like grains and potatoes are gonna be important to. Also, off farm inputs need to be addressed. How many of us could keep chickens if we didn't have a feed store? All of which to say, it's complicated and building an inner connected locally resilient community is more important than trying to do 100% on your own.
Spot on imo!
I was wondering about that: how much feed you have to buy for the animals.
Loved this! More like this please!! Data and realism is what us dreamers need. It makes it feel more achievable not less honestly!!
Love the advice of “just start”! We have a small yard in Chicago but have worked for two years to get it set up for layer chickens. We have placed the order and are getting them in April and I can’t wait!
This is one of the best videos I have ever seen on this topic. I really appreciate the honesty.
Wow thanks Timberstone! We worked really hard to get some solid data to share!
Yeh I think the most you could probably do yourself would be like maybe 85% or so. Depending on where you live and what kind of foods you tend to eat more or less of. If you're a big fruit person tho and you live in America's Bread Belt then you're probably gonna still have to go to the store for that. Same thing for most Seasonings and Chocolate.
I feel pretty good about myself after watching this. Egg layers year 1, Meatbirds year 2 along with a move to more land, which lead to 3 fruit trees and raspberry bushes. Plan for year 3 is to add veggies so I feel ahead of the curve as of now and going to give myself a pat on the back
Awesome videos. Y'all are doing great!
Side note: I think y'all could SURVIVE with what you have 100%! But we all strive to thrive, not just survive. It's a blessing to have that "back up" though. Good luck!
That’s a good point, lots of homesteaders could feed themselves a pretty bland but nutrient rich diet through hard times.
Nice video. I grow most of my food but I cannot grow no Oreos lol so I still will buy those always 😊❤
I’ll always buy sugar too
The problem with this analysis that homesteaders do is that, one they don't realise that social media tells you to eat what isn't essential at all such as land hogging grains (bread, pasta, cookies, cereal, biscuits), or dairy (nice but not needed). Addictions are emphasized such as coffee, chocolate, beer, wine. There is a tendency to overlook eating many parts of the plant such as pumpkin leaves, carrot tops, turnip greens, mulberry leaves, apple leaves, amaranth leaves, purslane, mushrooms because they are not sold in supermarkets. It's not that the homesteaders are producing more food over time, it's that they learn to eat what is available and their diets become modified to fit. Often they start to formally grow less because it's such an effort to process and sell the food to others.
Grocery store for legumes, spices, turmeric, oranges, soap, vinegar, bicarb, coconut oil, olive oil, omega 3 supplements, vit K2, spirulina, bentonite clay, activated charcoal, salt, string, coffee, tea, seeds, chicken feed, dog kibble, mushrooms....
This was a very interesting video and Homesteading study. I was one of the participants who responded to your poll and just the questions alone challenged my own thinking. I think it’s so interesting that no matter how long you have been Homesteading and how much experience you have, you could still learn and grow from others. My thinking is starting to shift from being self-sufficient completely to being community sufficient. There are a lot of amazing farmers and homesteaders in our community that also provide us with food. One of my most favorite parts of what we do is trading or bartering with those folks. Thank you for taking the time to really delve into this subject matter.
This really makes me feel good. In 56, health issues, living alone and moved from the centre of a Dutch town to a village in Hungary to start my own little homestead. It has been 10 months now and I have 18 chickens for eggs and meat when necessary. So grateful they kept laying eggs all winter! Never under 3 eggs a day in the coldest darkest period. Now starting up a vegetable garden, and have a few old fruit trees in the garden. Maybe I will start with a milk goat next year. My savings are gone now, had to buy a new roof... So it will be interesting to see if I die of hunger or will make it and flourish. 🤣😅😂 I laugh but to be honest, I am scared as hell! But I rather die here of hunger than stay alive in the overcrowded Netherlands. Love your video's!!
That's amazing! Keep working hard and also do plenty of research! If you really need money, Dutch is in great demand for remote telephones work. Good luck!
Milking our first goat was exciting, I ordered a half gallon less weekly of our family’s raw cow’s milk… then 1 gallon less, then 2. It was exciting to have a goat finally saving us money instead of costing!
(She ended up being a jerk to other goat’s kids… to the point of injury- not just showing She’s boss.)
Because she was in milk, I sold her for $100 more than we bought her for, and she gave us a couple months of milk contribution and two beautiful doelings we’re keeping. So she was a wonderful investment as well as all the hard work.
Very excited to be living this life. We’re still getting 8-10 daily eggs from our 17 chickens. Very excited about that.
Learning to butcher our own pigs would be awesome!
#askhomesteady …. How long do you think running your homestead will work? How old will you be when you retire? Or will you bring your children into taking over the homestead? Do you have a long range plan?
It really comes down to what you eat in a year. If you can live off of chicken and veggies, then it is possible. First year on land that was not very fertile at all, my first year we grew 20% of our food until winter hit., but that was 90% of our produce. We only had to buy berries and fruits since we only have strawberries on property. Did 1 run of meat chickens to see if we like it or not, and this year will be buying 4 times as much meat chickens. Aiming to over double our produce production to make it into winter. Our goal is 50% of our groceries grown by ourselves. Saving half our annual grocery bill is pretty tremendous. Growing even 1% is 1% savings, 1% self sufficient, and 1% of a start.
I just closed on an (almost) 2 acre property and it should be ready to move into this summer. With my chickens and gardening experience I'm hoping to be well over the 25% mark by the end of year 2 on my food production as I don't eat a ton of meat. Meat birds and goats are definitely something I will be doing next year! I will consider myself very successful if I am growing 50% by year 5.
Sounds very realistic. Depending on free time you might get there sooner than year 5. Especially with resources like books and RUclips around. Enjoy and God bless!
This is a great encouraging video. I enjoy knowing how much is more “normal” in the process. I have added something new every year. 👍
I feel like unless you live near the ocean or a salt lick, there will always be small things that will need to be acquired at the store to make food more flavorful. Salt, and spices being the big ones that really are hard to grow in North America. Sugar can come from bees. Are grains truly necessary for life or can smaller amounts be grown to be incorporated into a meal rather then being the main part of a meal. I bet that is the actual "paleo diet", what could be harvested. I was pretty happy with my indoor garden this year, and I hope I can be more successful both outdoors and indoors this upcoming season.
Yes you can grow grains in your garden on a small scale and grind them yourself. It gives you a heavier flour so it's a whole new learning curve for baking.
@@joanxox4191 Maybe try sifting it to lighten up the flour. Removing some of the bran might help. But what I am really getting at is, why grind it at all? We can eat barley whole, and whole wheat berries are really good too, A RUclipsr just did a Neanderthal food prep (Emmy Made) and roughly ground pulses to make a patty then cooked it. I think wheat berries would work in the mix too and likely they only threw in handfuls of stuff because that is what they harvested. I bet the small plot you grow of wheat would last a very long time if you only used a handful in your cooking and didn't actually grind it down to make any bread products.
You also need to buy feed for the animals you grow. Full self sufficiency is almost always an illusion. Not saying it’s not a good goal to grow a lot of your food, it’s just important to remember 100% self sufficiency isn’t realistic. Especially if you include clothing and other non-food materials.
Very helpful and encouraging video, thank you! One of our challenges in planning is we are starting after retirement, in our late 60s. We also live in the city. But we still began! Also, we focus on what can be easy to manage as we age. So we are building a perineal food forest. For meat, we raise quail and rabbits. We raise chickens for eggs but city ordinances make it difficult to raise meat birds too. (No such rules for quail though).
My family is very large. We were so blessed this hunting season to get 6 deer, plus have 1 or 2 given to us. It has been amazing! I Am trying hard to put in much more of our food this year. It is such a challenge to grow even 50% of our food!
😂😂😂 That part with the chickens and keeping them alive is so true. How to have a chicken NOT DIE is more difficult than I ever thought before having birds. Plus, the whole double in size every week, nonstop eating and well... Uh.. fertilizing. Chickens were more difficult to learn than I ever would have thought. This was very in depth, thank you for sharing the realities.
I'm in year two, and have egg chickens and meat chickens. However, I struggled with my garden last summer (we had a drought and I exhausted all three of my wells trying to keep it alive, before I finally had to let it go). I had a garden before we moved to our homestead, so I know how to do it. This year I am putting in a water catchment system so I can catch some spring rains - fingers crossed that I can catch enough this year. I have also learned how to put old hay in my garden to help hold water. I also have a horse, which is just an eating machine - but I did compost horse and chicken manure with leaves through the winter, and it is dirt down deep in it, so I will be top dressing my garden with that, and putting in deeper mulch this year. If my garden does well this year, I plan to add feeder pigs later in the year. I'd like to try some dairy goats, if only to help clear some more of my land.
New fan here. Love all the data. I’m 6 years in, on 2/3’s acre (only 1/3 for farm) city and work full time. I’m at about 30-40% for two of us. I have chickens, did meat chickens last year, pig growing now. Have 22 fruit trees, and am in a Herdshare where I milk every other week and get 4 gallons. I’m even doing hard cheese!!
You are my enthusiasm-therapists 🙂 Veggies almost self-sufficient, fruit sadly not yet, maybe 20%. Chickens provide eggs and the food forest is in development. Year 6 ;-)
I just realized how lucky I am to homestead in the tropics where food is apparently much easier to grow. Coconuts = free milk , steak, bacon (don’t believe it till you try it
Bananas = free potatoes
Papayas = free salad veggies and greens
And a long list of other things that grow to production very very quickly
Sometimes I'm so busy and exhausted from animal care/gardening/canning/maintenance chores etc that we have frozen pizza for dinner 😂
The phrase “homesteading” covers a broad range of endeavors. Many want to produce a fair amount of their food, while others concentrate on other aspects of self sufficiency, like forestry and hunting. The one aspect you touched on really needs to be emphasized to newbies, that of infrastructure. While there are really minimalist approaches to most things, minimalist and productivity don’t belong in the same sentence. If one is going to be a homesteader it is a commitment to becoming a jack of all trades. As such, one should have the good tools of those trades and develop the skills to use them efficiently. This is particularly true as you age. I’m 69 and to dream I can do what I could at 39 when we bought our farm would be pure delusional. I acquired a rototiller for our tractor last year to do the large crop garden (corn, squash, and asparagus). I’m not retiring our little rear tine tiller, but I’m not going to spend hours behind it doing our quarter acre main garden. Similarly I now have a bucket on the tractor and use the wheelbarrow and shovel a lot less. These coming year’s projects include a new wood shed and a dedicated food processing/preservation structure to move the mess out of my barn (which isn’t the cleanest) and out of my kitchen. This is particularly important to me for hygiene getting the heat of canning out of the house in summer. Even if you buy all the tools, equipment and construction materials on the cheap, it is a whole lot more money than most people imagine….and a whole lot more work if you cut corners. If I had it to do over again, I would have built a root cellar when I last had an excavator on the property and still might if I live long enough.
People forget Fruit and Vegetables are seasonal on the homestead. Sure canning is a great option but it’s hard to make stuffed peppers in February when all the peppers were turned into Salsa months beforehand. And you can surly wait to make stuffed peppers until august. Stuffed peppers are only one example. Being self sufficient is not about losing quality of life. To me it’s about elevating your life. So yes you will likely never be 100% out of the produce isle at the store. People don’t need to beat themselves up over it.
#askhomesteady I would love to see an on the farm butchering facility. I would like to do something similar
How many of the people you have asked are from the UK? I am wondering if it’s realistic and if it’s much different to start a homestead in the UK.
This is why I don't particularly like the term "self-sufficient" and avoid using it when thinking about my urban homestead goals. No one person was meant to do it themselves, at any point in human history. Humans are meant to have communities, and community-building is my goal.
Get fruit trees planted first thing as it takes 3 to 5 years sometimes longer like mangoes avocados etc that takes about 8 years for mangoes. I rent and planted 3 fruit trees I’ve been here six years and am enjoying the fruit.
I think I will grow one veggie at a time because I still can't figure out how to take care of the my plant of tomatoes. It gets sick really quickly.
Ooooh I'm actually early enough to comment.
My partner(fiancé now!) And I are starting our journey soon. We will be moving in with my grandparents living in a small room in their house with my son, paying little rent and saving as much as we can.
My partner will be going to school to become a teacher and that will take about 3 years.
In those 3 years we will be learning the skills needed to move onto land and start that life style.
But we won't start there, we're starting now. Gonna garden in the Gparents backyard, I'm gonna start growing mushrooms from buckets, get chickens, maybe a bee hive(my city actually allows it). Wish us luck
YES! You are Just Start’n!
@Homesteady oh fun fact, I'm sure you guys know this but in case you don't. You guys made a joke about not gathering your own gasoline yourselves.
But you actually can go to restaurants pick up their used cooking oil(often for free since disposal costs them money) and turn that used cooking oil into bio diesel.
I’m glad you mentioned lard. Most people don’t understand that lard, tallow and butter are much healthier than vegetable/seed oils.
Love your content! So informative. Love that your honest sharing the good, bad, and ugly.
I have had my farm for nearly 40 years here in Alberta Canada. We're at about 85% overall on self sustainability and 100% on meat. This is partly due to our climate we can get winter for 8 months. Things like salt yeast vanilla and spices we will always need to buy can we live without them yes if we had too. We still are attached to our power grid . We have neighbors who are not and it's a very expensive setup here because of our winter.
This is SUPERB information! Thanks so much! I definitely feel encouraged by this. We have chickens and SO many predators, we lost entire flocks in the first couple years. Also my garden skills are not great. (Also I am fighting the marmorated stink bug, it destroys squash and tomatoes.) I have started using more weeds, which are actually feral garden plants such as dandelion, wild garlic, and mache or “corn lettuce”. My only big success so far has been strawberries and cilantro. Both of us work full time now so I expect our self sufficiency will be a gradual accomplishment.
Glad it was encouraging Kitti. Good tip on the weeds... if you can't beat em... use em!
I don't normally comment or like any video. But this is an amazing value on RUclips. I have just enough experience to know exactly the pain and trajectory that you are talking about. Great job.
Wow thanks Faron, we really appreciate the feedback
When you talked about planting your food forest then leaving that, thats us! Two years ago I planted over 20 fruit trees on our property and grape vines and now we have to move due to a job situation.
Homesteaders were never self-sufficient. Total myth.
im curious what your feed bill is, if you have a bunch of money to pay for feed then you can be pretty self sufficient but trying to be 100% off the homestead (my land) im finding pretty hard..
As always, you guys are so encouraging.
PLEASE more of this content. YES!
In our second year, we grew about half of our vegetables for the year. 🌱🥒🫑 Animals are expensive, and can turn into a full time job that doesn't pay very well, or that actually costs more money. We have opted for a lower meat diet that is based on vegetables and whole foods. We can easily live on $400- $600 a month for groceries. Our focus is more on living a simple lifestyle without debt, utility bills, or consumerism. I realize there are non financial reasons for wanting to raise all of your own food, but financially it often doesn't make sense. Anyway, just a few thoughts. I found your channel about a month ago, and love your content! 😊🏜️
I like your thoughts here. You're right about the cost of producing your own meat. The same is often true about vegetables if you place a value on your time weeding, planting, processing, etc. Producing your own of both can also increase the quality as you control inputs, take back control of decisions made during production. You also gain self suffiency, meaning that you have access to some items not available in today's environment of shortages etc.
I agree that it costs more to raise your own meat. That’s why we hunt. For $50 (totally for both my husbands and my hunting licenses) and a couple hindered dollars on fuel to visit family for the entire week of Thanksgiving... we put 8 deer in the freezer. We are a family of 6 and still have half our freezer full of meat. And we eat keto, so lots of protein every night. I don’t favor in guns or ammo. We’ve grown up hunting, so I use my childhood gun and we have a stock of ammo for each of our hunting riffles.
We’ve raised beef cows and sheep too. If you have the grass, cost isn’t to bad. But, we don’t have a large enough pasture anymore.
I do not mind having milk goats and laying chickens though. I can’t get that quality of food anywhere. The babies pay for the feed.
@@jasonschannel9017 True! 🙂 Gardening is seasonal, and it is more of a hobby for me. There is just 2 of us, so it's not a huge garden. It produced way more food than we expected last year, but it isn't too big of a loss if it doesn't do well, but animals are a different story. We considered getting laying hens, they are pretty easy, but they still require housing and year round care.
@@brandynash1409 That's awesome! Our son-in-law's family are avid hunters, but it's an expensive hobby here in Arizona. The tags are expensive, and most don't get drawn.
Good health and low stress are priceless
Great job with everything you guys, youve always been self sufficient in my mind and Ive always been so impressed by the hard labor you do to remain that way. But this was definitely an eye opener that no one is 100% self sufficient! We all need a community of some kind to thrive and support each other and thats just as inspiring. Keep up the awesome work and share at least 75% of those oreos with everyone Aust!! 🤣🤣
How do you dispose of the dead chickens you find?
Love love love the video. Great quality in editing, graphics, presentation, knowledge & simple enjoyment of watching. Thanks to your family for sharing. Huge inspiration and data source.
Dead chickens with no explanation head to the big compost pile. (we have a giant pile that gets hot enough to do meat carcasses) If it's not sick (like was killed by a predator or something obvious) we can use it for animal feed.
Can make bone broth for soups and bone meal for the garden.
#askhomesteady do you save any money by homesteading?
I would love to hear your advice and tips for welcoming homestead animals to your homestead on a budget. We are growing our homestead from scratch and everything seems to be so expensive, especially structures. #askhomesteady
This is really cool to see and puts it in perspective for the newer generation
Hi Guys, Love your channel. Can you do a video about hard cheese, with your challenges, fails and what you have learned. I love vintage and mature cheese the most. Or a series would be even better about cheese making and different types of cheese. Love the stats it is really helpful.
This was a fantastic video. It is always interesting because the data just helps put things in perspective. The conclusions you have made are really good ones. I loved the sharing of your story along with this. You are so right that there are so many parts that you can't skip ahead on, but starting now is the best way to get there.
Thanks Hickorycroft! Glad you enjoyed it!
As a carnivore, I could be 100% today (and I should, that is my goal). It’s when I factor in my hubs and stepson that % drops dramatically (but those are their choices and commitment, or lack thereof).
But I don’t consider myself “self-sufficient” at all, because what do ny animals eat?! 90% of my “shopping” is for them. I am fervently researching what and how animals were fed before the local feed mill, and the big chain feed stores existed. My fellow carnivores (dogs and cat) eat what I eat, but I’m still needing to supplement their meat from store (that is getting less and less). But for 5-6 months, there’s feet of snow blocking the chickens and everyone else from foraging. We don’t have enough land to grow our own hay for the steer, goats, rabbits, and pasture pigs, nor to grow grains for them either. This is where I get stumped.
I plan to grow roots crops to supplement my animals feed over winter. That's especially easy with goats and rabbits. Mostly Jerusalem artichokes but all crop residues like leaves and stalks can be dried and fed to the animals as well. People had tree fodder coppiced above head height to harvest in Sommer and feed in winter like a second pasture on top of the one you have. If you can find a nut producing tree that would also be excellent for winter feed, but those trees make shade on the pasture while fodder trees do not. I think there are a lifetime of techniques from around the world to try so you could achieve it eventually.
This is also something I'm looking into so if you come across any workable ideas please add it to the comment here
I've had a chance to live overseas and see the sustainability habits of others. Whereas in North America we have the rugged individualistic idea of a family going out to claim some land and go it alone, self-sufficiency works elsewhere as small groups of complimentary producers. Certain things like berries, potatoes, cabbage, apples....everyone can pretty much do that, and have a regular day job to boot. But if you have enough family or neighbors in the village, one woman will specialize in dried mushrooms, one will have the goat dairy, uncle so-and-so is the beekeeper, cousin makes wine....like that. The overflow from your own production ends up either as symbiotic giveaways, or sold in small markets. I think we Americans lack this mentality, but if the situation every forced us to take self-sufficiency seriously, long-term, I think we'd be specializing and bartering. Which seems right and natural.
Yeah this is super important. I don’t really like watching “homesteading” channel’s because most of them I’ve found are just so individualistic and it’s a nice thought sometimes but for the vast majority of people it’s just not realistic of a goal at all no matter what people say. Not that it can’t be done, it’s just that most people can’t dedicate all the time or have the space or money that is needed to produce/everything/. It’s far more efficient if you have a village structure that has many different households fulfilling more specific roles. But America just isn’t built like that.
@@CampingforCool41 I think it's valuable to take steps to be more independent for sure, and producing your own food to a certain degree is an attainable goal. Even living in the city, you can bake your own bread, ferment some cabbage, etc. It's a spectrum depending on what resources you have access to. The sad truth is this: if you don't have some family land or money, you're behind the game. That's another communitarian aspect people don't think about. Self-sufficiency is also a generational as well as a communal project. If you have larger families, these two things grow naturally. This is one reason why bigger families had value in times past. Family values are truly the root of sustainability.
One thing you did not address as far as becoming self-sufficient was “what am I willing to give up or change”? We have become accustomed to many conveniences that seem like necessities. Three years ago we bought a farm that was built over 200 years ago. It has since been adapted to include so many of the “necessities”. But, what is required to keep those necessities functioning? Such as, paying for electricity, water, sewage, waste removal, toilet paper?! Also, all the food we have become accustomed to eating out of season Or imported from other countries. Well, I guess you sort of hit on it… Oreos anyone?? You are certainly beginning to explore those options for your new Homestead. There are so many things we could barter and trade for as we build our Homestead communities. This whole area is worthy of in-depth exploration for the wider community.
Hey Kristy... Those are free range locally raised Oreos! 😆 Yeah, you are right, there is a big difference between conveniences and necessities! Focus on the important stuff so if you need it and can't buy it, you have it!
My husband and I will cheer you on as you make decisions that will result in living gently on the earth. I am trying to get my daughter to help us subscribe so we can encourage you that way. We are not very adept at electronic technology.
I'm starting an urban homestead this year/from the last two months of last year. What veggies and fruits do you recommend for beginners to start with? Especially when there is space constraints?
Don't forget herbs!
90% in 100 days. But we went from commercial farming to downgrading to homesteaders. We did it backwards. We first started producing enough feed for all the animals
We are a year and a half in to homesteading (if you don't count the years we have been hunting), and we grow 50%! We grow Rabbit, Quail, Chicken and eggs, Did 3 pigs, and shot 3 deer over this past year. We also did a garden, my goal is to have more of a regenerative garden. I need to look up your fruit tree videos because those are on my list!
One acre mini-homestead here. Fruit trees (30,000 cal.), vegetable garden (30,000 cal.), and layer chickens (100,000 cal.) in 2019. Working to expand orchard/garden production, but realistically won't be able to harvest more than 250,000 cal. from just those three areas (which is 33% of a single person's calories).
Raising your own meat seems to be the biggest caloric achievement. It makes up about 50% of the calories in my diet (grains 25%, fruit/veg. 25%).
Thanks for sharing your data and experience.
We are on a 1/10 acre city lot….in Pittsburgh…..we have 5 hens and a small backyard garden…completely started FROM SEED….…when the approximately 20x25 garden does good and produces things like, sweet potatoes, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, pumpkin…basil…we are quick to can and dry the fast yield of copious amounts….it’s not about how big, but how a much skill at growing, preserving…..we have set a date to move to our second new home on 4 agricultural zoned very weedy acres in Hawaiian rainforest come June of 2024….where we plan on expanding to hair sheep, fruit orchard, pigs, of course chickens, rabbit…
My thinking has always been....IF the world were to come to a standstill today, would you be able to stay alive for a year? That's a success. Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you do. In my case, I just don't have the space now for grains for bread, flour, animal feed and such, and our quail makes up just 20% of our meat, but they make up 100% of eggs. But in the event of an zombie apocalypse, I COULD utilise a neighbours yard and actually do it.
I was very shocked when I read that it takes 40,000 SQF of garden to feed 1 person! Watching this video I thought Ahh Duhh that's because your lucky if half of it make it to harvest and I'm assuming that acre includes veggies herbs and fruit with room for failure.
Also I imagine 50 to 75% was very common before box stores what you didn't grow you bought from your neighbor or local store of canned goods, sugar coffee and flour. Love this video.
Could you do a video on how many pigs chickens and cows you have to raise to feed your family and make a profit? That would be great! Thank you!
This is very interesting! Loved this topic! I wonder if you could add in how much you purchase from friends and local (under 60ish miles). Building community is really important to me as I'm currently stuck in a city. BUT...I have chickens, a garden, and one fruit tree. Growing where currently planted. New subscriber.
Even the Original homesteaders bought stuff. Historically, grain wasn't something everyone could grow, salt was never something everybody could harvest, same as sugar, fabrics, tools, and even some produce!
Thankyou, Thankyou for this video.
Sometimes I feel like I'm getting nowhere fast, but maybe I am making progress.
I still have to work and try to garden and already have chickens
So maybe, I am getting there.
Thanks again. ❤️
As a homesteader and homeschooling family we always have serious discussions abt what we have to have to live and what’s not necessary to have. I’ve termed it “when the bell rings” what will we have to have to live on when the bell rings😂👩🏽🌾we have a pond that keeps drying up-we are in Texas-great information guys
I'm only seeking some clarity. I'm definitely producing much less than 25% of my own food. So I'm curious, when you say you are 100% self sufficient when it comes to your meat production, are you buying feed for your animals? If so, doesn't that reduce the % of self sufficiency? Does the same apply to buying meat chickens when you have to purchase then feed the chicks?
I'm struggling and often feeling overwhelmed trying to get set up on a very restrictive budget and living in the high desert of NM.
Great video i would love if you did the percentage on expenses, if your covering all your meats eggs and dairy probably already covering 85% of your grocery bill
Where I live in the tropics, I have found some locally grown greens that are not susceptible to any bugs.
I use them every day with my meals. They are cassava leaf, insulin plant & blue ternate. With the blue ternate I pick the blue flowers. All three grow all yr round like a weed.
Cassava leaf I eat raw, which is supposed to be high in protein and I am told it needs to be boiled first, which I don't do. No side affects so far, been about 2 yrs of doing so.
Also coconuts for fresh coconut milk, used in place of cows milk. Makes the best creamy hot coffee or iced coffee.
Grow a lot of fruit and make a lot of fermented fruit drinks....particularly using guava, pineapple & lime.
But I would still say I am under 25% of food products purchased. . . Although the food bill is under $300 a month.
Pioneers weren't self sufficient either. They still had canned and dry goods, coffee and tea, fabric expenses, etc. Granted it was less dependent on modern convenience life but people romanticize the days of old like it was just "pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you don't need anyone". You NEEDED community to survive.
1 chicken in a year is phenomenal, I live close to... well, several rivers. the area I live is known as the Four Rivers, but not the biblical four rivers. :) with all those rivers coming together nearby there are minks, not a ton immediately near us.. But we never just lose one, We have to run quite high security especially at night, because we will lose the whole flock in a single event. Its always rough to realize that amount of losses. But we keep rebuilding and hopefully we can keep these ones which have been around a while now.... Last spring.
Check out Red Gardens on YT and his Simple Garden video series. It’s a plot of low-effort, one time harvest crops with a few years of data to compare results. Y’all could easily add a few more % points by following something similar
My opinion on meat chickens.. I do not care for the Cornish cross variety. I know they are efficient and fast and easy, but.. I wanted a source of meat chickens that I could "close the loop" on. Meaning, I wanted something that would lay eggs, fertilize those eggs, and allow me to hatch them myself and then raise to maturity. No dependence on another source (hatchery/farm store) to have to supply those chick's to raise. Same with turkeys and ducks. We are looking at longer growing but heritage breeds for this. I just didn't feel very self sufficient relying on an outside source for those birds.
I think it's easily POSSIBLE for a homesteader to be at 100% food self sufficiency, you just have to be willing to give up a lot of luxury items to do it. In terms of nutrients and raw calories you can do it for sure. But you have to give up caffeine, chocolate, most likely non fruit sugar of all kinds, a lot of spices, lots of nuts that we're used to eating, and your variety of fruits and veggies you'll have access to is going to go down. If the zombie apocalypse happens tomorrow and the stores disappear you'll survive, it just won't AS nice of an existence as it would be with access to a store. If you can access a store and afford to buy those luxuries that aren't easily manageable on your own I think that's fine and doesn't count against anyone. I for one could never be 100% self sustainable because I can't manufacture my own Coca Cola or Dr Pepper.
Had to follow; I love what you guys are posting. Thank you for making everything seem achievable with realistic goals and expectations. !!!
You know, with what is coming everyone needs to start preparing in some way NOW. Nobody needs to buy land to do all these things. Get creative, start grouping up with neighbors if you live in like apartments, etc. Everyone is going to be forced into these situations like it or not. I'm just saying.
Love the American Gothic thumbnail.
I think that the goal should be to take control of more and more over time. Things like salt are probably never going to be possible for most folks.
There is one aspect we usually don't really think about which is the demand side of the equation. We usually focus on producing more different types of food but we can also get closer to self sufficient food production by eliminating some things we think we need from our diets. If we stop consuming processed foods, grains, processed sugars, and similar questionable items we have reduced the demand side.
If one mostly consumes meat, eggs, veggies, and occasional fruit then a garden (including berries), animal husbandry, fishing, and small and large game would cover a lot of it.
Something that I discovered purely by accident. Visit your local farmers market and your neighbors. You may produce an abundance of something that they will trade for. As an example : I trade eggs to my friend and in return I get fresh baked bread daily.
We haven't been homesteading for 10 years only gardening. My kids are self-inflicted vegetarians though, so that can make a big difference for us 🤷🏻♀️
I have been homesteading for about 8 years. I dont know how much percentage we grow ourself. But, there are things I no longer buy at the store now. We don’t buy eggs, tomatoes, spices(except cinnamon, cloves, cardamon and turmeric. Basically hot climate spices.) We were doing better before we stepped back to get the goats pens set up. Things take time to get infrastructure set up. People forget that. Where we moved there was nothing, just flat land. I have had to battle the gophers for every scrap of food.
First of all : grow what you eat and eat what you grow (directly or by feeding it to your livestock/barter with neighbours). That part is the same advice as with building a pantry, buying it only because it is cheap is just as bad an idea as only growing it because it is an easy crop to grow.
But if you want to do without the supermarket mostly you'll need to get creative with your cooking. You can certainly grow/raise/hunt a lot yourself, but then you'll need to eat it, store it or trade it for something you want to/can eat. Yes, you can pretty much live of eggs, potatoes, greens (although back then most likely the other part of the diet was small beer (for lack of safe drinking water). Note that if you want to grow so much yourself you need an energy source in carb or fat form, so either grain/potatoes or nuts/animal fat/butter. It may be easier to either up your meat/animal fat source or buy grain and a grainmill since grain stores longer than flower does. The simple veg greens like chard, kale and so on cost less, space and machine wise than grain/potatoe growing does, but require way more if you depend on them for calories (the density is just not there and hard work burns plenty of calories).
I bake my own bread (or most of it), if only because what i want is either expensive or not sold.
Meat is easier than veg & fruit, untill i lost the land i rented i could keep myself in meat and eggs (milk was planned, but failed due to no lambs the last year). Even now i could have more than just the rabbits i still have by looking around for animals people don't want anymore like ramlambs, bucklings and roosters, the small breeds of sheep and goat are often pretty much given away at the end of the pasture season when they start getting ideas about their dams, sisters, aunties, ... But hauling a lamb home to put in the freezer would upset the neighbours. Maybe need to inquire with the slaughterhouse i used for buying direct from them.
I don't have enough land to grow all my own veg and fruit, although i can/should grow more than i do now. Mostly i grow what is expensive in the store like softfruits, or what i use a lot of and does well in a veg garden fairly reliably on little work (courgette). I need to do more asparagus (from seed so multiyear thing, buying crowns is costly), rhubarb i have plenty of by now i think (don't use it that much yet). Add some herbs and other can take care of itself stuff along with can harvest long like well into next spring for some fresh to add to everything. Canning i don't do, i leave that to a factory and buy what i cannot grow (enough) but is cheap and goes well with everything (passata tomatoes for one). If i had to limit what i'd buy from the store i most likely end up with : herbs & spices, tea, chocolate, condiments, baking stuff (like flower, yeast, baking powder), raisins, canned peaches, passata, apple sauce, pulses (canned & dried)...
Gleaning after the big harvesters here could be interesting depending on the weather, in perfect conditions there is nothing left, but wet soil and slipping in a corner can provide someone with a winter supply of potatoes pretty easily. If there are enough cornears left to sprout for rabbitfeed that to could be worth it. But then the story is always it costs (mainly) money or time.
I love this video! I have a question for you though. How do you get the work done with young children? I have a toddler and I find it very slow going... some days impossible to do my chores. Especially when tractors, or other dangerous equipment is involved or very bad weather. I keep thinking I'm missing something because so many homesteaders have lots of kids.
How much food you can grow is important. What I believe is it is more about what you grow and not so much how much you grow. I have a spinach chard that comes back on it's own every year . Or Egyptian Spinach that grows in hot summers and produces tons of seeds. I have "collard trees" that will last for years I eat from. I have 5 Moringa Trees (Tree of Life) that provide all the vitamins and nutrition a person needs to live on in it's edible leaves. I grow a potato like plant called SunChokes that are just as prolific as corn and come back every year. Amaranth is another very prolific plant that reseeds itself so well it is almost invasive. You can eat the leaves and mill the gluten free seeds for bread. I have lately started to find the wild plants we got all are tame down vegetables from and grow them. If one spring I did nothing but water my garden beds plenty would come up and with the "food trees" and fruit trees I have enough to keep fed just in the things that sorta grow on their own. A Food forest is the best if I had the land to do it. 👍
Thanks for the insights, really puts things in perspective. Could you do a video explaining the animal food costs and other animal related expenses you have. And can you also reduce this bill by growing their food such as hay, corn… thanks!
You can be grocery store free a lot quicker than two years. You just have to live on a vegetable garden and some hens and maybe bees and a dairy animal, and do without all the things you can't grow.
Doing without is an undersung skill these days. But I still love my pot of Ceylon Tea, and I won't ever be able to grow that here!
We did pretty well by raising rabbits and growing all of our veggies, and making our own suaces, (speghetti, hot sauce salsa, etc.) And we traded for eggs and other meats. So bartering and gardening plays into this as well. ❤😊
This (and all of your content) has been super helpful as we plan on moving our family of 8 to our first homestead this summer. Overwhelming and exciting all at once!
Great video congratulations on your work and beautiful relationship.
Best wishes from Peten Guatemala
I've been homesteading for three years and I'm still massively learning. I just bought ten acres and added dairy goats for the first time! I had to learn my new environment for gardening but I eat alot of my own veggies and eggs from my farm. I'm probably at 25%