August 7 - the day the food runs out (without imports)

[Catweazle]

I would have more sympathy for UK farmers, maybe as much as 1%, if they weren't stupid enough to buy the biggest tractor and trailer available - which are totally impractical for UK rural roads.

Actually some of those huge tractors aren't particularly powerful or thirsty and the oversized tyres reduce soil compaction.

[vtsnowedin]

There is a lot of grazing land that is far from prime and not suitable for mechanized grain production. Better to leave that land doing what it is best suited for and have some beef and lamb to go with your beans and taters.

[vtsnowedin]

I would have more sympathy for UK farmers, maybe as much as 1%, if they weren't stupid enough to buy the biggest tractor and trailer available - which are totally impractical for UK rural roads.

Actually some of those huge tractors aren't particularly powerful or thirsty and the oversized tyres reduce soil compaction.

Also on a gallons per acre tilled basis the larger tractors are more fuel efficient and reduce labor costs as well.

[emordnilap]

Yer not wrong! We had about 3 square metres on the Plot planted with Broadies this year and we got about 7 kg (after shelling) off them.

Today was also the first of our spud harvest: 13 kg from about 5 square m

Broad beans are just about my favourite vegetable. I could happily eat just a bowlful of broad beans, mashed tattie and onion gravy.

I know whole families who wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. No doubt they've only experienced them from tins, yuk.

Broad beans make a very good humus as well.

They have to be eaten first though.

[kenneal - lagger]

Broad beans make a very good humus as well.

They have to be eaten first though.

[madibe]

Much as I admire the bean growing (and I love them!)... how many would you estimate you need for a year... ditto with the potatoes?

It is great to grow your own veg - nothing better. But, and here's the rub... you need shit loads.. and all round the year, so seasonal and preserving is a must.

If we took the population of the UK and said "there ya go... you want to eat you must grow it all".... well there just wouldn't be enough land.

It would indeed reduce the population somewhat. But take off the rose tinted specs... because your plot would be raided and destroyed by the horde. Your stash of provisions would be plundered.

The survivors? Not the self sufficient type, but the ruthless cut throat bastards who would steal whatever they could find.

[RenewableCandy]

There have actually been thefts, this week for the first time, of food (as opposed to the more usual of tools and equipment) from a plot near us

I just assume that food, rather than becoming suddenly short, will just go on becoming more expensive. Thus, every bit grown will help, it's not a sudden on/off thing. We grow (and store) a lot of things that could be used to turn really basic food (e.g. spuds, rice) into something that'd pass muster as a proper meal.

In an ideal world, Chateau Renewable would simply have a larger garden and the Plot would be organised by a local posse who'd be able to keep it safe. But we're not there yet.

[biffvernon]

Much as I admire the bean growing (and I love them!)... how many would you estimate you need for a year... ditto with the potatoes?

The great thing about broad beans is that you do get rather a lot per acre and if harvested when ripe and dried, will then keep forever with no more preserving technology than a dry, rodent-free space.

[vtsnowedin]

Much as I admire the bean growing (and I love them!)... how many would you estimate you need for a year... ditto with the potatoes?

It is great to grow your own veg - nothing better. But, and here's the rub... you need shit loads.. and all round the year, so seasonal and preserving is a must.

If we took the population of the UK and said "there ya go... you want to eat you must grow it all".... well there just wouldn't be enough land.

It would indeed reduce the population somewhat. But take off the rose tinted specs... because your plot would be raided and destroyed by the horde. Your stash of provisions would be plundered.

The survivors? Not the self sufficient type, but the ruthless cut throat bastards who would steal whatever they could find.

My father a man from the previous century with more then one depression behind him liked to start the winter with three fifty five gallon steel drums full of potatoes he had grown. They would last in the dirt floored root cellar of our house until the first of the new potatoes were ready in August if you rubbed off the sprouts and sorted out any that were going bad about memorial day. Add in two to three bushels of carrots buried in damp sand in a corner of the cellar and two bushels of onions in baskets upstairs in the pantry. Then add in several bushels of apples. two hundred quarts of home canned green beans , peas ,sweet corn and a freezer stocked with a side of beef and a deer or two once I got old enough to successfully hunt and we ate pretty well for people on a fixed income.

[Tarrel]

This article has been around for a while, but worth a read and relevant to this topic:

http://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/artic ... eed-itself

[vtsnowedin]

So you have plenty of grain to brew your pints down at the pub. What are you going to do about tea for 4:00 O'clock?

[kenneal - lagger]

Zero Carbon Britain have also shown in three studies, one of which Simon Fairlie took part in, have shown that Britain can feed itself, given a very much restricted proportion of meat in the diet.

What Simon Fairlee missed out was that the vegan diet would result in a large, one off, quantity of blood, meat and bone meal available to fertilise the land after the killing off of the millions of redundant farm animals. If they were not killed off they would require feeding either indefinitely, if they were allowed to lead natural lives, i.e. allowed to reproduce, as is their human right, or for a number of years if they were stopped from reproducing.

The vegan system, as Fairlee pointed out, would eventually run into the problem of providing enough phosphorus fertiliser to keep crop yields up in the long term.

[vtsnowedin]

What Simon Fairlee missed out was that the vegan diet would result in a large, one off, quantity of blood, meat and bone meal available to fertilise the land after the killing off of the millions of redundant farm animals. If they were not killed off they would require feeding either indefinitely, if they were allowed to lead natural lives, i.e. allowed to reproduce, as is their human right, or for a number of years if they were stopped from reproducing.

.

Nah!! You'd just let all the young ones go to market in their turn then send the breeding stock to the baloney and hot dog factory just like always. All those byproducts( bones etc.) are already being fully re-purposed.

[kenneal - lagger]

But the fully vegan diet would have to be imposed, as I and my family certainly volunteer for it at least, which implies that there would be a sudden cut off point for eating meat.

[vtsnowedin]

But the fully vegan diet would have to be imposed, as I and my family certainly volunteer for it at least, which implies that there would be a sudden cut off point for eating meat.

There would be riots if you did that and the government would fall. Better to just double or triple the price. You're never going to get the beef Wellington off the tables of the super rich no mater what you do.