calories

so survival gardening is all about calories, the goal is to grow more than you use,
if you are growing something that you spend less calories than you get from it, then ask if it is a good idea to grow lots of it.

one way to need to grow less calories is to not use them pointlessly in the first place,
carts and other things keep all that heavy lifting to a small amount,

but last thing I moved with it would likely have not been possible without it, so maybe it is a bad example,
and I am still walking around, so I guess it is better to just grow more calories.

wheat is the most efficient as far as time invested to calories grown,
it should take a regular person (not totally out of shape) about 6 weeks a year to plant, harvest and thresh to feed a typical family of 5. the big drawback is that you need land to do it, it is not dense as far as calories for the area. and a slight drawback is that you do need some hardware to help you do it.

potatoes are another good one, they give you lots of calories for little work and land space, but you will still be needing more work to do it than with wheat.

some trees need almost no work, you just go harvest it, and that surely gets you more calories than you spent getting them.

just keep in mind that survival gardening is all about calories in and calories out, you don't want a negative number, and the idea of "empty calories" is just insane, when eating food you grow, it is almost not possible.

this little guy is about an inch long and still living in the water box