Best "Prepper" Vegetables to grow?

[gardenerflintmi]

Hi,
I'm trying to select what vegetables to plant in my garden,
I'm a "prepper", who believes that one day my supermarket might not have any food, and I will have to survive on my garden.
So, my garden is not to make a colorful salad at the dinner table, it's for when there is no other food source anywhere, and all I have to eat is what I can get from my garden, or from preserves I canned from my garden.
I'm trying not to use chemical fertilizers or insecticides, because those won't be available in a doomsday scenario.
I have a decent compost started, and I'll turn the topsoil of my garden before I start.
Ideally, my vegetables should have the following benefits:
* High yield vegetables (I want the most food for my buck)
* Easy to harvest and grow (I would hate to rely on my garden for food, only to lose the crop to bugs or bad weather. I live in Flint MI, so we don't get the best sunshine)
*Can be preserved or canned (this garden is not for salads, it's for survival, so I need to be able to preserve the crop for later)
* Gives seeds for next planting (on doomsday I can't run to the local nursery to get more seeds, so my vegetables must give me seeds to replant the next crop)
*Can be eaten alone, and supports health ( I don't want to plant onions or garlic, because they can't be eaten alone, without upset stomach)
I really appreciate your advice on what to plant!
I learned a hard lesson when I bought cheap seeds from walmart, I wasted so much time on worthless seeds!
Thank you

[tomc]

Things I encourage preppers to have as crops and as skill-sets: grow potato, learn how to grow TPS* from your spuds. Build and know how to operate a root cellar.

Collect now and set out an orchard suitable to your zone, it should include both fruit trees and trees suitable as rootstock. Your orchard should also include 4 to 6 each of hazel-nut, carpathain walnut, hickory, and pecan.

Brambles-grape: can be collected post SHTF

Grains : Have a fairly large requirement of both seed stock, skill set, and real estate needs. Start on all three.

*TPS true potato seed is both a way to breed potato, and it is a way to escape spud born disease. Your potato should have this ability breed in. See Tom Wagner breeding efforts.

You can feed a family of four with a half acre of potato and a root cellar. And you can get your skill set on with a much smaller patch...

[tomc]

An orchard with 36 to 50 trees will give you an adequate supply of proteins, fats, and sugars, to both make life bearable, and leave you commodity to barter or put into livestock.

A half acre of potato can by itself feed a family of four.

Good selection of fruitwood and rootstocks should provide you also with a marketable biome of graftable
trees.

[cdog222]

For me, beans would also need to be a staple - packed with nutrition, can be dried and stored long term, easy to replant and sustain. My long term goal is to be able to live off of my patch of land, wherever I may wind up. I don't consider myself a prepper (although it would not surprise me if things wind up such that supermarkets have no food...), but it seems like on paper, my growing, preserving, etc requirements to live off the land would be about the same. Whether my faith in there being readily available backup food is misplaced or not, it would give me the luxury (or illusion of) of growing onions, garlic, fancy salads and the like. I consider my current residence as my practice yard - hopefully I'll learn some stuff over the next few years, and when it's time to move I can scale up and apply what I've learned.

Best of luck!

[rainbowgardener]

jal_ut (James) who does have experience living (pretty much) off his land always says that the most important things to grow as food sources are potatoes, corn, squash, beans. All of these can be canned or frozen, the beans can also be dried. All of them will give you seeds for next year (the corn and beans are the seeds, squash very readily grow from their seeds and even volunteer from your compost pile).

After that, I would say tomatoes, because they are so versatile in many foods, nutritious (anti-oxidants, vitamins, etc), and easy to can/freeze. Then I would put the onions and garlic back in. They are very healthy, with anti-bacterial and anti-fungal effects, and who wants to eat food with no flavor. You might not eat them alone, but they will make you enjoy everything else you grow a lot more. They are easy to dry and long keeping. Also they are very beneficial in your garden for repelling bad bugs from your crops and can be interplanted without taking up a lot of room.

I would put herbs on the list, because they are healthy and flavorful, easy to grow and don't take up much space (you don't need acres of herbs, just a row here and there), add flavor AND they help attract beneficial insects to your garden, which is very important if you are gardening organically. Basil, oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary are all good to grow and all but the basil are perennial will keep coming back and getting bigger, with no more effort on your part.

[imafan26]

Ditto what everyone said. The best bang for the buck will be things you can eat fresh and freeze, can or dry for later.

Unless you are like James and have acres to play with, you may have to make choices about what gets you the best yields.

Beans are good since you can eat young shelling beans as string beans and dry the beans for storage later.
Tomatoes, and most root vegetables can be canned.

Corns, squash, melons, potatoes, zucchini, take up a lot of space, so it depends on how much space you have to dedicate to them and if you get enough yield for the space they take.

Spinach, cabbages, lettuce you can eat fresh.

Fruit trees are nice if you have the space for them. Most will give you one large crop a year.

[rainbowgardener]

One thing to think about in this scenario is where are you going to get all your vitamins and needed nutrients. That means you have to grow some dark green leafy veggies--kale, spinach, chard, collard greens, etc. They are sources of calcium, vitamin E, folate, vitamin K, Magnesium, Omega 3 fatty acids, potassium. Spinach is good in spring and fall but doesn't last long. I really recommend growing chard, which is the easiest, most productive thing in my garden and produces for the whole season.

Then you need to grow as good a variety of legumes as you can. This includes black beans, soy beans, fava beans, chick peas, kidney and lima beans. They are higher in protein than most veggies and are sources of Vitamin B6, calcium, iron, lycene, selenium, thiamine, zinc.

If you grow dark green leafy veggies, legumes, broccoli, tomatoes, bell peppers, you will have covered all your needed nutrients (except B12, which doesn't come from plant sources).

[rainbowgardener]

oh and probably sweet potatoes, winter squash or carrots for the Vitamin A.

[gumbo2176]

Great advice here so far. Being of Cajun heritage, I'd have to add okra to that long list of crops. It is very disease resistant, drought tolerant, very productive, can be frozen, canned, pickled and just a handful of dried pods will give enough seeds to plant a large plot of it the next season.

[applestar]

Hey! Great to see you posting gumbo! Looking forward to hearing about your garden.

I'm following this thread with great interest and love all the contributions so far. I don't think I have much to add ... Hmm... Maybe just that the variety/cultivar of the individual crops should not be hybrid but stable heirloom or open pollinated variety, AND several varieties of each should be planted and allowed to develop seeds with as well as without protection from cross pollination. The seeds will be as much an important harvest for future planting as the edible portions of the crop.

For vegetables that are typically propagated vegetatively like potatoes, TPS is an important alternative, but you would also need to learn how to preserve the root or other parts of the part to carry over from season to season, especially where the winter is too severe.

Some can simply be planted in fall like garlic, some (many herbs) are best cloned (rooted cuttings) during the previous season, but seeds should be collected as well. Very important to study•research•learn best ways to start and grow different plants.

Learning to graft fruit and other trees to rootstock -- referenced in some of the comments already -- is a skill. I'm still trying and find the results to be very much hit or miss.

[Rairdog]

It's funny that I have never grown potatoes, corn or dried beans. They are always available and cheap. Being from Indiana means a corn stand on every other block. These are cheap too purchase, take up too much room and don't really taste any better IMO. I do grow squash occasionally. I would always have chard growing. There is not much that is cut and come again packed with so many vitamins. Green beans will always be there and are easy to save seed. Tomatoes and peppers will always be on the list. I am just starting to experiment with napa cabbage and I always have lots of cucumbers. I will be experimenting with fermenting this year. There are a lot of variations with kimchi, pickles, green tomatoes, carrots....etc. With a brine you can ferment a lot of veggies to get you through the winter months and have different combinations for taste. Patches of herbs that re-seed would also be handy. If SHTH I would mainly rely on my hunting, fishing and gathering skills. The veggies would just compliment them and give us extra vitamins.

[digitS']

It's funny that I have never grown potatoes, corn or dried beans. They are always available and cheap...

Well, there you go. Food that stores easily and/or can be grown and harvested with machinery on large farms -- is cheap. Often, it isn't especially high in vitamins but simply carries a lot of calories. If the s doesn't htf, you are left with having put in a lot of labor with an investment of lots of resources for something that could have been cheaply purchased at harvest.

With large gardens, I still grow these things. Altho' it took quite a few years for me to get back to potatoes, I like to have varieties that aren't in the soopermarket (& have new potatoes with the peas ).

There was a guy who became one of the most important bean collectors in the US and all that started because he was interested to find Jacob's Cattle beans and prepare them the way he had them as a kid. That's a real tasty dry bean. I'd never eaten edamame until I grew my own soybeans.

When I was a kid, my job for the holidays was to make pumpkin pies. On the farm, we used a winter squash. I like baked squash and still grow and use them for pumpkin pie .

About the best time of year for me is when I can have buttered sweet corn along with slices of cucumbers, sweet onion and beefsteak tomatoes, splashed with apple cider vinegar and sprinkled with salt and freshly ground pepper. If there are a few crackers and some cheddar cheese and a beer ..!

If you grow some sweet corn, it's easy to have a squash plant amongst them. You don't want to get things too crowded so the squash needs a few square feet on the south side. Pole beans on poles - rattlesnake pole beans are nice fresh and if you only take the early ones, the later mature bean seed will make outstanding chili. Those hottest of the hot peppers, don't need to take up much room to give you a colorful ristra to have in the kitchen through the winter.

Steve

[Taiji]

Here in the Great Southwest if you look at what the Native Americans did 1000 years ago, the staples for survival were corn, beans and squash, so I second that recommendation. You get such a bang for your buck, so to speak. That's great to know about the potatoes too. When you think that potatoes were the Irish staple since forever.
I lived for about 15 years near St. Johns, MI. That's a few miles west of Flint. We grew anything and everything in abundance. We hardly ever bought anything from the grocery store. Everything (except tropical stuff) worked and the sizes of the vegetables were crazy. So, lots of choices. You may not get as much direct sunshine as I do here in AZ now, but you get longer days because of higher latitude. No problem there!
Out here we have to water regularly too; back in MI we rarely, if ever, watered.

[jnunez918]

As a nurse you made me start thinking that after a natural disaster I would be in charge of my family's health so I took to google and these and the most accessible and useful herbs and roots that seem to grow easily.

Ginger- anti nausea, antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant properties. Also used for digestion and migraines. Noted it had 40 confirmed pharmacological actions.

Garlic- eating 1-2 cloves a day...reduces inflammation, boots immune function, improves cardiovascular health, improves cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, active ingredients are lost 1hr after chopping fyi

Ginseng root- lowers blood glucose levels, lowers cholesterol, increases resistance to disease, treats lack of appetite and insomnia

Chinese yam- states it is easy to grow in well drained, fertile soil and sun. Good for loss of appetite, tiredness, poor digestion, diarrhea, asthma, cough, diabetes, externally for ulcers and boils, leaves are good for snake bites and scorpion stings

Sage- external-insect bites, skin infections, cuts, burns. internal-reduces inflammation, aids digestion and reduces diarrhea, fights colds, relieves cramps, helps with depression and anxiety

Feverfew- make in a tea to treat arthritis, migraines and fevers. Apply externally for swelling. Add to a bath for swollen feet.

Lemon balm- rub on skin for mosquito repellant, sores, gout and insect bites. Mix with water for colds, fevers, depression and headaches

Peppermint- boots immune system. Helps with cough, asthma, colds, allergies, decongestant and to help clear respiratory tract. Also noted irritable bowel syndrome and gas relief.

I would love a section on the forum for medicinal plants and herbs. I see so many supplements at the store that are common plants people can grow at their house. I have recently imbraced putting ginger in my homemade smoothies.
This is a small list compiled from only 3 websites. If really interested I would research holistic medicine websites. But growing these especially the roots would sustain a family's health after the zombie apocalypse lol

[rainbowgardener]

Very nice post nunez. We do have an Herbs Forum.

Other suggestions for good herbs to grow include

chamomile - relaxing/ calming, helps with sleep

echinacea (purple coneflower) - builds immune system, fights colds and infections

lavender - relaxing/ calming, aids digestion, antiseptic when applied to cuts and bruises

marigold - Good for sunburn, acne, and blemishes, also soothes ulcers and digestive problems.

sage - it's scientific name is Salvia officinalis. Salvia is the same root as salvation and means healing and the officinalis is a designation that it was included in the official roster of healing herbs, in the days before antibiotics, etc. Good for coughs, colds, infections

Thyme - antiseptic, coughs, colds

Many of these are also culinary herbs that will help make the other things you grow more flavorful and enjoyable AND most of them are really good to have in your garden, attract bees and other pollinators and beneficial insects and repel bad bugs from your plants. AND beautiful. Humans do not live by bread alone!