Monday, April 8, 2013

The ideal of sustainable mini-farming

I'll be the first to admit, my goals are probably unrealistic. The odds of going from hobby garden to self-sustaining mini-farm in three years are pretty low. But, that doesn't mean we can't try.

So, for us, what does self-sustaining mean?

Well, defining that isn't so easy either. Last year, we had a hobby garden and some chickens. This year, we're working towards self sufficiency with the hope that next year our mini-farm will produce most if not all of our staple foods and enough income to pay for itself. Maybe we should lay out some specific goals for this year.


1. Provide 50% of our staple foods for the following year. This means that we need to grow, harvest, and store enough vegetables that the majority of the vegetables we eat for one year, starting this summer, come from our gardens. This also means that we have to raise, catch, or hunt for enough meat that less than half comes from other outside sources. This is going to be a huge challenge, not only because of the sheer volume of food needed to feed a family of five, but also because it's going to be nearly impossible to quantify this in any way. So we're going to guess. It's really the best we can do on that one. There are also some exceptions to this. We're not going to make ourselves go without things that we can't grow. We want to know that we CAN provide everything we NEED. Not that we will provide everything we want. We love rice, but we can't grow it, reasonably. So, we'll buy rice. This will be factored into the 50% of things that we don't provide for ourselves.

2. Don't put more money into it than we get out of it. This goal is pretty straight forward, once clarified. We are not going to spend more money on the farm than we save or make from it. In the case of chickens, this means that we can't spend more money raising butcher chickens than it would cost for us to buy quality organic chicken. The same goes for garden produce. This means that we have to be creative with feeding chickens, because commercial feed is expensive. In order to guarantee success on this front, we will be selling produce at the farmer's market.

3. Provide higher quality produce than is otherwise available. If what we're growing or raising isn't better than what we could buy at the grocery store, that's not success. I don't mean better tasting, I mean fresher, more nutritious, safer, healthier, etc. It'll probably taste better too, in most cases, but not always. I'm sure my bread won't taste as good as what's available at the store, but it'll be better for my family.

4. Everything must be organic/natural. Alright, personally, I'm not a fan of the organic label. I don't think it's a guarantee of anything. But for purposes of explanation, I'm going to use it with one exception, my goals for organic are going to be even more strict. By this, I mean we will use no chemicals of any kind on our property. Not even commercial "plant derived" chemicals. No more spraying dandelions, if we get potato bugs we'll have to find a non-herbicide solution. If our tomatoes get ravaged by caterpillars we'll be out there with red pepper spray and gloves to pick them off the plants. Anything we put on our plants or soil is going to be something we mix or make, so we know exactly what's in it. This is going to be quite time consuming, but it is essential to accomplish goal #3.

5. In order to cover all other bases, we will adopt as a standard practice will be guided by the definition of organic agriculture given by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. This is as follows:

"Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved..."


Accomplishing these goals will be challenging, and we'll have to find unique ways to meet them. I'm sure we'll fail on some parts of this, this year. Probably next year, as well. It's probably not realistic to set the goal of being self-sufficient by the end of year three. However, without a goal, there is nothing to strive for. If we just say "someday", well someday may never come. I would rather fail to achieve a goal, than have no goal at all.

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