Preserve 1 Million Calories - food.wood.calories PEP BB

Hello, Permies Staff!

This HUGE BB is finally finished! Here is the thread which documents all the foods preserved.

Here are the totals:

Canned goods

Including Syrups, Juice, Sauces, Salsa, Pasta Sauce, Jams, Jellies, and Pie Fillings of many, many species of fruits and veggies, for 405,594 calories, a big chunk of the 1 million (40.5%)
Of these, there were 22.8 lbs of stews/broth,
118.25 lbs of syrups/juices,
186.3 lbs of sauces,
68 lbs. Of pie filling,
12.7 lbs. Of fish that were canned,
31.1 lbs. Of fire cider bottled,
506 lbs. Of jams or jellies canned,
31.1 lbs. Of fruits canned whole or sliced,
And 40lbs. 10oz. Of pickled foods bottled.
*all these weights are minus the bottles weights, and since there were over 350 of those, this alp represents a sturdy set of shelves in my basement holding it all up!!

Dehydrated

Including Berries, Pears, Herbs, Beans, Noodles, and Jerky 74,375 calories, only 7.4%.
Including: 49.2lbs. Of meat turned into jerky,
43.7 lbs. Of dried fruit,
7.7 lbs of herbs,
61lbs 14.3 Oz of beans dried and stored,
1.85 lbs. Of noodles,
95 lbs. Of fruit leather,
16.9 lbs. Of stored grains

Freeze Dried

I freeze dried apricots, apples, tomatoes, corn, pumpkin, yogurt, and pie filling for 43,649 calories. (4.3 %) I have freeze dried many more calories and saved them in mylar bags which didn't count (dang!) Nearly 40lbs.

Live Storage

Including potatoes, parsnips, sunchokes all stored in a root cellar, two different seasons. 136,821 calories (13%) 390lbs!

Seeds

Including sunflower, pumpkin and primrose seeds: 25,120 calories.  Plus 6,000 cal of flaxcrackers (3.1%) 8.15lbs.

Freezer

including chicken and deer to make up the 100,000 calorie limit! (10%) 210lbs.

There were far more than 24 species of foods preserved for this BB, including Deer, Chicken, Elk, Primrose, Pumpkin, Sunflower, Duck eggs, Cucumbers, Cabbage, Wheat, Beans, Herbs of many varieties, Pears, Strawberries, Elderberries, Autumn Olives, American black nightshade, Tomatoes, Sunchokes, Parsnips, Potatoes, Little barley, Apple, Corn, Apricots, Flaxseeds, Peaches, Carrots, Crabapple, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries.
Each post documents where the foods came from. I raised a large chunk of them. My family also hunted or were given hunted animals from the local area, I stored foods from neighbors and foraged areas within two miles of my home. I bought foods from the local greenhouse, a better-than-organic farm, from which I often biked or walked. Finally, I picked fruit and tomatoes and gleaned potatoes from neighbors in my hometown.

Rebekah Harmon wrote:Hello, Permies Staff!

This HUGE BB is finally finished! Here is the thread which documents all the foods preserved.

Here are the totals:

Canned goods

Including Syrups, Juice, Sauces, Salsa, Pasta Sauce, Jams, Jellies, and Pie Fillings of many, many species of fruits and veggies, for 405,594 calories, a big chunk of the 1 million (40.5%)
Of these, there were 22.8 lbs of stews/broth,
118.25 lbs of syrups/juices,
186.3 lbs of sauces,
68 lbs. Of pie filling,
12.7 lbs. Of fish that were canned,
31.1 lbs. Of fire cider bottled,
506 lbs. Of jams or jellies canned,
31.1 lbs. Of fruits canned whole or sliced,
And 40lbs. 10oz. Of pickled foods bottled.
*all these weights are minus the bottles weights, and since there were over 350 of those, this alp represents a sturdy set of shelves in my basement holding it all up!!

Dehydrated

Including Berries, Pears, Herbs, Beans, Noodles, and Jerky 74,375 calories, only 7.4%.
Including: 49.2lbs. Of meat turned into jerky,
43.7 lbs. Of dried fruit,
7.7 lbs of herbs,
61lbs 14.3 Oz of beans dried and stored,
1.85 lbs. Of noodles,
95 lbs. Of fruit leather,
16.9 lbs. Of stored grains

Freeze Dried

I freeze dried apricots, apples, tomatoes, corn, pumpkin, yogurt, and pie filling for 43,649 calories. (4.3 %) I have freeze dried many more calories and saved them in mylar bags which didn't count (dang!) Nearly 40lbs.

Live Storage

Including potatoes, parsnips, sunchokes all stored in a root cellar, two different seasons. 136,821 calories (13%) 390lbs!

Seeds

Including sunflower, pumpkin and primrose seeds: 25,120 calories.  Plus 6,000 cal of flaxcrackers (3.1%) 8.15lbs.

Freezer

including chicken and deer to make up the 100,000 calorie limit! (10%) 210lbs.

There were far more than 24 species of foods preserved for this BB, including Deer, Chicken, Elk, Primrose, Pumpkin, Sunflower, Duck eggs, Cucumbers, Cabbage, Wheat, Beans, Herbs of many varieties, Pears, Strawberries, Elderberries, Autumn Olives, American black nightshade, Tomatoes, Sunchokes, Parsnips, Potatoes, Little barley, Apple, Corn, Apricots, Flaxseeds, Peaches, Carrots, Crabapple, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries.
Each post documents where the foods came from. I raised a large chunk of them. My family also hunted or were given hunted animals from the local area, I stored foods from neighbors and foraged areas within two miles of my home. I bought foods from the local greenhouse, a better-than-organic farm, from which I often biked or walked. Finally, I picked fruit and tomatoes and gleaned potatoes from neighbors in my hometown.

First, let me say it's a truly impressive amount of food you've preserved! It really is. That said, I have some questions I'm not able to answer after reading the preservation thread and the above post.

"- Their food values need to be “organic or better”

I can't determine the food values at:
- Rebekah's place (much of the food)
- Debra's (hippopotomas plums)
- Ellie's (apricots)
- School dropoff (first potatoes post)
- "Local farms" (second potatoes post)
- Other potato locations
- Farmer's market honey (just because it's a farmer's market doesn't mean it's organic)
- Tara's place (local greenhouse)
- Wherever the corn came from
- etc.

- 75% of the food comes from homesteading, preferably from your own homestead

By my count, food not from homestead (or unclear) was:
- Local farms potatoes, 18,000 cal
- Farmer's market honey, 12,800 cal
- Local organic spud farm, 19,000 cal
- Sweetener for fruit leather ??? cal (acquired how?)
- Agrarian harvest, 90,000 cal beans
- Flour for noodles ??? cal (acquired how?)

The amount of non-homestead food appears fine; but this work of tallying is for the BB requestor to do, not the reviewer. I'd like to see in one post, at a glance, what your percentage of 'not homestead' food wound up being.

"- detail the weights of each type of food being stored and how many calories it represents  (meeting the above stated requirements)"

I'm not seeing this written out in your response to this BB thread.
- How many calories in total were Deer jerky?
- Or Apricots?
- Or Cherries?
I would prefer to be able to tell by reading one line in this BB thread that you reached 100,000 calories of potatoes, as opposed to tracking it down in the thread.

The running total of calories is extremely difficult for me to follow in the thread (ex: I can't track where the 30,000 calories for the frozen turkeys was removed from the running total, just mentioned).

It's clear you've put in a lot of work to preserve food.

In a new post: Take a go at writing a really clear summary log in this BB thread of each the food types and total pounds and calories (ex, Deer Jerky, ### lbs, ### cal, Pear Fruit Leather, ### lbs, ### cal), including the values both at your homestead and other sources, and please post in a way that makes it very easy for the reviewer (you're now stuck with me), to track what you've done and total it up alongside you. This is a proud BB, and is deserving of proudly presented documentation. Let this be your dissertation on food preservation!

Hey Ash! Thank you for thoughtfully and carefully going over this BB. I appreciate your attention.

I may have another go at documenting this BB. I used paper and pencil last time. Since its been over three months since then, that paper and previous work is gone. I could start over. With a spreadsheet maybe. Number crunching is a painful expenditure of many "spoons" for me. (Spoons as in the joy factor Paul W often uses.) When I took on this BB, it was about the food for me, not the math so much. I'm not an analyst type of person, so I didn't see the requirements with the same lens as those who are reviewing these BBs for me. (Also referring to the 800 plates BB)

I'm really grateful that your edge case decision is an open-ended invitation to rewrite and try again.  Its not as tough to swallow as a flat rejection. Without the other BB necessary for this badge, I'm afraid its value is negligible. Unfortunately, I just dont have the heart to re-try 800 plates.

Thank you, Ash!