100 Top Crops You Can Grow

Mark Valencia started ‘Self Sufficient Me’ in 2011 as a blog. The goal was to share information about how everyday Australians could be more self-sufficient, from growing your own vegetables to keeping chickens at home.  

The popularity of the blog has grown over time, and it now has more than 1.5 million followers on Facebook, and approximately 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube from all over Australia and the world.  

Now, Booktopia is excited to share that we are exclusively pre-selling copies of Mark’s book, 100 Top Crops. Readers can learn about his top picks for crops to grow at home, along with tips and advice on getting the most out of each one.  

Meet Mark Valencia

Even as a child, Mark was deeply interested in self-sufficiency. He spent most of his adult life in the Australian Army, but since both he and his wife were struggling under the demands of juggling military life with raising two young boys at home, Mark stepped back from service to care for his kids. 

Mark had spent 21 years in service, but quickly devoted himself to giving his boys the best start possible at home. However, even with his wife still earning, they realised they would need to take steps to become more self-sufficient with the high cost of living making it harder to make ends meet. 

Fortunately, the family were living on a three acre property north of Brisbane. They had moved there with plans of being able to plant a few fruit trees here and there, but that plan quickly evolved to one of increased self-sufficiency. Therefore, Mark set to growing as much as possible, and it got them through. 

Eventually, the two boys grew up enough that they no longer needed him to be quite so hands on. That’s when Mark began plotting about how to turn his abilities, knowledge and experience into a career path. 

He set up a website, a YouTube channel, and social media channels. He never had any training in social media or video editing, but his no-nonsense, practical tips for self-sufficiency soon saw him gain a following around the country and the globe. He now loves his career, and his boys – now young men themselves – have joined Mark on his channels to help with content creation and editing work.  

Mark Valencia was already a beloved Australian blogger and influencer – and now we’re excited to see him join our list of homegrown Australian authors, too.