How to Become Self Sustaining
on One or Two Acres
Can a family become totally self-sustaining by using between
one and two acres to grow, eat, and sell food? Yes!
As a matter of fact, families in many countries are doing it,
and they often have gardens much smaller than one acre.
Factors to Consider:
Food and money requirements
What you receive (your income) depends on what you choose to
grow, and how well you follow through in the growing process.
It also depends on how well you learn the financial and
marketing aspects of the job.
You need to consider your family size, the standard of living
expected, and the debt load you expect the garden to carry.
Debt of $3,000-5,000 per month requires a much greater effort
to cover than a debt-free situation.
Location
Warm climates may require lots of water and even a little shade
at the hottest times, while cold climates often require more
greenhouse seedling production and covering garden crops in
spring and fall to extend the season.
You can improve your production in any location by using the
Mittleider method of sustainable
gardening.
Commitment
You need to understand the commitment involved with market
gardening, and be willing to do it right. Our grandparents
grew gardens, and also often owned animals. They understood
the necessity of working every day to feed, water, and care
for their animals and plants.
You must understand and accept that there is very little
respite for vacations, etc. during the growing season.
A good garden requires your attention on a daily basis!
Technology
A hundred years ago, everyone used manure and compost, and
it was a fairly level playing field between the family
gardener and the market farmer. Not so today! Your
competition includes hydroponic growers who have invested
over a million dollars per acre in buildings and equipment,
as well as dozens of employees doing the work. And by
feeding and watering their plants accurately many times
each day, they're growing 330 TONS of tomatoes per acre
each year!
Tips for Getting Started
- Start small! Don’t plant more than you can care for
properly, and sell or use.
- Determine the market or markets you will sell to:
a) Wholesalers, b) small grocery stores, c) restaurants,
d) farmers’ market, e) roadside stand, or f) home delivery.
- Learn what vegetables you should grow by determining
those that: a) sell well, b) at a good price, c) that you
can grow readily.
- Build proper facilities including a) a
seedling greenhouse
with tables, b) T-Frames and c) a good
watering system.
These are essential for success at this level.
- Set up a formal accounting system, including account names
and numbers for every category of asset, liability, equity,
income, and expense. Get help from your CPA.
- Stock up on tools, seeds, and
fertilizers, and be sure
to include all those costs, as well as your labor, in
figuring your market prices.
You’ll have to meet or beat the competition to sell your
produce at the beginning. However, by growing more,
bigger, fresher, tastier, and healthier produce than
others, you will develop a loyal customer base, and
then you can adjust your prices as needed.
Choosing What to Grow
In choosing what to grow, consider a) the ease of growing,
b) cost and risk of loss, and c) the value of the crop.
Let’s look at some scenarios of what could be grown and
sold from one acre of ground with good care and decent
weather, with minimal losses from
bugs and diseases
(achievable by strictly following the Mittleider Method):
Estimated Yields and Income from a One Acre
Mittleider Market Garden (250 30-foot-long soil beds)
Pole Beans:
120 plants/bed, 1.5 lb/plant, $.50/lb = $22,500
Corn:
92 plants/bed, 1 ear/plant, $.10/ear = $2,300
Cucumbers:
45 plants/bed, 8 lb/plant, $.25/lb = $22,500
Potatoes:
92 plants/bed, 2.5 lb /plant, $.10/lb = $5,750
Tomatoes:
40 plants/bed, 10 lb/per plant, $.50/lb = $50,000
The above examples are estimates only, and the actual
results could be – and have been – much higher or lower,
depending on many factors, including experience, weather,
direct retail marketing vs. wholesale sales, etc.
If you are growing for the retail market using a roadside
stand or farmers’ market booth, you will probably want a
fairly wide variety of produce, to bring customers.
While corn has low value in terms of yield for a given amount
of space, it is VERY popular with customers when it’s fresh,
so you may well treat it as a “Loss Leader” and have it available.
A Word of Caution
Don’t try to plant too many vegetable varieties.
Ten or twelve key types are far easier to handle than
twenty to thirty. And three varieties of tomatoes are
usually plenty. I would plant Big Beef, Italia Mia, and
Grape tomatoes. One planting of Blue Lake pole beans will
allow you to sell beans all season long.
If your customers are restaurants, you will need to grow
the specific things they use, such as specialty lettuces,
tomatoes, Ichiban eggplant, small red potatoes, etc.
And you may need to plant a few beds of the single-crop
things every week, to have them maturing throughout the season.
If your primary market is the large grocery store or
wholesale suppliers, they will usually want a large steady
supply of a few things, so you may be able to plant everything
to the “money” crops of beans, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers,
and tomatoes, or multiple plantings of lettuces and other
quick-growing crops.
Remember: You have a big advantage over others!
By learning and using the Mittleider Method of sustainable
gardening you can produce much more in less space than other
small market growers are doing, and be successful!
The books, CD’s and videos available from the
Food
for Everyone Foundation will teach you the gardening
principles, procedures and techniques you need to know to grow
your own successful market garden. In studying these things,
remember that this unique gardening method has been proven highly
effective in thousands of situations, in dozens of countries all
around the world.
It’s a recipe! It WILL work to give you
a great garden – in any soil and in virtually any climate.
But you MUST follow the recipe.
Happy Gardening!
Jim Kennard
Jim Kennard
is President of the
Food For Everyone
Foundation, a non-profit organization with the
mission of "Teaching the world to grow food one
family at a time". You'll find many free vegetable
gardening resources, including a gardening ebook,
greenhouse plans, automated watering plans, and
a free chapter from each of the great gardening
books and software CD's Jim offers, at the
website:
www.foodforeveryone.org
