---
title: The Calorie Garden — planning staple crops
canonical: https://kingsmoot.com/almanac/calorie-garden/
---

# The Calorie Garden

## Direct answer

A food garden should be planned around the food a household will actually eat, the site it has and the work it can sustain. Staple crops can contribute more dietary energy than salad crops, but yields vary sharply with climate, variety, soil, water, pests, timing and experience.

## What the guide helps with

- Comparing staple crops by approximate energy yield and household usefulness.
- Testing a garden goal against available area, time, water and storage.
- Treating published yields as assumptions, not promises.
- Building a small first-year plan and improving soil and records over time.

## Limits

The guide is not agronomic, nutritional or medical advice. Use local agricultural-extension guidance for varieties, planting dates, soil testing and pest management. Do not rely on a generic yield figure to plan food security or a restricted diet.

[Read the complete canonical article](https://kingsmoot.com/almanac/calorie-garden/).