If our production and consumption of calories had been even and steady throughout the year, then by the end of November we should have harvested and eaten 75,030 calories from our property, or about 5 percent of our annual calories. It would be friendly but false to characterize our effort so far as either even or steady. By the end of November we had enjoyed 3,740 calories from our yard, which rounds out to .25 percent or one quarter of one percent of our annual calories.
It’s hard to predict where this leaves us in terms of our annual goal. At first glance it seems to project a final achievement well under one percent and far from the 15 percent we envisioned. But hidden in that fraction of a percent is all the knowledge gained to get there. Many one-time mistakes exist in so grandly and grossly missing a benchmark (off by about 95 percent). And knowledge forged in such calamity is a tenacious knowledge.
Besides the pests, we also had something else working against us: fruits and vegetables. It may seem obvious that the majority if not all of the calories from a typical suburban yard would come from these two food groups. But before attempting this home-grown effort I failed to ask an even more obvious question: What percent of our total calories come from fruits and vegetables? The answer is 5.8 (fruits) and 13.2 (vegetables), for a combined total of 19 percent.
What does this mean? Well, if I’m trying to eat 15 percent of my calories from my yard, and those calories only take the form of fruits and vegetables, then what I’m really doing is trying to grow 79 percent of my annual fruits and vegetables at home. Since 81 percent of our daily calories come from something other than fruits and vegetables, getting to the 15 percent goal would be a lot easier if I could diversify and get some of that “something other” from the yard, too.
Let’s just be honest and say that milking and meat off the bone probably aren’t going to happen. But grains are a possibility, and we are zoned for up to 25 chickens.
The tiny .25 also hides what we have accomplished. It suggests we’ve pulled little from the yard, when in fact we’ve eaten Cherry and Beefsteak Tomatoes, Strawberries, Grapes, Asparagus, Garlic, Basil, Mint, Purple Viking Potatoes, Gala Apples, Carrots, Chard, Mesclun, Butterhead Lettuce, Snow Peas, Straight Neck Squash, Peanuts (only four, but still), Broccoli, and Oranges. And with some of these we’ve only begun to harvest what’s there. In the next few weeks we’ll add Romaine Lettuce, Bull’s Blood Beets, Tangelos, Delicata Squash (fingers crossed), and Spinach to that list.
And it’s all so good. And it comes with learning, which I appreciate.
So we celebrate our .25 percent. There’s a lot going on in that little number.
That’s great Jason! While I was reading this it occurred to me that you could eat bugs from your yard too. I’m not sure that they have a lot of calories, I suppose it depends on what kinds of bugs you’ve got, but they’re important diet staples in many parts of the world and it would definitely be “something other”.
Cool. Looks like you’re off to a good start and making progress. I’ll be checking out that garden when I get home, and eating as much as possible out of it. You might try cabbage, because that stuff seems to grow 365 days a year in Korea without a hitch.
I am not making kimchi, even if cabbage does grow 365 days a year.
Hi Jason, found you through a comment on Fat of The Land. Let me preface my comment by saying it’s not a critique – rather a question. Everybody has different dietary requirements, but less than 20% of your calories comes from fruit & veggies? That’s not a lot… But I think that in your balmy climate, once you get the hang of food gardening, you’ll be able to exceed your 15% goal. Easy. I used to have small garden like yours, and we pull a lot form it – and it was in the mid-atlantic area. Why in San Diego, you can go citruses, figs, all kind of sub-tropical fruit (train the tree as espalier or prune them well) and also grow and harvest year long. I would think. No?
Best wishes