Growing your own food is one of the most rewarding things a person can do. It is also genuinely difficult, surprisingly physical, and humbling in ways that no book quite prepares you for. Seed catalogues make it look easy. It isn't. But it is learnable -- and the people who stick with it find that after a season or two, something clicks. You start to understand your soil, your microclimate, your slugs. You get better. That is worth knowing before you start, because the first year is often the hardest.

This site exists because most people who decide they want to grow more of their own food have no idea of the scale involved. Not in a vague way -- in a very specific, practical way. How many seed potatoes do you actually need for a family of four? How many rows of broad beans? How much grain would you need to sow to get a meaningful amount of flour? The honest answers to these questions are larger than almost anyone expects, and finding them out early -- before you order seeds, before you plan your beds -- saves a lot of wasted effort and disappointment.

Food When The Shops Stop does one thing: it works out the numbers for you. Tell it how many people you are feeding, where you live, what you can realistically grow and forage, and it will tell you exactly how many seeds to buy and how much to put in the ground. It accounts for germination failures, pest losses and the realities of storage in your climate. It does not tell you how to grow -- there are excellent books and communities for that. It tells you how much. That is the part most people get wrong, and it is the part that matters most before you spend a penny on seeds.

The calculator is a starting point, not a guarantee. Real growing involves weather, disease, soil that does not cooperate, and years of accumulated knowledge that no tool can replace. Use the numbers here as your minimum -- a floor to plan from, not a ceiling to aim for. Order a little more than it says. Grow a little more than you think you need. And then get outside and start.

It does:

• Calculate seed quantities based on your group size, climate zone and calorie needs
• Account for germination rates and realistic pest and wind losses in your zone
• Factor in livestock feed costs and wild-caught food sources honestly
• Show you a sowing and harvest calendar for your selected crops
• Give you a printable seed shopping list you can take to a supplier

It does not:

• Teach you how to grow -- that knowledge comes from practice, not calculators
• Account for your specific soil, microclimate or water availability
• Replace experience -- treat the numbers as a starting point, not a promise
• Cover flavouring plants such as garlic, herbs and spices -- these have negligible calorie value and vary too widely to model reliably
• Plan a nutritionally complete diet -- it covers calories, not every vitamin and mineral you need