You should protocol the amount and type of food you use for a month and then decide whether it's a feasible idea to grow it yourself.
Well I grew up on land and we had almost everything of our own. Apples, pears, plums, wallnuts, hazelnuts, cheries, gooseberies, some vegetables, honey... We had chicken, rabbits, pidgeons, 1 goat, dogs and cats.
There was a lot of work especially with mowing all grass and haymaking. But there was usualy enough people to help - my grandparents and cousins especially. Then all the fruit harvesting in autumn, raking and burning leaves...
Every now and then we had for lunch some chicken, rabbit, young pidgeons or ducks, goose (we didn´t have our own, but there were people bringing it). We children had to pluck most of this. My relatives had sheep and bulls, a pig so they brought meat from it. We also smoked meat outside in autumn.
My uncle was a fisherman and used to bring fish, my aunt a confectioner and used to bring cakes, other relatives had a strawberry field so they brought strawberries, or poppy seeds, or dry flowers for decoration. And of course in the summer there were plenty of blueberries etc. in the forrest, mushrooms... We gave the people in exchange eggs, nuts, apples etc.
We used to buy a truckload of potatoes to store over the winter. Wood for the winter we had from fallen trees or from other sources. We had every day milk from the goat but that was for cats as it didn´t taste good and was unpasteurized. We bought milk, bread etc... just normal things as well. The thing is, there was allways a lot of people around so we helped and exchanged things mutually.
Now it´s gone to the dogs, firstly because we grew apart, grandparents died, cousins got married and moved away. Then also, the times changed, few people really bother with this when they can buy things in the shop.
Makes me think of this: people lived over the centuries in this way and it worked. Because they had no choice. They couldn´t afford to buy many things apart from what they grew and exchanged. It also worked because they kept together and did what their fathers taught them.
They did it, mostly 100 percent (because they had no choice), and didn´t question anything. They didn´t question why they were taught to do things certain way, they didn´t question whether to help their neighbour. They didn´t because THEIR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT. If someone started to question, said he was not going to work of help because he didn´t like the system, he would be singeld out (because the community couldn´t afford to keep him in) and eventually died.
When I was about 16, I went ostentatively vegetarian. Told my grandparents they were mean and killing animals was wrong. I no longer helped to pluck chicken or anything else. They couldn´t understand it, wtf it has been done like this over centuries and now I come up with such a weird thing. Animals are for meat and they couldn´t understand my weird emotional attitude.
It could be said I was acting like a chain breaker but since we are no longer living in medieval times, it doesn´t matter anyway. There is TV etc., telling people rubbish, there are enough money to buy anything we want. So where is the survival. I was in fact right when I told my grandparents they didn´t need meat or at least not that much, because they didn´t. There is no hungertime, no need for survival. The meat consumption went from need to fancy in my opinion (to demonstrate it they were fat enough).
(Btw vegetarian way of life DOES work, I´ve seen it in India. But it does work provided EVERYBODY lives that way and the system is ingrained over the centuries. One person will hardly change it and if he does choose it, the society will make it hard for him if only because he receives no support..)
What I was trying to say is, old things lost it´s original meaning in today´s world. The chain got broken, because our life doesn´t depend on keeping it (or does yet?
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People are more selfish and individualistic, also because since their birth their parents didn´t taught them anything, there was no sense of community or keeping together. Then the people don´t know where they belong, why are they here, what is the sense of it all, why work hard when everything can be had for money, why help their neighbour. Hopelesness, bullying, mental diseases, suicides are getting widespread and common. Doctors are prescribing pills that don´t work and poison the people, the food we eat is far from natural and it brings diseases..
Back to the question, I think it should be possible to grow most things on my own, if I have enough trees and a garden, some chicken for eggs... Things like rice, potatoes or peas etc. can be bought, they are dirt cheap anyway. Plus I could exchange the surplus of fruits or nuts for something else.
I would leave out the meat but it means throwing away all grass from the garden, no haymaking, no feeding animals. And a farm without animals doesn´t look happy.. Also without family and without child slaves it means doing all work myself, no help and can feel a bit lonely too.
