Cris
Vegetables to Plant for Sustainability
Why should you focus your garden on vegetables to plant for sustainability? Well, if you are a homesteader, you already know. Even if you are just dreaming of starting a homestead you know. It’s to feed your family when times get tough.
You should be questioning what types of vegetables are the easiest to grow, and the best to store. Don’t stop at just what you like to eat, expand into those that you can grow in mass and preserve. Look into recipes and learn how to prepare them, they will undoubtedly come in handy in the depths of winter.
Sustainability is a concept where you grow, hunt, and raise all of your own food. It’s called being self-sufficient, and there are some out there that have achieved it. Most of us only come close, or don’t even try because it’s too easy to just go to the grocery store.
Vegetables for Self-Sufficiency
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Potatoes
Who doesn’t love a good French fry or baked potato? These are a must for the self-sufficient garden because they take little effort, produce a lot, and are easy to store. There are several varieties to choose from, so you can grow a variety to have a little fun.
Did you know that if it wasn’t for French fries many adolescents would not get enough vitamin K? These starchy roots are full of valuable calories to get you through. The uses of potatoes are very versatile too, so you won’t get bored having them on hand.
They grow in just 2-3 months from planting to harvest. There are tons of ways to grow them from containers to towers to just straight in the ground. After harvesting you clean them and keep them in a cool dark place. They will store for up to six months this way, just be wary of damaged potatoes sneaking into storage to spoil the whole lot.
Carrots
Carrots are a healthy snack and essential in almost every soup I cook. They store fairly well and can be canned. But since you can grow them in containers year-round, shy would you can them?
The fact that this vegetable is so essential makes it a must for the sustainable garden. It takes up very little space and is easy to grow. Toss some seeds in a deep planter and there you go.
Beans
Beans are essential staples for much the same reason as carrots, they go in everything. Green beans aren’t the only kind you should be growing though. There are a variety of beans that you can dry and store for those crock pot bean soups and chili.
Beans are another calorie packed food that will keep you going through lean times. They tend to produce about 3 pounds of dried beans per 100 square feet of space in the garden. But with that much quality, it’s perfectly fine to use the space. Just throw the dried pods into a pillowcase and hang in the garage, then store the fully dried beans in jars in the pantry.
Winter Squash
I love winter squash and think it’s fun to grow too. Winter squash varieties love to climb, so they do great on a trellis to take up less space. They tend to over produce as well and are very shelf stable.
Spaghetti squash is one of my personal favorites, as is acorn squash. I take these guys and put them in a dark corner of the pantry, and they last for weeks. It’s nice to be able to grab fresh produce all winter long right from the pantry.
Onions and Garlic
Onions and garlic are both staple seasoning foods. They go into nearly every dish I make. Both are easy to grow, and easy to store. Just let them dry out and store them with the potatoes and winter squash in the pantry.
Keeping them longer is easy when you make onion and garlic powders for when you don’t have access to fresh ones. Neither of these has much nutritional value, but garlic does have medicinal properties. Adding them to pickles is a great way to use up extra you may have on hand come harvest time.
Cabbage
You wouldn’t think of cabbage as a sustainability crop, but it is rather cold hardy. This means you can harvest it later than other crops. Homemade kimchi is a great nutritious way to promote gut health too.
Cabbage stores well frozen and pickled. Go ahead and grow some of this great vegetable, it’s one of our favorites to steam and eat. I love it in vegetable soup and as a fresh coleslaw too.
Tomatoes
You can’t go wrong with tomatoes! They don’t keep well on the shelf, but you can pressure can them up very easily. I love to cook them down into enchilada sauce and canning it for later use. Salsa is another great way to preserve tomatoes as is sun drying them. So many ways to use up excess tomatoes, this recipe book is one of my favorites for making fresh sauces and everything else.
When you get your fill of fresh ones, and those plants just keep pumping them out, cook them up. They can be a bit tricky to grow, but using these tricks can help. You can easily get about 150 pounds of tomatoes off of 10 plants, and the variety of tomatoes out there will keep it interesting.
Corn
Corn is great to grow for yourself and then there is grain corn for your animals. This is what makes it a must for the sustainable homestead. It can take up some space but will be worth it as organic animal feed.
When you grow it for yourself you can easily can it to store for winter. You can dry it for yourself and use it in soups too. Freezing corn is possible it you blanch it really well before putting it in the bag.
Beets and Turnips
These veggies grow fast so you can get multiple harvests each year. They have excellent nutritional properties and make great animal food if your kids don’t like them. Beets are typically preserved by pickling, and they make great salad toppers this way. I make soups to can, and there is one that uses beets, so I store them in a variety of ways.
Fruits
We all know about the 10 best trees for your homestead orchard, so saving that fruit by dehydrating it or canning it is great. Homemade applesauce, Canned peaches and pears, jams, and jellies. This is a great way to get a healthy sweet treat in the middle of winter.
Self-Sufficiency at Its Best
I love being able to provide for my family all year long. Sure running the canner for days is a ton of work, but it’s worth it. I love my electric canner, it doesn’t do much at one time, and has its limitations, but I don’t have to keep a close eye on it.
It feels good to be able to eat what we raised and put in the effort for. We get to save trips to the grocery store and cut the transportation cost of goods getting shipped at the same time. It takes some doing to get a garden going, but there are ways to make even the smallest garden produce tons of food for you and your family.