Automatic Backyard Food Pump

Jay Angler wrote:...I think a big part of the "automatic backyard food pump" is identifying plants that grow so well in your ecosystem, that you can count on them for your basic calories and nutrition pretty much without fail. Paul has plenty of other plants and young fruit trees on his land, both wild and domestic. Those can supplement and diversify his diet as available (like rhubarb which is only a spring crop due to its oxalic acid content). In my area, the natives relied on the ocean for their "food pump" by harvesting the salmon run. They also grew camas bulbs, but also exported/traded many of those. Many areas around the world had at least one "reliable" staple crop that was well adapted to their ecosystem.

If the information I got is right, the staple crop growing here, and harvested since prehistory, was a wild parsnip. When potatoes were 'discovered', and came to Europe, everyone changed to potatoes. I don't understand why parsnips now are a 'forgotten vegetable' (starting to come back since a few years, mostly in the organic food stores). They grow easily, at least at my allotment garden. Better than potatoes, which get blight and colorado bugs.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:
If the information I got is right, the staple crop growing here, and harvested since prehistory, was a wild parsnip. When potatoes were 'discovered', and came to Europe, everyone changed to potatoes. I don't understand why parsnips now are a 'forgotten vegetable' (starting to come back since a few years, mostly in the organic food stores). They grow easily, at least at my allotment garden. Better than potatoes, which get blight and colorado bugs.

i bet parsnips are an excellent one for certain climates!
The challenge as I see it, is that we are looking for calorie dense foods that stick around without attracting other critters who are also looking for calories. Nuts won’t work because they have a crazy short harvest time before squirrels and such nab them.
    Honestly, I can’t think of many crops in this area that are calorie dense enough to serve as a staple and stable through the winter. Maybe ground nuts? Turnips? Persimmons - I have seen examples of the fruit drying on the tree and being edible long into the winter.
If you include crops with short harvest windows but minimal storage requirements, then hazelnuts, walnuts, and winter squash can be added to the list. And storage fruits like winter apple.

With 150 days to harvest, Chayote (Sicyos edulis; it has several local names) seems like a stretch, but possible contender.

This is a viviparous (seed starts germinating inside the fruit), perennial vine, up to 8 years but best up to 3 years. Grows quickly. Produces increasingly as with each year. DELICIOUS. I eat as much of as possible whenever I’m in the Caribbean and Mexico and Mesoamerica. Fruit is tasty eaten raw and cooked. Apparently leaves, stems and roots are all edible too.

Need to figure out how to preserve it and how to overwinter the vine or a new plant. My best guess is that in warmer climates, fruits drop and new vines start (although some seeds germinate while still on the vine). So it almost meets Paul’s criteria.

I’m itching to try it here in zone 7b. Probably best for folks in the south; ideal in tropics (and Florida?). It can be started indoors, and summers here are stretching into autumns more and more. Maybe with a passive, solar greenhouse this would be a good option.

Germinating and growing experiment in Taos,
NM and general information described here: https://www.motherearthgardener.com/plant-profiles/chayote-on-the-rise-zm0z20szbut/

Looks like folks in BC are experimenting with varieties that are more cold adapted (article comments are helpful): https://bcfarmsandfood.com/chayote-squash-new-staple-crop-northern-gardens

This gardener in the Virginia piedmont grows it for its shoots: https://www.laughingduckgardens.com/2009/01/29/growing-chayote-in-virginia/