Luke's attempt at 100,000 calories

It certainly is a long one. I was hoping to get it done this year but it seems I may have to diversify a bit, next year, to hit all of the reqs.

The flesh on the Boston squash is lighter than Kabocha or Uchi Kuri. I'm growing some of the latter - as well as Candy Roaster and a storage variety, Sibley - and I'm looking forward to harvesting those in a few more weeks. I think I prefer a denser, sweeter flesh but there is certainly a lot of food on these giants.

It's been a busy few weeks and I've not had as much as I would have liked on our site. The weeds (docks and sorrel, mostly) are taking hold and the Brussel sprouts need the lower leaves removing as they are turning yellow and becoming a bit of a slug habitat.

At this time of year, most of my brassicas turn to lace. I don't net or attempt to ward off the caterpillars of the "cabbage whites" (Small and Large White) butterflies as, in my experience, the plants recover in time for the winter when I tend to harvest and eat the plants. The perennial varieties are particularly hardy. Interestingly, the perennial kale has been hit by many more caterpillars than the Brussels. The Red Russian kale has survived without any noticable damage! Perhaps the caterpillars have a taste for the nutrient-dense perennials.

I'm still picking large quantities of courgettes (zucchini) and the squash are ripening thick and fast. I'll be harvesting the Red Onion squash this week, I think, and I picked some Candy Roasters and some mystery green ones this morning. I'll have to put together a selection for a "cornucopia" photograph.

Courgettes harvested: 9.25 kg (1573 kcal)

Total: 36960 + 3520 + 969 + 962 + 638 + 9520 + 221 + 3162 + 2227 +  34400 + 1573 = 94152 kcal

I'm quite excited as I picked my first tomatillos! I'd planted them outside, on a friend's recommendation, and she came to stay last weekend and asked about them. Great timing as I had no idea that they were ripe.

From two plants, which I placed in a sheltered spot, I picked 450g of ripe tomatillos. There are some more left on the plants but the cases felt a bit empty and so I've left those, for now, to fatten up.

I made a salsa verde that evening, another first for me, and it was delightful. Very happy.

Tomatillos harvested: 0.45kg (only 144 kcal!)

Total: 36960 + 3520 + 969 + 962 + 638 + 9520 + 221 + 3162 + 2227 +  34400 + 1573 = 94296 kcal

They’re on my list for next year - in the mean time, I buy from my local Guatemalan green grocers. They’re great in salsas.

Getting close to 100k.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good they are. I'll definitely be growing more next year.

I'm holding back on another squash post, mostly because they are quite boring. My house is full of them at the moment: beautiful but cluttered. I think that will take me well past 100k though.

I've lost track of exactly which courgette images I've posted now. I suspect it is a bit of a moot point as I have, by far, exceeded the 2000kcal requirement for them!

I have been harvesting them continuously since my last post and, finally, they seem to be slowing! We have a garage full of marrows that should store over the winter and have sold off, or eaten, most of the smaller courgettes. I have even tried my hand at making a marrow wine. I'm rather suspicious of how that one will turn out - I'll report back in 12 months, if I remember!

Courgettes harvested: 29.4kg (5292 kcal)

Total: 36960 + 3520 + 969 + 962 + 638 + 9520 + 221 + 3162 + 2227 +  34400 + 1573 + 5292= 99444 kcal

My tomatillos are still producing too, albeit slower to ripen now. I don't think I will hit the 2000 kcal target for these but they are beautiful and delicious and they make a change from cucurbits!

Tomatillos harvested: 384g (123 kcal)

Total: 36960 + 3520 + 969 + 962 + 638 + 9520 + 221 + 3162 + 2227 +  34400 + 1573 + 5292 + 123 = 99567 kcal

I've harvested about half of my fennel for the year. It's another beautiful, tactile plant that I cannot help but stroke and smell when I walk past it. A few of the bulbs haven't formed and, instead, have bolted upwards in a bizarre zig-zag. The fronds and seeds will still be useful, however, and fennel will return as a perennial if left to its own devices. Once again, I'm unlikely to hit the requirements (this year) for this one!

Fennel harvested: 725g (101 kcal)

Total: 36960 + 3520 + 969 + 962 + 638 + 9520 + 221 + 3162 + 2227 +  34400 + 1573 + 5292 + 123 + 101 = 99668 kcal

I grew 3 red cabbages this year and one of them was had by the slugs. They slyly ate it, inside first, and I did not notice until I've cut it to harvest. They also chose the largest of the three. Sometimes I really dislike slugs.

I think I'll be growing many more cabbages, red and green, next year. I usually spurn them in favour of kale, cavolo nero and other brassicas but I have really enjoyed watching these grow. I turned them both into a "Christmas red cabbage" dish that is now in the freezer, waiting for December.

Yet again, these will have to wait to contribute to this BB. I'm trying to add a bit of variety to these posts, however.

Red cabbage harvested:  1245g (387 kcal)

Total: 36960 + 3520 + 969 + 962 + 638 + 9520 + 221 + 3162 + 2227 +  34400 + 1573 + 5292 + 123 + 101 + 387 = 100,055 kcal

And there we are, over 100,000 kcals!

(edit: somehow I did my addition wrong but, there we go, still over the 100k!)

Congratulations on breaking 100k!

I'm just barely over 10k, though if things go well I should be closer to 40k or so after the persimmon harvest.

Next is the pesky 12 species over 2k each requirement and you can get the shiny BB.

It's been a while since I updated this thread. Winter isn't a particularly productive time here - we are in the midst of the hungry gap and all that we have left on our site is kale and a few leeks. The garlic is pushing its head above the soil and our autumn-sown broad beans, whilst looking a bit ragged, are still alive. Next year we will make sure we have parsnips and more leeks to help tide us over. Thankfully we still have a big bag of potatoes and the last of the squash left in our stores.

The last big harvest of 2022 was Brussel sprouts. We trialed two varieties: Sanda and Seven Hills. They both seemed to perform about equally so I'm not sure which I'll use in the future.

We harvested four large crates full of the stems. Each crate weighed approximately 12kg and contained ~4kg of edible sprouts. We then gave these away to friends and family, dropped two (frozen!) boxes off at the local community garden and ate them most days during December.

Brussel sprouts harvested:  16kg (6500 kcal)

Total: 36960 + 3520 + 969 + 962 + 638 + 9520 + 221 + 3162 + 2227 +  34400 + 1573 + 5292 + 123 + 101 + 387 + 6500 = 106,555kcal

I'm back and, this year, I'm hoping that the new comers to the small-holding might get me to the 12 species requirement!

To recap, so far I have harvested 2,000kcal or more of:

Potatoes

Peas

Courgettes

Squash

Brussel sprouts

I've probably harvested more than that in kale too but I never weight it. The kales I grow are perennial so I just pick what I need and let it regrow.

This year I have been growing:

Broad beans

French beans

Garlic

Onions

Leeks

Rhubarb

Artichokes, although I'm not expecting a yield from this yet

Blackcurrants

Gooseberries

Raspberries

As well as the usual herbs, salad greens, edible flowers and the asparagus, which is slowly getting established.

Hopefully 7 of the above will yield more than 2,000 kcals!

I've been harvesting broad beans as they ripen. The gradual nature of my harvesting makes documenting this quite time-consuming - both to do and to read! With a crop like potatoes, and perhaps garlic, a large proportion comes out of the ground at once and can be photographed and weighed. For many crops I choose to grow I have to pick a little each time I visit my vegetable garden, weigh them and take a photo. Hence the many, many images of squash and courgettes!

Anyway, I've collected a few harvests of broad beans which I think gets me over the 2,000kcal requirement for them. Shelling the beans yields a lot of great compost fodder.

Broad beans harvested: 2.218kg (2440kcal)

Today I harvested the first of our garlic. Actually, that's not technically true as we have been eating a bit of it fresh, both the immature bulbs and the scapes. Anyway, I pulled about 40 bulbs from an estimated 300 that we planted. Most of them are much larger than I was expecting, especially as all of our plants now have rust. I've attached a photo of one of our two garlic beds. There were more bulbs harvested which we brought home - some will stay on the bed for a couple of days to dry in the sun.

A quick google shows me that a garlic bulb is between 50 and 100 kcal, depending on its size. Some of our bulbs are enormous and I would expect them to reach the upper end of that range. A few are less impressive but they are definitely the minority.

Garlic harvested: 40 bulbs x 75 kcal (average) = 2,800 kcal.

That gets me to 7 species over the 2,000 kcal target and one step closer to finishing this BB.

I also pulled a few potato plants, ate my first peas of the year and finished harvesting the broad beans. It's a lovely time of year to be growing food!

The produce is flying in now. It's a lovely time of year to be growing (and harvesting!) vegetables.

Our peas are ripening and we are eating and selling them as fast as we can. We mostly grow 'Serpette Guilloteau' which is very vigorous and will happily climb 8+ feet. This year we are also trialing 'Rosakrone', a pretty, semi-dwarfing pea with lovely pink flowers. I've attached a photo.

The summer squash (courgettes) are taking off too. Lots of our meals involve courgettes, peas and herbs; thankfully they are a wonderful combination.

We are pulling the potatoes as we need space to replant into. The new potatoes sell very well - lots of our neighbours buy a bag as they walk past the house, where our honesty stall sits on a wall. Unfortunately the harvest is much poorer than last year, partly due to the dry weather here and partly due to the voles that have made their home in our vegetable garden. They make tunnels under the potatoes and sometimes stop for a drive-through. We don't mind cutting off a nibbled corner but we can't really sell those!

We are taking home a lot of rocket, mizuna and lettuce for salads. The rocket also makes very good pesto and we picked up a 1.5kg bag of for that purpose. Unfortunately that's only 325kcals worth! If I manage to bring back a few more bags like that then there is a chance we will break the 2,000 kcal threshold but I am not too hopeful.

I did a quick assessment of our garlic harvest and the average weight of our bulbs is 59g - or around 87kcal. They might have a touch more drying to go, although they have been hanging for over a fortnight now, so I think I'm safe assuming 75kcal per bulb.

The community garden that we grow with has harvested their onions. They were planted in the autumn and have fattened up extremely well. Our onions are still much smaller, although they are starting to swell.

Finally, our soft fruit is almost ready! It's our first year harvesting from it which is very exciting! I can't wait for the blackcurrant glut.