I have this one, just don’t know how to use it
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which one ?
Apios americana i boil them, then fried in butter.
Caucasian spinash in salad or fast steamed.
Common nettle in omelette.
Scots lovage use it like parsley. Lovage and scots lovage dont taste the same.
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I would be happy to plant Chinese chestnuts, but I don’t have space. I have 2 English walnuts, one of which gave me it’s first 6 nuts last year and I just planted 2 heart nuts in 2022. I am mostly focusing on planing disease resistant hazelnuts.
You might plant some perennial sea kale:
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What about Portulaca oleracea (purslane) it has a large growing range, can easily be found growing along the sidewalks here in Michigan and elsewheres, very nutritious and easy to use in the kitchen.
Amaranth grain is another one over looked here in the US.
Rareseeds.com. (I have no affiliation with) has tons of sources of garden plants from around the world.
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Another useful crop is Wild Garlic. This name is applied to several species of Allium, but the only one that I’ve grown is Bear Garlic (A. ursinum). From what I’ve read, Ramps (A. tricoccum) is similar. What’s great about Bear Garlic is that the whole plant is edible and tasty, and it grows well in shade. I’ve started a bed in a shady spot on the north side of our house, space that would otherwise be wasted with mere ornamental plants. Its only drawback is that it just grows during the springtime, dying back by June; but it is a good source of garlic flavor that is mild enough to be used alone as a salad or a sauteed vegetable.
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good things to ask for food security crops is " can I eat large amounts of this food without gastric distress? is this food high in calories? Does this food have other uses? Could this food be grown without irrigation? Will this food last?"
When people go around saying they can live on cattails and wood sorrel, I really wonder if they have ever gone hungry before, intentionally or otherwise. These foods just make you starve at a slightly slower rate. You need calories. If you are trying to live by eating something that has 30 grams of fiber per 100 calories, you will make a blockage and die.
In the unlikely event that you survive a societal breakdown, food is only part of the equation anyway. Violence, injury, sickness, exposure, and insanity all become a worry.
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Wethinkyoushouldgrow I would give you 2 hearts but the second heart cancels out the 1st heart on this forum site.
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Which is why you do not rely on just a few things. I love cattails except for the pollen. But it is not the only thing growing here. You also have to factor in being prepared to a storable form. Nature can not do it all for us. For example we harvest tons of lambquarter and put up probably 3 gallons of pint jars a year from one small patch.
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My wife won’t eat lambs quarters. One year I had an accidental patch come up under glass. We ate well as long as I called it Alaskan Crack spinach.
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None of the plants mentioned in this thread so far, except for oaks, will grow without irrigation where I live. I see a lot of techniques and plants promoted online as universally good without any regards to the local climate. For example, there’s been an explosion in the popularity of raised beds here, but many people don’t understand that they require more water than planting directly in the ground. It’s a little disheartening to see new gardeners give up in frustration when nothing grows well because someone from a place that gets summer rainfall told them they needed raised beds.
A plant that does well locally, though I’ve never tried eating large quantities, is Triteleia laxa. The bulbs are edible and multiply like crazy. Beautiful flowers too.
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I do not water any of our survival plants unless just planting them. That is the point of them.
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^
^
?
Including this one ?
Sometimes !
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Your county averages around 18 inches of rain June through August. Not only is that 2/3 of my annual total, but for those months I receive on average 0.3 inches. I essentially get zero rain for 5-6 months of the year.
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Recently listened to a podcast on a Black walnut/winter wheat agroforestry set up. Even just some small changes towards agroforestry can make a big difference.
Link to the thesis
Cracking out the entire kernel from Pounds #2 BW was like opening presents on Christmas. I could not believe how thin the shell was and how nice the kernel was. Really excited to see the next generation of BW cultivars. They’re much more nutrient dense than acorns, and chestnuts for that matter.
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Seconded.
Even though I live in a high to very high rainfall climate, with abundant summer rain, I don’t use raised beds because of the water stress they cause.
We have coarse, very-well drained soil in my part of the state, and even with lots of compost the total organic matter never stays above a few percent, so once we are in the height of summer, any plants in raised beds start looking really, really thirsty.
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Our pond is about 2 foot from flood stage. Normally the level is a good 5 feet lower on average.
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In your area, sunken beds might work better. I am in zone 6a and have been experimenting with planting in sunken areas on a large scale where irrigation is not available. Last year I had good success with it.
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Hence the ‘quotes’ within said absolute statement 
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I have been binging that podcast, there is a lot of good stuff I learned. My biggest gripe is their fascination with Nikita’s Gift as if it is the best available persimmon. To their credit it is my largest and oldest in ground, but so much else exists…
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Agree 100% Nakitas gift is a nice persimmon, but I’d honestly rather eat a ripe American cultivar.
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