This article was written by K Fields
This time of year, many folks are thinking about gardeningand wondering about becoming more food self-sufficient. Some fear Government regulations, some fear Corporate controls on supply, some fear the additives used by producers to increase gains, some just fear everything and are searching for some corner of stability in a mostly unstable world. Whatever your driving force to become more food self-sufficient, my hat is off to you.
But where should you start? Since we’re survivalists, I feel you should start with garden products that will provide you with a good amount of nutrition, are easy to grow, can be prepared for storage with the least amount of work, and will offer you a diet that is not too radically different from what you are currently eating (this is especially important for the very young and the very old). Potatoes, dry beans and peas, hard (winter) squash, carrots, corn and wheat will be the basis and, to round out your diet, honey (and bees for pollination), black oil sunflowers for, well, oil of course and apples for their sugar, minerals and vitamins. Other than eating more (different) squash and substituting sunflower oil in those areas you currently use butter, this diet should be acceptable to most folks.
And what about livestock? The addition of livestock can enhance your life or it can be a nightmare depending on your situation. Chickens are normally thought of as a basic necessity and many people will start raising chickens before they ever begin to grow enough crops to feed themselves – thinking they will have eggs and meat available if nothing else. But if you take a step back and look at some realities, the storybook homestead scenario doesn’t hold up.
A hen egg will give you somewhere around 90 calories, but each hen will need to consume about 300 calories a day to produce that egg. If you are set-up where your chickens can fend for themselves, every day of the year, summer and winter, and still get enough nutrition to produce eggs, then fine, chickens will be a definite plus to your diet. But if you must feed them 300 calories worth of grain a day, even for part of the year, to produce a single 90 calorie egg, then you’re running a loss you can’t afford for long in a survival situation without other compensations.
Dairy animals are usually the next step in the fairy-tale self-sufficient homestead evolution. They will give you milk, cream, butter, cheeses and an offspring you can slaughter for meat. But boy-oh-boy, they will cost you. A basic fact you should keep in mind – you’ll never get the calories out to match the calories you are putting in. Even setting feed issues aside, dairy animals require a daily commitment and a lot of work and that requires you to expend a lot of calories that you otherwise would not need to do. We want to keep the work necessary to feed ourselves to a minimum as much as we can in a survival situation.
And large meat animals? Hogs will consume about 6 calories of feed for every calorie of meat, a steer closer to 11 to 1. And then there is the problem of processing and preserving that quantity of meat without refrigeration in a survival situation. Now don’t get me wrong, there are definite plusses to raising livestock, but my advice is to get your basic nutritional needs taken care of first and then, and only then, think about advancement to that next level.
So let’s forget the livestock for now and concentrate on the simple garden produce that will actually keep you alive. The items listed above will provide you with plenty of calories and protein, and most of the vitamins and minerals you’ll need to survive. They are easily grown and just as important, they are easy to store after harvest – requiring minimal preparation. Potatoes, hard squash, carrots and apples are simply stored whole in crates or on shelves, and will last 4 to 6 months with very little care necessary on your part – beans, peas, corn, wheat and sunflower seeds are allowed to dry “on the vine” if possible, threshed, and then placed in vermin proof bins until you wish to use them – next week, next month, next year, 5 years down the road – they will be fine. Honey, as most here know, will store virtually forever.
None of these foods require freezing, canning or dehydrating so the “screw-up” factor is about as minimal as you can get – and that is what you need if you’re looking to actually survive off your own land. Yes, freezing can preserve many foods and meats, but freezing requires a power source that may not always be available to you. Canning requires the proper equipment, a lot of energy in the form of stable heat, and a lot of labor on your part. Dehydrating also requires extra heat energy input (although that can be provided by the sun) but again, a good amount of labor on your part is necessary to prepare the foods to dehydrate properly. All these methods have their place, but I suggest using them only to enhance your diet and not depend on them for your basic survival.
So how much will you need to grow? It depends on many factors, but I can share with you what quantities I grow to maintain my diet and maybe from that, give you some basis for your own situation.
First some background – I doubt my everyday at-home life will be much different after a SHTF type event. For much of my life I have lived mostly on what my homestead could produce, I’ve always lived “off-the-grid” except for my time working for the military and have always tried to do most homestead tasks using manual and animal labor instead of power equipment to maintain the skills my great-grandfather taught me.
My diet provides me with an average of 2,600 to 2,800 calories a day and that has been enough to maintain my health (I’m 6’5″ and my weight stays in the 212 to 220 range) and this amount of calories gives me enough strength and stamina to operate this homestead single handedly – at least for now (I’m currently 64).
I give this information simply as background as I know there will be folks who’ll say an individual will need thousands more calories a day once they must start doing their own hand labor, but my lifetime of experience shows that not to be true.
So let’s look at the quantities of these basic garden products that would be necessary to maintain my needed 1 million calories a year and my survival.
Potatoes:
Potatoes offer you about 320 calories per pound and a good bit of protein. I suggest you grow 1,200 pounds of potatoes over the season, which will give you 384,000 total calories. I know that sounds like a lot of potatoes, but if you are like me and have them fried with apples for breakfast, mashed, baked, served in soups and grated into hash browns and pancakes, you’ll find they will disappear fast. And what kid doesn’t like French-fries? You do have to be a bit careful with potatoes due to their high glycemic index – basically your body digests them quickly and causes a quick release of sugar into your bloodstream – so in our survival scenario, frying them will actually be better for you during the day as the oil will slow this process and keep you from experiencing that energy spike followed by the lethargic feeling as your insulin levels overcompensate. You can’t afford to be “fuzzy-headed”.
I currently produce about 1 pound of potatoes per square foot of garden space but my area is perfect for growing potatoes. I’d say 80 pounds per 100 sq. ft. would be a safe estimate for most areas, so you should be able to grow this quantity in about 1,600 square feet of space. Most folks will plant seed potatoes (a sprouted piece of potato that will produce clones) but remember to also grow a few plants from actual seed so that you can harvest the potato seeds for storage and future crops. This is a survival garden so you don’t want to be growing all clones that could be wiped out by some form of blight or virus that could hang around and wipe out your next season’s crop also. Potato seeds will only produce small tubers so you’ll have to plant more, but their clones the following season will produce normal sized stock once again.
Hard (winter) squash:
Just in case you didn’t know, winter squash is not grown in the winter – the name refers to hard skin squash that can be stored (after harvest) for use throughout the winter.
One pound of hard squash will equal about 120 calories. If you harvest 450 pounds of squash, that will add an additional 54,000 calories to your diet. My plots produce about 50 pounds per 100 square feet so you should be able to grow this quantity in a space of about 900 square feet. How can you possibly eat 450 pounds of squash? There are so many varieties of winter squash, from butternut, acorn, spaghetti, and all the way up to pumpkins, that you’ll be using them in everything from soups to breads, but yes, this one will take a bit of research on your part to ferret out different recipes to use if your experience with winter squash in the past has stopped with a single pie at Thanksgiving.
Dry Beans:
Many see beans as the staple survival food, and rightly so. Baked, boiled, slow-cooked or refried, beans will provide the protein you’ll need to get through your day. And though it’s not a “complete” protein, most folks will tell you if you throw some grain in your soup, wrap some in a taco shell, or spoon them over cornbread, you’ll have everything you’ll need. The reality though, is that you don’t really have to be careful about combining foods to create the “correct” mix every time – your body is very good at storing nutrients over a day and combining them all by itself as it feels is necessary. A pound of dry beans gives about 1,500 calories, so a 70-pound harvest – about 2 (5 gallon) buckets worth – will give you 105,000 calories and could be grown within a 2,000 square foot plot in most areas even if you have to mix vetch (favas) and beans like I do due to the lack of hot summers here. Also, if your climate allows, be sure to plant some soybeans for homemade soymilk to get additional nutrients.
Peas:
Dry peas, like beans, will provide you protein and a good number of vitamins and minerals. From soups to hummus, peas are a great addition to your diet but I’ve found I don’t use them in as many recipes as beans, so I’m suggesting to only grow half as much.
Peas offer about 1,500 calories per pound and my plots produce an average of 6 pounds per 100 square feet. Let’s put back 1 (5 gallon) bucket’s worth (35 pounds) to give us 52,500 calories for the year. I need just under 600 square feet to grow that quantity.
Carrots:
Carrots offer about 186 calories per pound and I normally harvest a bit over 1 pound per square foot. I find them a good addition to soups, they can add a tang to bread and cakes, and are great to snack on – for a while, but like peas, (as opposed to potatoes); I tire of them fairly quickly. I suggest planting 150 square feet or so with the idea of harvesting 150 pounds worth. That much would add a nice dimension to your diet and 27,900 calories.
Corn:
King corn – everyone knows and loves corn. Corn comes in at around 1,600 calories per pound so it will provide more bang for your buck than any other vegetable / grain. Let’s shoot for 3 (5 gallon) buckets of dry corn (about 110 pounds), which would come in at around 176,000 calories. If I’m very lucky, I could grow that amount in a plot of about 1,600 square feet since my climate is not at all conducive to growing corn (days are too usually too cool). Your harvest from a plot that size will probably be higher and may allow you to keep and feed some chickens! Just remember, corn is normally wind pollinated so keep your plants bunched and be prepared to hand pollinate the outside most stalks in a group this small. If you want to add some sweet hybrids for direct to the table faire, that’s fine, just be sure to stagger the planting so your varieties don’t cross pollinate. Corn is very hard on your soil, so rotate the planting area every year.
Wheat:
Wheat, the staff of life, offers 1,400 calories per pound. Let’s grow enough to fill 4 (5 gallon) buckets or about 150 pounds. That amount would give us 210,000 calories and require a manageable space of around 1,600 square feet to grow. Now some people will tell you not to bother with wheat because it’s too hard to process, but I cut and process my own grains, about a 1/2 acre per year, by hand – so doing 1,600 square feet (a plot 40 X 40 feet) won’t be difficult for you (I actually find wheat easier to harvest and thresh than beans and peas). And having fresh bread, pancakes and pasta is definitely worth it. There are many types of wheat that can be grown in different climates so you’ll have to research what grows best for you.
But what if you’re gluten intolerant? Well, if you actually have celiac disease (a simple lab test will tell you), then you’ll need to grow more corn, but if you don’t, I suggest you try some home grown, home ground heritage wheat before accepting your intolerance – your allergy may simply be to the stuff offered at your local supermarket and not to actual naturally grown wheat.
Apples:
Apples are a bit tougher to categorize since most of us don’t eat the whole apple, but a reasonable estimate would be about 220 calories per pound. Although my trees are full-size, I keep them pruned to about 6 feet so I can harvest without ladders – living on my own I try to minimize the chance of accidents as much as possible – so they only produce about 40 pounds of apples each. Pruned in this way, 3 trees can be set in a 100 square foot plot, so let’s figure 6 trees of different varieties with ripening dates spread through the season taking up 200 square feet of space. That would result in an additional 52,800 calories in our larder. An apple a day, as the saying goes, whether raw, fried, made into butter or baked in a pie is good for you (and the cores can make a perfectly usable vinegar). Just be sure not to store them next to the potatoes.
Honey:
Honey is kind of a perfect food – it seems to appear magically, has numerous uses, and lasts virtually forever in storage. My Langstroth bee hives average 60 pounds of honey a year each and in many areas of the country, they would produce closer to 100. One pound of honey provides about 1,350 calories, so each hive gives me 81,000 calories. Let’s put one hive into our survival garden.
Black Oil Sunflowers:
Now this one may take a while for you to accept unless you currently eat what’s referred to as a Mediterranean diet. The frying in sunflower oil won’t seem strange (and you’ll want to be frying a lot of your food to gain these extra calories) but substituting sunflower oil for butter on your bread and pancakes takes a bit of getting used to.
I put in around 400 oil seed plants each year in an area 10 X 200′ and usually yield about 2 bushels of seed. Out of that, after pulling out my seed stock, I get around 3 gallons of oil. Since this will be your only source of oil (no butter, lard, etc.) though, I’d double that to 800 plants to press a potential 6 gallons. At 120 calories per tablespoon X 256 tablespoons per gallon X 6 gallons, the oil adds 184,320 calories to our total.
You should only press small quantities of oil at a time – although the seeds will last for years, the oil itself will break down comparatively quickly. You can also use these seeds to make sunflower seed butter (it’s kind of like peanut butter but sweeter), which, I’ve found, most kids love.
Other considerations:
Onions, garlic and herbs don’t have many calories but they fall into the same categories of easily grown and easily stored. Plant some to add variety to your survival diet.
Conclusions:
Growing these simple to store foods in the quantities listed could produce a yearly total exceeding 1 million, 300 thousand calories in a perfect world – almost enough for 1-1/2 people. But since our world is only wonderful (but not perfect) you WILL have losses – to wildlife, to accidents, to spoilage (and you’ll need to pull out seeds and clones for the following season) so you must overcompensate a bit. Again, your SURVIVAL depends on having nutritious food in sufficient quantities – you cannot take the chance that you’ll be able to squeak by with the bare minimum necessary!
Amazingly, this quantity of vegetables can be grown in a plot measuring about a quarter of an acre due to staggered harvests, sister planting, etc. One consideration though, is that you’ll probably need additional water and fertilizer (which you may not have available in an actual survival scenario) to do that, so to be safe, figure that you’ll need about 1/3 of an acre (a plot 120 X 120 feet) of garden PER PERSON to provide you with this basic diet.
But what about using intensive gardening methods? Yes, I’ve read the advertisements about growing enough food for a family of 4 on a quarter acre, but I can’t do that even with all my years of gardening experience and living in an area that lets me grow many crops year round. If you have the perfect climate, deep, rich soil, abundant fertilizer, abundant water and you have the energy and skill to do it, great, but I can only relate to you what has actually worked for me, year after year, for decades now.
Eating such a diet day in and day out can get boring, but think of it only as your basis. Were you lucky enough to trap some game or catch some fish yesterday? That’s great! Harvest some wild mushrooms and boring becomes something special. Maybe your garden will produce twice the quantity of corn as mine in the same space or your apple trees will offer a more abundant harvest, or the birds will leave your sunflowers in peace. Wonderful! Now you can “afford” to get some chickens and maybe even a milk goat to further vary your meals. And remember, the corn, wheat, peas, beans, sunflower seeds, and honey won’t go bad if you have some left over from last year.
Now you may ask, is this my current diet? No it is not, but this list DOES make up the basis of my diet just as I’m suggesting it should yours if you want to be prepared for a long-term SHTF event. I am lucky enough to have the space to grow the additional feed and forage to keep a dairy cow for milk, butter and cheese, chickens for eggs and I have a small “kitchen garden” for salad greens and perennials that are eaten in season – so my actual diet is more varied than this basic formula. But these are the items that I’ve always grown year in and year out to assure that I, and those I care for, never have to go hungry.
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