How much of your food do you grow?

Discussion in 'General chat' started by lukemurphy, Apr 28, 2013.

  1. lukemurphy

    lukemurphy Junior Member

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    I am curious to know an estimate of how much of their own food people on the forum grow. Maybe as a rough percentage of calories? And then to compare this with how many hours spent on growing food? And maybe how old the garden is?

    I realise there is a lot more to permaculture than gardening, and there is a lot more to gardening than growing food, and a lot more to growing food than just producing calories.

    Just curious though, any replies will be appreciated.

    (I spend 6-10 hours a week in the garden, my garden is almost a year old, and I'd estimate I get around 10-15% of calories from the garden).
     
  2. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    This last spring/summer and now in autumn is our first serious year of food growing. Over the last several months our garden which is not that big (maybe 10m wide by 30m long) has provided about two thirds of all our food needs. (We are vegetarian.) It was a nice surprise to us that we could make a lot of our meals straight out of the garden with little or no other external inputs. We also had a terrible year this growing season with it being the third driest 12 month period ever recorded, a beetle plague which wiped out a lot of our stuff and late frosts. So despite all of that we managed to produce a lot which has spurred us on for later this year. In the meantime, over late autumn and winter we will still have the garden producing to a lesser extent but our summer haul will keep on giving from the freezer, from the stored pumpkins etc.
    At the peak of summer I probably spent about 10-12 hrs a week in the garden which was mainly changing watering around, fiddling with compost, mulching, harvesting and covering/uncovering stuff from beetles. I also spent quite a few hours over the season preparing stuff to freeze, making chutneys, pickles etc.
    This winter we will continue to develop a separate food forest area plus hugelkulture beds to expand our food production.
     
  3. aneurine

    aneurine Junior Member

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    As a percent of calories, not much. I have to admit I haven't really focused much on starchy crops lately which means less calories produced/eaten I guess. My garden is 11 years old and always has lots of greens which is its main benefit re food.

    I guess we use a LOT of honey from our hive so that adds some calories, greek honey & coconut cake, honey granola, honey on toast, honey soy chicken.

    Thanks to your post I'm inspired to try to raise the %!!!
     
  4. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    well to date, and got no idea about calorie percentage? we have hardly bought any fresh F&V only 'taters, carrots and onions oh! and some aussie garlic. we will be harvesting pumpkin soon, got 'taters in so early in summer they will be in the food chain.

    aiming to supplement more of our fresh food with fruit trees bearing in a couple of years time.

    never be self sufficient but supplementary.

    len
     
  5. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Depends on the time of year - it's a 'hungry gap' for me right now as the autumn plantings go in. About 50% of what hits the table would be my guess.
     
  6. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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    I seem to be feeding millions of caterpillars at the moment.
    If I changed my diet to caterpillars I could be 100% self sufficient
    anyone got some recipes
     
  7. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Dipped in batter and deep fried. ;)
     
  8. aneurine

    aneurine Junior Member

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    Ive cooked and eaten snails and weeds but I dont think I could do caterpillars...
     
  9. annette

    annette Junior Member

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  10. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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    I would rather feed something more delicious the caterpillars and then eat it.

    good news dill is flowering surely the wasps arent far away and I get to eat more of my brassicas again
     
  11. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    We havent bought vegies for ages, nor eggs.The only fruit we've bought has been avocadoes and bananas.
    I wouldnt have a clue as to what calories we have been enjoying.I thought that system of counting food value was retired ages ago.
    The system I use is-do I still feel hungry,peckish? like I want something sweet? Am I losing weight or still managing to hang onto it?I work a hard physical job so I need to watch that carefully.
    I dont understand this calorie counting bizzo, it doesnt seem to take into account vitamins and minerals.

    Just cooked tonights dinner on the firebox in the living room made from the last of our tomatoes, sweet corn out of the freezer and dried painted lady's beans, flavoured with home grown garlic, thyme and oregano.
    I have finally been putting weight on and keeping it on so I at least am not starving.

    I now include buying our meat from a local owner operators butchers shop as part of our permiefication progress, which we do most weeks, while we are waiting for our promised (half of a) beef to hurry up and finish growing.

    I havent really spent that much time in the garden since January although I did spend a couple of hours turning over part of it and planted that out in hulless oats for a winter grain/carbon crop.

    Our garden is 4 years old, but....its in transition moving away from a system I was using that wasnt really right for our climate and hopefully onto a more appropriate one.Most of this last growing season, the back yard was basically a large chook run and if things did well with them there that was all good.
    Surprisingly, alot of things did do well and we will be eating our own stuff for some time without having to rely on the shops.
    It has meant changing how we eat- ie lots a beans this winter and I fart as I type, hoping that will get better.
     
  12. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Let 'er rip mischief!

    Would you believe the caterpillars ate my fennel - the stuff I planted to keep the caterpillars away? It was a year old and had set seed so perhaps it was stressed and asking to be put out of its misery! Anything brassica related is getting whacked - but I still can't resist planting more broccoli in the hope that I can get the lovely fresh sweet heads that only come with home grown stuff.
     
  13. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    I love your posts Mischief. They are so real and I relate to them so much. As eco said, let em rip. Can you describe your firebox. I'd love one but scared I'd burn the house down.

    Eco even my spearmint has been chewed to bits. The lime trees have been fruiting but ants have been eating any small fruit that appears. I have catepillars everywhere but don't have the heart to banish them. I love butterflies. I find this is a crisis of heart for me. At this stage I'm just hoping I can grow so much that I get some produce. I can't bring myself to pick them off or crush them.

    I'm just about to plant my brocoli and cauliflower. Been madly examining the companion planting. Just planted peas with some radish and nastursuim and borage. i had to put chicken wire underneath and put netting up to protect them from bandicoots, wallabies and possums.. In the last couple of months I have rescued two lizards a python and an antichinus from the netting. I have such difficulty. When I look at others garden without my challenges i get a bit envious.
     
  14. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    early days yet annette but!

    we are growing natives that are attractive to butterflies, mostly vine thingies, so far damage to fruit trees minimal, also some exotic shrubs do same thing, herb garden gets a bit of deprivation but no real worries.

    len
     
  15. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Do you have chooks Annette? You could harvest the caterpillars and give them to the chooks - that way it is their karma not yours!
     
  16. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    Hi len

    yes I have lots of natives and vines etc., but even with the native bush (about an acre and a half of it) the critters tend to go after my edibles and the native animals like to get inside the house.
     
  17. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    Hi Eco, yes have chooks but I would still be an accessory to murder. :)
     
  18. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    I know this may sound glib, but each year, it is a little bit more food. Chickens nearly eat 100% from here already.
     
  19. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Hi Annette,
    Sorry to take so long answering your question about the firebox.
    I got it from Firenza (nz)ltd.Its free standing, has a wet back system which apparently used to have 3 coils of copper piping in the top but our government in their infinite wisdom decided that took too much heat out of the system and declared they could only have 2 coils.
    Its got a large flat top that we cook on.
    The sides have tiles covering them that are held in place by metal strips.
    I got an 'eco' flue for it which ....I cant remember what it does lol but it sounded good at the time.I think it was something along the lines of not drawing air out of the room and up the chimney, keeping warm in in the room.
    It stands in the inside corner of the living room right next to the linen cupboard.SO the wetback pipes go through the linen cupboard to get to the H/W cylinder and although these pipes are lagged, they do warm the linen cupboard up alittle.
    I did hve it standing on a slate tiled concrete hearth that was to minimum legal specs, but it felt to small and sparks would sometimes land on the floor.(not that that was really such a problem, cos we dont have carpet to ruin, but it was the principle of it...uhu)So we re did it with a much larger hearth and took the tiles further up the walls as well- more of a visual thing rather than saftey due to concrete walls.
    This autumn we cleaned the chimney out and found there ws alot of build up- mainly cos I had banked the embers up at night then loaded it up with wood again before I went to work- again had it on low so the house would be toasty when I got home.
    I also think the wood was not dried propely even though we had got it early summer.
    It had been freshly cut and hauled over to us.
    Cos the current woodshed is the old original laundry, it doesnt have such a great airflow.
    This year when it was delivered, we stacked at the back of the parking area and left it to dry over summer- covering it if it rained,Then put it in the shed.That seems to have done the trick.

    You cant burn your house down with one of these.They have a toughened glass door to keep the fire in.Some people do use them with the door open but you lose all your energy efficiency if you do that.
    Hubby gets annoyed that I have the wood basket right next to the firebox on the hearth and says I'm going to burn the house down....cant,wont happen.I open the door, put the wood in and close it again.
    Good thing he cant see it right now, haha, I found some punky wood in the chook pen and brought it inside to dry out...right in front of the door.Makes great tinder wood when its dried and slightly charred.(its going to be made into the extended families tinderboxes for their civil defense kits).Much more fun that petrochem firestarters.
     
  20. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    Thanks Mischief!
     

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