How much of your daily calorie intake do you truly get from your gardens?

[SSanf]

Here is the thing. If we do not get enough actual calories, generally in the form of carbohydrates, we can get bulk but still starve if we become really dependent on what we grow. Has anyone come even close to getting enough calories from their garden to sustain themselves and their family?

[packitnow]

Short answer.........Yes, from the garden and animals we raise. I have heard rumors about "store bought" but we don't use it.

[bikerdruid]

if i can include the odd deer we harvest, munching in the garden, and the chickens fed with its produce, pretty much all of them.

[SSanf]

So, what do you all do for coffee, creamer, sugar, oil, cheese, baking powder, adequate flour and things like that?

Do you all have lots of land?

Good on all of you who do so well. Excluding meat, in your experience how many square feet of garden must a person have for adequate calories for survival in their diets? I know much of my caloric content currently comes from things I cannot grow. I get a darned lot of calories from the sugar and creamer in my coffee alone. That doesn't even take into consideration things like margarine and peanut butter. Plus, I cannot produce the flour for my pasta and breads. Is it hopeless for me? Do I need to change my diet to include more high calorie things I can grow?

I stockpile what I can but after the first season, when those run out, I could face long term starvation depending on my garden. I am pretty limited around 1400 square feet if I really expanded and there are 3 to feed. Suggestions?

I have some miniature chickens. I guess I should do a couple of rabbits in the shed as well.

[roro]

i'd stockpile as much wheat as you could. fill your garage or even your house with it... cause you can buy or make grinding stones and grind the wheat into flour for pasta and bread. also get some chickens roosters, so you can produce more chickens & have eggs. if you have a tick problem in your area guineas would be good. beans- organic soy beans, mung beans, any kinda beans you can get (peas are in the legume family as well)... radishes, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, carrots, onions, turnips, collards, cabbages and sweet potatoes would be good to grow. also garlic, horseradish, asparagus. you might also look into growing amaranth as a grain. you can eat the leaves as well as the grain and it is very dense in nutrition & produces quite a bit of grain per plant (way more than wheat/corn).

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/clay62.html < good article.

if you grew soy beans, you could make soy milk (very easy) and tofu (also very easy), as well as eating the beans themselves. i was just thinking of this, since you don't have enough room for cows/goats.. and you could make pasta and bread with the soy milk...

[SSanf]

Thanks for the ideas. I do have some amaranth and it is very beautiful. However, I have had little luck harvesting the grain. It is so small, that it is extremely hard to separate the edible seed from the chaff. I have beaten it, winnowed it in the wind, etc. By the time I extracted the calories, I would have used ten times the energy just getting to them. I must not be doing it right or something.

[roro]

Originally Posted by SSanf

Thanks for the ideas. I do have some amaranth and it is very beautiful. However, I have had little luck harvesting the grain. It is so small, that it is extremely hard to separate the edible seed from the chaff. I have beaten it, winnowed it in the wind, etc. By the time I extracted the calories, I would have used ten times the energy just getting to them. I must not be doing it right or something.

what about sunflowers? the seeds are easy to harvest and you can eat the seeds as well as the flowers/stalks. and you can dry 'em & store 'em for later use.

have you tried quinoa or flax?

http://www.saltspringseeds.com/scoop/powerfood.htm

[mmpaints]

I eat out of my garden, raise my own meat and supplement it with hunted meat. I'm actually lightly overweight(20lbs) now that I've had the back surgery. Between the fresh pork sausage I make, the home made breads, the corn, tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc, I'll bet you I eat 10 times better than people that eat commercial foods do.

[SSanf]

I did try sunflowers once. They were real show stoppers but I think if I do that for food, I will have to find ones with meatier seeds. Yeah, that is probably worth a second look. Thanks.

LOL!! If I could add one hog, (other than my ravenous son) that sure would help.

I bet that you do eat well.

[SSanf]

Hey! thanks for the link!! I have been trying to harvest it way too soon! Well it will be back next year in full force because it reseeds itself. So, I will try again on the amaranth. It is a gorgeous plant and I have all the colors growing by my shed.

[SSanf]

I am going to test this out and see if I can give you all a small look at my garden.

YouTube - SSanf Has a Garden

YouTube - Mr. Sun Please Shine Down on Me!

YouTube - How does my garden grow?

[capelthwait]

Originally Posted by SSanf

Here is the thing. If we do not get enough actual calories, generally in the form of carbohydrates, we can get bulk but still starve if we become really dependent on what we grow. Has anyone come even close to getting enough calories from their garden to sustain themselves and their family?

A garden isn't for calories as much as it for other things that we need to consumer to remain healthy. Calories are important as in how much energy you put into getting your food compared to how much energy you get from your food. Garden crops take more energy to produce than they give back. Any grain that you eat takes more energy to create a product to eat than you will get from the grain. Fortunately people who do raise their own food have other things to extend those calories than their own body. Most today use power plant electricity to provide those calories of energy but others do still use water, wind (as I do), or even home created electricity. Without some other kind of energy a person would starve to death even with a garden full of crops and a field full of grain.

The problem with focusing on calories though is that the body needs much more than calories to survive. We saw this in sailors of old that had plenty of calories to eat but didn't have proper nutrition and became ill and died. Even if it takes more calories to produce our food than we get for eating it, we need to have gardens that give us what our body needs above and beyond calories.

The few tricks needed becomes having enough knowledge in producing your own food that you waste as few calories as possible in your food production. When you first start gardening for sustinance you waste many more calories with your mistakes than someone who has experience producing their own food. Also one must have something besides their own body to produce those calories such as animal power, water power, etc. And last, but really not least, you need to suppliment garden produce with other calorie rich foods such as meat, dairy or wild produce that didn't take your calories to raise.

My family raises all the food that they eat, but because we have been doing it for 7 generations we have learned how to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of balancing calories in compared to calories out in our favor.

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by SSanf

Here is the thing. If we do not get enough actual calories, generally in the form of carbohydrates, we can get bulk but still starve if we become really dependent on what we grow. Has anyone come even close to getting enough calories from their garden to sustain themselves and their family?

I don't get a whole lot of my actual calorie count from my garden...yet.

I just moved here a couple years ago and I'm still test planting to see what will be easiest to grow here without a lot of soil amendment, etc. I have several acres to plant on though, so once I get it figured out, I should be able to grow quite a bit. I plan in getting some animals too (rabbits, chickens and goats), so they'll contribute to overall calorie count. Bees will go in this season if all goes well. More calories there, though we're not big on sweets.

I have no idea how sustainable this will be long term. But for now it's all I have. At the very least, it will stretch out the storage foods considerably. Hopefully long enough to be past the crisis and into the rebuilding phase.

[Hick Industries]

I think the OP is an excellent question. Perhaps some of you missed it.

The bulk of the calories in a person's diet is in the form of breads, pasta, potatoes, meat and fat. While sugars, fruits, and veggies are important, they do not supply the majority of calorie like carbohydrates do.

Some folks currently plant and harvest grains and row crops and raise their own livestock. They truly do produce most of their calories from the garden, that is if you consider a garden to be a full acre truck garden.

While I currently have to irrigate my garden here in the desert, my retirement place is located in the Western edge of the Ozark mtns. I have planted fruit and nut trees there and also plan to raise 2 acres of wheat, corn, beans, and squash.

[SSanf]

Right. As proud as I am of my wonderful garden, I know I have to guard against any illusion that I can do without food from the larger community very long. Even with the addition of food animals, they need food to be productive or they are no good to me. So I would need additional supplies for the food producing animals.

I think I will go real heavy on corn, beans and potatoes next year. Those are the belly fillers.

[roro]

growing corn takes a lot out of your soil. they're heavy feeders. if you plant it, it'd be good to do it the way the native americans did... the "three sisters"... corn beans and squash. http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html < this article tells you how to do that.

if you also had some chickens and/or guineas, you would have plenty of meat available. just be sure to get a couple roosters! plus the chicken poop would really help the garden. and the chickens would eat the pests on your plants, and the guineas would eat the ticks (if you have them). so you'd always have a source of fresh eggs and meat available.

also, you have LOTS of grass in your yard. you could make the whole thing food and just mulch the yard. you can also use your front yard to grow stuff. every bit of space that can grow food should grow food if the SHTF! lol if i didn't rent, i would make both my front & back yards nothing but food.

http://www.pathtofreedom.com/ < like them.

[SSanf]

One of my friends has been talking about pigeons as a food source. Some breeds are for meat production, I hear. And, they just fly away, find their own food and return. I guess they would be less of a burden if I need to provide food for them and my family. Don't know if they eat yard waste. But, they would be flying away from the property, finding calories, eating them and bringing them back to the property in their own fat bodies.

I suppose that a successful chicken coop is not a lot of work once established. I wonder how many pigeons it would produce to eating size and how fast.

[SSanf]

Originally Posted by roro

growing corn takes a lot out of your soil. they're heavy feeders. if you plant it, it'd be good to do it the way the native americans did... the "three sisters"... corn beans and squash. http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html < this article tells you how to do that.

if you also had some chickens and/or guineas, you would have plenty of meat available. just be sure to get a couple roosters! plus the chicken poop would really help the garden. and the chickens would eat the pests on your plants, and the guineas would eat the ticks (if you have them). so you'd always have a source of fresh eggs and meat available.

also, you have LOTS of grass in your yard. you could make the whole thing food and just mulch the yard. you can also use your front yard to grow stuff. every bit of space that can grow food should grow food if the SHTF! lol if i didn't rent, i would make both my front & back yards nothing but food.

http://www.pathtofreedom.com/ < like them.

Thank you for the ideas. Yeah, I could grow a lot more. The landlord is funny. He will allow raised beds but he will not allow us to plow up the grass. I do know that, being a kind person, if TSHTF, he will back down and let us plant as needed for food. But now, he wants the place to look more like a normal suburban residential neighborhood. He does make people stay tidy and keep their yards attractive here. He is an excellent landlord. This park has been in his family for years and, I guess, he learned how to be a good landlord pretty young. I am so lucky that way.

[Nightside_Eclipse]

Originally Posted by SSanf

Thank you for the ideas. Yeah, I could grow a lot more. The landlord is funny. He will allow raised beds but he will not allow us to plow up the grass. I do know that, being a kind person, if TSHTF, he will back down and let us plant as needed for food. But now, he wants the place to look more like a normal suburban residential neighborhood. He does make people stay tidy and keep their yards attractive here. He is an excellent landlord. This park has been in his family for years and, I guess, he learned how to be a good landlord pretty young. I am so lucky that way.

Does he not realize that raised beds kill the grass underneath them? lol

You can grow a lot of food in a few decent sized raised beds, what that family in the Path to Freedom link does with their tiny plot never ceases to amaze me.

[SSanf]

Originally Posted by Nightside_Eclipse

Does he not realize that raised beds kill the grass underneath them? lol

You can grow a lot of food in a few decent sized raised beds, what that family in the Path to Freedom link does with their tiny plot never ceases to amaze me.

That site looks like something I should spend some time on. Thanks!