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A good deal of the gardening content that you see online today speaks to some notion of self-sufficiency, which one might define as being able to live off one’s own land with minimal external inputs. I find this notion quite intriguing to say the least, and I’d be lying if I were to say that I’d never dreamed of achieving such a goal – but how realistic is that goal? How much food do you need to grow to maintain yourself if it’s all coming from your land? In this episode I do a few “back of the envelope” type calculations to play around with this thought experiment.
The giant zucchini are my favourite – sweeter, crunchy skin, bake-able seeds, more food – what’s not to love? Also, many people in the country keep chickens or rabbits, which add to the caloric value of their gardens. And I wonder how many calories slugs have. I like the canned snails at the store but somehow can’t bring myself to harvest the slugs I pull off my plants – but in a dire situation…
I wish I had chickens!