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High calorie veggies....
- Thread starter VenomJockey
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A human can survive a lifetime on a diet of only potatoes and butter. So I would definitely be planting potatoes and whatever the cows need to eat.
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I think potatoes have sustained many people over time. Other root vegetables do provide good calories, but most, not all, are carb heavy.
I have such a list somewhere. I think it's in a physical book I own... Anyway it's good information to have... thanks @VJ
This shows how a really simple (bored out of my mind) diet can sustain a group of people...
Add beef, pork and chickens and you have a solid diet... pork gives all the fat a group would need but butter would be nice.
The next question would be a reliable source for vitamins and minerals. Greens, nuts, wild game...
As a child my family grew and raised all the food we needed. It takes a LOT more ground than the tiny garden on the website. I've seen this disconnect among preppers for a long time now... No real idea of the acreage needed to sustain 4 to 10 people and a thousand experts telling them BS like "ON an acre or less you can". That message should be "ON an acre or less you and your little group will be dead in a year"
This shows how a really simple (bored out of my mind) diet can sustain a group of people...
Add beef, pork and chickens and you have a solid diet... pork gives all the fat a group would need but butter would be nice.
The next question would be a reliable source for vitamins and minerals. Greens, nuts, wild game...
As a child my family grew and raised all the food we needed. It takes a LOT more ground than the tiny garden on the website. I've seen this disconnect among preppers for a long time now... No real idea of the acreage needed to sustain 4 to 10 people and a thousand experts telling them BS like "ON an acre or less you can". That message should be "ON an acre or less you and your little group will be dead in a year"
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No way 4-10 people can live off a 1 acre garden...ain't gonna happen!!
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High food growth off a small space requires a huge input of material between crops and during growth. Otherwise one season, maybe 2 and you will have severe soil depletion unless you are growing mostly peas and beans which will fix protein to the soil. You can grow a lot in a small space, but you have to feed it heavily.
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Probs. A very good reason to have either a pig or chicken tractor to work beds between crops.
Also a lot of professional market gardeners are able to get extremely high yeilds using only compost created on site. Charles Dowdling on YT comes to mind.
His compost operation is impressive and it should be considering how important adding back fertility is.
I have started adding market gardening techniques to my own garden and I have safely doubled my previous production.
It has encouraged me so much I'll be adding drip irrigation on a timer and a liquid fertilizer/compost tea injector to my box of tools and techniques.
Drip irrigation will help a lot. Creating compost will be important, but it takes a lot of material to make enough to cover an acre or more garden. Animal waste will help a whole lot more.
I have subscribed to Allotment Dairy for several years. Good information and not hard to watch like some channels.
No, I don't to see it... producing a large amount of food in a few tubs one year isn't what I'm talking about. I saying that feeding 4 to 10 people in a grid down situation... year in and year out... dealing with droughts, insect invasions, or simply a bad mix of sun vs clouds... a late spring, an early winter... a winter that isn't cold enough or a summer thats too hot... accouting for all these variables can't be done in a few tubs...
The lady had a big pile of potatoes... are half going to be set aside for planting next year or does she intend to eat them all this winter? 10 people can go through a pile of potatoes that size in 2 months. What is she going to do then?
To properly feed and sustain them will require 20 to 30 acres with livestock added to the mix. You must also have a year round water source that's independent of rain.
I've farmed and helped grow the food to sustain 6 people from age 5 to 18... It can't be done in a little backyard and some tubs... That is not a sustainable model... One bad year and that lady and her family is toast.
A way to better explain my point…
Tubs in a little back yard are nothing more than a controlled science experiment. By controlled I mean every possible variable is controlled.
Remove those controls and let mother nature run her course… and that experiment will come to a short painful end. How long will those tubs last when you can’t replace them… how well with that drip system work with no rain or city water system. What happens when uncle joe and aunt jenny accidentally fall out of the barn loft breaking his legs and crushing half the chickens? (aunt jenny didn't fare to well either)
Once the controls are removed, its what happens when the grid goes down. The experiment is over.
Lets not forget… the great depression. Families with hundreds of acres who had sustained themselves for decades drove away starving in whatever could carry them…
Tubs in a little back yard are nothing more than a controlled science experiment. By controlled I mean every possible variable is controlled.
Remove those controls and let mother nature run her course… and that experiment will come to a short painful end. How long will those tubs last when you can’t replace them… how well with that drip system work with no rain or city water system. What happens when uncle joe and aunt jenny accidentally fall out of the barn loft breaking his legs and crushing half the chickens? (aunt jenny didn't fare to well either)
Once the controls are removed, its what happens when the grid goes down. The experiment is over.
Lets not forget… the great depression. Families with hundreds of acres who had sustained themselves for decades drove away starving in whatever could carry them…
That's called grass.
Dairy cows are skinny no matter what you feed them BUT you can milk beef type cows too. You just won't get as much but its plenty for a "normal" sized family. When we had the dairy goats they only got a few handfuls of feed while on the milk stand so they would stand still ish.....Only if you want skinny cows.
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Venison, duck & chicken, also BBQ pork.
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Milk cow are not meatly, but there is a lot of meat there, just not as much as a beef cow, it works like meat or milk goats.
Father, mother & six kids eat all winter off a 2 year old bull, that Father took to the bucther in the fall.
Father worked us hard, cutting wood, feeding animals, cleaning stables,gardening.
So we ate like grown men & that bull lasted almost a year.
Father, mother & six kids eat all winter off a 2 year old bull, that Father took to the bucther in the fall.
Father worked us hard, cutting wood, feeding animals, cleaning stables,gardening.
So we ate like grown men & that bull lasted almost a year.
Same thing we did. Just not as many kids, only 2 of us. But we usually took a bull to slaughter at about 1 year.
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Some of the grains can renew or enrich the soil or pull deeper nutrients from the soil to replenish what was lost, from what I have read. Alfalfa is especially good for this. Don't forget about crop rotation.
