That’s a big question with a big answer! On average, Americans consumed 48.3 pounds per person of potatoes, 28.3 pounds of tomatoes, and 7.7 pounds of onions per person in 2015. With these being the top vegetables consumed, you may want to consider adding them to your garden. Of course, in a long-term emergency, that number would greatly increase solely because of the additional physical activity. That said, plant enough plants to have for food, and to have left over for canning and preserving for the winters.
Plan for a well-rounded harvest with foods that can account for carbohydrates, vitamins, and nutrients.
According to a gardening guide, these are the number of plants to plant per person for an ample food supply.
Clearly, growing your own food sources will take up a lot of outdoor space, but it is possible. Utilizing patio space and verticle walls could also add more growing room for the vegetable garden. With the soaring food prices these days, this may become a viable option for families who are looking for ways to expand their budgets.
Assuming 3000 calories/day that would equal almost 1.1 million calories/year. What I see in that list are a lot of luxuries of useless low calorie foods ( celery (64 callories/lb), I’m specifically calling you out with your leafy green veggie brethren. ) Yes, high in some vitamins, minerals and phyto-nutrients but little in the way of calories. In limited space, calories per square foot need to be factored in as well.
Potatoes in trials appear to supply EVERYTHING for supporting the human animal apparently indefinitely (327 calories/lb) and can be grown n barrels and with other tricks to maximize production in very small spaces a single plant cannot produce in a field.
Long term plantings of fruit/nut trees and bushes are gold.
Giant Orange Amaranth can at best produce 1lb (1700 calories/lb) per head in seed!
celery
https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/usda/celery?portionid=48725&portionamount=1.000
potato
https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/usda/red-potatoes-(flesh-and-skin)?portionid=48886&portionamount=1.000
amaranth
https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/usda/amaranth?portionid=48555&portionamount=1.000
Eric,
I do agree with parts of your comment. Fruit and nut trees would be essential, especially for those planning for long-term emergencies, and root vegetables are a good source of calories as well as essential carbohydrates. That said, many leafy greens (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, zucchini, spinach, etc.) are also sources of carbohydrates and will provide the body with much-needed nutrients (which it needs for long-term survival). Celery is also a good vegetable but requires long growing periods (140 days) and in an emergency, many want fast growing crops. One point to consider is there are many who have diabetes and would not be able to eat potatoes due to high blood sugar. So, while I agree with your points of adding carbohydrates to the diet, there are many varieties to consider. Some natural sources of carbohydrates that I like are wheat, oats, and even quinoa.
I’m glad that you mentioned amaranth as it is something we are looking into to add to our seed company. It’s such a great grain and easy to grow!
Thanks again for your comments.
Tess how does a person harvest the grains? could you do an article on this?
Hi JoAnne,
We are going to get an article up on this shortly! I have some wheat growing in my garden right now and it’s so easy to grow and harvest!
Excellent article, and one that is very much needed.
A few points that I would add:
ꔷ Gardening is VERY localized.What grows well in my location may not do well just an hour’s drive from here.
ꔷ With enough soil amendments, one can grow a wide variety of crops, but that’s not a good plan for long term survival.
ꔷ Experiment to find out what naturally grows well in your location with your soil, and that also produces seed. That’s your gardening core. I have only 5 key crops in my gardening core (what I call The Southern Agrarian Last Ditch List). Anything else is a bonus.
ꔷ Just because a crop will grow and produce vegetables does not mean it will mature and produce viable seed.
ꔷ Rotate and rest sections of your garden. I’m now trying to focus on building up the soil by carefully managing crop rotation, leaving a section fallow for a year, growing and tilling under green manure, and adding cow and chicken manure.
ꔷ Without the availability of commercial fertilizer, plan on having far fewer plants in a given area. Same goes for irrigation – plant fewer plants if you can’t irrigate during dry periods. Don’t make your plants compete too much with each other.
You also need to forage weeds, pests, and game just don’t try to live off them.
There are methods of preserving food that don’t depend on refrigeration. The native Americans dried beans, corn, and squash for hard times but still foraged.
As for space, remember there are way to combine some crops. For instance, there is the old planting runner beans with the corn where the corn provides the shady cool roots that beans like and beans (like all legumes) add nutrients to the soil that corn likes.
I would have to add strawberries, blueberries and raspberries to the garden along with the mentioned fruit and nut trees.
Another thing I’d like to add is a tip. A couple of years ago, I had neighbors that grew all sorts of vining veggies on a raised horizontal trellis. They would add a section as the vines grew and kept the trellis at nearly 5 feet. On many a stifling day, they could put lawn chairs beneath the large shaded area and relax. It also kept the produce from damp rot and easier to harvest. Amazingly, none of the squashes fell off. Clean up come fall was easy; they just pulled the bamboo poles out after frost kill and scooped it all up as neat as can be. This was all done in a roughly 15’x15′ area.
I wasn’t aware you had a seed company. Do you have a catalog and if so how do I get one?
I just saw it at the bottom of the page Ted’s. Lol
Hi John,
We are currently creating a catalog for our spring line and it should be available soon.
My garden is about 100×100. We can more than 700 quarts a year – my wife and I are in our early 50’s and it’s just how we were both raised. Built our outdoor “pizza oven” that doubles as a bread factory. We experiment a lot. I will tell you that while times are good (?) make as much pemmican as you can make right now – tomorrow. Amazon has the tallow. We have snacks of this from 5 yrs ago – store in food grade buckets. It’ll carry you over to next growing season. Good article Tess – B safe