Seed swap

START, start now, you will fail many times. I say this from experience. Growing up in the city I had zero experience growing a garden. Spent some money got a truck of dirt planted a bunch of stuff and grew a mountain of weeds lol. Failure is part of the process. I am happy to say that after a few years of effort I can grow a few things. Buying a bunch of seeds and having a plan is not growing food, that is only a dream. Get dirty and practice you will have success and failure but you will learn. YouTube is a great source for anything you are trying to grow. Look for a grower in your grow zone. MIgardner is a great source for upper Midwest info. Deep south homestead is great if your down south near the coast. There are many great sources on youtube, use them practice and learn. Make notes on everything you plant and when you plant it. I was amazed to find out that I could grow a great crop of onions, garlic and carrots over the winter. Good luck and plz just start do something if you wait till you have to feed your family it may be to late to learn.

Trees, fruit trees, nut trees, berry trees, acorn trees. Then when you do that go back and plant some more. A single mulberry tree will give you a mountain of mulberries. You can contact your local agricultural center for information about what varieties grow best in your area and very often you can get trees for free. Chickens love mulberries, if your place has a mulberry tree then that is were your chicken run should go. Free food for about 6 weeks every year. Plant trees lots of trees and then when your done plant some more. Look for native varieties. We live in the Florida panhandle, the local brown pears gown like weeds around here, they are hardy disease resistant, handle drought and freezes with no problem. The fruit is a bit ugly and more like an apple then a pear but they are great for canning. Fyi we had one tree last year that gave us over 500 pears. Don't go for the pretty fruit trees, find out what grows in your area. We planted 4 new brown pear trees and 8 other pear trees at the same time. The brown pears trees 3 years later are doing great and we had 50+ pears from each tree last year, the other pears trees had barely a handful of pears between them. I thank the old lady that lived here many times in our prayers. The pear, persimmon and mulberry trees she planted 30 years ago are a huge blessing. She also planted oak trees down the driveway, we now have several dozen oak trees that are 30+ years old and we can harvest barrels of acorns every year. There are plenty of videos that show how you can make flour from acorns.

I know this is not possible for most people but a pond can be a forever pantry. We brought our farm and it had a 7 acre pond and dam that was drained when the pipes rusted out. I rented a excavator and brought some massive pvc and fixed it. I found a guy that works with the wildlife services to stock ponds and we planned out the best way to create a sustainable pond. We put in 8000 brim and minnows .12 a piece, then waited 12 months and put in 800 channel cats .85 a piece, then waited 12 months and put in 200 3 inch large mouth bass. In the last year we have caught several 6lb + large mouth bass, numerous 5lb+ catfish and a mountain of fat bluegills. We calculated that we can pull 200lbs of fish a month and maintain its production indefinitely. 6lbs a fish a day goes a long way. The best thing is that I just go into the woods turn over a few logs or large rocks and I have all the bait I need. Protein with no refrigeration required and I don't have to figure out how to store hay for the winter. I only write this so people will understand the huge benefit of a pond on your property. Even a 1 acre pond about 6 ft deep can be a great source of protein.