Reddit Reddit reviews The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!

We found 24 Reddit comments about The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!
Following the author's suggestions, you can harvest your own fruits and vegetables, nuts, eggs, even grain and meat, all a few feet from your back doorAlso includes instructions on milling grains for flour, making your own cheese and cooking, canning, curing or pickling the fruits of your labor.Madigan9"x7"367 pp.
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24 Reddit comments about The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!:

u/KainX · 50 pointsr/offbeat

This article is bullshit!!! bury it now before it discourages more people from growing their own food.

I am a sustainability designer, working with communities, individuals, farms, and family homes. This field of work is my life, my passion.

aquaponics can be scaled from commercial to home, and even apartment or rooftop. It produces 50 times the amount of protein than beef, and twice or more green produce. We have built them for family use from scratch for less than $2000.

All you can produce on a 1/4 acre yes, its a book. which we use in consultancies, you can produce much more than a family can consume, and have a surplus.

Here is my friends property in Australia. well well documented and still running.

dont gimme this negative bullshit encouraging people not to grow their own food.

If this isnt enough proof. feel free to rant and i can provide much much more information. but im going out back to my garden. peace.

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Edit, before i leave, let me stress again. you can feed yourself and another with a aquaponics system you can easily build yourself within a day or two for less than two grand. Organically, nutrient/mineral dense food forever ... for-ever <----- this is what sustainable means.
And if you can afford some panels and a battery for you pump, you can pretty much run it as zero cost. forever, providing you and your family food, forever.

Edit 2, if you want another well explained tidbit on aquaponics, heres a TEDtalk on the topic. this is different from what youve seen throughout your life. prepare to be amazed at what natural systems + design science can accomplish.

u/SilverLillyFarms · 28 pointsr/leanfire

One of my favorite books is on the subject is

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603421386/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_6-gGyb3BECDHB

It is at our local library and I love reading it.

I'm not homesteading now but it's in my plan. I do have an agriculture background which will make it easier. My suggestion is to read read read. Talk to your local extension office for help on your local area. They offer classes and events that are often free or low cost. Master Gardner classes run a $100 or more for your certification but are definitely worth it!

Another thought is determine which crops and things are the most cost efficient. For example I live in a farming community that one of the crops produced is edible beans. I can go to our local coop and get a 100 lb sack for $30. Is it worth my time to grow the black or pinto beans? Nope, unlikely.

u/QNIA42Gf7zUwLD6yEaVd · 26 pointsr/Futurology

Glad you had a good hunt - the damned things are all over where I live. I compete with wolves, bears, and big cats, though, so maybe next year's numbers will be lower.

You can totally do ethical chicken/poultry if you have at least a half acre of land (house included). It might be a stretch to get a meat poultry operation going, but you can definitely end up drowning in eggs with six or ten birds - remember that each lays an egg a day. If you're interested in a healthy, ethical source of protein, you'd be very hard pressed to do better than home-raised eggs.

There are some great books about this that can help:

The Backyard Homestead

The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals

Back to Basics

The first book is kind of "general backyard gardens and farms", the second one focuses on animals in particular, and the third is an older book that has information about gardens and livestock, but also loads of cool information on how to preserve foods, build traditional crafts/furniture/construction, etc. - way broader scope than the first two. I definitely recommend all three, though.

u/thomas533 · 6 pointsr/homestead

Didn't mean to come across as hostile. And I still say you can't get all of your food from 1/4 acre. People typically cite the Dervaes Family but fail to realize that they use massive inputs for their systems and still don't get all of their food from their gardens. The best example that I've seen that has actually been self sufficient food wise and published info on it is Marjory Wildcraft of growyourowngroceries.org. She said in on interview you needed at least five acres. Paul Wheaton also did an interview with a couple that had been doing intensive gardening in their 1/5 acre urban plot for the past 7 years and they were only able to get about 50% of one person's diet. They stated that it would require several acres per person to really be self sufficient food wise.

So, are you talking about this book? That book is entirely unrealistic and I seriously doubt that anyone following that model would be successful. I would love to see someone who has actually done it but all the real world examples I have seen point to the fact that you need far more land than 1/4 to make this work.

u/kgwpayne · 6 pointsr/homestead

This book was my guide for doing the same thing.
The Backyard Homestead: Produce all... https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603421386?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

u/JoeyJoeJoeJrShabidou · 6 pointsr/homestead

This is a terrific book detailing exactly what you are asking.

Backyard Homestead

u/Odie-san · 5 pointsr/collapse

The best book I've read on the subject urban survival is How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It.

For wilderness survival go for The SAS Survival Handbook.

As for growing crops, first aid, things like that, I find its best to learn those skills from a non-survival oriented book. You can apply the skills you learn in them to your personal situation (geographical location, financial restraints, likely local disasters, etc).

That being said, the best books on growing food and livestock are The Encyclopedia of Country Living and The Backyard Homestead.

Finally, while it's technically not a book, The Survival Podcast has a priceless wealth of informational podcasts on different subjects pertaining to modern survivalism.

u/isaidputontheglasses · 3 pointsr/homestead

Get this book called The Backyard Homestead. You'll find plans for different property sizes with diagrams. Livestock, veggies, grains, nuts.. They're all there.

This book is a must have for any homesteader IMO.

u/pointmanzero · 3 pointsr/socialism

Thats why we invented greenhouses.
If you are looking to maximize your yield in a small space I would start here.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Backyard-Homestead-Produce-quarter/dp/1603421386/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368226239&sr=8-1&keywords=backyard+gardening

u/ofblankverse · 3 pointsr/SelfSufficiency
u/Polydeuces · 2 pointsr/homestead

Depending on how much space you've got, this one is pretty nice: The Backyard Homestead. There's a little bit of everything :)

If you're into permaculture and that kind of thing, I'd recommend Gaia's Garden and Edible Forest Gardens, Vol 2. Be warned, Edible Forest Gardens is a bit like reading an engineering text!

u/justprettymuchdone · 2 pointsr/blogsnark

Country Living is a good one too - it has lots of sections on gardening, homesteading, etc. https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Country-Living-40th-Anniversary/dp/1570618402/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496664896&sr=8-1&keywords=country+living

The Backyard Homestead is a good one for when you have limited space for your garden, too: https://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Homestead-Produce-food-quarter/dp/1603421386/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1496664924&sr=8-6&keywords=homesteading

And then we LOVE this cookbook. It's a bit basic, but I use the recipes in it over and over and over again - her Herbed Biscuit recipe is my go-to now for biscuits, dumplings in chicken and dumplings, that sort of thing. If you don't live in the NOrtheast, though, you'll have to adjust the months for when stuff becomes available in the garden: https://www.amazon.com/Farmers-Cookbook-Preserving-Fermenting-Handbook/dp/1616083808/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1496664947&sr=8-5&keywords=farmer%27s+cookbook

u/falk225 · 2 pointsr/homestead

This is our favorite book. It's great for beginners and covers a wide range of topics. We keep it on hand to use as a quick reference.

https://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Homestead-Produce-food-quarter/dp/1603421386/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1475154440&sr=8-3&keywords=homesteading

u/44Dave · 2 pointsr/Permaculture

The Backyard Homestead is pretty good for a beginner. It isn't strictly a permaculture book, but I was surprised to see how many of the permie concepts it incorporated. Begin with something like that, and then as you expand you can get more hard core.

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

Totally. There are plenty of books out there that would be able to help you. You don't need much land. You could probably sustain a family comfortably on only a few acres. Try starting with this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Homestead-Produce-food-quarter/dp/1603421386

u/TheIcelander · 2 pointsr/AdviceAnimals

We live on about 4 acres in rural Maryland. But there's tons of books out there about how to do similar stuff on a 1/4 acre lot. This one is one of the best.

And it's best if you start small anyway. You can grow a lot of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers in containers.

u/seedsofchaos · 1 pointr/homestead

When we were first getting started (before we left the suburbs), we really enjoyed this book:
https://smile.amazon.com/Backyard-Homestead-Produce-food-quarter/dp/1603421386/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525797710&sr=8-1&keywords=backyard+homestead

It's breadth is "a mile wide and an inch deep" but it helped to scratch the surface and help us find what we wanted to do and research more versus what we weren't interested in trying right away. It's a pretty easy read and just touches on many topics providing just enough information to get you started doing a project, basic troubleshooting with that item, and then moves on to a new topic.

u/farminvt · 1 pointr/homestead

Excellent cover-all type book, IMO: The Backyard Homestead.
Wife uses it, has good intro points on a lot of topics.
Be resourceful; pigs are garbage eaters, have variety in your veggies to spread out the burden of harvest season, and be prepared to give it some time. Like most quality en devours, it takes time.
But you can change your homestead around your land - depends on your willingness to work with what you've got. Not everyone needs hundreds of acres.

u/sunpoprain · 1 pointr/gardening

This is an amazing book for learning what can fit where. Remember that it is more for advanced gardeners so start small. Use it as a guide on long term plans.

This is a great guide to low-cost or free soil creation/amendment It also has a great guide to growing almost every veggie/herb. It works amazingly as a substitution for the very expensive recommended soil in This great guide to planting closer together to avoid weeds

Some ideas for reducing water usage:

Sub-Irrigation (there are a great many ways to do this, this is just one)

Hugelkultur Looks like shit but creates an amazing wood "sponge" under your gardens. After 2 years you pretty much don't need to water again (if done correctly). You also get a constant stream of nutrients from the wood breaking down. It is possible to "contain" hugelkultur beds to create more of a "I mean to do this!" order so people don't think you are just piling shit up everywhere.

u/97runner · 1 pointr/Homesteading

Congrats on the move!

I recommend this book to help get you started. It gives you a lot of ideas that you can fine tune to get you going...

u/fiinnh · 1 pointr/financialindependence

It turns out this is a thing. Google 'mini farm'.

I think this is the book my wife has. Or it is very similar. It claims to be able to sustain off just 1/4 acre! I just cannot imagine.

I think part of the problem is that my property is mostly woods. I'd have to do an immense amount of cutting to get enough sun in for planting. As such, I probably feel I need more land than I do.

u/Naynay31 · 1 pointr/Permaculture

If you flip through the "look inside" feature on amazon for this book you will find some layouts based on the size of the lot. There are diagrams for 1/10 acre, 1/4 acre, etc.