Talk:Factor E Farm Plantings
Lentils
Lentils have 4 times as much protein/calorie as wheat (2x as much as other legumes), fixates nitrogen for other future crops, and can go straight from picking in hardened form to long term storage (seeds active for 5 years, food storage for 10 years without special packing). A lot more efficient (and better tasting) than chicken. They require less cook time than other legumes. Avoid planting with onions or garlic. Rotate crop annually to avoid pests. Zawy 19:51, 4 August 2011 (CEST)
Lentils are certainly yummy, especially in soups, but ever try to bake bread from it? Personally I like a diversity of crops, including grains and legumes. We planted peas and four kinds of beans this year one of which is soy, a legume with a lot of uses, if perhaps not quite as nutritious as lentils. Mjn 03:49, 5 August 2011 (CEST)
when i was at wall mart i did a little price check on protien/dollar. lentils definitely win. im going to make a spreadsheet for other nutritional per dollar stuff. --Dorkmo 19:36, 5 August 2011 (CEST)
I didn't realize soybeans were lentils. Soybeans have the same amount of protein per calorie as lentils, but 1/3 the calories have been shifted from carbs to fats (good for health, bad for storage). Oats have a little bit better protein profile than wheat, and store about half as long in air (5 years instead of 10) due to nearly double fat content. Maybe OSE could store in CO2 from fire. In the right conditions, legumes and wheat can store forever (as will any dry carbs and protein that do not contain much fat). 30 years with almost no change in taste. Canned goods can also last forever, despite the water. New palm production methods (tropical only) can achieve 1,200 gallons per acre, but I think the biodiesel conversion methods for it are immature, so it's mostly a food oil. Peanuts are another legume with oil (half the protein/calorie ratio) and maybe easier than soybeans and lentils. Muscadines are an easy-to-grow thick-skinned grape with a lot more nutrition than grapes and a lot more resistance to pests, but I don't know if it's possible to dry them like raisins (not enough sugars to keep itself preserved). Bing cherries and plums are sugary enough to dry without preservatives. Gotta have chickens for eggs for protein, sulfur, and lecithin for the brain. Insects were probably a major source of protein and fat for paleolithic people, so there should be some web sites out there that teach how to raise a few tasty types. Should be a more efficient converter of plant matter than goats. The Foxfire books might have good pointers along these lines, along with visiting India. For basic carbs and some nutrition when considering ease of growth and range, it's hard to beat corn.Zawy 17:09, 6 August 2011 (CEST)