A local business publication, ColoradoBiz magazine, has been publishing a series online about a not-so-businesslike topic: Managing editor Mike Taylor ate only foods grown in his own garden for the month of August.
The conclusion to his “urban locavore” experiment was published here this week. From that page, you can skim through the previous articles, too.
He raised chickens in the backyard for their eggs, and wound up having two non-laying eggs butchered midway through the month for food. Other than that, he subsisted on vegetables, with a highlight on potatoes. He survived the month, shrunk his stomach, and lost about 20 pounds.
How much garden do you need?
Obviously, this experiment goes better if you plan ahead — Taylor had planted 30 potato plants to feed him in August, as well as laying in the laying hens ahead of time. Those who are especially on the ball could really plan ahead by doing something like moving to Seattle to take advantage of their backyard goat laws, so that you could have a good, urban source of milk.
On a smaller scale (that is, sans goats), several online sources say you could feed a family of three to four people in a garden space of 70 feet (for a “salad garden” featuring lettuce, tomatoes and peppers), with plants like corn and potatoes taking more room.
Others claim they can feed their family of three to five on a garden using the Square Foot Gardening method in just about 60 to 100 square feet of garden.
And at a larger extreme, Michelle Obama’s organic White House garden is 1,100 square feet. I’m not sure how their garden is doing — there is video available from the White House here — but I enjoyed the article from last spring’s New York Times about how they planned and launched that garden. We can just hope Mrs. Obama was not wearing shorts while she did any of her gardening, since the garden is reportedly visible from the street.
What we garden
My family’s garden takes up a moderate amount of our 6,000-square-foot city lot, considered a “double lot” by our city zoning. Our fruit and vegetable garden area — not counting the trees, but counting some strawberries — is about 80 square feet. However, we are very lazy gardeners. This year we have a lot of tomatillo plants that have some eggplant and an Italian pepper surrounded; a few intentional tomato plants; a volunteer tomato plant; some aged cucumbers; quite a bit of volunteer parsley and lettuce; some hot chili peppers in barrels; and some beets. Not exactly a desirable month-long diet.
In our area, I think September would be a better month than August to eat from the yard, as the tomatoes are coming into their own, along with melons and some squash. If we planned ahead, I’m confident that (barring hailstorms) we could grow enough food to eat for a month, but I’m afraid I would be none too happy without cheese and wheat. Mr. Cheap would be jonesing for meat and tortillas. Mlle. Cheap would be sadly pudding-and-yogurt-deprived. Hmm, sounds like we would need a miniature cow.
Could you do it?
What do you think of Mr. Taylor’s experiment? Have you ever tried anything like that, or would you?
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Comments ( 12 )
Not by a long shot – I only grew (successfully) sugar snap peas this year, and they are long gone!
Amanda added these pithy words on
Sep 08 09 at
5:13 pm
If I was vegetarian, I might be able to do it. I start my vegetable garden inside early in the spring, and it produces outdoors in my two gardens all summer. I keep my herbs, greens, and leftover veggies at home, and my main vegetables in a community garden, though if I gardened intensively here at home, I might be able to make it on that. As it is, I give away as much as I keep, and my freezer is bursting with goodies. This year was poor for tomatos in PA, due to late blight, but even so, I had loads of greens and other veggies. If we were allowed to keep poultry and goats here in Allentown, I’d be golden; as it is, I keep my goat on the farm that houses my other garden, and rely on them for organic, grass fed eggs. City rules annoy me.
Sandy added these pithy words on
Sep 08 09 at
7:21 pm
For those of you who do garden, and end up with bumper crops, we would like to invite you to visit
to learn about a nationwide campaign to diminish hunger in America by enabling backyard gardeners to share their crops with neighborhood food pantries. Over 865 food pantries nationwide are already on AmpleHarvest.org and more are signing up daily.
Please contact info@AmpleHarvest.org for additional information.
Gary added these pithy words on
Sep 08 09 at
9:16 pm
I’d like to think I could- but it would be slim pickings, Being from a small city that borders Seattle, I was not aware of the relxed goat laws.. I should say that Tilth is talking miniature goats, so I would suppose that would mean small bottles of milk. I like goats milk but honestly miling a dwarf goat would be like milking a dog. Yeeeuck.What wwe need to do is change the laws around here so they can let me have to nice nubian goats. And more than three chickens.
Rob added these pithy words on
Sep 09 09 at
12:03 am
Why do we need to compete?Why not just eat as well as possible from the garden and from farmers’ markets,food co-ops, local producers and use barter sytems such as LETS?
Keep goats and chickens if you can and want to, just do the best you can.
liz added these pithy words on
Sep 09 09 at
12:54 am
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
sandra742 added these pithy words on
Sep 09 09 at
7:58 am
@Sandy – Wow! You are busy (and productive).
@Rob – Yes, only miniature goats are approved in Seattle, I believe. Supposedly you can get enough milk to keep a household, although someone pointed out you would have to lie on the floor to milk them (or build a tall stand).
@Liz – I don’t think we’re competing! I don’t know what LETS is … but the reason we grow less at home (and certainly less variety) is that our CSA more than fulfills our veggie needs.
Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on
Sep 09 09 at
10:35 am
@Gary, I love the Ample Harvest idea. We have many in our area listed on the Web site. I know our CSA host donates the leftover veggies that are not picked up each week.
Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on
Sep 09 09 at
10:38 am
I love your site.
angelina jolie added these pithy words on
Sep 10 09 at
10:06 am
Hmm, maybe we could eat from the yard for a month if I planned well in advance, but seeing as I have a tendency to overplant one area (a few years ago, that translated into 25 tomato plants; this year, it’s a jillion green bean vines) I can pretty much guarantee that we’d be jonesing for something else by the end of the month.
I didn’t get to click over and read the original article, but I’d be a little concerned that he lost 20 lbs in one month. Sure, it would be nice to lose 20 lbs, but that sounds a little fast… and unhealthy. Then again, if I ate nothing but green beans for a month, well, hello size 6!
L'an added these pithy words on
Sep 10 09 at
5:34 pm
I’ve seen an amazing garden in Pasadena, CA, that grows 6,000 pounds of produce a year on 1/10 acre…pretty cool. They’ve got a website: http://www.pathtofreedom.com/
Kirsten Corsaro added these pithy words on
Sep 16 09 at
1:55 pm
Rob – Those Nigerian dwarf goats can produce something like 2 quarts of milk a day. Which is more than I could drink, but would leave a nice amount over for making cheese. Throw in some chickens and honeybees and you’re all set.
Crunchy Chicken added these pithy words on
Sep 16 09 at
2:28 pm
