How much area are you starting with? (I ask because in this forum, there's a HUGE variation in people's idea of a backyard garden)
If you'll only have the concrete bottom raised bed, planting guild recommendation will be different than if you have areas to plant fruit and nut trees, for example. With just the raised beds, I think berries would be a good alternative for fruits, and peanuts and other legumes for vegetable protein (as well as N fixers).
There are tons of resources. I garden based on what seems to me to be the best parts of Permaculture, Edible Landscaping/Forest, Native Plants Gardening, Plant Communities (for Guild ideas), Butterflies and Wildlife Gardening, Companion Planting, Square Food Gardening, and Jeevon's intensive gardening (I actually don't double-dig, however -- No-till Gardening for me

). I'm also starting to incorporate in Elliot Coleman's Four Season Gardening.
All my beds are started by sheet mulching. When I plant trees, I dig a big (as in wide) hole, but the surrounding (lawn) area are covered with cardboard and mulched over. Then I try to plant a guild around each and integrate adjoining guilds.
"what if I don't find straw?" -- I have an area that was getting taken over by Barnyard and possibly Johnson Grass. Very heavy thick tall (knee high to 2') grass that runners and spreads. I was at my wits end trying to get rid of it, then it occurred to me -- why get rid of it? It's growing along the NE foundation of the house where nothing much else grows except Ostrich Fern. I've segregated the Ostrich Fern area and the Grass area, so the fern doesn't get overwhelmed (I love the Ostrich Fern fiddleheads in spring!), and I just let the grass grow and cut them with my Japanese hand sickle several times during the growing season. It makes great mulch and compost ingredient. Because I keep cutting it, it's not spreading as aggressively as before, and I keep digging out the perimeter runners after a good soaking rain.
Another option would be to grow some grain -- I grew rice this year (only small patches, just as an experiment and just for fun). I'll have the rice straw to use according to Masanobu Fukuoka's
One Straw Revolution. Even if you don't grow them for grain, you could still grow any of the grain crops as cover crop and use the straw.
As with any aspect of gardening it's a learning experience with some frustrating failures, but it's a lot of fun as well.
