how much veg?

[Rubykitchen]

This is probably a stupid questions as different strokes for differnt folks so to speak but...

but, as a general guide, has anyone found a guide that tells you roughly how much of each particular veg you should grow to provide a family of say 2 adults 3 small munchkins??

I struggle with this every year - tho must admit really reined myself in this year with sowing only 19 varieties of tomatoes (you see - I'm a crazy kitten!)...can't help myself..
then end up with lots of seedlings and nowhere to put them.

If there were a guide somewhere that would say roughly - 40 leeks to last you x number of meals - that would be heaven for me! I know I could be strict if it was there in front of me.

Sometimes in a magazine such as this one its mentioned within an article - say 6 sprouting broccoli plants will feed family of 4 over few months - this is great and I'd really like someone to produce a chart in this vein...any volunteers...or does the info exist elsewhere?????

[oldherbaceous]

Dear RubyKitchen, i'm still not convinced there is any help for you, even with a chart.

[Primrose]

This is a difficult one, because we have only limited growing space and find that our eating habits tend to vary quite widely depending on the time of year.

If you have a big freezer, I don't think you can have too many tomatoes because they can always be cooked down into purree, turned into soup, etc.

I find it also depends on the type of food you eat. If we have a couple of weeks where we eat a lot of pasta-based meals, our greenery (kale, Swiss chard, etc.) tend to stay unpicked. A couple of years ago I sowed two rows of parsnips thinking we'd be eating a lot of them during the winter, and by Spring we were struggling to get through them all. So I suggest you firstly think about what are your traditional family favourite meal sand sow more of those vegetables which you eat in them.

Onions & leeks are useful all year round and salad crops can be dotted into small spaces. For the past couple of years I've sown a lot of beetroot and much of it is still covered in peat in a huge bucket and uneaten. Perhaps start off experimenting with a little of everything and then note those things which you wish you'd grown more of.

[WestHamRon]

This is a difficult one, because we have only limited growing space and find that our eating habits tend to vary quite widely depending on the time of year.

If you have a big freezer, I don't think you can have too many tomatoes because they can always be cooked down into purree, turned into soup, etc.

I find it also depends on the type of food you eat. If we have a couple of weeks where we eat a lot of pasta-based meals, our greenery (kale, Swiss chard, etc.) tend to stay unpicked. A couple of years ago I sowed two rows of parsnips thinking we'd be eating a lot of them during the winter, and by Spring we were struggling to get through them all. So I suggest you firstly think about what are your traditional family favourite meal sand sow more of those vegetables which you eat in them.

Onions & leeks are useful all year round and salad crops can be dotted into small spaces. For the past couple of years I've sown a lot of beetroot and much of it is still covered in peat in a huge bucket and uneaten. Perhaps start off experimenting with a little of everything and then note those things which you wish you'd grown more of.

http://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/re ... ccoli.html

[Nature's Babe]

sounds like you have plenty of growing space, plant veg and fruit that your family really like, and make sure you have plenty of freezer space for surplus, plus grow lots of tomatoes and bottle them for winter,add in aubergines and courgettes and make bottled rattatuille. Save your jam jars and make pickles and sauces with the surplus,

[Johnboy]

Hi Primrose,
One of the meals I make is spag/bol and just before serving I stir-in either Spinach or Swiss Chard (cut into strips) and it only takes seconds to wilt but not really cook and it really adds to the meal.
JB.

[Primrose]

JB - sounds like a good idea. I've got a row of over-wintered Swiss chard with lots of lovely young leaves sprouting which would be ideal for this. Don't know why but chard always seems to be the last winter vegetable in our patch to be used up, and stubbornly, in my mini rotation scheme, it always seems to be where I want to sow something else !!

I've found that digging it up and temporarily resiting the plants elsewhere until I can use it up never seems to work. The leaves always sulk, wilt and lose their freshness.

[Compo]

Hi RubyKitchen, really I cannot fault primroses's ideas really but a few more tips. Plant and sow sparingly, and at intervals. You will get used to the different cropping intervals, salads are quite quick, some roots are almost a year, i.e. parsnips, are still being pulled by some and yet we have now sown our first seed for the year, left any longer and it might be too late for parsnips.

I grew a about six plants of each, runner beans, tall peas either mange tout type or normal such as radio or alderman, climbing purple and green beans. That way you get a variety of legumes rather than just loads and loads of runners. Some form of cover will help you to get a few early crops, such as dwarf french beans, salads and new potatoes. DIY cold frames or large cloches will help.

If you have a normal size plot and get to take something home every week especially in the winter, I say you are successful.

Good luck its the best thing you'll ever do I believe!!

CoMpO

[Rubykitchen]

Thanks everyone! Some great tips - and since posting have finally gotten around to pulling Joy Larkom's growing veg book off of the bookshelf. Found a brilliant chart with square metre veg growing suggestions - and crucially what to replace spent crops with for every square metre - plot much bigger than mine - but going to take the idea and adapt it - still wud love someone to come up with 'rough' no. of plants you need - but the peas and beans guide someone's posted very helpful - will try and stick to that number of legumes for variety and hopefully not too many gluts. thanks again.