How Much Land do YOU Need to Raise a Year’s Worth of Food??? (Animals, Garden, Orchard)

Many people ask us, if they want to be self-sufficient, raising nearly 100% of their food from their homestead, how much land is needed to raise a year's worth of food? We're breaking it all down in this video/podcast.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - Chit Chat
5:22 - American Blossom Linens
8:33 - Herbal Antibiotic Resistance
11:00 - Main Topic

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[InvisibleCitizen]

There was a book written by the US Dept of Agriculture about 100 years ago that lays out how to live on five acres. There have been many books written since but I consider it a definitive way to live. Of course I have to mention that we eat 300% more than most people ate back then. We are a fat society myself included. However I grew up eating one table meal a day. I supplemented my daily meal with snack foods I found foraging around the woods. When I went into the military I gained nearly 20 lbs during boot camp. Anyway, this is a nice well thought out video. Thanks!

[geedee]

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Collaborate with your family, friends, and neighbors and VOTE AS A BLOCK in order to put good freedom loving American Patriots who share your values into your LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

[michellelaw]

This info was very helpful. City girl here. I have 20 x 20 garden.and 2nd year on chickens. Ive done well with space I have. Im 61.learned to can food at 50. Still learning and and definitely took notes on this thank you !

[debbiedouglas]

I’m new here and I love the chitchat! I was just telling my husband this morning that you all are so easy to listen to and I learned so much from what I had watched. It feels like we’re sitting across the table from you having a nice conversation. You all are great!

[homesanctuaryliving]

I’ve been watching this channel since 2019. It inspired me to do all we are doing now. We wanted 5 acres but settled on 2 acres in the country nestled very farmland so if feels much bigger. This is plenty of room for our family of 5. We have a kitchen garden/herb garden (192sq ft) a vegetable garden (480sq ft) blueberries, blackberries, elderberry, figs, currants, 2 apple trees, hens (started with 6 which was plenty for our family) raising meat birds, buy our beef locally.
Working on adding more fruit, bees and thinking long term possible 2 goats for milk. Plenty of space to add a hoop house and a greenhouse and expand the garden if needed. There is still a designated “backyard” space for hanging out and playing.
Just sharing to say that you don’t need gobs of acres. Of course that would be nice but it’s not necessary.

[shelleylee]

I would never skip the chit-chat! It's such a great way of getting to know you and it feels like having a cup of coffee with friends.

[bubbaredneck]

a general consensus from my local ranchers is that for where i live is a cow needs 10 acres of grazable land to get to butcher weight without supplementing feed for it.

[KeithLindsey-fjqo]

As a guy who used to raise pigs when I was in high school, you may want to consider putting your sows that are birthing or will be shortly in a crate. One of the biggest challenges is keeping the sow from rolling over on the piglets after they are born. Since your raising kune kunes, and they are typically a large fat pig. Putting the sow in the crate for a period may increase your birth survival rate.

[marcfruchtman]

Wow, under 5 acres (more like 4 active acres) to feed ~15 people. so that's about 4 people per acre. Great info.

[RobinwoodFarmLLC]

Our first homestead was only one acre. This included the house and septic system. The front yard was our orchard. In the back we had a 100x100 garden, chicken coop for layers and ducks. And we also raised two fully grass fed lambs and a kunekune pig. You can do so much if you plan it well.

[emilydebary]

We're far from self sufficient, but we grow and raise a tremendous amount of our own food. We are a family of five living on 1.35 acres. We have 50 chickens for both eggs and meat and a herd of goats for both milk and meat. We live in Florida, so our fruit trees are citrus and banana and avocados, plus lots of pineapples and passion fruit, but we also have figs. Putting in berry bushes and grapevines this year even tho there are tons of wild grapes and blackberries to forage all around us. We have a 75'x50' garden surrounded by a 6' fence (because our chickens free range most of the time), and it's all raised beds. We grow more veggies than we can handle in there! Thankfully, because of our location, we can grow food pretty much all year, so being able to plant smaller amounts of things helps tremendously! For instance, we plant potatoes every month except for July and August when it's just too hot for most things to germinate. We don't need need a huge space for our potato crop that way, and we grow most of them in tubs/ containers anyway because we have a mole/ vole problem. And it's too hot and humid here most of the year to store root crops anyway, especially in a house like ours without air conditioning. Root cellars and basements aren't a thing here either. So it is extremely beneficial for us to grow smaller quantities of things year round. We freeze and can dehydrate, of course, but most of our harvest ends up being used fresh. It's a great way to live!
All that to say that it doesn't take nearly as much land as most people think to homestead! Sure, we have to buy our grains and "staples" and most fruits elsewhere, but in a pinch, we could hold out quite a long time sustained on our 1/4 acre per person homestead. We'd love to have more land! But this is what we can afford, and we're not gonna live above our means. Start with what you've got. Maybe it's a balcony garden with culinary herbs growing in containers - it's a great start!

[docd]

I am so glad that your advertisement popped up on Facebook for me this past week. I took the canning 4 part free class and then invested in the canning course and now I’m binging the podcast…this information is BEYOND valuable and I am really excited about my new homesteading journey.

[dancnluc]

Another great video. I enjoy the chit chats. I am sorry about your piglets. My ex and I raised 2 pigs for meat about 36 years ago. I have to say that was the best pork we ever ate. The butcher tried to talk us into raising more and said he would purchase (not bad for 2 people who never raised farm animals before). My ex was military and we got reassigned, so we sold the place. It was only 3 acres but we had our garden, chickens, pigs, a bull which we had butchered, and a pregnant cow that we had to sell. 😢
Right now I have chickens. I have a couple garden areas plus my herbs that I grow in pots. Last year I really gotten into foraging. I am still learning.

[maplegrovefarmandhomestead]

This was a great conversation but it’s important to note that this amount of acreage requires feed to be brought in and so you aren’t really self sufficient. In a recent conversation in told someone that we would need 100 acres to be self sufficient and they were shocked. I then described that is what it would take to raise the grain and hay needed for our livestock. Also, even though we live in a fertile area I have found we need more acreage for animals than whatever is usually stated in order to rotate pastures and rest land.

[KERRYGEYER]

I have been following you for years now and love the chitchat segment!

[mommabearmany]

We would use 3 beef cows, 4-6 pigs, 200 meat bird plus random sheep, hunting, fishing ect. Pregnant with our 15th child. We have 14 still at home but do bless our grown children with meat for Christmas. We would also need 2 milk cows and oh 50-60 chickens. We did this for a few years then had a child pass away. Now rebuilding back up to this.

[amymorales]

Great discussion. I live on a typical lot in my town. I can provide at least one meal per day for two people from eggs, fish, beans, millet, potatoes and other vegetables, in our dry climate. I would encourage anyone to make the effort to produce some of your own food. Even if it’s just a line of pots on a windowsill, you can grow green onions, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, and peppers for tacos.

[joanxox]

Definitely takes more land if you're growing feed for your animals. We have 160 acres . Also were zone 3 alberta Canada so with a shorter growing season it takes more space for gardening even. Difficult to do succession planting. So really know where you live and adapt this information for you. Great video on giving people a starting point.

[oocherryblossomsoo]

The Keep It All Flowing this week was super helpful! While I dont have livestock yet (I do have small animals to take care of though); it got me super motivated to get the running of my homestead a little bit more organized.

[Sproutupgardening]

Love watching you guys! You always share so much information I either have to take notes or watch several times. I love it. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. 😊