Is Subsistence farming possiable?

Hello all,

I saw a book on ebay that says you could farm all your food even in the northern midwest states. I was just wondering what you all think of it. Is it feasiable or is the growing season to short? Just looking into it with the way the economy is.

The intro to the book was at

http://cgi.ebay.com/Farming-for-the-Family-in-2009-Subsistence-Gardening_W0QQitemZ300298062904QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item300298062904&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50


First post so sorry for any spelling errors or if this is the wrong place for this post.

I don't know if it's reasonable to expect that you'll get ALL your food that way (do you have space to raise livestock for meat, do you really want to mill your own flour, etc). But if you have the space and the time to commit to growing as much of your own food as you can I expect that you could make a dent in the grocery bill. Time is key--first of all there'll probably be a learning curve as you go along, and also if you're making a serious effort to grow as much of your food as possible it's going to take a decent amount of time--if you work full time and you have kids with a million activities and can only get out in the garden an hour or two on weekends that's probably not going to work. And you'll also have to get used to eating what's in season, and also learn how to can things to save for when they're not in season (and to not let things go to waste), etc.

Thank you for your response. So what you mean is that you should aim for a certain percentage depending on how much time you have available and how much you want to sacrifice to the effort? What is a resonable amount to aim for 20% of your food?

I'd look at your overall level of gardening expertise, time available, etc and start small. If you're an experienced gardener, then you can start a little larger, but if you're just starting with gardening then I'd probably pick 2-3 types of veggies/fruits that your family eats the most (or that are the most expensive to buy) and give those a try this year. Then if things go well and you are able to accomplish that in the time you have, next year try adding in a few more. If you start slow, then you won't get overwhelmed and end up giving up on the whole project.

Excellent advice.

I agree. Start slow and work your way up to a larger garden each year. In a couple of years you'll be amazed at how much you've accomplished.

If you plant a particular variety and like it, stick with it. If you don't care for that variety try a different one next year. Soil and growing conditions do seem to affect how well or poorly a particular variety will grow.

Karen

I agree too, that starting small and simple is best.... how fast you grow from t here is up to your persistence and how much time and energy you have available to put in. Rather than focus on a goal of a certain percentage of your diet, I would suggest you try growing food plants that are relatively easy ones for your climate, and which you like! In other words, if you don't like zucchini, don't go there.......

For extending t he cold climate growing season I always thought these folks had it licked:

http://www.amazon.com/Solar-Gardening-Vegetables-Year-Round-Independent/dp/0930031695

That's a book called Solar Gardening by a couple who seem to manage to grow year round in I th ink it is Vermont...... (hope that link works, if it doesn't I'll fetch one that does. ;-) )

Kyla

(edited to fix bad link)

This message was edited Mar 6, 2009 7:06 PM

What a wonderful thing your looking into. Make sure you learn about the differance in heirloom and op seeds, saving your own seed manages your money and keeps you from buying new seeds every year. Some of the new inexpensive green houses can really give you a jump on longer season plants. Good Luck.

I had a family of 6 when I was raising 4 kids. I had a large garden since I was a stay-at-home-mom.

I raised all the vegetables that we ate. Had 36 tomato plants with 4 different varieties, root crops, etc. etc. Also sweet peppers.

I did a lot of canning and freezing for the winter months. Lots of stewed tomatoes, paste, and tomato sauce, beans, carrots, beets. I pickeled cucumbers. We also had rhubarb plants. What I didn't can, I put in our large freezer.

Also grew some herb which I chopped in my blender and poured it into ice cube trays to freeze. Nothing like fresh parsley, even when its frozen.

Did it save me money. You bet it did! It also takes a lot of time. In my case, it didn't matter.