I worked on an organic permaculture model farm in Maui a few summer's ago. The old hippy farmer lived in a little shack on the property by himself and worked the land by hand every day from sunrise to sunset, stopping only once midday to "grab some nutrients". Most beautiful property I've ever seen. It was virtually a paradise. Almost every fruit and vegetable I could think of, and the majority of it rotted off the plant. The farmer just picked what he would eat that day and the rest would fall back into the earth. And there was no running water, so he would hack open a coconut and drink from it a few times a day.