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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Grapes of Wrath the sequel

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Kate Spinner <kespinner@gmail.com>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Grapes of Wrath the sequel
  • Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:56:25 -0400

There's a 55-acre farm in Charlotte County, Florida that supports a family and feeds hundreds of people an amazingly diverse array of vegetables for nine months out of the year. They have six apprentices to help them, but based on what I see the farm bring to the farmer's market, I'm thinking it could easily support 50 people even if only a third of those people were actually there year-round. http://www.wordenfarm.com/

On Oct 11, 2009, at 11:32 PM, Tradingpost wrote:


You're probably right, one acre through the seasons. But I have to agree totally, for 50 acres to support 50 people, they definitely would have to be on those acres. I think labor and transportation factors come in there. I think they'd have to be doing the work and not be someplace else. More thoughts on this?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 10/11/2009 at 5:29 PM Dan Conine wrote:


Always appropriate, isn't it. As for us here we grow for markets on less
than a quarter acre. It's not a living of course, and with a short
frost-free season, poor soil to start with and very low rainfall it's too
much work for us.
My father acquired a 1300 acre farm for 100 bucks an acre in 1975. Being
mostly swamp and tundra, it barely supported 100 milking head and the
other supporting cast (pigs, calves, heifers, etc). I thought of it as a
massive farm.

I now own 50 acres, and I have learned to think of it as a massive
place. It is a size which requires machinery, but even with machinery,
one person cannot be on the whole place in their mind. Regardless of the
labor, I have found that an acre is as much as one person can properly
keep in useful focus throughout the seasons. More than that and the
details suffer.

I now understand how this farm could be 50 families' source of food and
income, but they would have to BE here in order for it to happen. We
have spent the last 100 years destroying that opportunity with petroleum
and money as motive.

Dan C.

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