How many pounds of produce?

[Blaundee]

How many POUNDS of produce do you get from your garden? (not bushels, etc., I need to know pounds or a good guesstimate of pounds, or even just how many jars & what size jars)
What did you grow, and how long is your growing season?

 

[Wannabefree]

Why such broad spectrum questions? Those are not easy to answer at all. I can't even fathom how much we grew/put up/etc. We ate a LOT of it fresh, and then we were given a lot more....so what is it you're wanting to know, on a more precise level? How much per person you'd need? Or...

 

[moolie]

Most of my veggie gardening books estimate pounds of each type of produce per row based on the recommended spacing, should be easy to look up

I don't weigh my produce, I just grow as much as possible. We eat what we can when it is fresh and preserve the rest, thus we don't overdo it on the items that don't keep.

 

[FarmerJamie]

I know some folks here aren't a fan of this tool, but it's another data point for you .... LDS food storage calculator

 

[Corn Woman]

I grow as much as possible and preserve in one way or another (can freeze dehydrate) as much as possible. We eat fresh produce all season long and I sell some at the farmers market plus I have some to give away to friends. I live in a zone 4-5 so the growing season isn't long enough for me or the puny sweet potatoes I tried last year My garden space is about 80 X 95. As far as bottles I think maybe 240 to 300 all sizes quarts, pints and half pints.

 

[Emerald]

More important than "how much" is the source of your seeds. Sure you can grow what you want and I have to say that it varies so much from year to year that it is almost impossible to really say "I get this many pounds of this per year" every year. But if you don't have the seed then you will not really be growing anything.. You are preparing for something that I am going to assume you are not going to be able to run to the store and replace stuff. So to that end (and this is just my opinion here I'm sure that many will not agree)I have to say that buying one of those "survival seed vaults" is a big huge waste of time and money- I don't care how they package their seeds many are not meant to be stored for more than one or two years before they really begin to lose germination percentage- sure there are a few that will be okay after years but you are going to want more than one or two things growing.
I was in on a 30 year old survival seed vault grow out experiment- of the seed that I received to grow out I got not one plant out of any of the seeds. Other members got one or two very sick and sad plants that didn't survive to even eat, let alone have seed for the next year.
The seed vault companies are playing on the fear that is rapidly becoming a possible reality.
I myself have been buying and trading Open Pollinated and Heirloom veggies for quite a few years now the only real way to know that your seed is going to be there and be good when TSHTF is to grow it, eat it, propagate it and save it year after year. I grow many things the same every year as staples. Not all seeds have to be grown each year and in fact I do a rotation of my plants so that I have good seed stock at least every other year on my beans and up to every 5 years on my tomatoes. I work them all thru their rotation. (it sounds harder than it is really). I personally love the book "Seed to Seed" by Susan Ashworth for the hows and whys of keeping your seeds pure and how to get those seeds. I'm sure that there are other books that will delve deeper into things like herbs and such but for veggies that is a good go to for first timers.
Many seeds do have to be grown out at least every other year if not every year or you drastically lose seed life. Onions(of all types) and lettuces love to be planted ever year. I have problems with parsnips if I don't grow them out every year(I just leave some in the ground each spring to flower.. they are biennials).
Right now I am not geared toward growing all of our food-that is a tall order but I think if it comes down to "you either grow or starve" I may be okay.. if we can keep all the neighbors out of it that is. I've been "infecting" several of my neighbors with the "you know it tastes so yummy and good fresh out of the garden" haha.
I also think that if the push came to shove many of the "fancy" or "novelty" veggies that don't pull their own weight would probably fall by the wayside.
I also think that many of the Old country(thanks great gran for that term) veggies will make a come back as they were the staples. Cabbage/potatoes/all the root veggies like beets and carrots and turnips and parsnips will last a long time in the root cellar as is without having to be dehydrated or canned or pickled. Just pack them in damp sand or sawdust and dig and eat.
I have weighed my produce only once I kept track cuz I grew tomatoes and made sauce for my daughters wedding reception. not sure if I can find the ledger anymore but with tomatoes a half bushel ranges about 27 to 30 pounds. and for me a half bushel made into sauce made 7 to 8 quarts. it did depend on whether or not I used the all the paste types or if I had to put in round or beefsteak tomatoes.
Tomatoes and green beans/dry soup beans seem to be my best crops. Squashes and pumpkins also are great producers if you can keep the darn deer out of them. (they clear cut an apple orchard up the road from me.. the deer went bonkers all over our area). in a post SHTF world I am out there getting venison to go with my veggies.. but now-that would get me in trouble.

 

[baymule]

How many POUNDS of produce do you get from your garden? (not bushels, etc., I need to know pounds or a good guesstimate of pounds, or even just how many jars & what size jars)
What did you grow, and how long is your growing season?

Plant your garden, grow all you can, eat all you can and can/freeze/dehydrate the rest.

I weighed only one part of my garden, sweet potatoes. I got 52 pounds from 3 small beds.

 

[TanksHill]

Forgive me if this has already been said but I know the're is a yield chart around here somewhere. One that actually gives an estimate for the yield of say green beans per 100 foot row. Then from there you just figure how many quarts per week you will need then do the math. I'm sure you can get close. For my family of 5 I shoot for 100 quarts. That's 2 quarts per week average for the year.

I think you have received some great advice above.

good luck.

g

 

[FarmerJamie]

Hey Tanks!

I had posted some information a while ago, somewhere here. LOL

Here is a link to good chart that has a lot of good data.

 

[Blaundee]

Why such broad spectrum questions? Those are not easy to answer at all. I can't even fathom how much we grew/put up/etc. We ate a LOT of it fresh, and then we were given a lot more....so what is it you're wanting to know, on a more precise level? How much per person you'd need? Or...

Okay, more precise- I really want to know approx how many POUNDS or JARS of produce you got from one plant, of whatever variety you grew. All of the info I can find is in bushels, which doesn't translate to how many lbs of food a person eats, because a bushel isn't by weight.

I am getting a decent idea of how many lbs of food a person eats in a year, but have NO idea how to translate that into fresh produce that I need to grow in the garden.