RE: Food for a year to feed a family of 4
We are heading in the same direction - but still a long way to go.
This year we achieved 'vegetable independence' for 5 months - with no need to buy anything from a store. Next year we want to add another couple of months to that.
Adding each successive month to that I suspect will get harder and harder. But with our polytunnel and greenhouses that we built this year I think it is feasible to aim for year round veg independence.
And our chickens do us proud - we haven't needed any shop bought eggs for over 4 years now.
Next year we want to increase our broiler chicken production to about 30 birds. Hopefully also all our new fruit trees will slowly start to come online.
My big goal is to produce more than we need. So far we are partially supporting two other families with our surplus eggs and veg. I am hoping to up that to 4 families on a more sustained basis.
That's the best I can do. I will have chipped away at the global industrial food system, and had one small victory in my little corner of Wales.
Sounds wonderful. We tried to raise 600 birds one time. That was way too much. So now we raise about 100-150 each year and keep about 50 for laying eggs. That seems to be the sweet spot for us. We have our chickens out in chicken tractors so that we get grass fed chicken. They taste wonderful.
Bravo for all your efforts. It is hard work eh! We increased our garden space to 8200 square feet but just cannot seem to get the whole thing into production. We will continue to work it out. Learning these skills that were so common years ago and nearly lost is a huge challenge. I'm glad others are exploring these same questions that we are.