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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] How Much Land Does It Take To Become Food Self-Reliant
  • Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 16:00:58 -0400

Rain Tenaqiya wrote:
I had a friend who was an apprentice of John Jeavons that was growing
all his own food for him and his small son on 4000 square feet, in
northern California. I recounted this tale a couple years ago, but
as I recall it was about a half-time job.

A student at UCSC also tried growing all his own food using the
Biointensive method on 4500 square feet, including paths, propagaton
area, and compost piles (only 2500 of this was actually beds. You
can read about this in the Winter 1997 issue of The Cultivar.

As I understand it, neither of these projects fully utilized the
potential of our Meditteranean climate to grow grains and legumes
during the Winter. I've recently realized that I could grow most of
my food without irrigation if I wanted to do it all with annuals
(which I don't). Annual gardening is hard work, and my plans are to
minimize it.

What hasn't been tried, to my knowledge, is to grow all of one's food
by maximizing the area covered by food forests. These use
practically all the sunlight, resulting in greater efficiency and
less weeding. They also require much less work and inputs and
fulfill more functions.

Great thought. A complex integrated permaculture food production system on a homestead that emphasizes deriving preservable protein from nut bearing crops and vitamin C sources from various fruits, which can be dried. This is an often overlooked component of food production. Maybe people think it is too much trouble or too expensive; it deserves more thought and planning.

These studies aren't purely academic. It is useful to know how much
land needs to be devoted to growing food, whether you live in a small
household, a community, or a town. Growing food without fossil fuels
will require labor intensive methods and minimal transport. This

My documents address this need, adjusting to and fine tuning labor intensive food production methods.

http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com/2010/05/permanent-biointensive-double-dug.html
Permanent Biointensive Double-dug Garden Preparation & Handtool
Information & Sourcelist

I plan to devote much more time developing the information resources that go into this document. I have also started an online collection of scans of old agriculture books, selected pages and covers. See this URL
and stay tuned for updates. See: http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com.
Look for my Picasaweb gallery, Books. Be sure to see the pix of pigs feeding in the kudzu patch and especially that harvest and preservation of forage plants (cut and bundled fresh daily for sale in local markets,
or dried and sold - what a great idea for a product to be sold at farmers markets or even csa's - forage crops for urban farms with livestock, especially chickens, which need to eat fresh greens daily, supplement what can be produced on site).

I do this myself, having recently sold all my fossil-fuel powered farm equipment; all I have left are trucks and electric implements, lawnmower and modular device with string trimmer, brush cutter and micro-rototiller, all useful in their place.

We should keep this thread going.

means that we will need to assess the ability of our local land to
provide for its inhabitants.

You will need to plan for having to work marginal land using a variety of methods, including pre-preparation using heavy mulch, cover crops
and relying on earthworms andother other creatures to begin the process of improving soil quality; follow with double-dug beds.

Make the least change for the greatest effect and start growing some food.

Less is better, keep the process simple and direct with minimal wasted energy or materials, utilizing all opportunities (recycling, stacked functions, intercropping) to best advantage in a timely fashion.




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