6 TOP Crops to Grow at Home to Save You From STARVING

[Mandy Onderwater]

What are your top crops to grow?
Here are Mark's top 6 crops to grow at home, along with handy information why:

 

[DanRicho]

Maybe our oldies were onto something when everyone lived an a quarter acre block of land (not 400m2...) and everyone grew something different. You'd never eat everything off an orange tree before they spoiled but those oranges could be bartered for those juicy lemons next door...

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

They sure were @DanRicho .

We have a small community stall nearby where people occasionally leave things. Seeds, plants, fruit, glass jars, etc. There is also a small (what I assume is private) garden next to it from which some of the seeds and fruit come. I've had lemons, blood oranges, luffa seeds, turmeric and more from there and hope to in the future be able to give back. I wish every town had this going on.

 

[TNTreehugger]

I concur with Mark's choices, too.

However, I would starve anyway since I don't know how to store and preserve things.
Lot's to learn... and I think I've come to the right place for that.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Plenty to learn, luckily also a lot of members with varied knowledge. There's been a recent post by @JP 1983 about Korean Kimchi Fermentation for example

 

[JP 1983]

I concur with Mark's choices, too.

However, I would starve anyway since I don't know how to store and preserve things.
Lot's to learn... and I think I've come to the right place for that.

How can you starve with so much free bush tucker available? [LINK]

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Haha smart one @JP 1983

 

[TNTreehugger]

How can you starve with so much free bush tucker available? [LINK]

That's an easy one - I live in the US.
And I'm a noob when it comes to growing a serious veggie garden.
And I'm a chicken when it comes to canning. Afraid of doing it wrong and killing myself via botulism.
I am okay with blanching a freezing - I would just need to buy a larger freezer if I ever grew more than I could eat, or share.
Would need to get a dehydrator and learn how to use that.
I've very interested in the lacto-fermentation preserving Mark mentions and need to study up on that.

 

[JP 1983]

That's an easy one - I live in the US.

I've very interested in the lacto-fermentation preserving Mark mentions and need to study up on that.

So you have even less excuses when there's a beautiful Nth American bush food book like this [LINK]...!

On lacto-fermentation, check out the Korean Natural Farmer, Chris Trump (no relation!) in Hawaii. While his methods are for fertiliser, they can be applied to preservation and vinegar production as well. E.g. Lactic Acid Bacterium extraction methods [LINK].

Now to get back on the topic of survival foods, I wouldnt trust my balcony production to be my salvation. Instead, these would be my survival foods:

1. Lomandra grains. 10,000 of these plants in my local area.
2. Gymea lily tubers. Also hundreds of these in my local area.
3. Edible weeds, esp. sow thistle, plantain, dandelion, blackberry nightshade, wild lettuce, chickweed and Inca berries.
4. Eels and waterfowl in a nearby waterway.
5. Wattleseed.
6. Mangrove fruit starch (requires detoxification prep, but they're there)
7. Casurina seed (one hell of a bother to extract, but heaps of em). Also great firewood.

If it was a true apocalypse scenario, I'd eventually convert our level 3 podium garden into a patch for some seeds Ive collected: pumpkins, persimmon trees, mandarins, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, Korean melons.

 

[TNTreehugger]

So you have even less excuses when there's a beautiful Nth American bush food book like this [LINK]...!

On lacto-fermentation, check out the Korean Natural Farmer, Chris Trump (no relation!) in Hawaii. While his methods are for fertiliser, they can be applied to preservation and vinegar production as well. E.g. Lactic Acid Bacterium extraction methods [LINK].

Thanks for the info. and link
I've read a lot of books and watched a lot of videos on canning, but I would still never attempt it without the in-person instruction of an experienced canner.
Same goes for eating wild plants - too many look-alikes to take a chance. Especially something like mushrooms.
One of these days, if I should actually grow enough to require canning, I'll take a class at the Home Extension office.

 

[nayday]

I concur with Mark's choices, too.

However, I would starve anyway since I don't know how to store and preserve things.
Lot's to learn... and I think I've come to the right place for that.

Practice practice practice