Natural Society – by Robert Harrington
Survivalist communities and preppers all over America have learned that properly tilled land can produce tremendous amounts of food. Well-balanced soil is quite generous and will give back much more than it receives. A few organic seeds, adequate watering, and some rich compost can provide even a novice farmer with a bountiful harvest.
Ever since Big Agra took over the farming of America’s vast farmlands, most people are disconnected from the process of food production from seed to table. Agribusiness has so thoroughly monopolized farming and husbandry that many children in the cities think that the food comes from supermarkets and grocery stores, not grainfields and orchard groves.
Now comes along a family just south of LA that has set the bar a little higher for the many residential farms that are popping up all over the place. Their track record is quite extraordinary by any standard. Here are the latest numbers from a family that farms just 4,000 square feet of land.
“If you try to do the math, it just doesn’t seem to compute. But somehow the numbers work out because the Dervaes family is able to produce about 4,300 pounds of vegetables, 900 chicken and 1,000 duck eggs, 25 pounds of honey, and further poundage of seasonal fruits on their 4,000 square-foot postage stamp of land just outside the southern California’s sprawling megalopolis. Beyond providing food for themselves, the family makes about $20,000 per year by selling their produce from their front porch.”
(Source: Inhabitat)
That kind of productivity would rival any highly mechanized, GMO-seeded, chemical fertilized Big Agra farm field. That the Dervaes family was able to reap such an extraordinary harvest from a tenth of an acre is actually the status quo where farmers really know what they’re doing. Especially when they avoid many of the pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, chemical fertilizers and GMOs of modern farming.
Not only does this family farm eschew all the modern techniques and technology of agribusiness, they run their farm off the grid in more ways than one.
“Every member of the family pitches on to make sure every square inch of their land produces as much as possible. In addition, beyond simply producing their own organic food, the Dervaes family is living almost totally off the grid. Many of the gadgets they use are hand-powered, and what isn’t hand powered gets energy from solar panels, which leads to power bills that max out at about $12 per month. They also don’t burn any fossil fuels, as their car is powered by biodiesel produced from used cooking fat—which restaurants deliver to their doorstep.”
The real secret here is that a focused effort applied with the ancient wisdom about how to till the land and enrich the soil can go a long way. Survivalist communities, even in California in the midst of a 1000 year drought, have proven that farming can still be highly productive when you know the tricks of the trade and the land is genuinely respected.
Conclusion
Many farmers, both small organic and Big Agriculture, have recognized that the rules have been changing. The nation may be entering a period where self sufficiency and independence from corporate farming could become useful. The drought in California and the ensuing water wars are providing a sneak preview of what may unfold wherever new weather patterns establish inhospitable climate trends.
Photo credit: Inhabitat
Photo credit: Facebook
Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/photos-how-to-produce-6000-pounds-of-food-in-small-spaces/#ixzz3YytbvbUf
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They make it sound easy, because they never mention the weeds that have to be pulled. It’s taken me years to turn a wild field into a food plot, but it’s looking like my persistence will be paying off this year.
Now… Everyone’s gardening guru, Joe from the Carolinas, once touched upon the economics of gardening by mentioning how many seeds are returned from one seed planted, but the subject goes further than that.
Gardening is the ONLY form of production that produces it’s own raw materials, and the only form of production that gives you an ever-increasing return on your labor. Farmers work “from sun to sun” because they’d be stupid not to, and this is why everyone’s garden will eventually expand until it’s constrained by time, space, or energy.
Consider everything that’s required (time and materials) to grow a tomato in a flower pot. (getting the pot, filling it with soil, caring for the plant, etc). Now…. consider how much ADDITIONAL work is required to produce TWO tomato plants. If you think about it, you’ll notice that you can double your return (twice as many tomatoes) for a nominal increase in labor and materials. In other words; if you’re planting a tomato, it’s almost silly to not plant two of them, or ten of them. That same principle applies whether you’re planting tomatoes in flower pots, or driving a combine across several fields.
If you’re building cars or pianos, there’s a given amount of labor and material that goes into each unit produced. Only gardening (or farming) gives you this ever-increasing return on your investment.
(That’s why my garden is “too big” Joe. It’s already expanded to the biggest garden I’ll be able to care for, because it will eventually grow to that size anyway, as everyone’s garden will).
I use old news paper in between my rows to stop any weeds
Works like a charm , lay it in a few layers and water it down
Helps to have your rows elevated slightly between your plants
The water from mother nature and your hose also sheds to the plants stems
Give it a shot this year , bet you’ll dig it
how do you deal with pests, such as earwigs?
Chickens just don’t seem to do the trick….
My problem isn’t GROWING them so much as STORING them after they’re harvested. Canning is one thing, but stuff like potatoes, onions etc. are harder to keep without sprouting before I have a use for them. Not everyone has a root cellar these days.
How long is this person going to be able to keep his gardens going with California’s water restrictions? This is the type of grower that the Corporate Elite want to stop.
I have a feeling this person is going to be visited by the Gestapo police for growing an “illegal” garden or on a false “anonymous tip” that they are growing marijuana plants.
In any case, I commend them for their efforts and hard-work. It’s beautiful.