How To Start A 1-Acre, Self-Sustaining Homestead

[tirawa]

I only have a quarter of an acre but it will be enough to keep me in a few staple foods along with a few chickens, ducks and plenty of fresh eggs. The unfortunate aspect of the 'Holy Grail' of self sufficiency is that it takes a fair pot of cash to get you started

[featherstick]

Yep, Seymour couldn't have done it without the substantial income his publishing brought him. Indeed even after he split from his first wife they kept the "brand" together and carried on working on many subsequent titles.

[adrian007]

My wife and I bought 13 acres in Cornwall about a year ago.

One thing we are learning fast is everything costs twice as much as you expect and don't plan timescales.

Oh, and the priorities list - is subject to things you didn't even know about suddenly hitting the number 1 spot... my tractor occassionally edges close enough to the top of the list to feature in conversations, but that's as close as it gets.

Anyway - you definately need income, I work in London to pay the bills... I can't easily envisage a way we could live a self sustaining lifestyle without a seriously good commercial business or an earned income. You could come quite close though - our plan is to aim for a commercial business but also plan around self sustaining hoping they will meet in the middle. I will work until they do.

I don't know what the farm would need to generate before I could stop working, but considering I put every penny in, I guess it'll need to turnover roughly what I earn. That's alot of stuff to sell

[grenfell]

A friend of mine brought 2 or 3 acres a couple of years ago adjacent to his cottage in mid Wales. It would make a possible BOL if he thought that way being off the main roads and a decent distance from a town. He's also not interested in self sufficiency so has no plans to go down that route either. However , he was looking for some return and we gave him some ideas. The land is hilly , boggy at one end and probably best described as marginal and was being used for sheep. Being vegetarian he wanted to use the land for something other than meat production but in the end renting it out for sheep turned out the only real option for him. I did post a question for him on another couple of forums and one response was that you'd get a better living with a paper round than trying to make one with a couple of acres of poor land

[Waterbaby]

Its not something I would consider without additional help and skills than the average couple/family can provide.

One thing I would say is that you need surprisingly few chickens to keep a small family supplied.If you have reasonable layers,I found that with a family of four,any more than 4 hens,and there's a surplus.But this theory that you can keep chickens on a few household scraps is bunkum.If you're planning to sell eggs,they need room to roam (to stop problems such as egg eating).They need worming.They need treating for mites if the issue presents.Oyster shell grit might be needed to improve egg quality.Warm clean nesting material.Upkeep of housing.Rat control....
The whole dream about free eggs is just that.

[grenfell]

Interesting if you are planning on growing all your own firewood as well,
http://www.thewillowbank.com/willow.firewood.facts.htm

[jansman]

I had an acre of ground up 'til last year. It is hard work. I had 3polytunnels , 5 goats, 24 or so fowls and the rabbits. Unfortunately the chap I rented it from wanted to flog it. My own opinion is that to be as self sufficient as you can on such an acreage then you would need to concentrate on producing a simple diet. That would be spuds, root crops, greens and beans. Fowls for eggs and goats for milk and meat. Plus the rabbits for meat. A proportion of the land for fodder, fruit trees and firewood/timber. That alone is hard work. To try and produce the kind of varied diet we are used to (alone or as part of a couple) would run you into the ground.

[Stasher]

To go self sufficient we reckon you would need 20 acres. That doesn't allow for the fact that the land may not be suitable for wheat and therefore straw! To go self sufficient you would need to build up a network of people you can trade/barter with to swop what you have for what you need.

As Waterbaby said you need to buy medicine/vaccines for the animals, tonics etc

And then there is the government, apparently you have to pay taxes! Like to the council an' stuff as adrian007 has said, let alone the cost of capital purchases

And then as Jansman says it's physically demanding manual labour

BUT, I always find stuff like this inspiring and I guess we all find our own comfort level when it comes to self sufficiency. This 1 acre farm just oozes 'go on - you know you can and want to' so I love knowing about them and learning how to improve our own meagre patch.

The more you can produce, the less you have to earn to live. It's just a balance and what is right for me would not be right for my neighbour. The trade off is that eating a plate of food that would not have existed without your personal input is amazingly satisfying. I dare you to buy a chicken after eating your own. On that note, I haven't been able to eat a shop bought cucumber for years either.

It also makes you more aware of the seasons and how fabulous home grown, non intensively farmed, seasonal veggies can taste.

Wonderful

[TwoDo]

Total self sufficiency may not be required in many SHTF situations.

It is possible to envision lots of scenarios in which the government retains some control and some sort of food supply is intermittently available (rationed or otherwise). In that case any sort of garden that can provide a supplemental food source for ones family would be useful.

It is very unwise to not do anything at all simply because total self sufficiency is not possible.