Update to How much veg to feed family of 6

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Feeding a family on 1/7th of an acre


 You may remember my blog at the beginning of the year working out how much veg I will need to feed a family of six. Well so far I have produced 7LB of tomatoes with many more to come, 50 Onions, 12 garlic, 1 cucumber with more to come, 19 squash a few more to come, 2lb of teas, 11 sweetcorn with a lot more growing, 29 stalks of swiss chard with more growing, 1.5lb of potatoes which actually grew from a discarded one in a bed, 7 beetroot and a dismal 5 radishes. 

 I have only actually used 1/3 of my allotment space its taking longer than I thought to tame it. Although I am far behind my total at the moment its been a great learning curve and with the whole allotment next year I should to far better. I think a polytunnel is going to be much needed and a wise investment for my pepper, tomato and chilli production. I still have much more growing and will update later in the year. 

 How much veg do I need to feed my family of 6 

So the only way to work this out is to go though what we eat summer, winter and every week, this year I won’t be taking into consideration potatoes. Then calculate how many Lbs or individual items I need to grow. This will take a bit of time but I think its the only way to work it out. Winter is made up of stew, bolognese, roast dinners, pies dinners and pizzas. Summer is obviously salad, pizza and salad, pasta salad with roast on Sundays.

Tomatoes are used a lot in my house as mentioned we have bolognese salads also in sandwiches, lasagne, on toast and the list goes on. We use a jar of passata a week, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and about 6 fresh ones a week in Autumn/Winter and about 6 large and 12 cherry tomatoes  a week  Spring/Summer. 


Estimated 

Tomatoes                 100 Lbs a year
Onions                     150 a year
Cabbage                  12 a year
Cauliflower               12 a year
Broccoli                    12 head a year
Garlic                        12 bulbs a year
Bussel sprouts          5lb a year
Green beans             5 lbs a year
Lettuce                     40 a year
Cucumber                26 a year 
Aubergine                 5 a year
Pumpkin                   3 a year
Squash                     40 a year 
Peas                        10 lbs a year
Sweetcorn               100 a year
Spinach                   5 lbs a year
Spring onions          150 a year
Swiss chard            100 stalks a year
Courgette                30 a year
Zucchini                  30 a year
Turnips                         50 a year


Peppers                  100 a year

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