Luke's attempt at 100,000 calories

It looks like your hard work is paying off Luke.
Those Rosakrone peas are gorgeous aren't they? being Swedish I hope they'll do well for me here. I grew some last year; unfortunately the mice ate all my harvest (I was trying for seed...) They have only just started flowering for me here this year.
They have an usual flowering style, as well as the colour. The flowers seem to grow in a clump, almost as if it is a distortion, like fasciation. I'm keen to see whether either of these characteristics make it into their offspring - if I ever do get seed that is.

Nancy Reading wrote:
They have an usual flowering style, as well as the colour. The flowers seem to grow in a clump, almost as if it is a distortion, like fasciation. I'm keen to see whether either of these characteristics make it into their offspring - if I ever do get seed that is.

Thanks Nancy! It is wonderful to see (and taste!) it all coming to fruition.

The rosakrone peas have their own style, as you say, and also their own flavour which is nice. I admit that I actually prefer the other variety but it is nice to have some variety.

Do you know if peas hybridise readily? If not, you are welcome to some of my saved seed.

Some more harvests have come in, just in time for some heavy rain today (which I am very glad for, our sapling hedges were looking thirsty). We cleared the last of the garlic over the weekend (approx. 140 bulbs) and it is now drying/curing in our unfinished shed.

We are still picking peas as fast as we can. I think we brought home 6 or 7 kilograms over the last few days. I have recorded the weights but I won't bore you with them, as they are no longer relevant for this BB! Suffice to say we are eating peas every day and have podded + frozen quite a few too.

The courgette onslaught has begun and we are going to get back into piccalilli production as this is our preferred way to preserve them. We have also been doing all the usual things: courgette soup (with Parmesan!), fried courgette pasta, fritters, ratatouille. Our main producer is a light varietry, 'Trieste White', which unfortunately bruises quite easily and doesn't sell as well as the variegated type. We will have to rethink that next year.

The blackcurrants ripened and we stripped quite a few bushes yesterday evening. It's a lovely job when done in a group, all sat on the grass with a bowl (or saucepan!) and purple fingers. We picked 10kg, some of which have been passed on, some of which have been frozen and some of which are destined to be made into cordial and jam.

Blackcurrants harvested: 10kg (6500kcal). Hurray for being more than 2,000 calories.

The onions are starting to ripen too! We have pulled a few that are going to seed but the others look like they will continue to fatten and cure. I'm excited for that haul.

We have started supplying a local pizzaria with rocket and picked another 840g for them, which I delivered this morning. It looks like a huge amount of rocket but it is only another 182kcal worth. If we keep bringing them bags then, perhaps, by the end of summer that might have added up.

And finally, an unexpected harvest on the way home was a little buck rabbit. He jumped out in front of the car. I picked him up, took him home and taught myself to butcher him. Poor thing.

We have had a few weeks of pretty torrential rain and the grass, vegetables and, sadly the weeds have exploded with growth.

We are picking 20kg or more of courgettes each week and desperately making chutneys to try and preserve them, and some of our other produce, for the winter. A local restaurant is taking a few (5-10kg), which is helping. It's also great to hear how much they like them, especially compared to the courgettes they used to buy in.

The same restaurant is still taking our rocket each week - ideally a kilogram but we have missed that mark a couple of times, for various reasons. To that end, we are expanding our perennial rocket beds so we can sell more (or pick more easily, focussing on larger leaves) next year.

So far we have harvested and sold 3.42kg of rocket, 702kcal worth. As before, I'll keep tracking this but 2,000kcal seems quite far off. I'm sure the rocket is the most nutrient-dense crop we are growing however, it tastes as though it is chock full of minerals.

Our peas as winding up now and we desperately need to strip the plants as the humidity is causing some of the pods to rot. Our priorities have been elsewhere, sadly, with a puppy and a push to finish (or at least, further) the shed we have been building all year. Our freezer is already full of podded, flash-boiled peas though so we should be good until next year. I hope we will get there to harvest the remainder this week.

We harvested a few more onions today, 2kg worth (800kcal), for making another batch of chutney. They aren't quite ready and won't store for long but they have swollen nicely and taste fantastic.

Our rhubarbs also had some damage from being battered by the wind and I trimmed off some leaves that had been partially-snapped off. We harvested about 500g (100kcal). I don't want to take much more this year as the plants are just getting established.

We are also taking home perennial kale, mizuna, lettuce and various herbs, both planted and foraged.

The hay meadows are a stunning purple at the moment, full of common knapweed with an undercoat of buttercup, birds-foot trefoil and occasional flecks of white sneezewort. It's alive with bees, dragonflies and butterflies too, I have been delighting in seeing dark green fritillaries drinking the nectar on the knapweed.

I switched from summer squash to only growing winter squash this year. The reason is, that it’s more versatile to use, and they store longer. From 3 4’ round beds, I have so far gotten 27 pounds of pumpkins, and 94 pounds of winter squash, and my plants are not done yet. I have probably another 20 pumpkins and squash left, that’s still growing.
Don’t get me wrong. We like summer squash, but they expire very fast, and you can’t use them in as many things as you can winter squash.  On average you get 154 calories pr pound, so that’s 18.634 calories just in these squash. While summer squash does have more calories pr pound, they don’t last as long, and they don’t grow as heavy either. At least that’s my experience. This is why I have ended up only planting winter squash this year.

Ulla, we tend to grow a lot of both. This year we probably won't have as many winter squash as usual - if you take a look at some of my earlier posts in this thread, you'll see I filled my house with them last year!

I made the mistake of planting them in some unfinished compost this time around, as a bit of a trial and because I wanted to clear the compost heap to start over. I think it was less nutrient-dense than I expected and the squash have taken a long time to get going. I am still hopeful, however, as we usually don't pick the fruits until September and, as this summer July has been unusually wet, we might get a long, warm, dry September to help speed them along.

Beautiful squash, by the way!

Luke Mitchell wrote:Ulla, we tend to grow a lot of both. This year we probably won't have as many winter squash as usual - if you take a look at some of my earlier posts in this thread, you'll see I filled my house with them last year!

I made the mistake of planting them in some unfinished compost this time around, as a bit of a trial and because I wanted to clear the compost heap to start over. I think it was less nutrient-dense than I expected and the squash have taken a long time to get going. I am still hopeful, however, as we usually don't pick the fruits until September and, as this summer July has been unusually wet, we might get a long, warm, dry September to help speed them along.

Beautiful squash, by the way!

Ahh, so I missed it. I did think it was strange LOL. I usually end up harvesting early, do to our rat problem. Then I let them ripen and cure in the sun during the day, and take them in at night. It also seems to make the plants produce more. I have harvested 120 pound so far, and have a lot more coming. I didn’t grow any summer squash this year, since I am the only one eating them. My husband and kids don’t like them.
Good luck with them.
It seems like every year, something fails and something grows better than expected, and that’s okay. I am about to clear my main tomato bed, do to white flies. It’s my own fault. I didn’t get them pruned and trained early enough, which I think effected the plants immune system.
My other beds are doing better, so it’s not a total loss. I have 7 gallons of tomatoes in the freezer so far and will probably get another couple of gallons from the other plants. Last year they did great, so I still have a lot of sauce and soup on my canning shelves.
Last winter, we had an abundance of collards, but we had a late frost, after weeks of hot days during spring, so my onions and leeks bolted and I only got 25% of what I normally get. That’s okay too. We are so south, that I can grow spring onions all year round, so we just use those, and we did get some onions.
You can’t win them all, and clearing my tomato bed, means that I can get some more pole beans in there, and those grow well during the heat season. We mostly eat what we grow, and what animals we raise, so I make do and try to be creative, and I can always trade with other homesteaders and gardeners in our area.

Yesterday was onion harvest day. We pulled just over 650 onions and left them to dry in the breeze for a couple of hours. We then topped and tailed them (tops and roots), shook as much loose compost off and threw them in a wheelbarrow. The onions are now drying on various salvaged racks in our half-finished shed: freezer trays, suspended on lengths of batten, work very well.

I confess that I don't know what the weight of all of these onions is - I guess it to be about 40kg. I am certain, however, that it far exceeds 2000 calories!

The garlic has fully cured and we spent some time cleaning up the bulbs. We brought home a cardboard box full, I think about 100 bulbs. The bulbs vary in size a bit but I sold 10 this morning and, out of curiosity, weighed them: 315g. We have about 200 bulbs now to keep us through until next year.

Luke Mitchell wrote: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 think this puts me on 9 species of more than 2,000 kcals. I've highlighted in bold those species that, this year, have produced well and I've documented.

The rocket has slowed down so we are spreading it whenever we see a self-set. Last week we could only harvest 400g (100kcal). It needs time to recover between pickings. It's the perennial species (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) so it will recover and should produce for a couple of years before we need to replace the original bush (with its offspring). It might still make it over the line this year but I doubt it now.

I did get a yield of artichokes, surprisingly. I have no idea how many I'd need to meet the calorie goal, however. You can see the first four in the barrow in my photograph. I'm looking forward to eating those tonight.

Have you considered tree collards? In our garden they have been a big success. You would probably have to give them some protection during the winter, but here we harvest them all year round. I have 15 and they produce enough that we also use them as animal feed.
Here most of my summer garden are finishing up. I planted melons now that my cucumbers are finished, since we won’t get frost until December. I am still getting lots of tomatoes, and beans and we harvested our plums.
Thanks to your and others threads I have added another 5 raised beds. When speaking of calories we won’t get up where we need to be, until the avocado trees start producing. It continues to amaze me how much you can grow on 4000 square feet, where the 3000 are mostly trees, bushes and shrubs.
I finished up the plan for our cold season garden. We will be growing:
Green, red and Napa cabbages
Broccoli and cauliflowers
Boc choy, Pac choy and lettuce mainly Romane and iceberg
Leeks, onions and garlic
Beets, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, radishes and daikon radishes
Parsnip, parsley root, kohlrabi and root celery
Leaf celery, shallots and walking onions for fresh eating
We will also get plenty from our perennials kale, collards and spinach

Are you guys going to try growing a winter garden? I see a lot of homesteaders growing in caterpillar tunnels during winter.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:Have you considered tree collards? In our garden they have been a big success. You would probably have to give them some protection during the winter, but here we harvest them all year round. I have 15 and they produce enough that we also use them as animal feed.

We have perennial kale, a variety called Taunton Deane. As far as I can gather, that's pretty similar to tree collards. Very iron-rich, tall-growing and quite vigorous. Ours get a bit battered by the cabbage white butterflies (well, their caterpillars!) each summer but grow back strongly in the winter. They seem to last about 5 years before they need replacing from their cuttings.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:Are you guys going to try growing a winter garden? I see a lot of homesteaders growing in caterpillar tunnels during winter.

We would love a polytunnel (which I guess is the same as a caterpillar tunnel - I like that name better!) but we don't have one yet. They are quite expensive to get one of a decent size and, more importantly, we would need permission from the local authority to site one on our land and we haven't got that (yet!). Next year we have an expensive barn to start building so perhaps, the year after that, we will buy a tunnel. I am mostly excited about one for growing tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.

That sounds great. It’s hard work to build a productive garden, but it sounds like you are doing great progress.
I didn’t know that you would need a permit to make a tunnel. That’s very interesting.
I hope your barn build goes well.

The 2024 growing season is well under way. We've been selling a small number of veg. boxes to people in our community and it's meant we have had to get organised with our growing. Lots more successional sowing, more regular harvesting, more variety.

So far this year we've been taking lots of salad leaves (lettuce, mizuna, rapini, baby chard, rocket, mustard greens), garlic, onions, radishes, carrots, celery, turnips, potatoes, broad beans, chard and, of course, kale.

Our rhubarb plants have continued to mature and we've cut about 40 stems from them, most of which ended up in veg boxes although a good amount we ate in crumbles or steeped in gin (which turns a beautiful, delicate pink colour and tastes amazing!).

The variety we grow is 'Timperley Early'.

For the first time we grew parsnips and I pulled some of those yesterday. They are huge!

Parsnips harvested: 3kg (2250 kcals) (and species number 10 for this BB!)

The woodchip paths between our beds have been producing huge flushes of wine cap mushrooms each time it rains. It's often a race against the slugs and we have started to pick them young as they are often undamaged and a bit tastier.

I haven't weighed the wine caps but I would guess we have harvested a few kilos. Unfortunately mushrooms aren't particularly calorific and I've just worked out I would need 9.5 kilograms to reach 2000 kcals. I've been slicing and drying any we don't immediately and I will make a mushroom stock at some point.

This year our herbs have been very productive too. We grow rosemary, parsley, thyme, sage, oregano, chives and about 6 different mints. There are also medicinal herbs such as feverfew, yarrow and many wild plants nearby.

The courgettes have just begun exploding. I am always very excited to eat them at the start of summer and very bored of them by the end! In the past 2 days we have eaten them in 5 meals though!

Later in the year we will be overwhelmed with winter squash as we used up all of our old seed. I think we must have about 40 plants out there.

To complete this BB I need to harvest 2000 kcal of 2 more species.

That’s really awesome. We are at 117000 calories so far. I got 56 pounds out of my onions this year, mainly because many were large enough to top one pound. I got less garlic than last year, because I made the same mistake as you by planting them in unfinished compost, but also because I didn’t put them in the fridge before planting. Usually I won’t need to, since we usually get enough frost, but we didn’t this year. I am going to use the fridge from now on.
Because of what you showed me, I actually planted summer squash this year, and are happy I did it.
New crops are melons, gurds and gluten free grains. After I harvest my onions and garlic, I planted amaranth and sorghum and they look fantastic. I also tried tell and millet, but non sprouted, so it’s probably too hot for them.
We are also finally getting avocados. They are not ripe yet, but it’s great that the trees finally have started to produce.
With all the produce coming in, I am so grateful that we got the freeze dryer. Right now we get 10 cucumbers a day, and there are only so many pickles and cucumber soup we can eat. I made 2 gallons of Tzatziki that’s in the freeze dryer now. Later I will make cucumber soup and freeze dry that too. Cabbages has been a storage problem for years, since they can’t be canned, and regular drying makes them weird. When freeze dried, they rehydrate as fresh. I have 3 gallons of freeze dried cabbages on my shelves.
Anyway, I really love following along and see how well you are doing. It’s cool you can sell some now. Once they kids leave home, we will probably start selling too. Right now we eat it all ourselves.

Luke Mitchell wrote:To complete this BB I need to harvest 2000 kcal of 2 more species.

You're doing so well! Those parsnip look great. Carrots and Swede might be good for calorie crops? I've been pleased with how well my swede grew -at least last year -none of my main root crops came to anything this year as birds scratched up all the seed.
What variety is your artichoke? Those buds look an impressive size, and so spiky!

Nancy Reading wrote:

Luke Mitchell wrote:To complete this BB I need to harvest 2000 kcal of 2 more species.

You're doing so well! Those parsnip look great. Carrots and Swede might be good for calorie crops? I've been pleased with how well my swede grew -at least last year -none of my main root crops came to anything this year as birds scratched up all the seed.
What variety is your artichoke? Those buds look an impressive size, and so spiky!

Thank you :) :)

I think you're right, I'm growing a lot of things that aren't calorific enough to count (despite being full of vitamins and other essential things). I was hoping to get more carrots but the slugs kept demolishing our sowings. We have some late-sown carrots in an old cast iron bath tub so I'm hopeful for some of those, later in the year. Swedes would be a good one to grow, I do love them in a winter stew.

I'm afraid I don't know the variety of the artichoke. They were a bargain from a garden center up in north Wales, I think we paid £3 each. I've started picking them a bit younger as its easier to cut out the hearts which is my favourite way to use them.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:Because of what you showed me, I actually planted summer squash this year, and are happy I did it.

I'm so glad! They are such an exciting crop to grow and they store so well. Squash are easily my favourite harvest and I love filling the house with them over the autumn and winter.

It sounds like you're doing an amazing job with your growing. Well done! I would love to be able to grow some of the things you've listed. One day we'll get some greenhouses and some of the crops, at least, will be possible.

I can't believe I haven't been posting our beets! They are a great, calorie-dense root and we have been growing them all season for our veg boxes.

This week we have over 3kg of beets. There has probably been the same every week for the past two months.

Beetroot harvested: 3kg (1290 kcals)

I'll add a few more photos when I remember and that should be species 11 in the bag...