Self-Sustainability

Here at the Harvest Network, we may give the impression that we are focused only on gardening. Gardening is most definitely where we like to start, but that is just the beginning. Gardening is just one part of the larger picture in becoming self-sustainable.

Self-sustainability is a way of living in which you support yourself with what is available to you.  It means living resourcefully and naturally with minimal impact on the environment.

When it comes to food, self-sustainability is most practically lived out through gardening. But gardening requires water and fertilizer! Living self-sustainably means setting up rain barrels so you can store rain water and supply your garden with natural, FREE water during the dry times of the growing season.  Or using FREE fertilizer like horse manure from a local horse stable, or your own compost made up of your own leaves from the yard, along with scraps from the garden. Then there’s the lost art of canning and freezing your vegetables, so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor all year round.

Self-sustainability is not only limited to gardening. As most of you know, the average persons diet consists of more than fresh vegetables. Eggs, milk, beef and all kinds of foods show up in most people’s eating habits. The next step  for you in becoming self-sustainable might be raising a few chickens. Chickens are easy to raise and can be mutually beneficial to your garden. For example, you can feed the chickens with scraps from the garden. They are also great for the productivity of your garden.  The chickens love eating the unwanted bugs that invade your garden, not to mention the rich, natural fertilizer that comes  from the chickens manure.

Gardening, raising chickens and composting is looking at self-sustainability from a single household point of view. When you look at sustainability from a community stand point, then it really blossoms. Your options for living self-sustainably multiples exponentially when done in the context of community. For example, did you know that if you buy grass fed beef meat from a local farmer, it is cheaper and healthier than buying it from the grocery store? Or if someone in your own community has enough land they can raise a cow themselves.  This goes for goats and cows alike.

There are also ways of growing food in community called communal gardening. This approach has an entirely different advantage than home gardens. Communal gardening is when people partner together to grow food either in one location or in multiple places. For example, if three families want to grow their own food, one family can grow a large plot of corn in their back yard, one family can grow the potatoes and one family can grow the squash and zuchini. Another approach would be for the three families to grow all of their food in one area, tilling, planting, weeding and harvesting as a team. This approach can save time and labor by taking intense activities like digging potatoes and picking corn and consolidating them into blocks of time when they are done all at the same time.  It goes without saying that all of this saves you a load of money on your grocery bill.