The 5 Best Crops for Self Sufficient Gardeners
Let’s face it, some crops are better than others to grow when you are focusing on providing your own food. Here’s my list of The 5 Best Crops for Self Sufficient Gardeners. Our garden is a big part of our overall preparation plan. Of course, we have food and water storage at our place, but a big portion of the food we have stored every year comes from our garden.
Most years our garden produces 60 or more different fruits, veggies, and herbs. Many of these are eaten fresh but even more are either frozen, canned or dried and added to our food storage. But let’s face it. If we really want to be self-sufficient gardeners there are some crops that have much more value than others. I mean you are not going to grow 300 pounds of green peppers and expect to live on them all winter, but 300 pounds of potatoes would make a big difference.
- Potatoes Of all the crops you can grow in your garden potatoes will bring you closer to self-sufficiency than any other crop. Potatoes are packed with calories, have a good amount of vitamins and nutrients, are fairly easy to grow and if stored under the proper conditions can last over 6 months in storage. I have read several books that say potatoes are so important that you should plan on dedicating at least 30% of your total garden space to grow them. Most years we end up with around 20% of our garden planted to potatoes and end up with between 250 to 350 pounds. That amount gives our family plenty of spuds to eat most of the winter.
With a little planning, you can have potatoes ready to eat starting in June. You can then eat them fresh all summer and have a big crop ready in the fall to last you into the winter. Those stored potatoes can last well into March meaning you are eating garden potatoes 9 months out of the year!
Here are a few links to articles on how to grow and store potatoes:
- Tomatoes Everyone loves homegrown tomatoes, they are a garden favorite. But they are also a very important part of becoming self-sufficient. Tomatoes are one of the most versatile and productive plants you can grow in the garden. They grow very well in all but the coldest climates. A small patch of tomatoes, say only 4 feet by 16 feet with around 16 plants can produce upwards of 200 pounds of tomatoes in a good year!
Tomatoes can be dried, frozen or canned. They can be made into soups, sauces, pastes and more. They then become the base ingredient in hundreds of kitchen recipes. Tomatoes are one of the easiest veggies to can because they are a high acid veggie and as such, they can be water bath canned instead of needing a pressure canner.
- Popcorn Popcorn is number 3 on the list of The 5 Best Crops for Self Sufficient Gardeners. Yes, you read that right, POPCORN! Why on earth would I suggest your favorite buttery treat is the third-best crop for a self-sufficient gardener? Well, let me explain. I suggest you learn to grow popcorn because it is the only “grain” crop that can be practically grown in the home garden. You see there is a secret many people don’t know. You can grind popcorn, in a grain mill, into a really tasty and easy to use cornmeal! You can then use that meal for baking cornbread, and other corn-based bread products. Popcorn is easy to grow, fairly productive and can be tucked into little hills all around your garden or even in your flower beds! It does require a lot of water so be prepared to irrigate. You also can’t grow popcorn and sweet corn together so be sure if you are growing both you leave at least 100 feet between. For a more in-depth look at growing popcorn you can read this article: Growing Your Own Popcorn and you can learn how to grow popcorn in small spaces by growing popcorn using the hill method.
- Squash Next on the list of The 5 Best Crops for Self Sufficient Gardeners is a squash. Love it or hate it, squash, especially winter squash is an important crop to grow and learn to eat for someone wanting to be self-sufficient. Keep in mind that there are two types of squash, summer, and winter. Summer squash, are plants like zucchini, yellow squash, and patty pans. These are very productive plants but have a very short shelf life and very few storage options. Freezing is really the only way to preserve summer squash. Please grow these great squashes but don’t plan on them being a big part of your winter storage.
Winter squashes are plants like butternut, spaghetti, banana and acorn squash and also include pumpkins. These squashes are very productive and when stored properly they can last through the winter. A big banana squash can feed you for several meals!! You will need a larger garden to grow these winter squash. These vining plants take up a lot of room so plan on them sprawling all over the garden. Most winter squashes are good candidates for vertical growing. So try growing them on some type of trellis or other structure to save space.
- Kale Kale is a superfood! It is so packed full of nutrients that you just can’t ignore it in your garden. Kale plants are also super productive and very hardy. With a little planning and a simple hoop house for protection in the winter, you can easily grow kale all year long. If you grow kale in the winter you get the added bonus of eating the best tasting kale you will ever eat. The cold temperatures sweeten the kale up and turn it into a whole new veggie!
So there you have it! My list of The 5 Best Crops for Self Sufficient Gardeners!