Sprouts!

So I have a lot of bucket list challenges around growing food in the yard.  To make it more wieldy, I started to think about the stats the urban homesteaders in nearby Pasadena posted.  I figured if I started with just a small area of the yard and refused to "unlock" more of the yard until I'd achieved their yield/foot on what was under cultivation, I wouldn't feel quite so overwhelmed.  As near as I can figure, they're harvesting 1.29 pounds of produce/square foot using about 12.7 oz of daily water.

Now I didn't think MacGyver would be thrilled to see I had cannibalized mesh screens from potentially reparable windows, so for this pilot, I'm improvising with a french press to approximate a mason jar with a screened lid.  Turns out he's equally "thrilled" with the prospect of his decaffeinated wife trying to persuade him to make her a beverage with the backup stovetop espresso maker instead.  Supposing this thing can generate 200 grams of sprouts/week, that would equate to about 31 pounds of produce per masonic square foot per year if kept in constant rotation...  I guess we'll have to see what this weighs next monday or repeat under more controlled conditions (I spilled half the sprouts into the sink on the first watering).  In any event, the yield/square foot seems to have the potential of falling well beyond the Dervaes harvest target, although this probably uses a bit more water.  If the sink grease trap in the side yard was rebuilt to route water to the landscape though, we might be able to stretch that water investment a bit further.

That said, the prospect of running 212 sprout jars concurrently to hit that "2 pounds of kitchen scraps/chicken/day" target is pretty daunting, so once I get this habit and recipes to support it locked in, I'll probably be looking to diversify into other edibles.