A food plan for the year, step by step

1. Four kitchens

Each season has its own kitchen, its own source of food and its own job for winter.

1. Spring: March–May — You eat from stores, the first greens and surplus eggs and milk. For the pantry you make noodles, eggs in limewater and cheese for winter.
2. Summer: June–August — A full garden, fruit and the first table chickens. For winter you make preserves and bottled fruit, and you dry fruit and vegetables.
3. Autumn: September–November — Harvest, cockerels, kids, squash and beans. The cellar, the crock and the freezer fill up.
4. Winter: December–February — You eat from the cellar, the crock, the jars and the pig. Meat is cured and the stores are counted.

Why: A seasonal menu answers the question “what are we cooking this week”. The yearly plan joins garden, orchard, animals, pantry and kitchen into one cycle, so there is no hungry spring and no pantry full of pickles nobody eats.

• Two things stay the same all year: the wood-burning range (H48-05) and the zero-waste kitchen (H48-06).
• The details of each season are in the first six modules of this series.

2. How much the family eats

You count the family in adult equivalents (AE).

1. Count the family in AE — An adult is 1.0, a child aged 7–14 is 0.7 and a child up to 6 is 0.4. Two adults and children aged 10 and 4 make 3.1 AE.
2. Vegetables and potatoes — Per AE a year, 120 kg of vegetables and 80 kg of potatoes. For 3.1 AE that is roughly 370 kg of vegetables and 250 kg of potatoes (about 550 lb).
3. Fruit, eggs, milk — A family of 3.1 AE eats roughly 230 kg of fruit, 680 eggs and 465 L of milk a year. Cheese, yoghurt and kajmak are converted to milk.
4. Meat and flour — The 35 kg per AE standard is meat from small animals: 108 kg for the family. With pork and beef it is roughly 50–60 kg per adult. Flour is a rough estimate, 80 kg per AE.

Why: An adult and a child don't eat the same, so needs are worked out per AE. The example is a family of 2 adults and children aged 10 and 4: that is 3.1 AE.

• Under 1 year: no honey, no raw milk and no soft cheese made from raw milk. In pregnancy: pasteurised milk, well-cooked eggs, well-cooked meat.
• For children's diets without meat or milk, and for illness and special diets, ask a paediatrician, GP or registered dietitian.

3. How much to store for winter · Locked

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4. The weekly rhythm · Locked

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5. What is bought · Locked

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6. The planning cycle · Locked

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