SCVWD CSA July 25, 2012

Serpente de Sicily

What's in the box 

Early Italian Garlic,  Dark Red Norland Potatoes,  Mara Des Bois strawberries, flowers, Onions from the Onion Trial this week it's Firenze Torpedo , Zucchini - Romanesco is ribbed, Genovese is light green, Nano Verde di Milano is dark green, and the round one is Tondo.   Tomatillos, an anaheim and a few tomatoes - I'm calling it the salsa special.   Luscious White Sweet Corn,  cucumbers - Delicatesse, White Wonder & Poona Kheera, and finally  carrots out of the carrot trial - Long Red Blunt.

This week's special gift - Plum jam or Strawberry scones.  You got one or the other, except for one lucky CSA member who was kind enough to go to the feed store for me, so she got both.  Thank you.

Long Red Blunt Carrot

 

 

Carrot Trial
We planted a full alphabet of carrots.  Carrots have been hard to find due to the issues with CMS.  What are we looking for?  We are looking for carrots to eat fresh, to juice and to dehydrate.  For years we loved a carrot called Oxheart, but then it just disappeared.  One of the interesting things about carrots are they are outbreeders.  So, you need at least forty carrots going to seed (not eaten by gophers) to keep a variety alive.  Plus you must constantly get rid of the weak and only save the strong which in the plant world is called roguing.  Oxheart is the story of a carrot poorly maintained.  Alas it's like the Dodo now and we can't find seed for love nor money.  So we are on the hunt for a few perfect carrots.  I think these ones are very sweet but without much carrot flavor.  However they might be a perfect bride for another carrot, so that we can keep the diversity going.

It's been a crazy week here at the farm and another late night followed by an extra early morning.   So this will be short.   See you next week.

People and Planet CSA July 19, 2012

What's in the box 

Early Italian Garlic,  Dark Red Norland Potatoes,  Mara Des Bois strawberries, a little vase of basil, Onions from the Onion Trial this week it's Firenze Torpedo & Colorado de Conservar, Beurre de Rocquencourt green beans- last of and the first of the French Filets, first Zucchini of the Season - Romanesco is ribbed, Genovese is light green, Nano Verde di Milano is dark green, tomatillos,  Luscious White Sweet Corn, a few tomatoes (what are they doing?), one lowly bell pepper, cucumbers - Delicatesse, White Wonder & Poona Kheera, and finally first carrots out of the carrot trial - Marketgartener.

On Farm Research or what's with all these Trials?

One of the problems with being an organic farmer is that good seed is hard to find.  When you look through the catalogs, it's as if 90% of the seed companies got together and said,  okay watermelon, let's give them Sugar Baby.  A lot of good varieties for organic farmers has just disappeared.  Some of these seeds companies have been bought up by Monsanto, and the seed is just not offered anymore.  Every year it takes me longer and longer to find seeds for the next year.  Two years ago, I decided to take matters into my own hands and start hunting seeds, trialing them and sending them along to other farmers.

Onion Trial

So what have we learned?  

1.  Saving seed is hard work.  Make no mistake about that.  We are lucky that the USDA GRIN began saving seeds when they did or some of these varieties would have been lost to memory.  There are seed saving organizations that do what they can with limited funds to keep seeds going.  There are VERY few people working on open pollinated seed for organic or organique farmers.  I myself have been very lucky to have the help of Dr. Carol Deppe, Dr. Alan Kapuler,  Joseph of Utah, the Good folks of Long Island Seed Company, Alan Bishop, Dr. Craig Kolodge, and here the list could get longer, but thanks to our ancestors who saved seed in the first place.

2.  Just because it's an "heirloom seed" does not mean it will grow here.  Some heirloom seeds come without any disease resistance and have low yields.  Some of these seeds just need love.  We need to grow them, rogue them - throw out the sickly, and grow them again.  Some are just not suited to our climate and there's no one to tell me which ones will be the future of the farm.

3. Some seed has just become too inbred, and needs to get out in the world and mix-it up a little.

4.  There are seeds that do not meet my standards.  I eat everything that you eat and more.  I don't like soapy carrots, bitter squash or cukes.  I think melons should be sweet and apples should not taste mealy.  I think veges and fruits should keep for as long as possible, without refrigeration.

Carrot Trial

This year at the farm we continue to trial:
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Beans
Melons
Carrots
Onions
Corn
Squash
Lettuce
Artichokes

What are we looking for?

Tomatoes
Ultimately we are looking for a combination of saladette (small tomatoes), beefsteaks and cherries, various colors, with various ripening times, some early, some late that:
1.  Can be packed.  If I can't get them to you, there's no point in growing them.
2.  Flavor, Flavor, Flavor!  A good tomato should make you eat them till your mouth is blistered, and then you go look for more.  Or I should get fan mail like this:  "My kid stands on a chair and eats all the strawberries in the fridge.  I have to hide them." 
3.  Ought to be able to sit on the counter for a week without becoming mushy or nasty tasting.
4.  Disease free vines.  
From the last 3 years, we have found 3 tomatoes that are raved about by you folks:  Sungold - a yellow cherry, Cherokee Green - it's green!, and Herman's Special.  As the season goes on I can't wait to see what you select from this year.  Naturally, I have another 20 for next year, until all dozen variety spots are filled.
 

Nanook inspects the TPS

This year's tomatoes:  Giannini, Dona - an old favorite of Leo's, Black Cherry, Juan Flamme, Sungold, Joe's Early, Santa Ana, Thessaloniki, Burning Spear, Mama Leone, Danko, Tennessee Britches (Leo thought that tag said 10 bitches), Milka's Red, Rose de Berne, Me Tarzan, St. Columbe, Green Zebra Cherry, and Herman's Special.  

 

As the tomatoes really start to come in, I'll label them so that you can vote for your favorites.  This week I saw the first ripe tomatoes, late I think for tomatoes.  Each year we'll keep a favorite and trial some new ones.  One of the things this does for our small farm is that it protects us from loss.  If some bug finds that Herman's Special is just too special, we will not lose all the tomatoes.  If we have a sudden hail, we may lose the early tomatoes, but should be able to still get late tomatoes.

 

 

Potatoes

Ashworth Corn being made into Chicos

Okay, so every year I plant Dark Red Norland and Yukon Gold.  Over the years, the amount of potatoes is dwindling.  We plant more and harvest less.  This bodes not well.  Not all of the problem is gophers.  Potatoes are a clone, so we keep planting the clone and it's falling by the wayside, getting weaker.  So this year, we have TPS, True Potato Seed.  The flowers on these will set more seed, crossing with other flowers and we'll get a number of original potatoes.  There may even be some orange ones.  (One of the potatoes was called Orang-atang).  We received seed from Joseph in Utah, Jaap in France and we also bought some from Atash & Tater Mater.  As I started to talk about this problem, other farmers started sending me seeds.  Now we can have seeds and clones. And the potatoes will keep evolving with the bugs.  Now if we could just get the gophers to leave them alone!

 

Onions

Well what was wrong with our onions?  We've always had good onions.  CMS, Cytoplasmic male sterility is total or partial male sterility associated with plant biology.  It is the failure of the plants to produce functional anthers, pollen  or male gamete.  In other words, I can't save the seed.  To think that some brilliant seed person decided to do this, just boggles my mind.  This is one of the biggest challenges we are having to overcome.  Good farmers and the USDA have sent me seed from all over and we are hunting good flavorful storage onions.  You won't see many onions this year, as most of them will be going into seed production.  But there will be leeks!  We have have already sent many varieties of seed to the North and South where they might help other farmers as well.

 

Okay, so more on this next week. As we delve into the mind of the farmer.  And as this squash is trying to wish you,  blessings on all your little pointed heads this week. 

Run Rabbit Run

This beautiful rabbit drawing was created by one of our CSA members.  She has an Etsy Shop (Kleja).  The rabbit is of course our unofficial  farm mascot.  This is the 3rd rabbit that I have received, not counting the ones that Leo rescued and brought home to me...but those were live bunnies.

There's the iron rabbit from Nicole in France.  Who Leo calls "Lapin en Garde". 

And my friend Michelle sent over a stone rabbit, fondly named "Rokataan Janis" (let's rock rabbit, in Finnish).   Please do not e-mail me about the umlauts, I'm a poor farmer and can't afford them.


Run rabbit run
Dig that hole, forget the sun
And when at last the work is down
Don't sit down, it's time to dig another one...

With the heatwave I am running.  Yes there are holes to dig and artichokes to plant, but alas I think it's nap time.  I'm going to just snuggle in my burrow.

Thank you Klay. 

SCVWD - CSA July 11, 2012

Ashworth

What's in the box 

Early Italian Garlic,  Dark Red Norland Potatoes, Last of the  Beets,   Mara Des Bois strawberries, a little vase of basil, First of the Spring Onions from the Onion Trial, Beurre de Rocquencourt green beans, first Zucchini of the Season - Romanesco is ribbed, Genovese is light green, Nano Verde di Milano is dark green, first of the Tomatillos, and the First Corn - Ashworth Sweet corn

This week's special gift - Strawberry Ginger Marmalade (Let me know what you think).

Ashworth Sweet Corn

According to FEDCO Seeds, Fred Ashworth of St. Lawrence Nurseries originally named his variety "'Rat Selected' in honor of the rodents who broke into his seed storage room and alerted him to certain kernels that they preferred."  So my buddy Joseph, also known as St. Joe the farmer of Paradise, crossed this corn with another sweet corn and sent me this seed.  This is the first open pollinated sweet corn we have every tried at the farm.  As this is an OP corn, we can save the seeds.   It does however have one drawback, you need to use it right away.  The sugars will start to convert to starch quickly, so gobble it up.  

Great Zukes it's a Romanesco!

Tomatillos

This is a Foothill Farm Landrace.  About 20 years ago we planted a Purple de Milpa tomatillo.  Then about 5 years ago we planted a Cisneros Grande Tomatillo.  The two crossed, re-crossed and basically now we have a Purple Grande or a Cisneros de Milpa.  As the season goes on, we should have a lot more of these, enough to make your favorite verde recipes.   When we have just a few, I make Mexican Pizza, or toss them into salad.

Testing Sweet Corn, right after this I feel off the bricks

http://www.sarcasticcooking.com/2012/02/13/maria-verde/  Thirsty - in a few weeks we'll have enough to try these.

Maria Verde
Ingredients
1 lb. of Tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1/2 a Seedless Cucumber (peeling the cucumber is optional)
2 Tablespoons of Grated Horseradish
1/4 Teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tablespoon of Green Hot Sauce
The Juice of Half a Lemon
1/2 Teaspoon of Celery Salt
1/4 Teaspoon of Salt
1/4 Teaspoon of Pepper
8 oz. Vodka
Tajin Spice Blend for the rim (It is a peppery-limey-salty spice that is way better than just regular salt or celery salt on the rim.)

Eclipse Calif

Roughly chop the cucumber and tomatillos. Add the chopped tomatillos, chopped cucumber, horseradish, worcestershire, hot sauce, lemon juice, celery salt, salt, pepper, and vodka to a blender. Puree until completely liquified. Rim the glasses with Tajin spice and a slice of lemon or lime. Add a few cubes of ice to some glasses. Pour and enjoy!

Mexican Pizza with Corn, Tomatillos, and Chipotle Chiles

http://danatreat.com/2009/06/haunted-by-pizza/
Adapted from Everyday Greens
Serves 4-6

Spanish Torpedo

By all means, make your own pizza dough if you have the time.  Substitute 1 cup of cheddar cheese and 1/2 cup of Monterey jack cheese mixed together for the Cotija if you prefer.  You can make this pizza with a pizza pan or even a cookie sheet instead of a stone.

One recipe Pizza Dough
1 1/2 tbsp. Chipotle Puree
1 large red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
1/4 pound tomatillos, husked, and chopped into small pieces
2 ears of corn, shaved, about 2 cups of kernels
3/4 cup canned black beans, drained
Fine cornmeal for dusting
1 1/2 cups crumbled cotija cheese
1/2 a large avocado, thinly sliced
2 tbsp. chopped cilantro
Place a pizza stone in your oven and preheat it to 500°F. 
Season the tomatillos with salt and pepper and set aside.  Heat a medium saute pan over medium heat.  Drizzle in just enough olive oil to coat the bottom and add the onions.  Cook until tender and starting to brown, about 10 minutes.  Remove to a plate and set aside.  Add a little more oil to the pan followed by the corn.  Season the corn with salt and pepper and cook until tender, 3-5 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Cal Early Red

Roll out the pizza dough and place it on a pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal.  Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the dough.  Spoon a little (or a lot!) of purée over the dough followed by a thin layer of cheese.  Next add the corn, onions, tomatillos, black beans, and the remaining cheese.
Bake the pizza in the oven until the crust is golden and crisp, 10 to 12 minutes.  Remove it from the oven, lay the avocado slices on top and sprinkle with cilantro.

ugh.  Spoon a little (or a lot!) of purée over the dough followed by a thin layer of cheese.  Next add the corn, onions, tomatillos, black beans, and the remaining cheese. Bake the pizza in the oven until the crust is golden and crisp, 10 to 12 minutes.  Remove it from the oven, lay the avocado slices on top and sprinkle with cilantro

Want more?  Go here http://www.foodiecrush.com/2012/05/roasted-tomatillo-and-green-olive-salsa/  Top 10 Tomatillo recipes.

The beautiful Carrot Trial.  The Giant White flowers are the future of our carrots.

What's Coming?
Cucumbers!  I saw them this morning, peaking out from under their vines  and carrots from the carrot trial.  Prepare to be amazed!  Over the 4th all of the melons finally got planted.  All 320 of them!   Leo and I were dropping by the end of the week.  Finally we will get to the bottom of great melons, with a little help from you guys.  We also planted more beans and more corn, more lettuce, NZ Spinach and and and.  If this weather holds, looks like we'll have you all with us till Thanksgiving.  Have a great week.

People & Planet CSA June 28, 2012

Lettuce and Greens...just about all harvested

What's in the box 

Early Garlic from Poland,  Huazontle (Red Aztec Spinach),  First Potatoes of the season, last of the  Beets,   Dried Leeks,  Portuguese Stuffing Cabbage, strawberries, a little vase of herbs, Beurre de Rocquencourt green beans and lettuce.

This week's special gift:  Straw Ginger Marmalade  (Strawberry, Ginger, Lime, Lemon & Blood Orange).  Try getting that all on one label.

or Sunshine Cocktail Mix

Leo recommends this.  Mix 1 jar to 4 jars of water, pour over ice and serve.  We added Gin and it was wonderful.  Just the thing for Saturday after chores.  All we needed was a hammock built for two or two hammocks and a cabana boy to bring another pitcher.

Corn on the left, dry beans on the right, squash in the back

In Holly's Kitchen

In my kitchen I always keep basil in a vase in the window.  I have tried all kinds of ways to keep basil fresh, but once it's out of the garden, this is it.  I keep picking leaves off of mine until it's gone, then I run out and pick another.  What I love best about summer is basil.   This is the first of the season, so there's just enough there to herb up some eggs.  So where are the tomatoes to go with it?  Well, they're still sleeping.  There were enough at the stage that we could have all had fried green tomatoes, but then I wouldn't know which variety made the first ripe tomatoes this year.  I tell you it's neck and neck out there.  I've offered a bonus to the tomato plant with the first ripe tomatoes and I'm guessing that after the 4th we'll have them.  Last year we had tomatoes on July 14, and I have asked the tomatoes to beat that record by three days. 

Beurre de Rocquencourt (I originally wrote about these on August 3, 2011).  I liked these French beans so much that we have them again this year.   It's likely that we'll have a bumper crop of beans this year.  The French Filets, and Ilanz are coming along.  Behind them a bit are the Romano's and lots of new ones.  So I'm going to try and give you a new Green Bean Recipe every week for a few weeks.  These yellow wax beans stay crisp after you cook them so they are perfect in stir fry or Zack's favorite, Tempura!

Giraffes were here, pruning

Tempura Green Beans

• It's good to use cold/ice water for the batter. This is important to prevent the batter from absorbing too much oil.
• Preparing the batter ahead of time is not recommended. It's good to make the batter right before frying tempura. Try not to over mix the batter and not to coat ingredients with the batter too much.
• If you are frying both seafood and vegetables, try to fry vegetables first, then fry seafood.
• It's said that the right temperature to fry tempura is around 340-360 degree F. To check the temperature of frying oil, drop a little bit of batter into the oil. If the batter comes up right away instead of sinking to the bottom of the pan, it's higher than 370 degrees F. If the batter goes halfway to the bottom and comes up, it's about 340-360 degrees F.   Use a high heat oil (Sunflower, Corn, Peanut, or Vegetable Oil).

1 Cup of flour

1 T. of cornstarch

1 1/2 C. Selzer Water

Salt

Mix these together, dip your green beans and fry.  Yes you can use regular water, but the bubbles seem to make the batter lighter.  Leo dips the veges in flour and then the batter and then fries.  Everyone has their own ideas and gets underfoot when tempura is being made.

Huazontle (Red Aztec Spinach)  Think of this as Wild Spinach

High in vitamin C and rich in riboflavin, one cup of cooked wild spinach provides an excellent source of vitamin A, folate, magnesium, potassium, vitamins E, B6, and thiamine. Wild spinach actually contains substantially more nutrients than cultivated spinach.

Lamb's quarters (wild spinach) is a delicate, leafy green and may be used as a substitute for baby spinach, though is best in cooked preparations. Used widely in Latin cuisine it is often paired with fresh cheeses and chile sauces. Pair with fresh citrus and berries, nuts, strong cheeses, spring vegetables such as peas and asparagus, eggs and potatoes; toss with hot pasta or grains until barely wilted. Lamb's quarters (wild spinach) has a more mild, less metallic flavor than mature spinach and is complimented by vinaigrette, fresh herbs, garlic, toasted bread and beans. Keep baby spinach cool and dry until ready to use.   It's great in quiche, or scrambled eggs.  Remove all the stems when you prepare it and just use the leaves.  You can even use wild spinach to make pesto!

View from the chicken coop...green beans!

Huazontle and Beans

1 pound fresh lambsquarters or Huazontle, leaves only!
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
A bit of dried leeks (crumble them smaller), I used a handful
1 cup canned pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse greens several times to make sure that all sand and grit are removed. Steam greens in tightly covered pot until wilted. Drain greens and finely chop them. In large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic/leeks and cook, stirring frequently, until leeks are soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in greens, beans and chili powder. Cover and cook over low heat for 5 minutes or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper and serve. Makes 6 servings. Feel free to add pasta to this dish and serve with a side of garlic bread.  

Wild Squash

What's coming:  Tomatoes, corn, and zukes .  I saw the first 2 zukes this morning.   

REMINDER!  NO BAGS OR BOXES UNTIL Thursday July 19th.

Have a great 4th. 

SCVWD CSA, June 20, 2012

Zukes, Cukes.Squash, Peppers and Eggplant all thriving

What's in the box 

Early Garlic from Poland,  Huazontle (Red Aztec Spinach),  First Potatoes of the season , last of the cauliflower and broccoli and leeks,  Beets,  Salad Mix with Purslane,  Dried Leeks,  Portuguese Stuffing Cabbage, Epazote, strawberries or green beans and eggs.

No Boxes the week of July 4th
As usual, the farm will close for the week of the 4th and Leo and I will go on holiday.  Nothing like a wee break to put some magic back in the routine. 

Beans corn and beans and corn

It's been so hot that the spring veges have all put keeled over.  I suspect they hold on, just to not disappoint me.  The summer veges aren't here.  Well, there's only so many things you can tell a tomato, one just must wait.

So while we wait, we might as well go on a trip.  This will give all of you who have more than one box malingering at your house, to get them in along with vases, herb jars and canning jars.




Canning Jars

Grapes contemplating their jelliness

Please send them back with the lids!  They roll around and when the tops get chipped, I can no longer use them for canning.  Remember if you give gifts to your friends of things that are in canning jars, you must buy new jars for me.

Leo has positively forbidden me to buy any more canning jars.  In the last 3 years I have purchased some 36 cases of jars.  Last year 6 cases came back, and one of our lovely lovely beautiful and stunning CSA members sent me a whole new case!  So basically jam season is just starting, you want it?  Send home the jars.  Pints and half pints are especially useful.

Thanks to one of the very best Senior Ops at the District we were gifted several cases of quarts, so we will have spaghetti sauce, tomatoes willing.

Have a glorious 4th.  When I see you next, there will be corn!  Yeah!  We'll see you July 11th.

How many

People could I feed on my farm?

The farm seen from on top of the haystack

A bit ago, someone asked me how many people I could feed on my farm.  I automatically said 20 families, because with our family and all of yours, that's how many people I feed.  But is it really true?  Sadly no.

Yes, we are 20 families strong, but none of us live on entirely what we get out of the box.  At most it's a supplement of what we buy at the store.  Is it possible to feed you all from the farm?  Sadly no.  Let's look at why.  First of all, keep in mind that I only have 5 acres (of which we are farming about 1 acre currently).

Here's my computations:

Wheat

1 acre of wheat yields approximately 42 bushels of wheat.  Each bushel yields about 60 pounds of whole wheat flour. Each of those bushels would yield 90 one pound loaves of bread.  So that's about 3780 loaves of whole wheat bread.  That would give each family 189 loaves of bread, or about 3.5 loaves of bread a week.   Some of that wheat would have to go to the chickens and now we've used one acre of land...4 left.  (Of course we've only planted enough wheat to seed that acre....sometime in the future).  So, you wouldn't have any bread.

Gathering up the old hens and one old rooster

Chickens

1 acre of pasture can support 50 chickens.  It all comes down to the amount of manure the land can handle, and the geometry of chicken yards. A permanent pasture can handle about four tons of chicken manure per year. That's the output of 80 chickens. So, unless you want to kill off the grass and pollute the area with runoff, you can't have more than 80 outdoor chickens per acre.

What's worse is that the manure is never evenly distributed across the yard. It's concentrated near the chicken house. This would kill off all plant life near the chicken house even if the chickens didn't scratch all the pasture to pieces, but they do this as well. A more sustainable number is 50 hens per acre.

Fifty hens per acre is about 800 square feet per hen. That's a lot of area. Hens also don't like to travel long distances. They'll go 100-200 yards from the hen houses, in reasonably good weather,  if properly encouraged by outdoor feeders and waterers.  That's why we have to have moveable hen houses.    Logistics dictates that we raise only 25 chickens a year.  13 new this year, 12 from last year and the acre has to be rotated to things for them to eat, so 1/2 is seeded while they are eating the other half.  It seems that chickens don't like to be irrigated.  The chickens want to be on the part that is not irrigated.

A highly productive hen will lay 5 eggs a week or 250 a year.  Our chickens since they are young and old, average about 4 a week.  So, I'm getting about 8 cartons a week, which is why you only get eggs once a month.  See Leo, I told you those old hens must go! 

Where do the old chickens go?  Well, we don't eat them and you don't eat them, but we do trade them for supplements like oyster shell and sunflower seeds.

Flour & Flint Corn

Vegetables

It's not a secret that we only deliver vegetables from March through November.  The spring is full of green leafy things, big on nutrients, not so big on calories.  About 1/4 acre is taken up with green leafy things.

The summer is better because that's when we start getting things like corn.  Leaving aside the sweet corn that we all love, there is the practical flour and flint corn that pack a lot, but not all the nutrition you need.  There's B vitamins missing in that corn unless you are processing it with lye.  One acre of corn yields about 130 bushels, one bushel is = to 56 pounds.  So putting in a 1/4 acre of corn yields about 1800 pounds of corn.  That would be 80 pounds per family.  Keeping back some for those hungry chickens and planting for next year.

Finally comes Autumn and then there's beans, your real powerhouse of nutrition from the farm.  An acre of dry beans can yield about 2000 pounds.  Once again, we have only about 1/4 acre in dry beans, so more like 500 pounds, which is about 20 pounds to you (less what we had to keep back to plant for next and future years).

Then there's tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, onions, herbs, tomatillos, artichokes, asparagus, melons, and squash.  All of these are taking up room and being packed weekly.  More or less this is what people join the CSA for.   Some folks tell me that there is too many vegetables in the box.

But as you can see, I haven't given you any calories from dairy, meat, or fish.  So, even if you were all vegan vegetarians I could not provide you and your family with everything you would need to eat. 

What would it take to feed all of you, everything you need?  

About 200 acres and someone one a lot younger... make that a lot of someones. 

How many families could I feed on the five acres, everything they would need to survive?

With my family of 3, we could feed 2 more people.  And let me tell you, all 5 of us would be either planting, harvesting or preserving 365 days a year and we'd be eating a lot more potatoes and squash.

more squash