BEST and WORST food to Grow for SELF SUFFICIENCY

There are 3 Things you need to grow on your homestead if you want to be more Self Sufficient, and a few other things you should NOT Grow.. why?

I'm guessing you are not a full time farmer. Your growing time is limited. SO instead of trying to grow everything, focus on growing the most productive things…

How do we know what the most productive things to grow are?
We found over 100 homesteaders who were growing around 75% of their food. What are they growing? More importantly, what are they NOT wasting their time on? We will share that in this video!

PIONEER BEEF WITH A JOB LESSON

BECOME A PIONEER

HOMESTEADS THAT HELPED WITH THIS VIDEO

Dana Raises CHICKENS in NEW ZEALAND @FantailValleyHomestead

Codi's GROWING TONS OF FOOD... @morethanfarmers

Steph and Chris are SQUASH'in the competition - @HickorycroftFarm

[morethanfarmers]

Love it! Really solid video. Great information for people with big dreams, but don't know where to go with em 😊 I love how you brought the community together with this one too, and I was glad to be a part! Actually, filling out the survey was what inspired me to make our upcoming video.. We went 48 hours eating ONLY food that we grew. So fulfilling to eat what you grow, and I love how you're inspiring others to do it too. Keep it up! And, thanks for the shoutout 😊

[jayhill]

Personally, I think fruit should come higher up. You plant it once and it keeps coming back. You don’t have to seed save and most are very easy to propagate if you want more. Also, fruit is more expensive at the store typically than vegetables.

[sandrahouse]

Nut trees are a good addition to a homestead. It takes a long time to get a significant harvest, but if you have existing trees or can forage in a nearby forest, nuts are a valuable and tasty protein source.

If you have a pond, definitely stock it with fish. Some areas have great programs through Game and Fish to get fish for your pond. It's a great way to have low input protein and some productive relaxation! Teach your children to fish.

As for ducks, the eggs are great, and they help keep pesky insects, including scorpions under control. They are valuable beyond being a hard to pluck meat source. Also, you can just skin them instead of plucking. BTW since duck feathers are essentially waterproof, you are better off plucking them by hand without scalding. You can also use the down for pillows and such. Same with geese.

[shelleyskardinski]

I raise ducks but I also just skin my ducks for processing very easy

[jbk]

You guys pointed out great things about these animals, produces, herbs, mushrooms, nuts …. Like with anything, there are pluses and minuses, something is a great fit for one family, but it be a disaster for a family down the road. We had egg laying chickens and grew some of our produce and herbs, loved it. We would have to get things done in phases once we buy our own property. What I’m planing:
ANIMALS: Honeybees (2 hives to start with) great health benefits of honey / Poultry (chickens, ducks, quail, ???) for eggs, meat and compost / Rabbits for meat and compost / Goats (Nubian and Kiko) for dairy, meat, compost and vegetation control / Pigs (Kunekune) for meat and help with vegetation control / Dogs to help around the farm (Mountain Cur and maybe Anatolian Shepherd) / Cats for pest control / Donkey(s)? for protraction and help around the farm / Pond with Fish if we have room
GARDEN/PLANTS: Kitchen garden with veggies, fruit and herbs / Mushrooms / Nut Trees hand full to start with, great shade producers / Zen Garden for breaks since most of the time we wont be able to get alway / Orchard if we have the time and space

[lynne]

Ok side note I love when you guys post polls on what we want the video to be named because I'm always watching to see if I win

[holliwaller]

Love this and love the information you have collected. Was also encouraging, we grow beef, pork, chickens, eggs and i have a garden. Working on learning to grow a years worth of one crop per season. Just now getting into some fruit. We do lots of canning, dehydrating, sourdough baking, etc. We do have bees and i agrer they are hard and take a long time. I love them. We have never done a dairy animal but i would love to once i am able to work less. Love this video, love watching and learning from you. Kerp up the good work!

[yvonnemcgraw]

Grow what is most Cost And Time effective for you and your climate. Blueberries, Raspberries, berries period and fruit or nut trees are all costly in the store besides not as fresh or full of chemicals. But they don't take as much time as the animals every day. good one you guys

[BillHimmel]

What about fruit trees and nut-trees (be it chestnut, walnut of hazel)??? They seem to be absolutely perfect to me- you don‘t have to do anything! Go on vacation whenever you like, harvest plenty nonetheless!

[danielnaberhaus]

Chestnuts should become a staple crops again, theyve been bred to be blight resistant. One mature tree used to feed a family of five for part of the year.

[tamracooper]

Homesteady I'm not a farmer at all...hats off to those that can...love eating it all BUT "I DONT WANT TO MEET MY MEAT" HAHA with that said why on earth do you bail hay and put it on the second floor of a building? Seems like soooo much work to get them down? What is the reasoning for it I would like to know? Why not have or stacked right there by the door out where u can get to it easier?

[lindacgrace]

I have a good work-around for the bees: offer your orchard to local bee enthusiasts. There is always somebody who needs new forage space for their bees. Also, you get wax (for crafting) as well as honey. Let the hobbyists invest in smokers and frames and bee suits, etc. I "rent" my orchard to bee keepers and get a couple of frames of honey and wax in return. I get better fruit production, as well. Just a thought

[SuzanneU]

When I had my smallholding, my dairy cow was the base of my homestead's prosperity. The manure amended the poor sour soil. I grew so many tomatoes that I sold bucketsful! I sold milk and butter. The cow ate down the weeds. She ate peels, cores, and seeds. She gave us a calf every 18 months - she was a persistent lactater. Milk by-products went to the laying hens. Yes, Lissie was the foundation!

[themusenextdoor]

Mushrooms aren't a good primary crop, but they're great for improving soil quality and getting an extra crop out of your vegetable beds. A tabletop mushroom kit can also function as a unique "houseplant" for a family's kitchen before being thrown into the compost bin to inoculate it.

[jeannec]

My Jersey milk cow was a central part of our homestead. I made soft cheeses, butter and fed turkeys and meat chickens with the excess.
When the children married I couldn't do it all myself plus I came up with Fibromyalgia which was the deciding factor.
After more than 40 years in this lifestyle I still raise chickens, a garden and want to once again expand into meat chickens and turkeys; all on a very small scale. (My husband hunts as well).
The ambition is still there but the body can't keep up!
It has been and is a great way to raise a family!

[sinine]

I reckon the reason why nuts are so unnoticed because it's a handful of species competing with everything from squashes to potatoes to cabbages to legumes to carrots to... you get the point. For us, hazelnut has been a very easy culture. It's plant and literally forget except for once a year when you harvest. Unlike fruit trees, that require pruning and such, we just do literally nothing with the hazelnuts. Could put it in a forest miles from home and it'd be just fine and make bucketfuls of hazelnuts, anyway.

[scottsellers]

I don't consider myself a "homesteader", but do grow vegetable gardens, black berries, plums, peaches, pears, and the nut worth growing, the chestnut. We have chickens but no large animals. Tomatoes are our number one vegetable. I grew up in an extended family of farmers that grew literally tons of beef!
I love the videos y'all put out!

[periplanetamissionary]

Point of issue with your bees, you can get several products from them. (Not just one as you stated)

1. Honey
2. Propolis (Caucasian bees make a lot of this.)
3. Queens
4. Pollen
5. Wax


Incidentally increased yields, along with mead if your so inclined.

[melindawolfUS]

I raise bunnies in the city, in a trailer park and eat one tender young rabbit per week. I keep just one breeding pair, their babies live just 12 weeks before they are meat. If I can raise rabbits covertly here, you can do it anywhere ;)

[morethanfarmers]

Oh and I do have to say something about BEES! 😂 I am super excited to be a beekeeper as of last Spring. We don't have Maple trees and we wanted to produce at least some of our own sweetener. We also wanted the pollinating benefits. BUT, I do agree that it's something that should wait til you've got other necessities nailed down. There's a reason we're 8 years in and just getting started with em 😏 We had to learn the hard way not to take on too much at the beginning!