My mom had told about reading this amazing story of a man raising thousands of pounds of food (in one year) on his tiny little lot in Pasadena, CA . I had been planning on checking out the website but hadn't gotten it done yet when I got an e-mail from Mother Earth News telling about it as well. I went and read the story and found it very inspiring. Jules Dervaes and his 3 grown children live on a 1/5 acre lot and use 1/2 of that (1/10 of an acre) they are able to use to grow things on. They now get an amazing yield of over 6,ooo lbs of produce a year! They are able to eat off the land and then also sell some of it in order to have the money they need to buy things they cannot grow.
They have a website called Path to Freedom which has information and inspiration for trying to do something like that yourself. I haven't had time to explore it that much yet but I am looking forward to doing that.Reading something like that makes me think about how it compares with our lifestyle. We own 1 1/2 acres of land so we have way more space for providing for ourselves, now it is just to work at getting it done. Here are some of the things we have done towards living off the land:
- We have a large organic garden. (probably more than 1/10 of an acre but I need to work harder to get the type of yields that he does!)
- We have a strawberry patch (but my goal is to keep the chipmunks out of them this year!)
- We have planted apple trees (4 are currently living-I think!) , blueberry bushes and lingonberry shrubs. We are waiting for them to get big enough to produce.
- I have planted various herbs for flavoring and medicinal use. My big job here is to actually remember to use them.
- We have been learning how to eat wild foods from our little woods, yard and garden and we enjoy that.
- We have a compost pile that really works quite well!
- We have a rabbit that is compiling some nice rich organic material to help our plants grow better this year.
- I have a lot of flowers planted that help attract good pollinators.
- I raise my own seedlings inside in the spring to plant in my garden.
- I save some seeds.
- I grow sprouts and some inside herbs and plants for winter use.
And here is some things that I really hope to do:
- Raise bees (not only would this provide honey but it should help the plant production with good pollination.)
- Plant a Raspberry patch. (We now have a spot figured out and we can get starts free from my parents, so I just need to get it done!)
- Build a greenhouse. I think this would be so neat to have to be able to grow things year round.
- Haul a lot more manure from my parents farm to put in our soil. Our soil was not in very good shape when we first broke in the garden 3 years ago (right after we moved, this is my 4th garden to start from scratch in our married life - that is if you count my little tiny one at our first apartment. I hope this is close to our last one!) A lot of Manure would really help the soil out!
- Learn how to grow more things inside in the winter.
- We are thinking about buying a banana and orange tree for growing inside and also want to start a pineapple plant. I am not to sure that we will have good success in providing fresh fruit but we think it will be fun to try!
- Add more fruit and nut trees to our yard.
- Be even more diligent in using everything that we do have.
How about you? Do you enjoy "living off the land"? What do you do to accomplish that?
Raising your own food is defenitely thrifty and incredibly green too! For more Thrifty Green Thursday tips visit Green Baby Guide.
