Two Letters Re: So You Think Starting a Garden Will Be Easy After TEOTWAWKI

07-09-2014 • Survivalblog.com

Thanks Dr. Prepper for pointing out that gardening alone will be an insufficient means to provide adequate food when the SHTF! Your 2000 cal/day figure easily shows the shortfalls of relying solely on a vegetable diet, but under the high stress and increased activity levels that will be required when the SHTF a 3000cal/day requirement often is used as a more realistic figure. This would increase the required amount of the harvest by 33%! I wonder what the net caloric gain is with the amount of labor required in gardening and of course processing and storing the harvest and seeds for the next years crop. Of course all this only addresses caloric requirements and not the benefit of necessary vitamins and fiber derived from the harvest. Some method of providing high calorie meats, eggs, and dairy products is going to be necessary. – DC

Hugh – Many thanks to you, JWR, and all the staff and contributors for the best survival info on the net!

HJL,

This year we've a half acre of vegetable plots. We are experienced farmers and do all the work ourselves. Not mentioned as a great crop are field peas, such as cowpeas and southern peas.