Hi Matt Trotter, I love your calculator! I am in Oregon 8B also. You have inspired me to make my first post/reply though have been a member for at least 18 months or longer. I would have thought some of the food on your calculator could not easily be grown here but will now take a closer look! I have been trying to estimate what to grow for enough calories and this really helps, especially since you also give approximate yields. I am of the philosophy that we need to grow as much as we can. I tried a really rough estimate on my own using various sources. We do have walnut and apple & pear trees. All in sad, bad shape but they still produce some food. So that is a huge bonus for calories.
The yield from the walnuts was much less (nut meat per shell) than I had thought but hopefully we can improve that. We have only been here 6 months and am not used to gardening where there is so much frost, shorter growing season and big difference between daytime and night temps. We also went from very limited space to a little less than 3 acres, gulp. I work full time but at home so no wasted commute time and can do a few things on my lunch break. While extra help is very hard to find, I have tapped into the unemployed, bored, I like to make money- high school students!
I am busily playing with your calculator. I have a little pack of Amaranth seed. I hadn't planned on planting it this year or only a small patch. Figured it would be too hard to harvest enough. Am reconsidering. This is my first time growing any quantity of food. I do as much research, ask locals and so on. Hoping to cut my learning curve and up my success rate considerably. This permie forum forum is a gold mine. And it's wonderful that it is NOT dependent on facebook either!!
I liked the mention of dry farming, longer storage time on some things grown. We do have irrigation starting sometime in May. But with the drought who knows how long that will continue. Once again, thanks for the calculator and the inspiration.
