Why filberts?

You may have noticed that I have more nut trees and bushes than most people.  There are reasons for that.

Consider the survival script that many people internalized as they sat in their La-Z-Boy recliner and ate Doritos and read survival magazines.  They plan to forage for their food.  Clearly, they never ran the numbers.

How many ounces of poke greens do you suppose you would have to eat to supply 2500 Calories?  Remember, you are running around the woods carrying a rucksack and digging up roots and tubers.

At eleven Calories an ounce you would have to eat 227 ounces or 14 pounds of poke greens to consume 2500 Calories.  Given the fiber content of wild greens and the fact that most people don't even eat four ounces of green vegetables a day, I can pretty much guarantee that 14 pounds of any kind of greens would scour out your insides like 14 pounds of Scotch-brite pads.

If you think domestic vegetables are significantly better, consider cabbage.  One ounce of cooked cabbage has twelve calories per ounce.  Raw cabbage has seven.

Even potatoes, which are considered a starchy, staff-of-life kind of vegetable only have 25 Calories per ounce.  That is about six pounds of potatoes per day.

The answer?
What is the vegetable equivalent of that bag of Doritos?  Doritos have 150 Calories per ounce or seventeen ounces for the full 2500 Calories.

How about nuts?
Pine nuts have 190 Calories per ounce
Walnuts weigh in at 180 Calories per ounce
Pecans have 195 Calories per ounce
Filberts have 180 Calories
Sunflower seeds (kernels) 170 Calories per ounce
Peanuts 160 Calories per ounce.

Adding eight ounces of nuts (or bacon, for that matter) to one's daily diet means you would only need to eat three pounds of potatoes to consume 2500 Calories.

Why filberts?
Because they fit in the space I had and because they are precocious, delicious and the nuts are very easy to crack and the nut meat drops out in one piece.

Bonus link.