Family Growing 90% of Their Food on an Impressive Permaculture Homestead

Exploring Alternatives
26 Dec 202314:53
EducationalLearning
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TLDRThe video script narrates the journey of a couple who have been practicing permaculture on their 2.3-acre property for three years, achieving self-sufficiency in growing about 90% of their food. They cultivate over 150 varieties of fruits and vegetables, with a focus on biodiversity for health and sustainability. The script details their transition from conventional lawn to a thriving garden, the challenges faced, and their solutions, including dealing with waterlogged land and sharing their abundance with the community. The couple's passion for permaculture extends to their YouTube channel and website, where they share knowledge to inspire others to grow their own food.

Takeaways
  • 🌱 The couple has been growing their own food on 2.3 acres for 3 years, achieving 90% self-sufficiency in their diet with a variety of 150 different vegetables and fruits.
  • 🌿 They practice permaculture, which involves growing food in harmony with nature and biodiversity, aiming to maintain health for both themselves and the environment.
  • 🍅 The passion for growing their own food stems from a desire to consume nutritious and diverse elements, viewing food as a source of joy.
  • 🏡 The homestead is described as a paradise, transforming sunlight into nourishment, and sharing the harvest with family and community, giving a sense of purpose and grounding.
  • 👨‍🏫 The speaker, previously a vice principal and teacher, integrated gardening into education, promoting the growth of own food among students since the 1990s.
  • 🔍 The couple sought a location in Southern Ontario with specific permaculture goals, finding their current property in 2019 and overcoming initial challenges such as poor forest health and waterlogging.
  • 🔨 They addressed drainage issues primarily through manual labor, using simple but effective methods to improve the land for gardening.
  • 🌳 The initial garden setup involved minimal transformation, utilizing cardboard and earth to establish a productive area that could sustain their food needs in a small space of 400 square meters.
  • 🥒 The daily harvest includes a variety of produce like mint, Malabar spinach, basil, cucumbers, peppers, corn, beets, and squash, showcasing the diversity of their garden.
  • 🍓 In times of abundance, they share excess harvest with the food bank and families in need, emphasizing the importance of community sharing.
  • 🚫 They avoid buying vegetables, but still purchase dairy products as they do not have animals for milk, reflecting a partial but conscious shift towards self-sufficiency.
  • 🌾 They are transitioning to growing their grains, experimenting with incorporating sorghum and reducing reliance on store-bought flour, indicating a gradual move towards complete self-sufficiency.
  • 🌱 The family includes non-meat eaters and they are exploring alternative protein sources by growing beans, peas, and hemp seeds, as well as grains like wheat, barley, oats, sorghum, rice, and wild foods.
  • 📈 The speaker emphasizes the importance of managing abundance through preservation techniques like drying, freezing, canning, and fermenting to ensure year-round availability of their produce.
  • 🏡 The property is a diverse ecosystem with prairie, woodland, wet forest, and water features, all contributing to a self-sustaining and biodiverse environment.
  • 🌳 The use of companion planting and biodiversity in the garden helps protect the plants from pests and diseases, improving overall health and productivity.
  • 🤝 The couple shares their knowledge and experience through a YouTube channel and a website, encouraging others to learn and adopt self-sufficient practices.
  • 🔄 The speaker discusses the learning curve and challenges faced in managing energy expenditure and physical strain, emphasizing the importance of pacing and adapting to sustainable practices.
Q & A

  • How long have the individuals been growing their own food?

    -The individuals have been growing their own food for the last 3 years.

  • What percentage of their food do they produce themselves?

    -They produce about 90% of all the food they eat.

  • How many different types of vegetables and fruits do they grow?

    -They grow approximately 150 different types of vegetables and fruits.

  • What is permaculture and why do they use it?

    -Permaculture is a method of growing food within nature using biodiversity. They use it to keep themselves and the surrounding nature healthy.

  • What was the speaker's profession before focusing on permaculture?

    -The speaker was a vice principal in schools for about 11 years and a teacher for many years before that.

  • What is the significance of the Sun Garden in their food production?

    -The Sun Garden is significant because it provides a substantial amount of the food they eat throughout the year, despite being a relatively small area.

  • How do they deal with the abundance of food they produce?

    -They deal with the abundance by drying food, freezing, canning, and fermenting it.

  • What is the speaker's approach to sharing the harvest?

    -The speaker shares the harvest with the community, including giving to food banks and families in need.

  • What are some of the challenges they faced when starting their permaculture project?

    -Some challenges included the property being unnaturally underwater, requiring drainage solutions, and the initial transformation of the area to be suitable for gardening.

  • How do they manage pests and maintain the health of their plants?

    -They use biodiversity and companion planting to make it more difficult for pests to find the plants and to support the overall health of the garden.

  • What are some of the ways they preserve and store their harvested food?

    -They preserve and store food by hanging and drying herbs, washing and wrapping root vegetables in a damp towel before refrigerating, and freezing fruits like elderberries until they are ready to be made into jam.

  • What are the speaker's thoughts on the capability of people to grow their own food?

    -The speaker believes that everyone is capable of growing their own food and that these skills are inherent in all of us due to our history of living this way for millennia.

Outlines
00:00
🌱 Permaculture Homesteading Journey

This paragraph introduces a couple who have been practicing permaculture on their 2.3-acre land for three years, achieving self-sufficiency in food production. They grow a diverse range of 150 vegetables and fruits, with 60-70 staples. The speaker, a former vice principal and teacher, shares the joy of eating good food rich in vitamins and elements. The transition from a conventional lawn to a productive garden involved overcoming challenges like poor forest health and waterlogging, which they addressed through proper drainage. The couple's shared vision of living in harmony with nature and producing all their food guided their project, which began in 2019. The speaker also reflects on their past experiences gardening with students and the importance of sharing the harvest with the community.

05:01
🍅 Abundant Harvest and Food Preservation Techniques

The speaker describes the daily harvest from their gardens, which include a variety of produce such as mint, Malabar spinach, basil, cucumbers, peppers, corn, beets, and more. They discuss methods of preserving the excess food, such as drying, freezing, canning, and fermenting, to manage the abundance throughout the season. The couple also shares their food with the community, including donating to food banks and families in need. While they grow most of their food, they still purchase dairy products and are experimenting with incorporating more self-grown grains like sorghum into their diet. The paragraph highlights the importance of biodiversity in their permaculture practice and the challenges of managing an abundant harvest.

10:02
🌿 Permaculture Design and Community Sharing

This paragraph delves into the design of the property, which includes a prairie habitat, woodland, wet forest, and water features like ponds. The speaker explains their approach to gardening with biodiversity, using companion plants to protect crops from pests. The challenges of managing energy expenditure and physical strain are discussed, along with the learning curve of adapting to the demands of the garden. The paragraph concludes with the speaker's reflections on the joy of working with nature and the satisfaction of overcoming challenges. They also mention their YouTube channel and website, Willows Green Permaculture, as platforms for sharing knowledge and inspiring others to adopt self-sufficient practices.

Mindmap
Keywords
💡Permaculture
Permaculture is a system of agricultural and social design principles that mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature. It is central to the video's theme, as the narrators describe their practice of growing food within nature using permaculture principles. The script mentions that they grow food with biodiversity, which is a key aspect of permaculture, and they do this to keep themselves and the surrounding nature healthy.
💡Biodiversity
Biodiversity refers to the variety of life in all its forms and levels of organization, including the variety within and between species and ecosystems. In the context of the video, it is used to describe the variety of vegetables and fruits they grow, which is a permaculture practice to create a self-sustaining and resilient system. The script mentions that about 60 or 70 of the plants grow 'like crazy' and become their staples, illustrating the importance of biodiversity in their garden.
💡Homestead
A homestead is a piece of land where one lives at home, often used for subsistence farming. In the video, the term is used to describe the narrators' property where they have been growing their food for the past three years. The homestead represents their 'paradise,' a place where they transform the sun's energy into food and share it with their family and community.
💡Staples
In the context of the video, staples refer to the primary foods that make up the majority of the diet. The narrators mention that of the 150 different vegetables and fruits they grow, around 60 or 70 grow exceptionally well and have become their staples. This highlights the importance of identifying and focusing on the most successful crops in a permaculture system.
💡Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants as part of horticulture. The video script frequently mentions gardening as an activity the narrators are passionate about and have been doing since the 1990s. It is a way for them to connect with nature, grow their food, and share their knowledge with others, including their students and the community.
💡Companion Plants
Companion planting is a permaculture technique where certain types of plants are grown together to support each other's growth and health. In the script, the narrators contrast cabbages grown alone, which are more susceptible to pests, with those surrounded by other plants like millet and carrots, which appear healthier and less affected by bugs.
💡Abundance
Abundance in the video refers to the plentiful supply of food produced by their permaculture practices. The narrators mention dealing with abundance as a challenge, as they have to find ways to preserve and store the excess food, such as drying, freezing, canning, and fermenting. This concept is integral to the video's message about self-sufficiency and sustainability.
💡Preservation
Preservation in this context refers to the methods used to store and maintain the quality of the food produced. The script describes various techniques such as drying, freezing, canning, and fermenting, which the narrators use to deal with the abundance of their harvest. This is a practical aspect of their permaculture lifestyle and a way to ensure they have food throughout the year.
💡Wild Foods
Wild foods are plants and fungi that grow naturally and can be foraged for consumption. The narrators mention collecting wild foods such as plantain seeds, curly dock seeds, and mushrooms, including bolet from their property. This practice is part of their permaculture approach to utilize all available natural resources and adds to the diversity of their diet.
💡Sorghum
Sorghum is a type of grain that can be used as an alternative to traditional grains like wheat. In the video, the narrators discuss their experiment with using sorghum mixed with bought flour in their bread and cakes. This reflects their goal of reducing their reliance on purchased food and increasing the proportion of home-grown ingredients in their diet.
💡Community
Community in the video represents the group of people around the narrators, including their family and local people, with whom they share their harvest and knowledge. The script mentions sharing excess food with a food bank and families in need, emphasizing the importance of community support and collaboration in their permaculture lifestyle.
Highlights

Grew 90% of their food on 2.3 acres for 3 years, including 150 different vegetables and fruits.

Utilizes permaculture principles to grow food within nature, promoting biodiversity.

Permaculture is chosen for health benefits, both for the individuals and the surrounding nature.

Passion for growing food stems from a love for eating nutritious and diverse foods.

Homesteading creates a paradise, transforming the sun into nourishment for family and community.

Background includes experience as a vice principal and teacher, with a history of gardening with students.

Shared vision of permaculture and self-sufficiency led to the current project.

Property was initially a waterlogged nightmare, but was transformed with proper drainage.

Produced most of their food on a small area of 400 square meters.

Gardening techniques include companion planting to deter pests and support plant health.

Harvesting and preserving methods include drying, freezing, canning, and fermenting.

Sharing the harvest with the community, including donating to food banks and families in need.

Transitioning to grow more of their own grains and proteins, including experimenting with sorghum.

Growing a variety of plants for vitamins and minerals, focusing on deep, rich colors for nutritional value.

Managing abundance through preservation techniques to ensure year-round availability.

Creating a YouTube channel and website to share knowledge and inspire others to grow their own food.

Learning to manage energy expenditure and simplify tasks for sustainable long-term gardening.

Embracing challenges as opportunities and finding simple solutions to gardening problems.

The satisfaction of living a life full of wonder and successfully implementing permaculture on a large scale.

Transcripts

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