If you had to grow your own food...

Maize

8 (6.1%)

Rice

9 (6.8%)

Wheat

9 (6.8%)

Barley

3 (2.3%)

Sorghum

0 (0%)

Millets

0 (0%)

Oats

0 (0%)

Rye

2 (1.5%)

Triticale

0 (0%)

Buckwheat

2 (1.5%)

Potatos

34 (25.8%)

Cabbage

6 (4.5%)

Apples

11 (8.3%)

Beans

20 (15.2%)

Carrots

4 (3%)

Peas

2 (1.5%)

Other legume

2 (1.5%)

Other fruit

9 (6.8%)

Other cerial

1 (0.8%)

Other root vegetable

2 (1.5%)

Other leafy vegetable

5 (3.8%)

Added late: squash

3 (2.3%)

Total Members Voted: 35

[One two three]

Kale, a type of cabbage, grows fantastic in NH.  It is common in New England and very healthy.

[AL the Inconspicuous]

I haven't come across any yield statistics for kale yet, but I'd guess it would be close to Swiss Chard (~5 tons per acre = 1 million calories w/ 38% protein).  Those greens aren't champions of caloric efficiency, but they're great champions when it comes to vitamins and minerals (particularly calcium, if you're a vegan).

Freezing or canning veggies just doesn't compute in my mind, so I think it's best to grow them in a heated greenhouse year-round.  If you plan and time it out just right, you can just go to your greenhouse every day and have a variety of things to pick for your salad that just reached the peak of ripeness!  I wonder if we'll see any neighbourhood greenhouses popping up in Free Stater dominated areas any time soon? 

[One two three]

I haven't come across any yield statistics for kale yet, but I'd guess it would be close to Swiss Chard (~5 tons per acre = 1 million calories w/ 38% protein).  Those greens aren't champions of caloric efficiency, but they're great champions when it comes to vitamins and minerals (particularly calcium, if you're a vegan).

Freezing or canning veggies just doesn't compute in my mind, so I think it's best to grow them in a heated greenhouse year-round.  If you plan and time it out just right, you can just go to your greenhouse every day and have a variety of things to pick for your salad that just reached the peak of ripeness!  I wonder if we'll see any neighbourhood greenhouses popping up in Free Stater dominated areas any time soon? 

You can grow Kale in NH so that it starts being ready at the end of October and leave it in the ground until the start of December so it stores itself for a good 6 weeks.  After that, you can just freeze it for a while, eat it, sell it, or can it if you really want.  It is also one of the easiest things to grow.

[Lothar]

Freezing or canning veggies just doesn't compute in my mind, so I think it's best to grow them in a heated greenhouse year-round.

I don't remember where it was that I came across this... http://www.omegagarden.com/index.php?content_id=1500  I apologize if it was from this thread.  lol..  I am curious if anyone here knows of these being used.

[AL the Inconspicuous]

Mushrooms!

I highly recommend the documentaries Know Your Mushrooms and especially Let's Grow Mushrooms! (torrent link above).  Just ignore all the silly stuff about "magic mushrooms" - killing your mental productivity is not what this thread is about!

Most commonly edible species of mushrooms have about 40% calories from protein - almost as high as sprouted kidney beans (the protein champion of beans) and spinach (one of the protein champs among leafy greens).  Most important of all is that mushroom farming can result in amazing agricultural productivity when grown indoors, much more so than non-fungal produce because they require very little light, which means they can be stacked in shelves of infinite height.  With skyscraper mushroom farms, humanity could feed trillions of people on this planet alone!

[The ghost of a ghost of a ghost]

I'm trying to grow morels right now.   Will update on success/failure.

ON a side note, I had these mushrooms in my yard that were bright peach and grew to form a little roof of sorts.  Underneath that roof oozed a shit brown liquid that smelled like death.  That's apparently how it attracted flies to spread it's spores.
Fucking nasty shit.  My yard smelled like a rotting elephant for months.

[anarchir]

Mushrooms!

I've heard that since mushrooms are mostly air, they arent worth choosing as more than a delicacy.

People go crazy over morels around here, and are willing to pay a pretty penny. I find that funny because as long as you keep your ears open to determine when they are ready to be harvested, anyone can easily go out and find them.

[AL the Inconspicuous]

It's true, you'd have to eat like 4lb of mushrooms to get your daily requirement of protein from them alone, but they do add nutritional value to whatever you use them in.  What other food type can you grow without any sunlight at all, like in basement stories underneath your hemp greenhouse, eating nothing but raw minerals like agricultural waste?


[youtube=425,350]<object width="660" height="525"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/XI5frPV58tY&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/XI5frPV58tY&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="660" height="525"></embed></object>[/youtube]

(Just ignore the hippie bullshit in the beginning, it does get interesting after that.)

[anarchir]

Yes, I suppose you could grow them in the unused spaces. Like under porches or in cellars.

[AL the Inconspicuous]

I'm going to repeat this table from above (my account cycling habits got in the way of my ability to edit it) and add barley to it.  The columns are "Million Calories Per Acre" and "Percent Protein".  See the original post for other explanations.

FOOD	MCPA	PP
Apple	23.6	2%
Hemp Seed  [2]	18.1	18%
Potato	9.2	8%
Pear	8.2	4%
Almond	8.0	14%
Maize	7.5	16%
Rice	7.4	8%
Carrot	5.8	9%
Garlic	3.8	17%
Rutabaga  [PDF]	3.2	13%
Wheat	3.0	14%
Sweet Potato	2.9	6%
Soybeans	2.8	53%
Barley	2.8	12%
Peas	2.5	28%
Brussels Sprouts	2.2	32%
Broccoli	2.1	28%
Sweet Cherry	1.9	7%
Rye	1.8	18%
Turnip	1.4	13%
Okra	1.3	29%
Peanut	1.3	18%
Oats	1.3	14%
Beans	1.1	25%
Tomato	1.1	24%
Cabbage	1.1	19%
Swiss Chard	1.0	38%
Buckwheat	0.8	16%
Spinach	0.6	50%
Blueberry	0.6	5%

Yes, this forum is my personal little notepad.  Deal with it. 

[AL the Inconspicuous]

Yeah, though one needs to keep in mind that he's doing it in a much warmer climate.  I think greenhouses are an absolute necessity for successful year-round vegetable farming in New Hampshire, but you still need regular fields for seasonal crops that store well: beans, grains, beans, root vegetables, beans, peas, beans, and more beans. 

[Bill Brasky]

I used to live in an area that has a local history of mushroom farming.  Stinkiest fuckin shit you'll ever grow.  If you think you're gonna put that in your basement but had issues with a few cows poopin a couple hundred yards away, you're unfamiliar with the process.  IT FUCKING REEKS.  BAD. 

[AL the Inconspicuous]

(1)  Mushrooms are an experimental idea, I'm not really committed to as I am to beans and someday (THC-free) hemp.

(2)  A 1,000 pound cow produces an average of 10 tons of manure a year.  It would take a lot of mushrooms to equal that.

(3)  The stink factor probably depends on the species of fungus, I'll bet some don't smell at all.

[Bill Brasky]

(1)  Mushrooms are an experimental idea, I'm not really committed to as I am to beans and someday (THC-free) hemp.

(2)  A 1,000 pound cow produces an average of 10 tons of manure a year.  It would take a lot of mushrooms to equal that.

(3)  The stink factor probably depends on the species of fungus, I'll bet some don't smell at all.

A couple little mushroom logs probably wouldn't stink at all.  Filling half your basement, in your optimistic fervor which translates from unlimited racks (previously mentioned by you) would be awful. 

Growing for personal use, people typically use a damp hay medium, or logs.  On a larger scale, they use hay and manure, probably peat and other stuff.  It stinks bad in any large scale.  The small hay blocks aren't cost effective when you get beyond a hobbyists scale.  So it'd be a nice way to supplement your diet, you'd probably have a little setup about the size of a 50 gal fish tank.  Bigger than that, you'd have to make less costly adjustments thus comes the stink. 

Dude, I'm telling ya, you can smell mushroom houses a mile away.  They look like little concrete office buildings, and every 45 days or whatever, they harvest, churn up the shit and its bad.  You wouldn't want those sorts of beds in your basement. 

[AL the Inconspicuous]

I think that most rural homeowners engaged in self-reliant agriculture would have places other than their residential basements to use for growing mushrooms.  I'm thinking bottom shelf of the greenhouse maybe?  Greenhouses can also contain very large soil containers with multiple plant / fungus species growing symbiotically.

If you really wanted to make ideal use of limited land you could even have reinforced tunnels spiraling under your property (hey, it worked for Việt Cộng!) filled to the brim with fungus, but that would sound a little scary to some...