Gardening

I sat down last week and was trying to begin an annual menu plan. Yes, I said annual. I think that we could really save alot of money with an annual plan.
I recently read an article in Nancy Campbell's Above Rubies magazine discussing the importance of a garden. BTW, if you don't yet receive this magazine, it is a very encouraging read for Christian women. Go here to sign up for the magazine, it is by donation.

I had been thinking about how important our garden is, too. It provides a lot of organic produce for our family. I know that we're not going to get e.coli, or any other disease from its produce. It's also hands on science for our family. From dropping seeds to harvesting.

The Bible also talks about the importance of the garden. Proverbs 24:27 says: Don't build your house and establish a home until your fields are ready, and you are sure that you can earn a living.

Although my garden is not beautiful, it is functional. I can approximately 600 quarts/year. I hope to make next year's better so I'm already starting to plan.

I put together some numbers for our family. For example: We will need about 1500 lbs. of rice, 1500 lbs. of flour, 78 dozen eggs, 365 gallons of goats milk, 1040 lbs. potatoes, 52 lbs. carrots, 52 lbs. beans, 98 quarts of tomato products (ketchup, pasta/pizza sauce and tomato juice. That's alot of food!

Anyway, I have several questions maybe you can help me with. Does anyone with a milk allergy have any experience using goats milk in place of cows milk. More specifically, has anyone on a strict GF/CF diet tried using fresh goats milk?

The second question is does anyone know if there is a way of figuring how many plants you would need to plant to get the numbers of carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, etc. that we need?