Plan Smarter. Grow With Intention. Preserve With Confidence.

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How Much Food to Grow Now vs Preserve for Later (Zone 7a)

So just how much food do we need to grow to put up and sustain our family through the off season, and how much will we need to eat comfortably throughout the growing season?

This can be a tough one to nail down when starting out—or even when you’ve been gardening for some time, as it was for us. If you haven’t been paying attention to how much food you and your family consume from the store every year, or if you’re the type of gardener who has only been interested in having fresh tomatoes for summer salads, then this may be a conversation worth having.

For us, we are deeply indebted to moving ourselves as far away from grocery store shelves as possible. But season after season, we found ourselves cutting things short—losing perfectly healthy crops due to mismanaged harvesting and preservation techniques.

Learning what is actually in the food we purchase from the grocery store was a key factor in our decision-making process. That, along with growing young souls in our household, pushed us to think differently. So there are a few important concepts to consider when trying to make this crystal ball a little more transparent. Let’s settle in and talk about growing what you enjoy eating, embracing the trial-and-error stage, and understanding the X factor of sustainably growing food.

Grow What You Actually Eat (Not What Looks Good on Instagram)

Roll up your sleeves and start growing what you and your family typically find on the dinner plate. This goes far beyond slicing tomatoes. Making a list of household staples that are commonly used to feed your family is a powerful place to start.

Although this may seem like a no-brainer, you might be surprised how clarifying this exercise can be. Set the list aside, rest your eyes for a few minutes, and play a little make-believe. Imagine that all local grocery stores are closed for a full month. What produce would you normally buy during that time?

This mental exercise—though hypothetical—helps bring overlooked essentials to the surface. Add them to your list. From there, start thinking through how much of each fruit or vegetable is needed per meal. Multiply that number by seven.

And bam—you’ve found your starting line.

This is not a perfect calculation. It’s a rough estimate. A baseline. A place to begin so you’re not planting blindly. Keep reading, because the next step is what really determines long-term success.

The Trial-and-Error Phase (Where the Real Learning Happens)

Buckle up, because this part of the journey takes time. It took us a few years to reach a place we felt comfortable with, and that’s okay.

Trial and error is exactly what it sounds like. With gardening, you have to be willing to dive in and see what works, what fails, and what possibilities exist within your space, climate, and lifestyle. Our objective—especially living permaculturally—is to grow an abundance of food.

This aligns directly with the three core ethics of permaculture:

• Care for the Earth
• Care for the People
• Careful consideration of the needs of others

Abundance ensures our family has access to nutrient-dense, homegrown food. And if we end up with too much (if that’s even possible), we have options.

• Preserve it
• Share it
• Compost it
• Feed it (to animals you may have or wildlife)

Having too much puts us in a position of power. Running out before the next harvest puts us in a vulnerable position. The trial-and-error phase will exist regardless of your patience level, and it will likely take several growing seasons to truly understand how much food your family needs—not just during summer, but through the long winter months.

If patience runs thin during this phase, it may reveal how committed you are to feeding your family real food. This stage is unavoidable, and it’s where confidence is built.

Fresh Eating vs Preserving for the Off Season

One of the biggest mistakes we made early on was focusing heavily on growing without equally planning for preservation. It’s easy to get caught up in fresh harvests—eating tomatoes off the vine, tossing zucchini into every meal, enjoying cucumbers straight from the garden.

But the real question is this: what happens when the garden slows down?

In Zone 7a, we have generous growing seasons, but winter still shows up. This is where preservation becomes just as important as production. Understanding which crops you’ll primarily eat fresh and which ones need to be grown in abundance for preserving can drastically change how you plan your garden.

Crops like green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, winter squash, and berries often need to be grown in larger quantities to carry your family through the off season. Others—like lettuce, radishes, and herbs—may be grown in succession for fresh eating only.

The balance between fresh and preserved food doesn’t happen overnight. It’s learned season by season.

The X Factor: Sustainable Systems That Actually Work

The quintessential X factor of growing food sustainably is having systems in place that consistently deliver productive results. For us, soil health sits at the top of that list.

Without proper soil care, crops will communicate their struggles through disease, nutrient deficiencies, and pest pressure. This doesn’t require spending endless amounts of money on fertilizers or gimmicks. It requires returning to the soil what was taken from it.

The energy removed from the system must be returned.

Instead of extraction, think investment—compost, water, observation, and intentional planting. This creates a productive, resilient loop rather than a one-way drain.

Some simple ways to support this system include:

• Adding compost to beds after harvest
• Topping beds with shredded leaves or organic mulch
• Growing cover crops during rest periods
• Practicing crop rotation to reduce depletion

Mimicking natural ecosystems is one of the most powerful tools we have. Take a field trip to a nearby forest. Observe how soil is protected, how plants coexist, and how nothing is wasted. Nature already knows what works.

Proper water management also sets productive systems apart. Healthy perennials play a significant role here, offering stability, food security, and reduced labor over time.

Growing With Intention Instead of Guesswork

There are countless ways to enhance our ability to sustain food production right outside our front doors. But it requires more than tossing seeds into the soil and walking away.

What we put into our gardens—thought, care, observation, and intention—will be returned to our tables tenfold when managed properly. Growing food isn’t just about quantity. It’s about timing, systems, and learning when to grow for now and when to grow for later.

That understanding doesn’t come all at once. It’s built season by season, harvest by harvest, and lesson by lesson.

Until next time...