Is it possible to produce a year’s supply of food on less than 5 acres?

I believe it is . . .but it depends on how much you need to produce “vs” how much land you have to work with.  So let me break down Past Thyme Farms dynamics.

To start with, there is only Nancy and I, so we base what we grow on the needs of two.  This is a very important factor because on limited land you can’t grow excess. 

Past Thyme Farm is about five acres in size but after you take out the land that our houses (3 houses plus a shop), landscape and hillsides utilize, we have about 2.75 acres left to farm.  Now take out the non-rotational plantings where we have our fruit trees, berries and grapes and you’re down to about 2 acres of land that we rotate our pastures and garden thru.   This is plenty of land to meet the needs of two consumers.

Rotational Land (2 acres)

This season on just two acres we tended a flock of 13 Soay sheep from which we harvested five rams (150 lbs of meat).  We raised and harvested 75 pastured meat birds (chickens) and 4 turkeys.  We kept our 20 laying hens in a chicken tractor on these pastures and still had plenty of room for our garden from which we grew a years supply of broccoli, cauliflower, peas, green beans, peppers, sweet corn, squash (many varieties), cucumbers (pickles), potatoes and tomatoes.  We also grew leaf vegetables, cabbage, celery, radishes, green onions and artichokes.

Non-Rotational Land (.75 acres)

A lot of this production is just coming on but the plan is to have enough peaches (8 trees), sweet cherries (4 trees), tart cherries (2 trees), plums (2 trees), apples (2 trees), blueberries (50 tall bush), raspberries (25 canes), huckleberries (25 bushes), strawberries (100 plants), table grapes (25 vines) and wine grapes (100 vines) to process into various forms for our yearly needs.  This year we processed a years supply of strawberries, peaches, applesauce and pears but had to purchase a lot of the product since our trees and vines are not in full production yet.

So we have our meat, chicken, fruits, veggies and eggs in place.  Still to come is pork, hops and maybe a dairy cow??   Anybody know where I can find a cheap pasteurizer??