Hello all! Below is information I'd collected regarding the results of our GAMCOD plot here at Wheaton Labs.
All calorie data was supplied by the USDA's
Food Search Database.
To Sum It Up:
We harvested 14,654 calories, from 6 different crops. If we replicated this to plant the same plot over an entire acre, we would have harvested 3,033,378 calories of food.
The Details:
I worked along with a large number of different Boots this season. I started building a hugelkultur inside a 200sq.ft. area over at the Lab in March 2025. The dirt used to build the hugel berm was from a nearby pit
(I hope it will be a natural swimming pool in there someday...) and various nearby logs. We started planting seeds in early May 2025, and our final harvest was on 22 December 2025.
I've extensively documented the progress of the GAMCOD project here through the season, and most of it is available via YouTube under
Wheaton Labs Boots Adventures.
Our final, harvested crops this season include:
Sunchokes: 15,374 grams = 11,223 calories
Mustard Greens: 20 grams = 5 calories
Turnips: 522 grams = 146 calories
Turnip Greens: 120 grams = 38 calories
Potatoes: 3,190 grams = 2,456 calories
Yellow/Crookneck Squash: 786 grams = 149 calories
TOTAL CALORIES ON THIS PLOT = 14,654
TOTAL GAMCOD CALORIES = 3,033,378
(multiply the plot calories by 207, since the GAMCOD plot is 1/207 of an acre)
If I have the calculation numbers incorrect above, please someone correct this for me and I'll update our totals ASAP.
While this resulted in fewer calories overall compared to last year, we increased the diversity of the harvest yield. Diversity was my main focus, since I knew that meeting the calorie goal would be easier, thanks to the sunchokes. I feel we would have done even better with more discipline and structure, and I know I did the best I could at that sort of thing.
Next year, I want to try some other gardening experiments, take care of seeds and baby plants much better, and continue to build a diverse assortment of vegetables grown to harvest time.
Thanks for reading here, and
thanks to all the Permies regulars who provided comments on the YT videos and in my BEL thread throughout the season to provide suggestions and encouragement. And of course, thanks to
Paul for providing this excellent learning project.
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