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
- Azolla Foundation – everything you could want to know about this super plant for homestead aquaculture systems!
- Permaculture Design Principle Deep Dive ~ Epi 10 – Optimize The Edge
- Chinampas playlist
- Adjustable monk/swivel pipes in action
Need some help getting the “birds eye view” of your property and its surrounds to help you design your sovereign homestead?
Check out our Hi-Definition Contour Base Map package. This package includes:
- Hi-definition LiDAR contour map layer (contour lines can spaced at whatever scale you desire – as tight as 1 foot or less if you desire).
- Aspect Map Layer – color-code your entire property by which direction it faces – very helpful in identifying ideal growing zones and microclimates for specific plantings.
- Hillshade Layer – for easily visualizing landform across your entire property.
- Slope Layer – color-code your entire property based on the % grade – very helpful for access planning, living systems establishment and site selection for buildings etc.
Deliverables include:
- Hi-definition .jpeg or .pdf of your entire property and/or its contributing watersheds, at whatever size you desire (if you wish to print a poster and have it laminated as an iterative design tool images can be generated at whatever size the poster shop will print).
- .KML file of the contour lines for importing and 3D viewing in Google Earth Pro (free to download) – this is a very helpful and accessible design tool.
We also offer consulting calls if you need some design help or a fresh perspective – see the Virtual Property Design Review for details.
Getting started designing your homestead?
START HERE: Enroll in the Minimum Holistic Goal Creation Mini-Course today for free. This is the ONE THING that will make everything else easier or unnecessary on your homesteading journey! 100% Free
Upon completing this course you will have a crystal clear idea of who and what resources you have to work with, your desired Quality of Life that your homestead has to provide for, and what you will need to produce and the conditions required to sustain that production to meet your Quality of Life needs.
