Bulk Calorie Crops: Things that will make up the majority of the calories that you eat in all likelihood. These foods produce so many calories in such a small area that it would be a good idea to implement one or more of these crops into a garden plan. I’ll be calculating all of these based on average calories(Kilocalories really) needed by a person a day at 2000kcal daily. This value will be referred to as man days of food.
Flint/Dent/Flour Corn: For standard corn (that is not sweetcorn or popcorn) the average amount of calories per acre is 12 to 15 million calories (a little over 7000lbs). Per 1000 sq ft (a roughly 33ft by 33ft patch of land) that’s roughly 300,000 calories per harvest. Assuming a 2000 calorie diet, that’s enough to last 150 man days with no other food sources. So 3000 sq ft of corn will provide 450 man days of food. More than enough to make it through the year, have enough for seedcorn, make whisky, and have leftovers for trade. Though eating it will require a mill or some other tool to grind the pseudocereal.
For Ethanol Production, which is what a quarter of all corn in the USA is grown for. It takes roughly 26.1 pounds of corn per gallon. Assuming 7,110 lbs per acre, that’s roughly 328 gallons per acre or 7.2 gallons per 1,000 square feet.
Potatoes: For the average potato, the yield is even better than corn at 17million calories per acre. That’s 377,777 calories per 1000 sq ft, or roughly 188 man days of food. This means that 2000 sq ft of potatoes will yield 377 man days of food. A much better yield than corn. However potatoes do spoil more and have to be propagated by their eyes making seed potato more of an issue than corn. However, one of the most important things to consider is that Potatoes taste better and have a more versatile culinary range than corn, additionally lacking the need for any kind of mill.
Wheat: Surprisingly wheat is nowhere near as efficient in land use for calorie use compared to corn and potatoes. Wheat is at 4 - 6 million calories per acre or 133,000 calories per 1000 sqft. That’s less than 67 man days of food. Meaning it would take over 5000 square feet of wheat to feed a person for a year. To do that same math in lbs produced, the average acre pulls in roughly 44 bushels per. Or roughly one bushel per 1000ft, a bushel being roughly 60lbs. The main advantages of wheat are its culinary uses when milled and versatility in the kitchen, as well as its long storage time. Note if wheat has a fungus growing on it it’s likely to be ergot (this is a precursor to LSD) spoiling the crop and making it unfit for eating, though it may be useful for recreation or trade. Note that many improved varieties of wheat exist which make finding solid data on this hard. Additionally, many people do not differentiate between spring wheat (which is planted in spring and harvested in late summer to fall). To Winter wheat which is planted in early fall and grows through winter to be harvested in late spring. This makes finding decent information more complicated than it should be. Note that wheat requires malting to make beer (selectively sprouting it to turn starch into sugar) and grain mills to make bread.
For making Bread, all that really needs to be done is to finely grind the wheat down to a powder, add water and wait. The ratio for flour to water seems to hover around 5 parts by weight flour to 3 parts by weight water. If you want to stretch the supply of flour, half of the wheat flour’s weight can be substituted for another flour such as corn, acorn or buckwheat. For leavening agents such as baking powder, baking soda, yeasts, and yogurt. Their job is to react with the uncooked dough and produce gas bubbles which cause the dough to rise and become light and fluffy. So adding levener and a small amount of salt in all bread recipes seems like a good idea.
Barley, wheat’s neglected cousin. This crop is easier to grow but less popular. Barlely produces around 66.7 bushels per acre. At 48 bushels per acre that’s roughly 71lbs of barley per 1000 square feet. At 1606 calories per lb that gives it roughly 57 man days of food. While not as culinanaily useful as wheat, it is a popular option for survival gardens due to its ease of growing, and better use of making beer. Note, like wheat barley also has winter and spring varieties that need to be taken into account when planning a field. One benefit is the additional ability to create malts and malt syrup, making this a popular choice for a sugar crop.
For Brewing beer barley needs to be malted which is done by sprouting the barley slightly. In order to do this, soak the barley for 8 hours in clean water, then drain the water and let it dry for 8 hours. Repeat this process until the overwhelming majority of the barley has tiny rootlets/fibers on them referred to as chits. Then store the barley on single layer sheets and store them in a warmish area (around 68f) a clean basement or closet will do well. The barley is now trying to sprout and is converting it’s starches into sugars to get the plant ready to begin growing. If tossed outside now, they would likely do well in a field if lightly covered in soil. While the barley is germinating, flip it 3-6 times per day to ensure it aerates properly, mist the barely lightly during this time. This process will take 3-5 days, to check the progress, cut open a random kernel of barely and see if the internal sprout has grown to the majority of the size of the kernel. Once it has, dry the barley by oven/dehydrator/sunlight to kill the barley now that it’s converted it’s starch over to sugar. Then winnow the barley to cause the rootlets to fall off. At this point the grains are ready to be stored to their desired malt color and are ready to be used in beer production.
Rice: At 11 million calories per acre, rice is nearly twice as efficient as wheat. Per 1000sq ft that’s 244,000 calories or roughly 120 man days of food. Contrary to popular belief rice does not need to be flooded to grow, that’s simply used as a pest deterrence. Rice does not require milling as thoroughly as wheat and has a decent amount of versatility as a food ingredient. It’s currently feeding half the world and is a worthwhile consideration to many small farms.
Acorns: Yes, acorns are edible but need to be processed first in order to make acorn flour. Acorn flour is an unusual ingredient that can function as a gluten free flour such as almond flour. The process is somewhat labor intensive and requires a decent amount of freshwater to leach out the tannins. However this is an option that should be left available as many people may have oak trees on their property that are not being harvested. However a fully grown oak tree can have a diameter of 80ft meaning the total land use of this tree can be up to 5000 sqft without including the shadow cast on the land around the tree. Oak trees can also provide extra firewood that naturally drops from the tree and can supply an additional protein source as squirrels and deer will also be attracted to the falling acorns as a food source. Note If you choose to plant Oak trees it will take years to decades before a serious crop can be grown, but a regular garden can be kept around the oak sapling as it grows. The best varieties of acorns are those that are the largest with the least tannins. So use white acorns/swamp oaks if you have the opportunity. Oak trees also produce acorns inconsistently so one year may be much worse than the other. This is important to keep in mind when planning a garden. Expected Yield of a fully grown oak tree is going to vary intensively year by year, but a reasonable estimate is around 30lbs for a normal year with bumper crops getting to 10x that amount. At 1700 calories per lb of acorns, a person can collect 25 man days of food per tree consistently, with numbers reaching potentially 250 man days of food for a bumper crop.
Oats: Some people are into oatmeal. Oats usually produce about 59 bushels per acre, at 32 lbs per bushel, that’s 1888 lbs per acre. At 1700 calories per pound that’s roughly 3.2 million calories per acre. That’s great per acre, but per 1000 square feet it provides 70,000 calories or roughly 35 man days of calories.
Buckwheat: This may be the least impressive plant on this list. One acre of buckwheat produces only 1.5 million calories, so 33 thousand calories per 1000 square feet Or 16 man days of food per 1000 square feet of buckwheat grown. There is one great thing about this crop though. It has the shortest growing period I’ve found at 70-90 days from seed to harvest. This is much better than regular wheat which can take 180 days or even potatoes which require 120 minimum. This makes Buckwheat a great option for double cropping and crop rotation. It’s easy to grow, will survive in many conditions, this is a worthwhile consideration in a self sufficient garden.
Sunchokes (Jeresium artichokes):A perennial that most people I’ve met haven’t heard of. Somewhat simmilar to planting and harvesting of a potato. Sunchokes are a ground tuber that can roughly produce 5-7 tons per acre. That’s roughly 266lbs per 1000 square feet. At 330 calories per pound of raw sunchokes, that roughly translates to 44 man days of food. Not a bad haul for a perennial.
Amaranth (Pigweed): One of the oldest cultivated crops on earth, and easily one of the most versatile. Easy to grow, produces a light pseudocereal (similar to corn) that can be ground into a gluten free flour or popped like popcorn. The leaves are also edible and useful as a salad green. Farms in Missouri can expect to collect 1000lbs of grain per acre consistently, with bumper crops pushing that to 2000lbs per acre,at just under 1700 calories per lb of seed, that’s 850 man days of food per acre, or 19 man days per 1000 square feet grown. Though this number can double with a bumper crop, and the greens of the plant are edible as well. One of the main benefits of amaranth is how forageable it is, as it can be found growing wild in many ditches around the usa.
Kernza. A perennial grain, I wonder if I should include this as it's not a traditionally farmed grain. In fact it just went on the market and only a select few people can even grow it. However, being a perennial that doesn’t need to be dug up or traditionally sewn makes it so useful that I had to include it. The downside is that as of writing this kenza does not yield a high amount of grain at only 400lbs per acre on average or 1000lbs for farmers who do well. Per 1000 square feet that’s 9lbs per 1000 square feet on average. At roughly 1600 calories per lb of kernza grain that equals roughly 7 man days of food, less than a twentieth of potatoes. The benefits are quite good though, including the fact that this crop has an impressive amount of protein in it, 1lb of kernza has 100grams of protein in it, roughly double the average daily amount required. Additionally with kernza’s deep root system similar to that of prairie grass it can help improve the soil massively, preventing erosion, requiring less watering, trapping carbon in the soil, and needing practically no inputs. The only thing necessary is to collect the grain from the top stalks. Additionally this grain contains gluten, meaning it can be used to produce excellent bread and annoy anyone on a gluten free diet.
