How To Start Your Own Small, Self-Sufficient Farm At Home
I just finished reading an article over at Mother Earth News titled “Start a 1-Acre, Self-Sufficient Homestead” which made me want to hurry up and find some land to settle on in the near future, so I figured I would share it with you guys in case you were interested in reading it. The article is actually an excerpt from the book The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It, which was published back in 1976 and remains a staple item in many farms and households to this day. With tips about preparing your land, crop rotation, what foods to plant to be self-sufficient, and what animals to keep and for what reasons, the excerpt/article had me dreaming of my own small farm.
Everyone will have a different approach to keeping a self-sufficient homestead, and it’s unlikely that any two 1-acre farms will follow the same plan or methods or agree completely on how to homestead. Some people like cows; other people are afraid of them. Some people like goats; other people cannot keep them out of the garden. Some people will not slaughter animals and have to sell their surplus stock off to people who will kill them; others will not sell surplus stock off at all because they know that the animals will be killed; and still others will slaughter their own animals to provide their family with healthy meat.
While we all may not have 100 acres to build a huge farm on and become self-sufficient, the article and book show that you take care of most of the things you would need on a much smaller scale and still be successful. So if you are interested in self-supported farming and independent security, I recommend you check out the excerpt over at Mother Earth News and maybe even pick up a copy of the book. I read it once when I checked it out of the library; I may have to revisit it again!
Photo by cwwycoff1
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- We Are All In This Together; Let’s Start Acting Like It.
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I am wondering if you can post something on how to start farming in an apartment. A lot of us college students would love to farm and eat fresh crops like tomatoes, basil, parsley or spinach. But we don’t have any land whatsoever. I have classmates in one of my ecology class who did a presentation on indoor farming but that was just a small segment on how to start your own farm.
Thanks!
PS: Are the winners for the glass Bamboo bottles out already?
Will keep that in mind, but in the mean time you may want to check out this post about gardening for apartment dwellers. Thanks!
Land for crops, critters takes space and 208×208 is not a lot to accomplish that, plus house, out buildings. Hope the soil is very fertile. Garden boxes or raised bed gardens a start on a roof for small space college apartment.