Eliot Coleman ran a profitable one-man farm for years (decades?), with some seasonal help. His books are very helpful. "The New Organic Grower" details how to start and operate such a farm. He says 2 acres in vegetables is the most one person can handle with hand tools.

http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/

@Sixstrings

A lot depends on what you are trying to achieve here as far as self-sufficiency.

Just an example. When I was growing up on my father's 40 acre farm, we were basically self sufficient with regards to meat(cows) and vegetables using a 1 acre plot(43560 sq feet). 208X208 feet

Most of the 40 acres were devoted to either grazing or for hay production.

There was devoted to the vegetable patch about 1 hr a night and some 6 hrs on a weekend. My father liked a weed-free garden and I got tapped to keep it that way. That is not to say we were totally self-sufficient as my mother still bought things like beans, pasta, and flour from town. But I don't see why with a full time schedule of 8 hrs a day, you could not do 5 acres of vegetable gardens by yourself, as long as you had the mechanical advantage of tillers and a small farm tractor. More if you had kids that could be weed-pullers and harvesters.

My answer would be no. Not a one-man farm with no other help.

Labor (or a great deal of expensive equipment and FFs) is the single most important input in any ag operation, and this will only become more true.

I have before me a copy of the 1902 yearbook of the US dept. of Agriculture. Try finding that at your local book store! 846 pages and not a single mention of tractors as they had not been introduced yet. It can give us insight as to what can be produced without oil and has multi year statistic tables state by state for all the principle crops.
Using the stated example of Ohio.

average per acre production:.
crop bushels/ ac
******* 1892****94 *** 95 **** 96**** 97**** 98 **** 99 **** '00 **** '01
corn ..... 29.4... 23.8 ... 26.3 ...32.6 ... 41.0.... 32.5.... 37.0 .... 36.0.... 37.0 .... 26.1

wheat ....13.6 .... 14.5 .... 19.0... 13.3 ... 9.0.... 16.9 ... 16.9 .... 14.2 ... 6.0... 15.3

oats .... 26.3 .... 28.6 ... 30.3 ... 31.7.... 31.0... 32.0 ... 30.9 .... 36.0 .... 38.0 .... 31.5

potato..... 60 ....... 58 ....... 63 ..... 63..... 89..... 42 ..... 61..... 71..... .. 76 ........ *

This is a good example of what was accomplished using horse drawn equipment and steam powered threshers etc. without the use of fossil fuel derived fertilizers. I don't think the numbers include grain fed to the horses on farm so they are a net product deliverd for sale which is detailed in another table. One side note both Germany and England reported much hiher yields per acre than any state in the US.
The moral of the story is do not plan on 150 bushels per acre post peak.

my acquaintance is running a 38 acre organic farm right outside of Burnet, Texas.
http://www.hairstoncreekfarm.com/
they used to sell to the grocery store I work for, but got fed up with us not giving them a fair price for their produce (us .40 a pound for yellow squash/csa 3.00 a pound for yellow squash)and finally told us they would rather let it rot in the field than ever do business with us again (my boss laughed and said he thought we were doing them a favor)...Gary has three grown children who work the farm from time to time, and he hires help (and has the benefit of free labor in exchange for a place to put your tent). His wife Sarah told me they were netting 10,000 a month in their CSA boxes, and that it was a great deal because the customers had to take whatever was in the box...they were able to pay off their land very quickly and had a great mortgage burning party....

sadly, Sarah is shot through with cancer and is undergoing extensive chemo....

Somewhere between self sufficiency and gardening to stave off scurvy is raising food for barter. Late varieties of fruit store well and have value, and could be used for chicken feed when they get past their prime. A half dozen trees bearing plums (in season) and hard late variety apples, pears, and persimmons would make a nice income supplement.

Coming back to the headline: what do you mean profitable?
Until now everybody thought of this as earning enough cash to pay your live. Or do you mean by profitable that you will have enough to eat? What are you aiming for?
And how will you generate some superannuation?

We, hopefully will be able to buy some acreage in a few month. The size will depend mostly were this acreage will be. Besides our veggie garden and chickens we are completely unexperienced

Some thoughts:
1. I aim mainly for food producing for ourselves, vegetables, fruit, roots, nuts, eggs, maybe meat.
2. the first three years, maybe more, our land must not produce income, I would raise plants for sale, as I am doing yet.
3. We would maybe not aim for producing all ourselves, as it needs heaps of equipment, i.e. a mill for the flour etc. but the land should be sufficient for doing so if necessary.
4. maybe animals only make sense if you are not in the middle of dairy/meat farmers
5. I like the idea of forest farming if climate is suitable.
6. my husband likes worm farming
7. timber trees could provide something like superannuation
8. We may need a horse or a mula for transportation?
9. Would like to include some natural forest/bushland, depending on the location.

Point 1 and 2 needs maybe 1-2 acres, raising plants another 1/4 is largely sufficient.
All the rest needs a considerable amount of space, especially i have no idea how much space is needed to raise some timber trees in order to have a sufficient revenue when we're old. I am not sure if worm farming is viable, especially if times get a bit harder. Anyway everything depends on where and in which climate zone and if we will be able to buy something.

Very sad

Can you tell me what a "CSA" is?

Community Supported Agriculture

I guess I was just wondering about the profitability of small scale, very low tech veggie farms.

So, let's assume 2 acres with one full day and about an hour or two per per day to spend working the land.

So obviously, feeding oneself would be profit, and I was really just wondering about extra cash -- should one even bother growing a bit more than subsistence, if one can't make a leap to larger scale.

edit: i meant 1 full day a week and 2 hrs a day maintenance, with more time obviously for planting and harvest

Ah, very clever. Like gym memberships, always get people to pay for something for a full year if you can.

Thanks for all the replies everyone, lot of good information.

Anyone have any thoughts on growing amaranth and quinoa grains?

I've been really stuck on amaranth lately as a survival crop.. sturdy, annual, easy to harvest, high nutrition to the grain, leaves are good for greens.

Unless you already have extensive gardening experience, you will have to allow several years for a learning curve.

Also, estimates for start-up and continuing costs will almost inevitably be too low.

Then you have to allow for periodic devastating impacts from bugs, disease, drought, flood, hail, and ravenous birds and deer.

I honestly cannot see how any one person could make a go of it. There are just too many variables ( climate, soil type, fertility ) that can work against you. If you get sick and cannot work you're screwed so I say no damn way.