Sovereign Food Systems - Pantry Ponds ~ Epi-59 | The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

Today we look at another Sovereign Food System - what I'm calling the Pantry Pond.

Basically a homestead-scale aquaculture system designed to maximize your food sovereignty via independence from the centralized systems of supply and distribution for any of the inputs required to grow what you want to grow - fish, aquatic vegetables, crawfish, shrimp, water fowl etc.

Well-designed homestead-scale aquaculture systems aren't that common here in the modern U.S., and yet they have a tremendously long and productive history in many cultures the world round.

Because aquaculture is so context and place-specific, we're going to talk about things today from a paradim and principles perspective, as well as list the specific design criteria you'll need to pay attention to when shaping your pond(s) and selecting the species to live in them.

We'll look at...

Context - what you need to analyze to know if this will work for you
Zones within the pond
- Litoral, limnetic, euphotic, profundal and benthic and the different characteristics of each (HINT: litoral is where most of the action is going to be)
Different production elements
- Fish and factors affecting their yields
- Invertebrates - crawfish, shrimp, prawns, snails, insects
- Amphibians
- Filter Feeders - molluscs, clams, oysters etc.
- Vegetation - 4 types of aquatic vegetation
  - Marginal
  - Emergent
  - Submerged
  - Floating
Physical Structure Of Your Pond(s)
- Segmentation / Segregation of different ages, sexes, species etc.
- Life-stage design: eggs > fry > fingerlings > adult / market weight > breeding adults
- Predator protection - aquatic and terrestrial
- Temperature and aeration considerations
- Feeding / harvest pens
- Optimizing the pond edge for calorie production
  - Shallows, chinampas, paddies, floating islands, trees etc.

If you're serious about creating food sovereignty from your landscape, pantry ponds deserve consideration. Per unit area, there is nothing as productive, especially when it comes to producing protein.

Show Resources