How much land is needed to feed two adults for the year?

[Lpne]

Let’s say you had an external meat source and wanted to grow all of the vegetables and fruit for two adults in an area with a long growing season. How much land would this realistically take?

 

[Debbie292d]

You can make a pretty good orchard and garden on way less than an acre. You could grow enough sweet corn, green beans, broccoli, green peppers, and peas to freeze, and enough tomato plants to can, etc. You could get fruit trees like pears, peaches, plums, and apples, and bushes like raspberries, blueberries, and grapes too. (Just ideas as we're in WI where it freezes).

All this would be 1/4 of an acre. We have all that.

 

[rural mouse]

Depends upon soil quality and water supply

 

[Lpne]

Depends upon soil quality and water supply

Soil is decent and we get 60 inches of rain per year.

 

[rural mouse]

Soil is decent and we get 60 inches of rain per year.

Then you could do quite a bit with that 1/4 acre mentioned above. If you want bees and/or chickens, then go bigger. 20 acres is manageable by 2 people and could potentially produce enough to sell through things like farmer's markets, helping to pay for external meat.

 

[Madhouse Pullet]

20 acres is manageable by 2 people

say, whaaaaaaa??
I was thinking 2 acres but I see you added a 0

 

[Debbie292d]

say, whaaaaaaa??
I was thinking 2 acres but I see you added a 0

We had bees too on our 1/4 acre and had to get rid of them as us two couldn't manage it all! Maybe if one person doesn't work or works from home 20 would be doable.

OP only asked about feeding two people, not an army!

 

[Alagirl]

depending on what you want to plant.
that 1/4 acre should work fine if you keep on top of crop rotation and improving the soil.
Old John Seymore had 2 models in his books: 1 and 5 acres. He included livestock if only a horse or two to pull the plow. Manure is the black gold of self-sufficiency. I recommend his books.

Also:
Do you have machinery to help with the workload?
If you have to do all by hand you will probably not want to go past the 1/4 acre.

 

[Lpne]

I currently have a half acre cleared and fenced specifically for the garden. No machinery I’ve done it all by hand. It’s sounding like that will be enough which makes me hopeful.

 

[SmiYa0126]

I currently have a half acre cleared and fenced specifically for the garden. No machinery I’ve done it all by hand. It’s sounding like that will be enough which makes me hopeful.

You should look into square foot gardening. It's companion planting to the nth degree. Maximizing harvest by interplanting herbs with fruiting plants , and by doing that reducing weed pressure and watering. Check out gardenary on YouTube.