Start Preparing for Food Self-Sufficiency Today

By Jenny Underwood
Updated on July 9, 2021
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Growing vegetables takes time and trial and error.

Photo by Jenny Underwood

The sentiment that our world as we know it may come to a collapse is one we hear increasingly often. The general consensus can seem to be, oh well, I’ll just grow a big garden and live off the land. While this may be possible and is definitely an aspiration I want to attain, total self-reliance is not something that should wait for an emergency situation! Instead, we all can be learning, practicing and growing our food now and not waiting for later.

Planning for Food Self-Sufficiency: Consider Family Size

Heirlooms vs. hybrids. Many people overlook this area. You need to be planning what types of food you eat and what you’ll need to grow. Chances are if the world blows apart because of disaster, war or government you may not be ordering seeds or going to the local farm store for sets. You should have a way to start seeds, then harvest and save your own seeds for future growth. This can be a bit problematic if you only grow hybrids, so I recommend at least growing some heirloom varieties. Our biggest problem with this part will be corn seed.

Quantities. Don’t forget how much food you need to produce for you and your family. If you’re only one person, this can be less complicated. For our family of six, we’ll need to grow a large amount and greater variety. For example, we’ll need about 480 pounds of potatoes for an entire year and roughly 100 quarts of pasta sauce canned. Overall, we’ll need about 250 quarts of canned tomato products.  So plan accordingly.

Varieties. Realize some foods grow well in your area and others don’t. For example, we can grow lettuce very early here but come late May it starts to get bitter due to our hot humid weather.  However unlike very cool climates we can grow wonderful crops of sweet potatoes.  And that leads me to my next point.

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