Stacie's Big Fat Thread of Garden Growing/Harvesting/Preserving

I'm going to start an epic journey--producing 4 million calories from my little half acre.

I anticipate this journey will take at least 4 years. So I need a place to document my baby-steps.

Here's what I've got so far:

Total Calories Documented Today:
approximately 10,500.

I get my data from a simple internet search worded something like, "how many calories in a cup of tomato sauce", then do the arithmetic.

Some of my polyculture garden photos:

I will document some more garden photos here this morning:

morning photos of my gardens:

Here are some photos of summer squash and spaghetti squash I harvested. I'll used them for fresh eating/cooking:

Calories for this entry: 2,280.
Running Total: 12,780.

I harvested 4 pumpkins earlier this week and have let them cure outdoors. I weighed them and calculated their calories:

Total calories from this entry: 2,160
Running Total: 14,840

**NOTE: These pumpkins are C. Pepo. (They are the same species as all my other squash.)

1 pound of various peppers: 90 calories
Running Total: 14930

These peppers will be used fresh, pickled, and frozen.

Picked the first Crimson Sweet watermelon today. 12 pounds exactly.

12 lbs watermelon = 1630 calories

Running Total: 16,560

Love this thread. Keep going!

Interesting concept.....growing based upon calories. I've never tried that. My own method is to base things on weeks, such as.....on average I use one pint of chopped tomatoes a week, therefore I need to grow 52 pints of tomatoes, chopped, per year.

getting back to calories......
I notice that you weigh things with the parts that are usually discarded, such as a pumpkin with its rind and seed core. How much impact do you think that makes in your calorie calculations?

Su Ba wrote:
I notice that you weigh things with the parts that are usually discarded, such as a pumpkin with its rind and seed core. How much impact do you think that makes in your calorie calculations?

I handle that in a couple of ways:

1. I always round downward, both with harvest weights and calories calculated. For example, if a fruit weighs 9 lbs 2 ounces, I always round down to 9. If my research suggests something would yield 949 calories, I will round down to 940.
2. I try to waste nothing. Pumpkin rinds are difficult, I admit. I usually pare as closely as I can , so the least amount is wasted. I often roast the pumpkin seeds.

I have a watermelon rind pie recipe that gets good reviews. It's a good way to use even the white parts of the watermelon. I'll post my recipe soon.

I have also used your strategy for calculating food needs. For instance, if I want to serve green beans to my family once a week, that means I need to harvest 52 quarts. I still use that concept for how much to "put up" for the year.

I'll admit both concepts have really opened my eyes to how much food it takes to feed a family from my property.

I harvested a second watermelon today. This one topped 15 lbs!

Calories from this watermelon = 2,140
Running Total = 18700