When I first started gardening in the "permaculture way" I was pleased to have something from the garden for a few weeks in August - this is just how it works with gardens - lots of waiting, caring and then some fast fading results. Then I began to realize, that a few weeks in August are a far way away from actually sustaining oneself with food - somehow that took a few years to comprehend! (I guess starting to garden was a big change to begin with, so the analytical thinking did not kick in until some experience was accumulated!) -

Things have changed since then. With a small greenhouse and a few hens I got into making an occasional all-home-grown meal (aka omelet) year around.

Then our young fruit trees kicked in and now we have fresh fruit to eat from June (peaches, mulberries, currants, gooseberries) to October (Asian Pears, apples, late-season peaches). These are also canned and dried, to last even longer.

Then the goats came (against my husbands wishes, he is still at best lukewarm towards them.... for an unknown reason. I am the one taking care of them!). The goats really moved us to the next level. Milk for 10 months out of the year, plus meat that lasts for as long. Now we actually eat most of our meals made with home grown ingredients: cheeses, yogurts, canned chutneys or salsas, eggs, greens, dried or canned fruit. I learned to use the vegetable garden with more efficiency so we harvest from it more frequently.

Next year our asparagus will come into production. There are 80 roots I planted before I ran out of energy and enthusiasm. And this year we added 50 raspberries. So we will see how all this turns out!