Imagine the homestead to be a self sustaining property.  The house and grounds are all that the family need to survive.  On a lot size of 100’x100′ there is room for various plantings and for livestock as well.  This particular  homesteader divided her lot in half.  50’x100′ was set aside for livestock.  The animals included 6 turkeys, for eggs and meat, 1 goat for milk, cheese and yogurt and one sheep for wool and meat.  Goats produce approximately 3 litres of milk a day, so one goat provides enough milk for this family.  One sheep produces 15 lbs of wool in a year.  This wool yields 7.5 lbs of spun  yarn.  This is enough yarn to knit hats, sweaters, mitts and scarves for this family.
The  other half of the property consists of the house, a shed and the orchard and garden.
In the first year the work is hard.  She has to turn the soil to plant her gardens and this is backbreaking, tiresome work.  She has to haul logs for her fire and keep her animals healthy.  The work is constant, but so is the reward.  There is a daily supply of milk, eggs and meat.   She has to churn butter, cheese and yogurt, but she also has milk for ice cream and when the berries come, this is part of her luxury.
In the first year, the  homesteader planted red and black currants and raspberries.  There are also rhubarb and an apple tree on the property.  This provides enough fruit for her to sustain herself during the winter,although, there was a need to make pemmican, as supplies started to run out.  She has also planted potatoes as a main crop.

As the years go by, the homesteader becomes more affluent.  Life is easier, since her primary needs of shelter, food ,clothing  and warmth are easily met.  There is less toil, so with more leisure, she becomes more adventurous.  she plants two plums, a cherry, a hazelnut, a peach and an apricot tree.  She transplants some of her raspberries to provide a privacy screen and increase her yield.  She plants one more of each of the red and black currant and introduces white currant.  Her berry production is high and her varieties increase with her enthusiasm.   Two elderberry, two gooseberry, two grapes, three kiwi, two black raspberry, three lingon berry, a high bush and a creeping cranberry, plus blueberry.  The exotics add to the wealth of the land, providing greater interest and nutritional value.  The understory of trees is planted with strawberry and herbs.  Oregano, thyme, savory and sage are incorporated into her landscape, for warmth for the trees and additional flavour for her meals.  Lavender, lily of the valley and roses provide scent for perfumes and soap.  There are other flowers and flowering shrubs interspersed into her landscape to attract butterflies and bees.Rhubarb and potato, plus carrots and other vegetables all provide food  for her on this small plot of land.

Her fruit production is now high enough for her to sell some fruit, some pies and some jam.  She can trade or sell meat, wool, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt and spices.  She is now affluent.  If there is hardship or recession, she will still survive.  She can make sweaters, blankets and rugs.  All of her earthly needs are provided for her on this small parcel of land.  The house is large enough to house six people and the production is high enough for them to live solely on the harvest of this land.  The homesteader has achieved self sustainability in one year and affluence in  two to five years.  She now has endless amounts of leisure time to pursue other successes.  The greatest toil will be at harvest time, when all of the fruit is picked, canned, packaged and stored, but this only amounts to a few months of the year.  During the rest of the time, she will weave, knit, sew and indulge herself in her other passions.

She also has enough fruit for luxuries like liqueur and wine.  These are also for sharing, trade and perhaps sale.

She is a horticulturalist, so her interests are in exotics.  She is constantly trying out new plants and collecting seeds. Her other plantings are sunflowers and nastuciums. She plants dill for pickling and corn for flour. There is also hazelnut, potato and bean flour. She also has mint for tea and dries berries for tea. She has a beehive off site for honey. Since there is no sugar, honey is needed. With the abundance of flowering plants and trees and with plantings around the aviary, the bees produce as much as 60 lbs of honey a season. She easily collects the honey without damaging the bees. She is entirely self sufficient. The plumbing is dug deep to ensure no pollution and heat is by solar energy. A wood pile is still needed as a precautionary back up, but is used less often than expected.

The corn cobs will be used to help feed her neighbours pigs, the stalk for brooms, fencing and furniture, the leaves for weaving baskets, mats and seating and the kernels to eat and to make flour.

From the wood ash and animal fat, soap and hand lotion are produced. Lanolin is a by product of washing the sheep wool and is used in lotions.

After only one year, she is self sufficient and after two years, she has plenty. So much so, in fact, that she actually needs less land to survive.

http://www.plantednetwork.ca/page.aspx?pageId=4&gclid=CKTj38_T4rwCFY1cMgodvAoAHg

written by Dr. Louise Hayes