Sufficient Sufficiency?

Humour me - I've been debating something with myself all day!

Many of us dream about self-sufficiency - made popular by John Seymour so many years ago in a book that is subtitled "The classic guide for realists and dreamers". Most of us can only dream of acres of grain, orchards and a cow and sheep, if indeed that is what you'd like! The realists set their sights a lot lower. Maybe self-sufficiency in courgettes, lettuce or beans.

John Seymour went the whole hog - his self-sufficiency was independence from the "system" in which most of us have to live.   

My inner debate has been about the difference between "sufficiency" and "sufficient". 

If we think about keeping hens for eggs - from experience the optimum number of hens for me is 3. Each hen will lay 4-5 eggs a week and a dozen eggs for me is ample. So 3 hens is sufficient and gives me self-sufficiency in eggs. When I've had 6 hens, I have had an over-sufficiency of eggs and given them away - but that isn't the aim, the more hens you have, the more the feed costs and the effort involved in keeping their housing clean. The issue is knowing what would be "sufficient" and what is not.

Trying to apply this to whatever you grow is more difficult. I was picking courgettes and beans when I starting having this debate. Am I growing too many courgette and bean plants or are they sufficient for my needs? Every year differs - weather, pests etc can affect productivity. This year has been good for courgettes and beans but poor for soft fruit because there have been so many birds and squirrels pinching them before me. The netted raspberries have done well though. So to have "sufficient" soft fruit I need to net the bushes. Every netted bush would give me more usable fruit than 10 un-netted ones.

I've cut back on tomato plants this year because I've been growing so many that I'd end up leaving them outside the gate for passersby to take. As nice as it to be generous, if I use the GH space to grow something different (DFBs and aubergines this year) I'm improving my chances of self-sufficiency. 

If "sufficient" means growing as much as you need and can use, not more, that is going to be my aim.

I'm not expecting anyone to reply to, or even follow my waffling - but writing it down helps me to understand my argument with myself.   Not sure which one of me won the argument though!!

A valid point veggie.

I suppose you have to work out roughly how many of each plant you need to grow to give you your annual supply of that veg.

I have just found out that two blackcurrant bushes and two gooseberry bushes gives me more than enough fruit for a year. 

Last year I was self sufficient in onions and carrots. This year my onion crop from sets was not as good as last years but luckily I have two lots grown from seed. I have enough parsnips for a year and enough of the cabbage family,kales,brussels,cauli's , broccoli and calabrese. This year I have even added winter spinach. I have potatoes for about half the year and should be self sufficient in beans this year.
I have four courgette plants which are too many for my needs but my Daughter will reep the benefits.

All in all, I will need to buy some tatties and swedes and  possibly grow more calabrese.

This year part of my gooseberry glut is going to become the base for my chilli glut. Chilli gooseberry jam anyone?

   

Onion Sufficiency maybe.

I bought 2 bags of onion sets from Poundland - Stuttgarter and Centurion and harvested 102 onions and a few small ones that aren't worth storing. Also used a few fresh. That works out at 2 onions a week for a year - if they store well, although there will be some overlap when I'll be using onions fresh next summer. 
Maybe I'll up it to 3 bags next year - or grow some overwintering ones for an earlier harvest. 
I've never mastered growing Onions from seed - too fiddly for me. 

Each year I have a similar discussion with myself: 'don't grow so many, courgettes, cucumbers, beans, etc' then I see a different variety I want to try, but don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak, and continue growing the old favourites. Plus the allure of sowing time, when every packet of seed is considered, and as you know one more won't hurt. I'll never be self sufficient, as I seldom do winter veg, but I have more than a sufficiency in some areas.

Just finished making some gooseberry jelly. It has turned out much better than I though and is reddish see through even though they were green gooseberries? I have a small amount left over after filling three jars. This will be going on ice cream as a treat after the Cup Final.

I recon to be self sufficient in veg, you would need a reasonable amount of land to grow on. A full sized allotment (about 300sq yd I think) in good heart might be enough for 4 people. I grow on just less than that and grow most of the veg we eat: all the tomatoes, garlic and onions this year, nearly all the potatoes, lots of soft fruit,capsicums etc.

If you only ate what you grew though, some years you would likely be limited in your choice.

If you wanted to do meat as well, you would either need a gun to go after rabbits etc. or grow a lot more food for the animals. We tend to eat mainly veg with eggs,a bit of dairy and me some fish and the occasional chicken.

I don't grow much specifically for winter but things like beans, tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic and potatoes can be the basis for a lot of meals.

People can't be self sufficient really though and we need to live in communities and have specialisms. For example, I wouldn't know where to start to make a knife and fork or a pair of shoes or mend my arm if I broke it.

I agree - total self-sufficiency isn't really an option and I have never thought it could be for me, never mind how much I fantasized. What I want to do is grow "sufficient" and not "surplus" of the things I can grow because, so often, that "surplus" becomes "waste" - a waste of growing space, time, effort and seeds.
Some things are relatively easy to grow - like courgettes and beans, and, because I find them easy, I grow too many. I need to diversify, for example grow different types of beans with some set aside for drying or stagger the sowings so they don't all crop at once.
Still musing and arguing with myself.

I have never mastered successfully staggering things...I planted 3 lots of of 5 cabagges 6 weeks apart, I now have 13 cabbages ready to cut. I have the space but not the skill.

I'm self-sufficient in lettuce

Plus I never have to buy jams and chutneys not sure if that counts though.