How much to plant per person for a year's worth of food or how many plants per person… 'tis a much-asked question when one is trying to harvest and preserve enough food to take their family through an entire year without buying it from the store.
As we shared in Episode #81 with my father and 17 Self-Sufficiency Tips from the Great Depression and 1940's almost all of the food they ate was what they grew and put up themselves, knowing how to grow all your own food was crucial to survival.
These essential homestead skills used to be a way of life, planting and putting up your own food to see you through. It was how the pioneers did it.
Most of us aren't relying completely on what we plant and preserve ourselves, we're still supplementing with the grocery store. But what if you did have to survive on what you'd planted and put up. How much money would it free up for you and your family?
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How much to plant per person for a year's worth of food
I have to be honest with you, it's going to vary a bit for every person and family. The average amounts you'll find listed below in this post are assuming your soil condition is good, average weather, and low pest or disease damage. It's a good starting place, but you'll want to plan your crops and garden with these charts and notes to make sure you're planting enough based on what your family actually eats.
Back in the pioneer days as well as the Great Depression, most families grew some of their own food, and many of them relied solely or almost solely on what they'd grown and preserved to feed themselves through the winter.
How much do you need to grow per person for a year?
aka, how much to plant per person.
There are five vegetable crops that we currently grow enough of that I don't purchase from the store, as in ever.
What size garden to feed a family of 4 for a year?
Our main annual vegetable garden space is a 20 x 30-foot rectangular bed. We have a 10 x 20-foot high tunnel where I grow all of our tomato plants.
This past year we added another 20 x 20-foot garden bed and three 3×20-foot rows for corn.
Your yield per plant can vary by type and growing season, but this is our average and typical yield.
Beans. Ya probably guessed this is one of my favorites. Green beans go well all by themselves as your vegetable for a meal, or they'll stretch a casserole or stew. One of our favorite foods is a pot of green beans simmered with a bit of fatback (aka bacon) thrown in.
Our strain of green bean is a pole bean and when allowed to mature on the vine, also doubles as a dried or shell bean. A lot of times these are also referred to as shelly beans.
Dried beans are awesome possum (confession, I've never eaten possum, just in case there was any confusion there, but when I get excited about something I tend to rhyme) because they're packed with protein and calories. This is one of the few times where we'll get excited about food having a lot of calories.
When you're truly living off of what you can grow, especially if it's not livestock (this allows you to render down a fat source) it can be hard to get a substantial amount of calories from just vegetables and fruit. A dried bean gives you both.
In my experience, a pole bean gives you a much larger harvest for the amount of space than a bush bean. With our pole beans, I plant approximately a total of 30 plants (3 bean plants on each 6-foot pole with 3 poles to a teepee, so 9 plants for each teepee) and from that I can about 50 to 60 jars of green beans, eat them fresh through the season, and save for both seed and as a dry bean over 200 beans.
How many bean plants per person?
The average recommendation of bean plants per person for a year's worth of food is 10 to 20 plants per person.
This is going to depend on your growing season, the amount of harvest from your bean, and of course, how much your family actually consumes of that food in a year.
Garlic is such an easy crop to grow, especially when you do a fall planting. Most of the winter your garden is lying fallow, the perfect time to put the ground to use with garlic. Harvest in the summer and you can still use that space for late summer and early fall crops.
We tend to always double the garlic in a recipe at our house, just saying. For us, about 50 bulbs of garlic take us all the way through the year. If you want your garlic to last a full year learn how to harvest garlic for long-term storage
How many garlic plants per person?
The average recommended amount is 15 bulbs per person, but with garlic, I say err on the side of having too many (because that's really not ever the case) Plus, garlic can be used medicinally and also fed to livestock. We give a few cloves of garlic every week to our piglets and many people also supplement with garlic for their chickens.
Grab my guide on How to Plant Garlic here
How many potato plants per person?
The average recommendation is 15 to 20 potato plants per person. With healthy soil, you can expect about 6 to 10 potatoes per plant or 50 lbs of potatoes from 2 lbs of seed potatoes.
If you plant a minimum of 15 potato plants and get a low yield of 5 potatoes per plant, that's 75 potatoes, equalling approximately 6 potatoes a week. I don't eat 6 potatoes a week so this is where keeping track of how much you eat of specific foods is more important than following a recommended average.
Make sure you're picking the correct storage variety of potatoes and type for your area. Find those here in How to Plant and Grow Potatoes (In Containers or the Ground)
Remember your yield will depend on how healthy your soil is and no disease takes over especially blight. Read more on Preventing & Treating Early Blight of Tomato & Potato Plants
How many tomato plants per person?
Tomatoes. Tomatoes are probably the most versatile of all the vegetables (I know, technically it's a fruit). From salsa, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, ketchup, pizza sauce, marinara, tomato soup, see, tomatoes go with just about every meal and in between.
The average recommendation is 5 tomato plants per person. I grow 18 tomato plants for our family of four and am able to can close to 40 jars of salsa, 10 quarts of stewed tomatoes, and 25 jars of tomato sauce.
For those of us planning on growing enough tomatoes for a year, that means we'll be preserving them, and when you're preserving, paste tomatoes are the name of the game. While I love cherry tomatoes and sliced tomato sandwiches, paste tomatoes are going to carry you much farther with canning and making your sauces.
Pickling cucumber, make sure you pick a pickling cucumber variety for preserving. We found about 6 to 9 nine cucumber plants provide us with enough for a year.
Winter squash, we're able to grow and preserve enough winter squash to take us through the entire year. We do several varieties, usually 5 to 6 plants of each type.
If you're growing your food with the goal of having enough to eat for the whole year, you're going to have to preserve it.
Summer squash is quite prolific. In fact, we have a joke around here that when zucchini is on, don't leave your car windows down or your doors unlocked, or you might find a surprise of zucchini.
The general recommendation is 1 plant per person for summer squash.
Winter squash is awesome because you can use root cellar techniques for your food storage. For more info on using root cellar techniques without a root cellar check out 10 Tips for Storing Vegetables w/out a Root Cellar Long Term
I have successfully stored spaghetti squash in our kitchen with root cellar techniques from the end of August until mid-March.
The general recommendation for winter squash is 2 to 3 plants per person.
Keep in mind, these are averages, you'll want to adjust for crops your family eats more or less of.
How many plants to plant per person
Grab our FREE How Much to Plant Per Person in the Garden Worksheets & Charts!
- bean plants -bush 15 to 20 plants
pole 10 to 15 plants - brassica family (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.) 2 to 3 plants
- corn – 15 plants
- cucumber – 2 to 3 plants
- garlic- 15 bulbs
- onion – 15 bulbs
- peas – 20 to 30 plants
- peppers- 2 plants
- potatoes – 15 to 20 plants
- tomatoes- 5 plants
- Summer squash- 1 to 2 plants
- Winter squash- 1 to 2 plants
Best plants for protein and calorie content
One thing you want to consider when trying to grow your own food is having a food source that is high in protein and calories, which can be hard to establish with just vegetables.
Dried peas and beans fit this bill. Make sure you have at least one or the other as one of your staple crops when growing enough food for a whole year for your family.
Resources for Planting and Preserving a Years Worth of Food
Grow a Year’s Worth of Food for Your Family
Increase your harvest and maximize the space you have using organic and natural methods to raise a year's worth of the fruits and vegetables your family enjoys with Melissa's step-by-step plans and charts with The Family Garden Plan: Raise a Year's Worth of Healthy and Sustainable Food
Get your FREE copy of my worksheets that will help you determine what your family’s produce needs are, how much you should plant, and how to plan your garden space accordingly by clicking here
How to Plan Your Best Garden & Harvest for a Years Worth of Food
How Many Fruit & Berry Plants Per Person
There you have it, everything you need to help you plant out how much to plant for a year's worth of food.
Want to grow a year’s worth of food?
Get my FREE planting chart!
With your first sentence in your email you nailed it! I have always felt I was born in the wrong place a century to late! I am now beginning to feel I was born a generation too early. There is a wonderful grass roots movement to go forward by going back to our roots. My generation helped bring us so far away from what is truely ‘success’ in living a full and rewarding life with values and simplicity. Good article! It’s never too late to ‘go back’…
Really useful information. Thank you.
I’ve been trying to figure out what we need here. But, I can get food 10 Months out of the year in my low desert garden in CA. Space is always the constraint. Trying to time it all as well. Below is what’s worked for mme, if any of your readers are low desert dwellers too.
Here, my past warm weather successes have been yard long beans (not bothered by bean beetle), butternut squash, sweet potatoes, Romano pole beans, WATERMELON, and even peanuts. Throw in herbs like mint, oregano, and basil. If i put in tomatoes, a few garlic go in as companions. Warm weather crops are harder to grow since water is scarce and expensive.
In cool weather,the gardens thrive here, and we usually get our limited rains then. I can grow leaf lettuce, lots of short day onions, kale, turnips, snow peas, cilantro, parsley. Throw in some edible flowers like arugula. Love broccoli, but it takes so much space. And carrots take forever, considering how economical in the stores. Sometimes I’ll grow shallots, leeks, and garlic thru the winter too.
All in all, it’s hard to grow enough calories for survival. Your blog helps put it in perspective. For now, I’m thankful for farmers and stores!
Thankyou for this wonderful information we are planting our allotment and I was wondering how to calculate quantities to meet the needs of my family. Thankyou so much jackie
I have to thank you for the cold brew coffee idea you have in “The Made From Scratch Life.” I can now drink coffee again! I am so happy, that method makes all of the difference and the taste is great!
Last summer my neighbors & I all had a surplus of zucchini & tomatoes. Late at night we would sneak leaving them on each other’s doorstep. I think I actually got my own back a time or two. Lol
I’d also suggest okra. Easy to grow and produces up until hard freeze. It is becoming considered a superfood. I’m going to experiment with slicing thin, dehydrating it and tossing with dry ranch dressing mix. I heard it was fantastic.
Thanks Dottie,
Unfortunately, okra won’t grow here as we’re too cold with too short of a growing season. But an excellent one for warmer climates!
Are you eating the dehydrated okra seasoned but raw? Thank you.
Please disregard earlier post . it came.
I’ve canned yellow straight neck squash. It’s a little mushy. But I put in spaghetti, stew and even put with green beans when cooking beans. It stretches alot.
I grew a wheel barrel full of spaghetti squash two years ago. I didn’t use it fast enough and it rotted. 🙁 our basement is a little bit damp. So I have a hard time storing winter squash. Thanks Melissa for this podcast. It’s helping me to plan this year.
Charessa
Thanks so much for the note on canning squash, great idea on using to stretch sauces and soups.
Yellow squash makes awesome pickles. I have a zucchini zesty pickles I use summer squash for and they are delicious!
how can you talk about feeding yourself from your garden without mention of corn and especially potatoes?! Corn depends on if you have space for it, but potatoes take up pretty little space and can even be grown in towers. They give you a meal with real substance instead of just eating leaves out of your garden. And they keep for a pretty long time if you have a cool dark storage place.
Kate,
I talk about this in the podcast (audio part) but for us corn takes up more space, so for the square footage, I prefer to do other crops.
We truthfully don’t eat that many potatoes, so for us I prefer the beans (I went into detail on protein and calories for dried beans and peas above) and tomatoes.
However, potatoes can be a great source for calories and store fairly well. That’s the beauty of us growing it ourselves, we can decide what works best for our needs and growing space/climate.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Those canning numbers are fantastic. What type of tomatoes are you planting?
Hi Kayla
Thanks! I use heirloom San Marzano Lungo paste tomatoes. They have great flavor and are quite prolific.
Hi Kayla
Thanks! I use heirloom San Marzano Lungo paste tomatoes. They have great flavor and are quite prolific.
Thanks so much for your common-sense articles, Melissa.
I love that way of life and try my best to do all I can to make that life happen. I ha ve been very sick in the past 3 years or so and things have gone downhill. However, I am looking to the Lord to strengthen me and help me do all that I can for my family. I love to can and see the food on shelves. What a blessing!!! Thanks so much…..
Melissa, Thanks for the tips. Wanted to know some of your favorite canning recipes or combinations of veggies. Your picture of your canned goods look so yummy. Kathy
I have tried 3x to access the food planting chart to no avail. I click the link, fill out the form but nothing happens.
Leah,
The form will come to your email inbox. Double check your spam folder, and if that doesn’t work, let me know and I can email it to you directly.
Thanks!
Thanks for reminding me of all that I have learned as a child. I have not been walking that path very well lately. I do love to can. I make all kinds of foods for my family to enjoy all year.
Thank you for the great article. One question, When you say how many jars you get, are you talking quarts or pints?
Sue,
Great question, on the beans, it’s pints. For the tomatoes, I do my salsa and sauce in pints, but my stewed tomatoes in quarts.
Melissa, I really enjoy this blog and feel energized by it as I go through all the spring work around our place. I was listening to your podcast this weekend while working in the garden and you threw me for a loop with your bean teepee idea. I’ve heard of it, but thought it was more for looks than productivity. I’m planting my beans today and would like to try it. Do you use 6′ fencing t-posts for it, like I would for my pole bean line? Next year I’d like to dry the leftover stalks from my big sunflowers to use (free!), but for now I’m not sure what to start with. I’d love to hear your ideas. Sorry I’m asking during such a busy time.
I hope the Lord blesses your garden this year!
Hi Jennifer!
I didn’t use t-posts for the teepees, but I don’t see why you couldn’t. We used some split wooden poles. When I get mine up (hopefully this weekend) I’ll share a picture on FB and Instagram.
hehehe, well sometimes I wish I would listen to my Dad about what I should plant and read peoples suggestion. Last summer I didn’t get my garden in until VERY late. The garden was only about 20×20 and nothing was fitted in right :-/ haha. This year I plowed a 60×40. 🙂 For some reason I thought I would just plant 30 tomatoes, 14 rows each holding 20 potato plants red/white, 180 onions, A LOT OF BEETS! God can only tell me how many bush and pole beans are out there. For my pole beans I planted them along the back outside of my garden. I have a fence around the garden to keep those stinking deer out. I think 15 cucumber plants (planning for lots of pickles, I’m from western PA near Pittsburgh LETS GO PENZ, we love our pickles) There’s more in the there. Anyways I also planted a bunch of peas in my porch baskets and hanging baskets so I could use the viney look for some product. 🙂 I’m so smart 🙂 haha Then I also have 24 chickens so I’ll be having lots of eggs.
But given your advice on planting numbers for year long eating. DOES ANYONE OUT THERE NEED SOME FOOD? Come to Venus Pa and I’ll give yinz some eggs for sure. Happy Harvesting everyone.
Way to go! If we lived on your side of the country, I’d be over. 🙂
Only 3 vegetables?
Squash-winter & summer, is a big suppler.
Okra-is another big suppler.
Peppers,cucumbers,corn put out if grown right.
Asparagus, leeks,potato onions, horse radish all grow without a lot of care.
How about small fruit plants, blueberries for on are care free for the most part.
There is more than 3 listed and in the free download chart is the full chart, I suggest you check that resource out. Okra doesn’t grow in every zone (for example I can’t grow it here in the Pacific Northwest) as it’s a heat loving and needing plant so I didn’t list it as many of my readers are in the colder climates. Thanks.
I too feel that I am living in the wrong generation. Next week I will have been married for 41 years and I had a garden that fed my family, neighbors and friends before the children came along and canned every thing I had time for. We now live on the side of a mountain and the soil is too poor and rocky. I planted a tomato and pepper plant in my front flower garden last year only to have critters eat the bottoms of my tomatoes as soon as they began to ripen. This year I planted my small garden in buckets that are on a bench on my deck. This deck is on the second level of my house. So far the only critters I’ve seen are squirrels,
and I have wrapped my buckets in nylon net. I also planted five “eyes” of a white potato in an unused flower planter by the playhouse and I was stunned to find then about five inches tall. I will definitely use this again. Last year a bought a large plastic planter( about the size of a hope chest from Sam’s Club that came with legs for it to sit on and a reservoir for water in the bottom. I bought a set of wheels to be attached so that I could roll it out of the garage in the morning, and back in at night. I had two spinal fusions in January and February so that project didn’t get finished, but I want it to be on my priority list next. I bought a new canner last year and I have a lot of recipes to try. Everyone needs to try it just to hear that ping when they seal!
What would you recommend for plant based eating? My husband and I are both vegan, no animal products whatsoever. How many times would you multiple the plants per person rule for a plant based diet to you think?
Goodness Michele,
I’m not sure, we typically don’t eat meat at breakfast, but we do eat eggs and usually have meat for dinner, not always at lunch, so you may well need increase by at least 25% if not 50%.
Got the down load, i have most of that stuff in the 20 odd books & a mother who believed men should wash dishes & cook as well as can.
But no food chart.?!?
Did I waste my time or over look the chart some how.
Joel,
You should have received the chart, it’s an alphabetical chart with type of plant, how many plants per person, and personal notes on how much we grow and put up for the year. It should have had a big blue download me button in the email with it. If you don’t find it, shoot me an email at [email protected] and I can send it as an attachment for you.
tomato sandwiches are so amazing! I love them in the summer. great podcast. thanks so much!
This year we used cattle panels for our pole beans,tomatoes and cucumbers. It was the ticket we will never go back. It was so easy picking the vegetables.
A fabulous idea!
Do you have a book with all this information in it? (How to plant for a years worth of food) I live in Australia so I will of course have to adapt the times of the plantings to correspond with the Southern Hemisphere seasons but to have a guide would be great. If you could include the tips for root storage chart in with the book that would be great. Please email me what it would cost (book chart and shipping) and what payment options you take that would be great. Thank you
Nancy Melchior.
Can you please sign me up for your newsletter
Thanks for the great information. Was raised with a huge family garden and your tips and instructions are perfect. Thankyou
I have always gown way too much for my family but now its only my husband and I and I still grow the same amount but I bring it to the food pantrys for people who do not have money for food. i’ll even stay outside in the care with permission of course and hand people a bag or two depends on their family. And I always have lots even after that. A idea for others who have extra maybe.
I enjoyed listening to you and learning how many plants per person. I’m happy knowing that you are a person of faith and a believer thank you
So glad you enjoyed it and hello to a sister in Christ. 🙂
This is very helpful to me. I do have a book on canning so I can use it. Thanks so much for having this on Pinterest!
Nice time here with all these valuable information. Thanks a!
I’m BRAND new to gardening and have been trying to figure out how much I need to plant to keep my family of nine (5 growing kids and four adults). This is EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED!! Thank you SO much for this guideline. I can’t wait for my fiance and I to get started on keeping my family fed without running to the grocery store all the time. I’m excited to see what we can pull off.
Hi Dot, so happy to help! You’ll definitely want to check out my new book and the pre-order bonuses of the Family Garden Plan: Grow a Year’s Worth of Sustainable and Healthy Food here http://familygardenplan.com/
For those of us starting out on the road to being self sufficient, can you please put a basics area and how to for food storages IE: how to can/jar produce from gardens (mine are expanding this year!), different ways to creat a root cellar (I live in Florida….), things that are “doable” in a suburban type area, and anything that would help the true beginners… IF you’re unable (I know this is time consuming) are there sites that would help with this information????
I love the information your site provides and have re-pinned quite a bit of information especially gardening items, storing, and things of that nature.. I wish I could live on an actual homestead where I could have livestock, but the city I live in doesn’t even allow chickens ?
Hi Sharon, I have a free canning video series here https://melissaknorris.com/pressurecanning I think you’ll find extremely helpful but I also do step-by-step tutorials walking you through everything inside my membership with the Pioneering Today Academy. We open for new members on February 19th so I would highly recommend getting on the waitlist for that here https://melissaknorris.com/waitlist
How about rabbits instead of chickens for a meat source? They can be put in cages above the growing area and provide fertilizer or rotated through in the winter.
Thank you Melissa for sharing your farming information and teaching the class. I have only been gardening as a retired person for 4 summers, and each year is a learning year. We live in Nelchina Alaska and I try to grow for 2 and then some for family and friends. Learning what grows here was the 1st and foremost. Question on the garlic. What zones are best for garlic as we live in a zone 2/3 where winter temps dip in the -40’s for a few days at a time several times in the winter. Thank you looking forward to Wednesday class. 3/18/2020 Looking forward to checking out the free charts, thank you again for your help. Nora
You can grow garlic in zones 2 to 3, plant in September and mulch heavily with straw.
Hello Melissa I was just wondering how do you keep the deer and critters out of your garden? I see in the pictures you have no fence around your garden. I live in Vermont so my growing season is short and any loss from critter or deer’s is not good. I have only been gardening a couple of years for fun but this year with the virus going around I what to take a more serious approach so I’m trying to gain as much knowledge I can get. I look forward to learning from you. God bless you + family and all the best for 2020. Jonah.
Melissa I picked up a copy of your book at Barnes and Nobel when I was there. Am I suppose to let you know I have a copy.
Hi Linda,
Thank you so much for getting a copy, if you’re inquiring about the bonuses, just scroll down to the bottom of this page and fill out the form http://familygardenplan.com
Very interesting we are like you never enough garlic or onions or carrots
Thank You so much!! This is an excellent guide that is easy to understand. It really helped me. Thank You again for your kind guidance.
I found this amazing website to help me plan out my garden and it also has a free planner for how much to grow per person. http://www.vegetablegardenplanner.com/garden_calculators/family_feeder_all
I know you also have a tool but i wanted to share one that is online for those that want the tech to think it out for them (like me)
I love your site Melissa, and you’re really helping hubby and i with our tiny home urban homestead!
Hugs!
Where can I order the best green bean and beans for the new garden?
This is very insightful! Without seeing this before starting my garden, I’m happy to report that I’m fairly on track. I could definitely increase it and I think I will next year. But I’ll be using this post and your resources to help map it out a bit better to really plan out the food and then how to preserve it all once harvested. Thanks much!
Wow, I relate So much to Melissa! My husband and I were going to harvest our own vegtables and have “livestock”. I honestly thought that was the dream until, I saw the way Betta fish were treated in Petco and wanted to report this, then I came across PETA(animal rights group) they showed me how animals were really treated and that they experience all of the same emotions we do. I was appalled by this, I told my husband that we can survive WITHOUT MEAT! For me learning that veganism excist is just beautiful. We are all easily misled, I myself was about to be just like you Melissa, I love your content, but when realised animals where not a isle of toys in stock for me to use I quickly changed to a plant based lifestyle (aka: vegan) and try to teach others! I wanted to share this with you because of how similar our way of thinking is based on your blog☺️. I love your amazing content except the sad part where animals who want to live are sacrificed when they don’t have to be! Sending love and blessings from my family to yours, Giselle❤️.
What type of pole beans do you grow? We have been using the Lazy Housewife beans and they are great during season, but they do not freeze or can well.
We grow my family’s strain of heirloom pole tarheel beans we’ve been seed saving for over 100 years. A lot of people also like a Blue Lake pole green bean.
Thanks! We currently use the Blue Lake bush beans but I didn’t realize they also have a pole version.. I will check it out.
Thanks!
I love your innovative ideas, some of which I have used in my gardens. Since I’m a widow, my garden SHOULD have been smaller; however, it still seems to be average sized and I do so enjoy sharing with my envious neighbors and the community soup kitchen (where I work, bake for them and am their communications secretary). Thank you for all your information. Looking forward to maybe a larger garden this year. It’s fenced in with chain link fence, plus chicken wire fencing directly around some plants in the raised beds. My basement is a testament to all my summer/fall work and I love sharing that also. Like in the movie “Gone with the Wind”…as God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again as long as I can dig in the dirt and raise veggies and fruits there 🙂
I’m surprised you didn’t include potatoes. They’re a nutrient dense vegetable and are quite versatile in the kitchen. But otherwise thanks for the info! We just started our homesteading journey and we’re going to work towards not relying on the store!
Excellent work!
Thank you for sharing! This is such great information I never really knew or thought about.
The easiest most productive way to grow pole beans is to make a teepee (tent) using cane poles. Make the apex taller than the tallest person that will be picking, and use that to establish your radius. Dig the ends of the cane into the ground on the radius and lash at the top with hay rope. about 1/3 and 2/3 on the vertical axis string hayrope around the cane – doesn’t have to be exact. Leave one space open – this will be your entrance. Plant beans around the radius. they’ll crawl up the poles and become a solid teepee. Best part is all the fruit (beans) hangs down inside. Quick easy way to pick 20 plants. Works great 😉 Enjoy!! BTW – KIDS LOVE going inside the teepee.
I love this method. I grow Rattlesnake Beans and Missouri Wonders when I can get the seed. They both are very prolific plants and do well with the teepees.
Both of these beans are good canners and dried beans.
Great information. We live in rural Georgia so we have grown many different vegetables during the growing season. I decided to try a winter garden close to my house this year but forgot to put up something to keep the rabbits out .lol.
I do have one question, how long will canned vegetables keep? I have green beans we canned from 2014, would they still be safe to eat?
Thank you so much for sharing your experience and wisdom! I’ve been trying to figure out my family’s consumption of food for a while. I want to grow more food ourselves for health reasons and to excite the kids more about eating veggies. They love planting something, watching it grow, and harvesting it.
We tend to make most things from scratch and our flour consumption is quite high. For our family of 5 we go through about 200 pounds of bread flour and about 400 pounds of AP flour a year. Plus, roughly 80 pounds of pasta in a year. We do cook and share quite often but given our wheat consumption I know I can never grow enough. But would love to grow more of our fruits and veggies. Your insights help whittle down the numbers and see what is practical to slowly start expanding the garden and which direction to take the garden. Thank you!
I am glad I found your site…. I’m moving from wet Zone 4 to Reno, NV Zone 7….w/ raised beds… so I’m like between 2 worlds. Trying to see how I’m going to garden w/ beds& a small greenhouse…ideas?
This is wonderful! What about fruits??