This brought back a very specific memory of when I was little, living on a small farm in WA state. My mother was a fabulous gardener, all the plants seemed to love her and very obligingly grew. But there were a lot of slugs on our rainy little patch of western WA. My mother would crawl along, working in the various gardens, followed eagerly by our two ducks. Every single slug she encountered got thrown to the ducks. Sometimes her aim was so good and they were so good at being in the right spot that she’d throw them right into the mouths of the quacking ducks! We would follow along, just to watch the show. That’s one way to get rid of slugs!
But aside from all that, this is an excellent post. Growing lots of food is not easy.
Or they may say, as I did once, that the problem (too many slugs) is the solution (mmmm, lots of slugs!). I collected a cup or two of slugs from the garden I was working in one day, cleaned them and cooked them up. They were... chewy.
I haven't tried that. But I did a little research when I was in Oregon and learned that slugs can eat plants that are toxic to us, and then we can be poisoned by those toxins if we eat them. Because Poison Hemlock was a weed in those parts, I felt it was prudent to not do it.
I suspect this is part of the reason that escargot slugs in France are raised, not foraged--so that their diet can be controlled. Also, the slugs' diet probably affects the flavor, so they can be choosy about what they feed them.
We can grow LOTS of food in our gardens. During World War II, the combined amount of food produced from the Victory Gardens totaled eight million tons, enough to feed the entire U.S. Army, or about 125 pounds of produce for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. This immense productivity was achieved before the use of industrial fertilizers and other “green revolution” technologies.
The Victory Gardens were definitely successful and I find them inspiring. But were they mostly focused on veggies? Like, I assume people were using their ration cards for flour, pasta and beans?
From what I've read and the old films that I've seen that were made to promote the Victory Gardens, the emphasis was on vegetables. Victory Gardens were not the only time the government promoted gardening. They also promoted Liberty Gardens during WWI and Relief Gardens during the depression. Between these times, most folks lost interest in gardening.
The government promotion was a significant factor I believe. We obviously can't count on the Feds to do that right now, but perhaps municipalities could step in to fill the role. For example, in some cases, HOAs prevent vegetable gardens and I would love to see cities step into say, nah, you can't do that.
Victory gardens were pretty focused on veggies, in part because so many Japanese farmers who were growing a large percentage of the veggies produced in the US (particularly for canning) were incarcerated, so there was a shortage afterwards as a result
It’s possible we ate less grain during WW2 and more meat and veg both. I bet a lot of those victory gardens were full of cabbages, which are not as popular now but can be fermented for storage, offer probiotic benefits that way, and help resist cancer.
The means to grow much of your food was well established 150 years ago , each spot has its own best uses , time and so on . The keys are cheap labor. A water supply that’s free , access to tools and resources not easily found locally like fertilizers or seeds . Then the continuous defense against animal marauders and the fickled weather .
Then methods of preservation a
And storage like pickling and drying and this was always integrated into an animal culture who provided as well as consumed waste .
Adding renewable sources like fruit trees and shrubs , a pond with fish
But the key is the ever present free labor and space that’s spacious as one might grow ,and fertile land and a no interest loan with no fixed payback !
Ultimately, I see the need to move society back to a more agrarian state, where at least 1/3 of the population is directly involved with farming again. We'll need some land reforms to make that work.
I've been trying for years to grow veggies, and flowers. What I have learned, is that not only do you need to know your local climate quirks, but you will find out your backyard limitations. Squirrels, raccoons, deer, and other critters, along with bugs will take a lot of your potential harvest, and then there is the variable climate that is not like it used to be. A greenhouse would be awesome, but that costs money, which many of us do not have. It's all I can do to afford the water to water my garden.
Ain’t that the truth! And the solution you uncover one year won’t work another year. I’ve been gardening seriously for 7 years and have never had a repeat experience.
Great question and post Kollibri! It’s a novel thought and there’s nothing like fresh produce from your own garden. But you’re right. Also would be interesting to know the economics of the home garden as well. Thanks for sharing!
Yeah context is so important! When I started posting notes on my gardening adventures so many people were quick to offer advice very much dependent on where they lived or what mega-gardening chain store was nearby for them, I don’t think anyone bothered to check the location very specifically listed in my bio. Oh plus that’s a banana plant I’m carrying in my avatar, hmmmm… haha
We’re lucky so far, no slugs or snails, so lots of mulch… but that may change…
A family of four would need a quarter to half an acre in constant production year-round to feed themselves so it’s time we make better use of our land and start tearing down all these empty buildings
My husband and I have been growing on 1/4-acre for 7 years. The best we could get to was about 20-30% of our food supply, though that took care of nearly all our produce purchases. Even with layer chickens, we still needed grain, meat, and dairy from outside. We depend on local farmers with more space and who work full time on producing food.
You're welcome, Lisa! You've got challenges in your region with the short growing season but people did do it once upon a time, both after and before 1620.
In the UK, we do not have the immediate problems that the US is fearing but we are a very short time away from ‘nothing in the shops’ because of our just-in-time delivery systems.
Many people do grow their own vegetables but the eventual cost can be prohibitive if you need to survive on them. One author reckoned that it would be cheaper to have potatoes delivered by Harrods than grow his own.
Consequently, I tend to grow the expensive stuff. Garlic, rocket, mustard frills, tomatoes and chillis (occasionally). Since I found that chillis freeze very well, I only need to grow every couple of years.
The inability to grow nutritious vegetables is more than outweighed by the number of people who won’t eat them….
Really enjoyed this. I've often thought of the small family farm I grew up on, whenever self-sufficiency comes up. We had it all: fields and tractors for growing grain, barns and coops for animals, hives for bees, garden space for fruit trees, berries, veg. Two adults worked full-time, plus our child labor; my father inherited it all, so there was no debt. Even then, we needed a mill to grind grain for flour and an extractor for the honey. It's impossible to feed ourselves alone. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Acorns can deliver lots of calories as a forage crop, field corn can also produce lots of calories that can be dried for future use. Wheat and barley are easy enough to grow and it can be harvested by hand in volumes that can feed some chickens or to make bread on occasion. The garden produces variety and flavor because an acorn based diet can get pretty bland but growing and foraging 100% of your diet is possible. I haven’t gone year round but three months went without problems when I devoted garden space to dried carbo heavy grains and corn as a supplement to lots of acorns. With lots of conviction a pig might even be kept.
I lived/worked in urban agriculture for over a decade, and have out a lot of thought into this question as well. I think we//most cities (excepting perhaps the biggest/densest) could produce all their fruit/veg (ie micronutrient needs) within city limits if proper use of green space (and sunny patios & balconies) was made. Then farms could focus on filling the caloric gaps, with crops that tend to be more efficient to harvest and store.
Chickens, rabbits, and in some areas sheep have tons of potential to increase the calories grown in smaller backyard type settings, too. I raised meat rabbits on foraged fodder & grazing lawn for years successfully. They don’t provide much fat, but they provide plenty of fast-growing protein that can be grown out exclusively on forages people cannot eat.
Your article is a good one—people aren’t great at thinking about their true caloric intake and how they could meet that. People with a veggie garden and maybe a couple chickens claiming they grow 80% of their own food irk me, because it’s such a clueless statement. But, we could integrate a few animals and make a pretty big dent, while greatly improving our nutrition.
If you were to ask, “Could we grow enough to feed ourselves and be healthy if we changed our diet radically? how would your answer look??
I am in no way an expert, but I plant perennials herbs because I suck at things that require technical maintainance. I eat exclusively herbs/weeds from my garden for breakfast in the early spring.
I think…okay if we do garden shares with neighbors we don’t all have to do everything. We could buy some things that are expensive from farmers - I love supporting my farmer’s market. Too many people buy from the store and just wonder around at the Farmer’s Market to admire stuff. What if we really support our local farmers, as well neighbors potlucking to build community? Human beings can live on a let less food than Americans are accustomed to. Nikola tesla ate exclusively crackers and warm milk for a long time - not recommending, but just saying. My grandpa lived on entenmens and sour cream in relatively small amounts and lived to age 97. Again Im’ not recommending that diet, but saying, eating less is associated with longevity, so we can live on a lot less. We can also nurture abundance consciousness so more community shared greenhouses that are NOT state/corporate owned emerge, so that we ourselves have the resources to pay for what we need and share in alignment with our soul’s guidance.
Great article and good advice--just want to mention that in terms of getting local advice, extension master gardener programs exist in all 50 states and in Canada--made up of volunteers who educate the public on horticultural information. (I am one). They are a great resource and easy to find--just google "extension master gardener [your state/province]"
Growing enough food to be completely self-sufficient is definitely an unrealistic goal for almost all of us. I have found that a more realistic aspiration is growing all your own *micronutrients*. (Or trying to come close.) It's still very ambitious, but can be done with the right space. Aim to produce most of your own fruits and vegetables during the growing season, plus enough to freeze or can for winter supply. And then you'd rely on purchased protein and staple grain.
Obviously this wouldn't keep you alive if broader food systems truly collapsed--but if that really happened we'd all have much bigger things than gardens to worry about. And if there were a crisis short of collapse that, say, caused a major food price spike, it *would* help a lot.
Ruth Stout was born in Kansas but she developed her gardening techniques many years later in Redding, Connecticut, right down the road from where my parents lived.
This brought back a very specific memory of when I was little, living on a small farm in WA state. My mother was a fabulous gardener, all the plants seemed to love her and very obligingly grew. But there were a lot of slugs on our rainy little patch of western WA. My mother would crawl along, working in the various gardens, followed eagerly by our two ducks. Every single slug she encountered got thrown to the ducks. Sometimes her aim was so good and they were so good at being in the right spot that she’d throw them right into the mouths of the quacking ducks! We would follow along, just to watch the show. That’s one way to get rid of slugs!
But aside from all that, this is an excellent post. Growing lots of food is not easy.
Great story! Yes, some of the Permaculture people would say "the problem isn't too many slugs, it's not enough ducks" lol
Or they may say, as I did once, that the problem (too many slugs) is the solution (mmmm, lots of slugs!). I collected a cup or two of slugs from the garden I was working in one day, cleaned them and cooked them up. They were... chewy.
I haven't tried that. But I did a little research when I was in Oregon and learned that slugs can eat plants that are toxic to us, and then we can be poisoned by those toxins if we eat them. Because Poison Hemlock was a weed in those parts, I felt it was prudent to not do it.
I suspect this is part of the reason that escargot slugs in France are raised, not foraged--so that their diet can be controlled. Also, the slugs' diet probably affects the flavor, so they can be choosy about what they feed them.
Interesting, this whole thread! I used to put out caps of beer for slugs when I gardened in the PNW. It worked.
Yep the beer method is popular
We can grow LOTS of food in our gardens. During World War II, the combined amount of food produced from the Victory Gardens totaled eight million tons, enough to feed the entire U.S. Army, or about 125 pounds of produce for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. This immense productivity was achieved before the use of industrial fertilizers and other “green revolution” technologies.
The Victory Gardens were definitely successful and I find them inspiring. But were they mostly focused on veggies? Like, I assume people were using their ration cards for flour, pasta and beans?
From what I've read and the old films that I've seen that were made to promote the Victory Gardens, the emphasis was on vegetables. Victory Gardens were not the only time the government promoted gardening. They also promoted Liberty Gardens during WWI and Relief Gardens during the depression. Between these times, most folks lost interest in gardening.
The government promotion was a significant factor I believe. We obviously can't count on the Feds to do that right now, but perhaps municipalities could step in to fill the role. For example, in some cases, HOAs prevent vegetable gardens and I would love to see cities step into say, nah, you can't do that.
Victory gardens were pretty focused on veggies, in part because so many Japanese farmers who were growing a large percentage of the veggies produced in the US (particularly for canning) were incarcerated, so there was a shortage afterwards as a result
It’s possible we ate less grain during WW2 and more meat and veg both. I bet a lot of those victory gardens were full of cabbages, which are not as popular now but can be fermented for storage, offer probiotic benefits that way, and help resist cancer.
I don't think Kollibri's point is that our grandparents didn't know how to grow/process/preserve food, it's that we don't.
The means to grow much of your food was well established 150 years ago , each spot has its own best uses , time and so on . The keys are cheap labor. A water supply that’s free , access to tools and resources not easily found locally like fertilizers or seeds . Then the continuous defense against animal marauders and the fickled weather .
Then methods of preservation a
And storage like pickling and drying and this was always integrated into an animal culture who provided as well as consumed waste .
Adding renewable sources like fruit trees and shrubs , a pond with fish
But the key is the ever present free labor and space that’s spacious as one might grow ,and fertile land and a no interest loan with no fixed payback !
Yep, you called it.
Ultimately, I see the need to move society back to a more agrarian state, where at least 1/3 of the population is directly involved with farming again. We'll need some land reforms to make that work.
I agree. We used to have farms ringing cities, but they’ve been supplanted by suburbs.
I've been trying for years to grow veggies, and flowers. What I have learned, is that not only do you need to know your local climate quirks, but you will find out your backyard limitations. Squirrels, raccoons, deer, and other critters, along with bugs will take a lot of your potential harvest, and then there is the variable climate that is not like it used to be. A greenhouse would be awesome, but that costs money, which many of us do not have. It's all I can do to afford the water to water my garden.
Ain’t that the truth! And the solution you uncover one year won’t work another year. I’ve been gardening seriously for 7 years and have never had a repeat experience.
Great question and post Kollibri! It’s a novel thought and there’s nothing like fresh produce from your own garden. But you’re right. Also would be interesting to know the economics of the home garden as well. Thanks for sharing!
I think this is the second or third time I've read this and it's always worth the re-read!
Thanks, Leon, that's great to hear. This year's post had had a whole new section at the front, the part about seeking local advice.
Yeah context is so important! When I started posting notes on my gardening adventures so many people were quick to offer advice very much dependent on where they lived or what mega-gardening chain store was nearby for them, I don’t think anyone bothered to check the location very specifically listed in my bio. Oh plus that’s a banana plant I’m carrying in my avatar, hmmmm… haha
We’re lucky so far, no slugs or snails, so lots of mulch… but that may change…
A family of four would need a quarter to half an acre in constant production year-round to feed themselves so it’s time we make better use of our land and start tearing down all these empty buildings
Yep, I've seen that quarter-to-half an acre estimate several times. I've seen plans for such an area that included grains too.
Permaculture
My husband and I have been growing on 1/4-acre for 7 years. The best we could get to was about 20-30% of our food supply, though that took care of nearly all our produce purchases. Even with layer chickens, we still needed grain, meat, and dairy from outside. We depend on local farmers with more space and who work full time on producing food.
A question near and dear to my heart! Thanks for updating your post with such insight and some hard truths.
You're welcome, Lisa! You've got challenges in your region with the short growing season but people did do it once upon a time, both after and before 1620.
In the UK, we do not have the immediate problems that the US is fearing but we are a very short time away from ‘nothing in the shops’ because of our just-in-time delivery systems.
Many people do grow their own vegetables but the eventual cost can be prohibitive if you need to survive on them. One author reckoned that it would be cheaper to have potatoes delivered by Harrods than grow his own.
Consequently, I tend to grow the expensive stuff. Garlic, rocket, mustard frills, tomatoes and chillis (occasionally). Since I found that chillis freeze very well, I only need to grow every couple of years.
The inability to grow nutritious vegetables is more than outweighed by the number of people who won’t eat them….
Really enjoyed this. I've often thought of the small family farm I grew up on, whenever self-sufficiency comes up. We had it all: fields and tractors for growing grain, barns and coops for animals, hives for bees, garden space for fruit trees, berries, veg. Two adults worked full-time, plus our child labor; my father inherited it all, so there was no debt. Even then, we needed a mill to grind grain for flour and an extractor for the honey. It's impossible to feed ourselves alone. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Acorns can deliver lots of calories as a forage crop, field corn can also produce lots of calories that can be dried for future use. Wheat and barley are easy enough to grow and it can be harvested by hand in volumes that can feed some chickens or to make bread on occasion. The garden produces variety and flavor because an acorn based diet can get pretty bland but growing and foraging 100% of your diet is possible. I haven’t gone year round but three months went without problems when I devoted garden space to dried carbo heavy grains and corn as a supplement to lots of acorns. With lots of conviction a pig might even be kept.
I lived/worked in urban agriculture for over a decade, and have out a lot of thought into this question as well. I think we//most cities (excepting perhaps the biggest/densest) could produce all their fruit/veg (ie micronutrient needs) within city limits if proper use of green space (and sunny patios & balconies) was made. Then farms could focus on filling the caloric gaps, with crops that tend to be more efficient to harvest and store.
Chickens, rabbits, and in some areas sheep have tons of potential to increase the calories grown in smaller backyard type settings, too. I raised meat rabbits on foraged fodder & grazing lawn for years successfully. They don’t provide much fat, but they provide plenty of fast-growing protein that can be grown out exclusively on forages people cannot eat.
Your article is a good one—people aren’t great at thinking about their true caloric intake and how they could meet that. People with a veggie garden and maybe a couple chickens claiming they grow 80% of their own food irk me, because it’s such a clueless statement. But, we could integrate a few animals and make a pretty big dent, while greatly improving our nutrition.
If you were to ask, “Could we grow enough to feed ourselves and be healthy if we changed our diet radically? how would your answer look??
I am in no way an expert, but I plant perennials herbs because I suck at things that require technical maintainance. I eat exclusively herbs/weeds from my garden for breakfast in the early spring.
I think…okay if we do garden shares with neighbors we don’t all have to do everything. We could buy some things that are expensive from farmers - I love supporting my farmer’s market. Too many people buy from the store and just wonder around at the Farmer’s Market to admire stuff. What if we really support our local farmers, as well neighbors potlucking to build community? Human beings can live on a let less food than Americans are accustomed to. Nikola tesla ate exclusively crackers and warm milk for a long time - not recommending, but just saying. My grandpa lived on entenmens and sour cream in relatively small amounts and lived to age 97. Again Im’ not recommending that diet, but saying, eating less is associated with longevity, so we can live on a lot less. We can also nurture abundance consciousness so more community shared greenhouses that are NOT state/corporate owned emerge, so that we ourselves have the resources to pay for what we need and share in alignment with our soul’s guidance.
Great article and good advice--just want to mention that in terms of getting local advice, extension master gardener programs exist in all 50 states and in Canada--made up of volunteers who educate the public on horticultural information. (I am one). They are a great resource and easy to find--just google "extension master gardener [your state/province]"
Growing enough food to be completely self-sufficient is definitely an unrealistic goal for almost all of us. I have found that a more realistic aspiration is growing all your own *micronutrients*. (Or trying to come close.) It's still very ambitious, but can be done with the right space. Aim to produce most of your own fruits and vegetables during the growing season, plus enough to freeze or can for winter supply. And then you'd rely on purchased protein and staple grain.
Obviously this wouldn't keep you alive if broader food systems truly collapsed--but if that really happened we'd all have much bigger things than gardens to worry about. And if there were a crisis short of collapse that, say, caused a major food price spike, it *would* help a lot.
Ruth Stout was born in Kansas but she developed her gardening techniques many years later in Redding, Connecticut, right down the road from where my parents lived.