HOW MANY VEGGIES WOULD YOU NEED?

Could not agree more. We plan like it's going back to the 1800's so anything short of that we should be ok.

BWM

 

Learn how to turn perishable foodstuffs into longer shelf life derivatives. Milk to cheese, grains to mead, fruits to wine, which store longer. Fermented vegetables (kraut, kimchi, etc.) Smoking, salting, curing. Canning is a must.

On the fat. Beans are the best all around staple. Rice with Bran, with give you oil as well.

 

What I meant was the kudzu. Prime in the southeast, I haven't seen it much in the mid west though.

 

Great topic, SLugomist. A lot of people haven't thought through their caloric and nutritional needs and are thinking a relatively small garden will get them through.

The math is sobering - each person needs 1100 meals a year to stay healthy and productive. 2000 calories a day in a survival situation is a bare minimum - that's 730,000 calories a year. Kind of tough to do with green beans, zucchini and tomatoes!

I just argued this with a lady who raised six kids and should really know better. They are pretty well set up on 100 acres with a good spring, but four of her six kids and their families including grandkids will be coming to her place if TSHTF, for a total of about 30 people. That's good, because they'll need that many hands on deck if TSHTF, but she really wasn't realistic about feeding them all. I reminded her how much food it took for Thanksgiving dinner, and how long she could cook for that many on what her garden produced. She wasn't too happy when I pointed out that the alternative was to eat her horses, which are her hobby.

After going round and round I finally got her to look at tripling her garden area, adding a greenhouse, quadrupling her chickens and getting some quality milk goats and crossing them with a Boer male with a good milking background in his blood. (That'll produce some meaty milkers...)

I pointed out that a crew that size would easily eat 90 eggs for breakfast and 5 gallons of hearty home made soup every night, with several loaves of bread on the side. She's going to get the kids to chip in to lay in a whole bunch of rice and a big assortment of pintos, black beans, red beans and lentils right away.

 

Got a garden poster from...can't remember if it was Horizon Herbs or Bountiful Gardens, but it suggested the amount of plants needed for each fruit/vegetable to feed 1 person. Here's what they recommended:Asparagus 15, Amarnath/Quinoa 40, Artichoke 3, Snap Bean 15, Fava Bean 10, Soy Bean 15, Beet 20, Swiss Chard 8, Brussel Sprouts 6, Sprouting Broccoli 8, Heading Broccoli 8, Collards & Cabbage 4, Chinese Cabbage 6, Chicory 5, Carrot 30, Celery 6, Cauliflower 4, Corn/Sorghum 25, Cucumber 4, Endive 5, Eggplant 2, Kale 3, Leek 50, Lettuce 10(planted in succession), Melons 5, Okra 2, Onion/Chives 40, Parsley 10(planted in succession), Turnip/Parsnip 40, Peas 50, Pepper 5, Potato 25, Rhubarb 1-2, Radish 20(planted in succession), Spinach 10(planted in succession), Summer Squash 3, Winter Squash 3, Strawberry 8-12, Sunflower 10, Tomato 4, Various Greens 10(planted in succession)

 

I would need about 1600+ calories by that chart. That seems high to me but with everyday fattening foods it would be easier to get that 1600. On a lean fresh diet I think it would be harder to obtain. @VHestin post the list of what 1 person would need is larger then I would have thought. Plus you would have to preserve most of this. Preserve or dehydrate. Take a family of 4 and that is huge!

 

Threads like this remind me why I store food instead of trying to grow everything.

(and should remind us all why farmers are vital to any soceity SHTF or not.)