3 ms·

> doesn't produce enough food to even make a dent on your overall calorie needs Grow potatoes. My grandad did, and it seemed to keep his family doing pretty we

> doesn't produce enough food to even make a dent on your overall calorie needs Grow potatoes. My grandad did, and it seemed to keep his family doing pretty well.

gruez 5y ago
They might contain more calories, but they're also significantly cheaper than fruits/veggies. So much so that it's probably not worth your time/money even if food prices go up 100%.
- iamthemonster 5y ago
  I did the sums - it takes me 6 minutes of paid work to earn enough to buy a day's calories worth of potatoes. I was always told that salad leaves are by far the best thing to grow for amateurs - relatively easy to grow, but very expensive in the supermarket.
  - throw0101a 5y ago
    > I did the sums - it takes me 6 minutes of paid work to earn enough to buy a day's calories worth of potatoes. Assuming you have a job to work at. Or that (food) supply chains have not gone sideways. What you grow in your garden depends on (a) whether you're just doing it for fun, and/or (b) if you're offsetting certain risks you're worried about. E.g., how hard is it (for Ukrainians) go get potatoes with a war on? How hard is it to get groceries after an earthquake (or hurricane)?
    - gruez 5y ago
      >Assuming you have a job to work at. Or that (food) supply chains have not gone sideways. If you want to mitigate that I still suspect it's cheaper to buy rice and beans, then stockpiling that, than it is to operate a vegetable garden every year. Not to mention, a stockpile works any time of the year. A vegetable garden only produces food during harvest time. >E.g., how hard is it (for Ukrainians) go get potatoes with a war on? how easy it is for ukranians to get potatoes when the ground has only recently thawed? >How hard is it to get groceries after an earthquake (or hurricane)? How useful is your vegetable garden when everything has been blown away and/or is rotting in the ground from all the water?
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    I'd add "difficult to transport" and "freshness delicate" to the characteristics list. There's a huge amount of produce out there that we simply never see, because it's inhospitable for ship-to-grocery. Or that we don't eat at its best, even if we're able to get it. E.g. banana varieties, fresh figs, most things green and/or leafy
- zabzonk 5y ago
  But also other things. At the time I was digging tatters with my grandad, I was also reading with him a cartoon adaption of Melville's great book "Moby Dick", and from that point on digging up tatters was interspersed with cries of "Thar she blows!" and "Tis the great white whale!" as the tatters came to the surface. You don't get this stuff with lettuce.
  - zabzonk 5y ago
    Edit: should of course be "taters", per Sam Gamgee.
UncleMeat 5y ago
Potatoes could go up in price by a factor of like 50x before it'd become remotely cost effective to grow them. A productive backyard is going to produce like, what, $20 of potatoes annually? And basically everybody I know who has attempted potatoes (and sweet potatoes) has pulled up a failed harvest for at least the first year. There exist people who have highly productive backyard farms. Almost nobody who starts a backyard farm will achieve that within five years.

> doesn't produce enough food to even make a dent on your overall calorie needs Grow potatoes. My grandad did, and it seemed to keep his family doing pretty well.

gruez 5y ago

They might contain more calories, but they're also significantly cheaper than fruits/veggies. So much so that it's probably not worth your time/money even if food prices go up 100%.

iamthemonster 5y ago
I did the sums - it takes me 6 minutes of paid work to earn enough to buy a day's calories worth of potatoes. I was always told that salad leaves are by far the best thing to grow for amateurs - relatively easy to grow, but very expensive in the supermarket.
- throw0101a 5y ago
  > I did the sums - it takes me 6 minutes of paid work to earn enough to buy a day's calories worth of potatoes. Assuming you have a job to work at. Or that (food) supply chains have not gone sideways. What you grow in your garden depends on (a) whether you're just doing it for fun, and/or (b) if you're offsetting certain risks you're worried about. E.g., how hard is it (for Ukrainians) go get potatoes with a war on? How hard is it to get groceries after an earthquake (or hurricane)?
  - gruez 5y ago
    >Assuming you have a job to work at. Or that (food) supply chains have not gone sideways. If you want to mitigate that I still suspect it's cheaper to buy rice and beans, then stockpiling that, than it is to operate a vegetable garden every year. Not to mention, a stockpile works any time of the year. A vegetable garden only produces food during harvest time. >E.g., how hard is it (for Ukrainians) go get potatoes with a war on? how easy it is for ukranians to get potatoes when the ground has only recently thawed? >How hard is it to get groceries after an earthquake (or hurricane)? How useful is your vegetable garden when everything has been blown away and/or is rotting in the ground from all the water?
- ethbr0 5y ago
  I'd add "difficult to transport" and "freshness delicate" to the characteristics list. There's a huge amount of produce out there that we simply never see, because it's inhospitable for ship-to-grocery. Or that we don't eat at its best, even if we're able to get it. E.g. banana varieties, fresh figs, most things green and/or leafy
zabzonk 5y ago
But also other things. At the time I was digging tatters with my grandad, I was also reading with him a cartoon adaption of Melville's great book "Moby Dick", and from that point on digging up tatters was interspersed with cries of "Thar she blows!" and "Tis the great white whale!" as the tatters came to the surface. You don't get this stuff with lettuce.
- zabzonk 5y ago
  Edit: should of course be "taters", per Sam Gamgee.

UncleMeat 5y ago

Potatoes could go up in price by a factor of like 50x before it'd become remotely cost effective to grow them. A productive backyard is going to produce like, what, $20 of potatoes annually? And basically everybody I know who has attempted potatoes (and sweet potatoes) has pulled up a failed harvest for at least the first year. There exist people who have highly productive backyard farms. Almost nobody who starts a backyard farm will achieve that within five years.