Patrice Lewis: It’s helpful in a psychological benefit, if you will, to grow something that you know is gonna do really well because the satisfaction that comes with it increases your confidence.
For example, I was having a hard time with garlic. I just wasn’t able to find, a good garlic cultivar that I liked and we go through a lot of garlic. So I was really eager to get this in place. I found a porcelain neck, hard neck, variety of garlic that grew well in our region and I started growing it and it became a tremendous crop.
It was just so satisfying. We’d go out there in August and harvest this beautiful, huge garlic heads. And then I would save, some to plant for the next year and all this kind of stuff. And of course, garlic has to be planted in the fall in northern areas. And it was it gave me the confidence as a novice gardener to go bigger.
[00:01:00]
Josh Wilder: Welcome to the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast. At Mother Earth News, for 50 years and counting, we’ve been dedicated to conserving the planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources in this podcast we host conversations with experts in the fields of sustainability, homesteading, natural health, and more to share all about how you can live well wherever you are in a way that values both people and our Mother Earth.
Josh Wilder: At True Leaf Market seed company, they believe everyone should experience the joy of growing. With over 3000 garden seed varieties. Their selection goes far beyond what you’ll find at a local store from organic heirlooms to rare Asian varieties. They’ve been a trusted non-GMO seed source since 1974, supporting professional and home growers alike.
Whether you’re starting seeds for spring or expanding your garden, explore what’s possible at TrueLeafMarket.com.
Josh Wilder: Welcome back to the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast. I’m Josh Wilder, joined today by Patrice Lewis, a homesteader and author who recently wrote a powerful piece for us about a sobering reality. Humans are often the only [00:02:00] animals that don’t instinctively know how to feed themselves.
Today we’re diving into our roadmap for changing that, moving from being a consumer to a producer. Patrice, thanks for being here.
Patrice Lewis: Thank you. It’s a pleasure as always.
Josh Wilder: If you could go ahead and read your article and then I’ll come back in and ask you a couple questions.
Patrice Lewis: Well, this is entitled Feed Your Family for a Year, and it’s based on the experience that we have garnered as homesteaders.
Josh Wilder: Thank you for that, Patrice.
Josh Wilder: At True Leaf Market seed company, quality comes first. Along with offering over 3000 garden seed varieties, they adhere to the strictest state and federal germination standards to ensure dependable performance in the field and garden.
As a non-GMO seed source since 1974, they support seed breeding, trialing, and the preservation of genetic diversity through trusted seed banks. For growers who care about seed quality, reliability, and long-term stewardship. Learn more at TrueLeafMarket.com.
You mentioned in the beginning the steep learning curve you [00:18:00] faced with no prior experience.
Learning through Difficulty
Josh Wilder: Can you share a specific failure from those early years that isn’t in the article?
Patrice Lewis: Oh my goodness. We started our homesteading journey in a little place in Oregon. We had four acres in Oregon and we did our best and we did pretty well. And then we moved to Idaho in 2003 and we moved onto the Palouse the Prairie.
And so we were faced with hard heavy clay soil. Almost refractory grade soil clay soil. It was very heavy. As well as prairie grasses. And prairie grasses are very difficult to eradicate. So I kid you, and we had no plow, we had no tractor, we had no rotor tiller, we didn’t have anything to break up the ground.
So it was a constant struggle. So we, I kid you not, we tried for nine years. To grow in the garden to grow in the gar in the ground. We tried for nine bloody years, it was. An uphill fight the whole way. And we finally, and we failed every year. We got a few things here and there, but really just [00:19:00] nothing worthwhile.
And so we finally had to step back and look outside the box and say, okay, we gotta do something different. So what we’d ended up doing is we had a, we had no problems with space. We had plenty of space. We had, it’s like a half acre garden. We ended up paving the whole garden with billboard tarps, which at the time were free from a local place in the area.
And we anchored those tarps with gravel to keep them from blowing away and to hide all the silly advertisements and such.
We used drip irrigation and we went from zero to almost a hundred percent self-sufficient within two years. It was night and day. So believe me when I say you’re facing challenges, I understand how those challenges are going now. We had to face, we had to figure out how to avoid other things.
The gravel actually deterred voles, which were big ar a big pest in our area. The fences deterred the deer. We had to learn how to net and CLOs against birds or aphids and things like this. So we had all kinds of things that we were routinely doing, but. Just getting out of the ground and [00:20:00] using raised containers, raised beds, made all the difference.
So we left that homestead five years ago, and we’re currently in a new place and we’re doing the same thing. We’re not even gonna pretend to grow in the garden or to grow in the ground. So what we did is we fenced off to 10 and a half feet high to keep the deer out. We have a lot of deer in our area and we’re building.
Three by three by eight foot beds. And we had to shoehorn them into a long, narrow spot because we live on mostly slope lands, so we have to find the flattest spot. And we were installing drip irrigation system. We’re doing everything right from the start based on what we learned in our last place.
And so last year was the first time we got a reasonably productive garden and we got the fencing in and all this kind of thing. And again, it’s just tremendous when you. Are actually able to harvest what you need. We handed them the up with a aans of spaghetti squash, lots of strawberries, garlic and onions and potatoes and tomatoes and just everything we planted did really well.
Because we’re growing in the raised [00:21:00] beds, we can control the quality of soil that goes in those raised beds. So we use a combination of native soil with compost and sand to break up any clay. And we have lots of compost because of our cows and the. The satisfaction that comes with being able to harvest your own food with the efforts of your own skills is just hard to beat.
Really hard to beat. And sometimes it’s almost an embarrassment of riches. Okay, we’ve got 300 pounds of potatoes, where do we store them? This kind of thing. So I had to do a lot of canning of garlic. This.
Growing Your Confidence
Josh Wilder: Yeah, I’m sure. Yeah. And you provided some of the eye-opening math on how much to plant, like the five 50 foot rows of beans for 25% of the diet.
That’s obviously, can be intimidating for some people. And so to build confidence in some of those early years, what’s a good gateway crop to, to, and obviously it’s gonna differ depending on what people actually eat, but. [00:22:00]
Patrice Lewis: I would put two factors. One is, yeah, what do you like to eat? So for example, we had a neighbor who grew really good kale.
We don’t like kale, so I’ve never tried growing it. It just wasn’t gonna do it. But you really need to factor in what will grow well in your area, what you like to eat, but also how well you can preserve it. So everybody. Needs to pick one preservation method they, that they like. Mine is canning.
I’m a passionate canner. Yours might be root cellaring or freeze drying or whatever, but pick something and know that what you harvest can be preserved in that way. For example, if you were to plant, three 50 foot rows of lettuce. You’re gonna be overwhelmed with lettuce and there’s no way to preserve it.
Sort of, I guess you could dry it up and grind it into soups or something, but really think about that. But also it’s helpful in a psychological benefit, if you will, to grow something that you know is gonna do really well because the satisfaction that comes with it increases your confidence.
For example, I was having a hard time with garlic. I just wasn’t able to find, a good garlic cultivar that I liked and we [00:23:00] go through a lot of garlic. So I was really eager to get this in into place. I found a porcelain neck, hard neck, variety of garlic that grew well in our region and I started growing it and it became a tremendous crop.
It was just so satisfying. We’d go out there in August and harvest this beautiful, huge garlic heads. And then I would save, some to plant for the next year and all this kind of stuff. And of course, garlic has to be planted in the fall in northern areas. And it was it gave me the confidence as a novice gardener to go bigger. so we found, because our area had a very short growing season in LA in our last homestead, I had to find a corn variety that worked. So for example, so we’d go out there and we’d harvest corn before the first frost, and it was this beautiful crop of corn. Same with onions, we’re big onion eaters.
And so I found a variety of onions that worked and this kind of thing, it’s not a. You dive in with both feet first and you’re gonna get a perfect garden. You need to go with one or two things that work and then increase that as your skills [00:24:00] and your confidence increase. And then also during that process you’re gonna find what challenges you face.
We had no idea that voles, which are little mouse like creatures. Our, we’re such a pest in our area, so we had to take steps to safeguard against Foles. So it could be deer, it could be wood checks, it could be, who knows what pests you have in your area. That’s one of the things your early gardening attempts are meant and designed to figure out.
So if you go in there thinking you’re gonna have an Instagram perfect garden. First, unless you have gardening experience, you’re going to get discouraged. So go into it, ease into it. Don’t necessarily dive in with both feet first, unless you know what you’re doing for sure.
Fruit and Nut Trees as Garden’s Backbone
Josh Wilder: And in that vein you talk about perennials like fruit and nut trees being the backbone of a garden.
And that might not be something you want to choose right away, but at the same time. It’s gonna take years for ’em to mature. I think I’ve heard the saying the best time to plant fruit trees was last year.
Patrice Lewis: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. [00:25:00] So in fact, we had an example of this. So we moved into our last homestead in 2003.
And it had nothing. It had no nothing by way of infrastructure, no garden, no bar nothing. So we were building everything as we were going. And the one thing we did not. Right away was plant fruit trees. And then when we didn’t protect them from the deer and later cattle, ’cause we had cows, we had all kinds of issues.
We were just novices at this. So when we moved into our first place here our current homestead here we already had apple trees in place. Somebody previously had planted them. What we didn’t have were peach trees and I love peaches. And so we planted those right away. So they’re just starting to get productive.
But also what we planted were blueberries. And so our last place we get about 18 pounds of blueberries for summer. That was our Harvest, which is a pretty decent number of blueberries. So we planted 27 blueberry bushes and. And we tried to be very careful, put in the weed control, put in the [00:26:00] drip system, kept, protect them from the deer, this kind of stuff.
We had everything in place. So the first year we got one pound of blueberries, which, they’re just ramping up. I, that’s not a problem. Year two we got 17 pounds of blueberries, which was on par with what we got in our last place, and I would’ve been perfectly happy with that. That was, I was real pleased with it.
Year three, we got 57 pounds. Okay. That’s starting to get a little excessive. So I ended up canning a bunch and I handed it out to like candy to friends and neighbors. Year four, which was this past summer. I kid you not, we had nearly a hundred pounds of blueberries. Like, all right, this is starting to get excessive.
Josh Wilder: Yeah.
Patrice Lewis: So it’s a nice problem to have, but it’s still a problem. So it had finally occurred to us that this was a cash crop. So I had already canned up all the blueberries we possibly could need. I had no idea they were gonna get so many blueberries, and we ended up selling the rest and people were thrilled to get, local organic blueberries.
And so we sold everything we needed to, friends and neighbors and such. Now, year five blueberry plants are famously [00:27:00] productive. They’ll produce for 25, 30 years. So we’re just ramping up. I don’t know what we’re gonna get this coming summer, but we just got slammed this past summer. I was out there, I think in my peak.
Picking time. I was picking four hours at a time. It was pretty crazy.
Josh Wilder: Oh, that’s amazing. As far as the successful crops and inner cropping specifically are there any specific companion planting combinations that you’ve had success with or maybe a popular one that actually failed for you?
Patrice Lewis: Yeah, there’s actually a famous book out there that actually most novice gardeners especially ought to consider called Carrots Love Tomatoes. And and basically it’s just, it’s a book about the various different companion plantings that work. And now you can just find it online. This came out long before the internet, of course.
But there are some plants that are actually will discourage other plants. Potatoes are famously fussy. And others are just, they’ll, you can plant them with anything. And I can’t remember off the top of my head what’s best for this, [00:28:00] but I do know that even sometimes what seems like incompatible combinations will work.
I planted some garlic last year in some beds that previously had grown potatoes. ’cause you’re supposed to rotate your potato beds every year. And so I had a bunch of volunteer potatoes that came up and I’m a softie when it comes to volunteers. And so I ended up letting the. Potatoes, stay with the garlic.
And they actually turned out pretty well. I had a bumper harvest of both. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that those were companion plants, but they were not incompatible. So online you can find, if you just type in companion planting, you will find whole charts of what will go well with other plants and what will not.
As I said, carrots famously go well with tomatoes, and so this allows you to plant a lot more. Densely than you think you should. That’s a fun, funny thing too, is you look at your seed packages and it’ll say, be sure to plant empty up distance apart and. These are under, a lot of these are under commercial conditions.
If [00:29:00] you’ve got long, long rows and fields where you’re planting these, say carrots or tomatoes or whatever, they want you to plant as far apart as you can. We don’t have that luxury in our new place here. We’ve got a fairly tight garden that we’ve gotta focus on. And so I am shameless when it comes to planting more densely than is necessarily recommended.
A few exceptions to that are broccoli. Which is my absolute hands down favorite vegetable in the whole wide world. I could live on broccoli. But broccoli is big and so planting it too densely is not gonna work. So you have to, factor in things like this, but you’d be surprised what can grow more densely than you think, especially if you just got your own personal garden as opposed to a commercial enterprise.
Alternatives for Manure and Pest Control
Josh Wilder: Sure, yeah. Finally you mentioned the how crucial livestock are not just for meat, but for manure and pest control. For folks with strict zoning laws who can’t keep animals, how can they best replicate those benefits? Soil fertility and [00:30:00] pest management.
Patrice Lewis: Yeah the pest management soil fertility I am a big fan of both compost and sand.
So when we first moved here to our current location, we didn’t have livestock and so we actually had to purchase just. I wanna get my, against my grain, but whatever. We had to purchase compost and we literally brought it in by the dump truck full. And so we’d have, there’s a landscaping com company in a nearby town.
And so we ran arrangements to have them come in with dump trucks and they would dump truck sand and compost, and then we would add that to the soil, to the native soil, mix it up really well. And that is really helpful in breaking up. The dense clay soil that we have in our area. Most people are facing clay soil.
That’s a real problem. And the compost will add the nutrients and and the sand will break up on a permanent basis. The clay hardness. You can also, we compost our kitchen scraps. I’ve got a rotating drum composter. And so when it’s time to empty the drum I will bury it in the garden beds, which is why I get some interesting [00:31:00] volunteers sometimes.
And that in that also increases your soil fertility. So don’t and you can also plant nitrogen bearing crops. Any of the legumes, for example, are famous for nitrogen fixing. They’ll take nitrogen from the air and translate it into a method that the plants can use and pests control. Now obviously chickens and Guinea fowl and things like that are very helpful for pest control, but if you simply can’t, keep them in your like suburban environment. Then there are a couple of three methods to, to bear in mind for pests. One is if you actually claws your gardens, your garden beds or your plants with netting, that will go a long way to keeping insects out. Aphids are a fa famous example.
If you can claws things early, and I mean you plant your seeds and then you claws them with netting you’ve got a far better chance of. Keeping aphids out or other insect pests. Even things like there’s something called the tomato mosaic virus, I believe it’s called, where people who smoke cigarettes can [00:32:00] actually transmit a virus to their tomato plants through fingers that have been holding cigarettes.
I think it’s called.
Josh Wilder: Oh, I’ve never heard of that.
Patrice Lewis: Yeah, it’s remarkable, I forget what it’s called, like tobacco mosaic virus or something, and it can spread. So yeah, you have to be careful about things like that. And then of course if you have pests like. Groundhogs. We don’t have that issue here, but that’s an issue.
Back east, I understand. Or even some people have wild pigs or even bears, things like this. You need to know what pests, what big and small pests are in your area, and then take steps to eradicate, not eradicate, but protect your garden. That’s why I say it’s a defensive location. Your garden is a defensive location.
Our area, we have deer like you wouldn’t believe in our area, deer and elk. So we ended up putting up cattle panels or some people call ’em hog panels, which are four feet high. And that keeps out our cattle ’cause our garden is sticks out into our cow field. And then we raised the fences to 10 and a half feet high with deer netting above that.[00:33:00]
So for the first time, we are absolutely guaranteed. Deer proof, and it’s a thrill to know I’m not gonna be going out in the garden and have all my beans decimated by deer. So it takes a while to figure out what pests you face, and then you quite, you have to figure out what to do against them in the suburbs.
For example, my, my mother was an avid gardener and she, believe it or not. Faced issues with the neighborhood cats that always came in and used her garden beds as litter boxes clashing will help against that. This kind of stuff. Things that you may not think would be a problem, who would’ve thought neighborhood cats would be a problem.
But it was, and so she had to figure out how to get around that issue.
Josh Wilder: Yeah, it’s a lot of a lot of things that want to eat up your tasty, tasty crops, that’s for sure.
Patrice Lewis: The thing is gardening is so involved that you get, you start talking to an enthusiastic gardener and I don’t mean to sound like [00:34:00] I’m flooding people with information.
There’s just so much information out there and that’s why I suggest start small. Then grow as your skills and ambition grow. But if you start out with this huge garden and think you’re just going to, have this flawless Instagram perfect space, it’s not going to, you’re gonna really get discouraged.
So if you’re just starting, start small, one bed, claws it, see what happens, and then you’ll figure out, you’ll grow from there. Because if you get, if you start taking advice from somebody who’s an enthusiastic gardener, who’s been gardening for a number of decades and can has already stuff figured out it’s kinda like throwing a knitting needles at me.
I can’t knit and you throw a skeen of yarn and knitting needles at me, I’m gonna get very discouraged as to try to figure out what to do. Go start small. Start small. Don’t be too ambitious, and then figure it out. And you’re going to, you’re gonna end up being thrilled with your results. If you just don’t go too fast, don’t bite off too much more than you can chew.
Josh Wilder: Thank you, Patrice, for helping us navigate that path towards food security. And for those of you listening, you can [00:35:00] find Patrice’s article alongside many other pieces on self-sufficiency and sustainability in the February March, 2026 issue of Mother Earth News. Thanks again, Patrice, for being here.
Patrice Lewis: Thank you. My pleasure.
Josh Wilder: At True Leaf Market seed company, they think in seasons not trends.
With over 3000 garden seed varieties, they serve growers who feed families, steward land, and build resilience year after year from packet to pallet quantities. Seeds are available for any project. With no wholesale account required and lightning fast free shipping. It’s a non GMO seed source.
Homesteaders have trusted for over 50 years. Whether you’re managing acres or planting for the future, explore seeds with purpose at TrueLeafMarket.com.
Josh Wilder: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends. To listen to more podcasts and get connected on our social media, visit www.motherearthnews.com/podcast. You can also email us at Podcast@OgdenPubs.com with any questions or suggestions. Our podcast production team includes Alyssa Warner and myself, Josh Wilder.
Music for this episode is the song Hustle by Kevin [00:21:00] MacLeod. The Mother Earth News and Friends podcast is a production of Ogden Publications.
