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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >I thought I remembered big hoppers of seed when I was a kid

There are still those hoppers of seeds.  Around here all the non-chain 
seed'n'feeds have them and every produce stand has gallon glass jars full of 
every 
variety of seed sold by the scoop.  But the smaller of the scoops is abut the 
size of a large acorn and generally costs 50 cents.  That much tomato, 
popper, 
eggplant,cabbage, broccoli, and such will plant far more than a single 
gardener can plant or tend.  The larger scoop (about the size of half an 
eggshell) is 
usually $1 and that much of one varity of lettuce, spinach, kale, radishes, 
etc. is about all one can use.  

It takes very, very little seed to raise all your own food.  To play with the 
math, 1/8 oz of cabbage seed is about 700 seeds.  If you got 50% germination 
(you will get much better than that), it would be 350 plants, nearly one full 
cabbage head for each day of the year.  How much do you think you can eat?   
We eat a lot of cabbage in a big household and we don't eat anywhere near 
that 
much.

Bob, I often get that, "Why, with you leaning toward food self-sufficiency, 
you must buy 50lb sacks of seeds, no?"   No.  While it's true that if you 
want 
to keep a cow or an animal for draft purposes, you need some space, and no 
mistake.  But vegetable gardening and even raising kitchen grain doesn't 
really 
take that much space, and certainly not that much seed.

I urge everyone contemplating the subsistence garden to punch up a 
spreadsheet and do some of the math.  Let's suppose for example that you like 
turnips 
well enough to have them as a vegetable twice a week all year.  Let me 
explain 
here that I mean average.  Turnips don't keep during certain parts of the 
year 
so you might be having them four times a week sometimes and hardly at all 
others averaging out twice a week.

One good large homestead turnip will make a hearty side dish for two people.  
But let's suppose that we moderate our skills and luck to say it would take 
three turnips for a "mess" of turnips for a couple.

A quarter square foot is a generous allotment for a single turnip plant, 6" x 
6".  So for twice a week you will need 300 turnips or about 75 square feet.  
In a practical garden you will need less than half that since turnips can be 
at least double cropped.  So a turnip area of 35 square feet would be plenty. 
 
If you garden in beds and they are 4 feet wide, you need about 9 feet of bed 
for a year's supply of turnips.

And you need a thimble full of seeds if you precision seed or transplant.  


James