How much food do you need ?

My calculations are

If you ate : ( while i didnt put beans in here you could, the numbers for it are included)
1/2# meat (550 calories on average)
1/2# wheat (771 calories)
1/4# cornmeal or about 1# sweet corn (400 calories)
1.0# potatos (417 calories)
---> per day you should get _2138_ calories per day. Of course you will need other vegetables for

vitamins, spices, and general diversity.

you need : (914 lbs of food / person / year)
~183# of meat per person per year, whatever sources ;-)
~183# of wheat per person per year, takes ~ 1/10 acre
~183# of corn per person per year, takes ~ 1/20 acre (averaging sweet vs cornmeal)
~365# of potatos per person / year, takes ~ 1/60 acre
and probably at least 1/10 acre a diverse assortment of your favorite vegetables and fruits

(Keep in mind these yeilds are for farmers, amateurs need to figure this in !!!)
(also consider the possibility of crop losses, droughts etc !!!)

I love bread, so its important to me ! 1/2 # flour doesnt make much homemade bread !

MMMM potatos , hash browns, french fries, baked, boiled, fried, mashed etc.
Potato chips !!!! <-------





Sources:




http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/11674.html
http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/11168.html
http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/20020.html
http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/20080.html
http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/90080.html
http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/23502.html
http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/11282.html
http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/16024.html
http://www.jeffersoninstitute.org/pubs/drybeans.shtml
http://www.nass.usda.gov/census/cens..._1_033_033.pdf
this PDF has crop yeilds / acre for irrigated / semi, and no irrigation for common crops

Whole chicken 960 cal / pound
Ground beef 1165 cal / pound
Pork sausage 1366 cal / pound

Potatos 417 cal / pound
Sweet Corn 480 cal / pound
Cornmeal 1600 cal / pound
Whole grain wheat flour 1526 cal / pound
Onions 188 cal / pound
Great Northern Beans 1542 cal / pound

dry bean yeild 1600 lb / acre
corn yeild 5000 lb / acre
wheat 1800 lb / acre
potato yeild 25,000 lb / acre

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Happiness is directly proportional to the ratio that trees out number humans.

Have you ever had potato bread? Its my favorite!

leftover mashed potatoes are also great for thickening soups and stews...

My husband came home with 6 fruit trees this weekend...4 apple 1 peach and 1 plum....peach and plum are *supposedly* self pollinating? We already have 5 old apple trees but they need reclaiming and fruit spikes to be productive again!

Berries are also easy and productive and full of antioxidants...we pick lots of wild Maine blueberries

Its fiddlehead time now and nearly time for rhubarb

Variety is the spice of life!

I have a pamphlet that was printed in 1935 titled "Subsistence Gardening". It was printed by Alabama Polytechnic Institute. Today they go by Auburn University. I found it in a Ball Blue Book that was from 1938. They belonged to my great-grandpa.

It has a planting schedule for different vegetables. It also has a column showing how much to plant for a family of five. It's supposed to be enough to have vegetables year round.

It has a section about making several plantings in order to have a continuous supply during the growing season.

It even lists different varieties to plant, Marglobe tomatoes, Kentucky Wonder beans, purple top turnips, Trucker's Favorite corn, and so on.

If someone planted all they recommend it would be a full time job taking care of it. This is for a family of 5, 200ft row of beans, 200ft row of corn (of course this would have to be divided into 4 50ft rows or something like that to insure pollination), 1/4 acre of Irish potatoes, 1/4 acre of sweet potatoes.

It's only 8 pages but it's interesting. It just shows how much is involved in feeding a family out of your garden and how much work our ancestors did in order to survive.

Red

1/10 acre Wheat
+ 1/10 acre Diverse selection (for vitamins and taste NOT calories)
+ 1/20 acre Corn (and or dry beans)
+ 1/60 acre Potatos
= .27 acres or roughly 1/4 acre (110x110ft) garden required to feed a person a year, if you are a knowlegable gardener,and have no big losses. And provide at least 1/2 pound meat per day per person through fishing, hunting, raising your own animals.

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Happiness is directly proportional to the ratio that trees out number humans.

Does sound interesting, right up my ally

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marching to the beat of a different drummer

I've wondered about 'survival gardening' as well. Particularly since I live in a city.
My family would have a difficult time of it, surviving on just what I could grow or forage.
But not nearly as bad as most of my neighbors. So many people do not grow a single edible thing. I talked one neighbor into a garden one year, but "it was too hard" and she stopped after one season. But at least she no longer hints about getting free veggies, so at least there was some benefit.

I have a small garden which I could expand in a hurry, nut trees, fruit trees, fruit bushes, herbs, edible flowers, etc. Plus I have my laying hens. I seeded my lawn with clover deliberately to attract pollinators and also to increase the vitamin content of the lawn clippings I feed to my hens.

I also make it a point to try growing different things each year, just to get an idea of how well they grow, how to harvest, etc. This year it's pac choi, daikon radish and chicory. I don't want to try something new in a desperate situation.
Some of these trials become regular additions. Cress, corn salad, kale and cilantro for example do very well and are not recognized as 'food' per se, so I could plant them in my flower beds without too much worry about someone stealing it. Same with just about any green except iceberg lettuce. LOL

Sounds like you are doing great! You might not be able to grow all your family's food, but every little bit helps.

Kathleen

Thanks Kathleen! I try to remind myself of that esp. when I feel claustrophobic here in town. I'm the oddball neighbor, the "chicken lady". (Ever had to go door-to-door, asking if anyone has seen lost chickens? I have! )

I'm very hopeful about this summer/fall plans. I have DH convinced (Finally!) to take out the kids' old playset and we are going to put a greenhouse up in its place. That will really help extend my growing season.

The playset will in turn, be reused in our to-be-remodelled chicken run. I'm planning a mini-Fort Knox chicken coop/run to protect my flock from raccoons, possums, and hopefully, any potential bird-flu carriers. I'm hoping we can redesign it to keep out potential thieves too so if I HAVE to depend on those eggs that I don't have to sleep out there to protect them!

There are a couple of books that I have that touch on this subject. First, "How to Grow More Vegetables etc" by John Jeavons is about techniques and methods for intensively growing vegetables. "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew is similar, but different. And then "The Backyard Homestead Mini-Farm and Garden Log Book", by Jeavons and a couple others, talks about nutrition supplied by different crops and the space required and the return from the space, etc. It is intended as a starting point in developing a person's individual garden/mini-farm, to the extent of producing money-making crops. These three books would be worthing getting from your library and reading through them.

I'll second those recommendations. They are all three excellent books, very useful. Only remember that Jeavons et. al are gardening in Southern California, so they have almost a year-round growing season -- most of us would need more land to grow the same amount of food.

Kathleen

Rabbit poop fertilizer? This is the second time I have read this. Never heard of it. I have been just throwing it away. What is it good for? Someone please educate me on this. Thank you in advance

http://doityourself.com/stry/rabbitsforgardeners

Somewhere I've got a link to an article that tells about what a family of four would consume. Can't find it, but did find this one http://www.plantsgalore.com/articles...plantfacts.htm

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Mustang Diaries

"It's called a lance...hellooo!"

I know a guy an hour away that sell all he can produce at $7 a bag.

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marching to the beat of a different drummer