Plants that are Money in bank, food in the ground(container)

Sunchokes.
True Yams.
Groundnuts.
Gobo maybe.

Plants that you can grown and not harvest, for years even, but still have food when you need it.
I have only grown sunchokes, and I don't love them enough to eat them on the regular,  but I love that they are always there when I need them.
I keep meaning to try them in buckets, not to contain their spread, just to make harvesting easier.
I think they might do well in a bucket of rabbit bedding and biochar.

True Yams are my next thing to try.
I have some planted, they produced "berries" last year, but I've yet to dig them up.
Again, I think they would be easier to harvest from a container.

Some plants get woody after a year or two in the ground, others stay edible.
I'm looking for the second variety.
They don't have to be great eats, just easy calories.

Potatoes and sweet potatoe could count.
Potatoes can be perennial but I've been warned they will develop diseases.
Sweet potatoes won't over winter where I live, otherwise I would grow them everywhere.

Any ideas for more  self-storage money in the bank food plants?

Prickly pear cactus. Over the years I've divided plants and moved them for their stunning beauty: big yellow flowers, succulent texture, gorgeous red fruits. Now this nutrient rich food source surrounds my entire property. Prickly pear cactus is known as, "poor man's bread" since it is always available for sustenance. While there aren't many calories in prickly pear pads, a lovely meal can always be had by harvesting the quail, quail eggs, rabbits, and other wild life that munch on this important desert food source.

Outstanding!
I have a single prickly pear cactus that I bought last year.
It's still in its container,  but planted in a large container, till I decide where to plant it.
I hadn't thought of it in this category.
How do you propagate it?
Heck, how do you fertilize it?

Nutsedge/chufa - If you can get it before the turkeys do! (But if you cannot get it before the turkeys get it, at least you can get the turkeys!)

I want to start experimenting with Jicama and Yacon, but not sure how it does if left in the ground year after year.

I know people who grow "Egyptian walking onion." Not sure its correct name.

There is also Chinese Yam, or "wild yam." Not sure what the proper name is. It grows a tuberous root, and grows a potato-looking thing up in the air. They are often considered to be "invasive..." If you are eating the aerial tubers, you have to harvest them at harvest time. But if you just want the root, it is there year round. I only know about them from the internet, but might try planting some this spring along with the jicamas and yacons.

I have sunchokes and ground nuts already going, for basically the same purposes as OP, and hoping to get some of the others going this year.

William wrote:

I have a single prickly pear cactus that I bought last year.
It's still in its container,  but planted in a large container, till I decide where to plant it.
I hadn't thought of it in this category.
How do you propagate it?
Heck, how do you fertilize it?

Propagation is simply a matter of cutting off a pad or preferably three (like Micky Mouse face & big ears). Let the cut-off spot at the joint heal in the air (or bury it half way in dry sand) and don’t water for a few weeks. The juice in the pads will sustain the plant in extreme heat without water for a month or more. You can take cuttings any time of year and stick them into dry ground. Plant Micky’s face about 1/3 into the sand and let the ears stick upright. If you need to prop up the face up to keep it vertical, just use a little stick or a rock to keep it upright. If the cactus falls over, no problem, it will root any which way so long as part of the edge is under ground.

Humans need not fertilize this hearty plant. Everything it needs to get started is already in the full sun and sand. Once it starts growing, the clump of cactus catches windblown debris around its base like a screen which breakdown and feed the plant. I imagine that the critters that munch on it during dry and desolate winter give cactus some of their waste for fertilizer.  Large production growers fertilize. For more fruit, use fertilizers without nitrogen, like bone meal and wood ash. If you want more pads, use nitrogen sources like composted manure.

There are an amazing number of recipes for prickly pear fruits and nopalitos, the Spanish name for the small, tender, young, ~6” hand-sized pads. Prepare the pad by cutting off the outer edge of the lobe all the way around then scrape or burn off the spines and glochids. Roasted over a mesquite wood fire they can be used in salsas, salads, tacos, casseroles or any recipe calling for green beans.

I actually first fell in love with Permies reading this terrific thread:
https://permies.com/t/49834/Prickly-Pear-perfect-permaculture-plant

Many good posts here, my sister is on board for growing some yams!

Anybody here grow konjac?
It's not exactly full of calories but it  does seem to be highly valued for exactly that reason.

+1 for wild yam.  The aerial tubers store very well, on or off the vine, in a jar or in the ground - ask any field mouse.  

+1 for prickly pear.

In the woodlands of our farm, we harvest hackberries, juniper berries and oyster mushrooms year-round.  Hackberries are nutrient dense, and can be made into a sort of dried leather or bar.  Supposedly you can live on them indefinitely.  Even as winter draws to a close, the birds have left an abundant amount of hackberries on the trees.  I snack on them every evening as I make my rounds.

I would include our sheep, goats, and chickens as bankable, perennial calories.  We use eggs and milk, and make cheese and yogurt year round. We do not eat the animals - but I like knowing that I have a self-sustaining bank of calories and protein on-the-hoof, if there is ever a time of need.

Beau, what do you do with the juniper berries? I can't even get my chickens to eat it.

Skyler Weber wrote:Beau, what do you do with the juniper berries? I can't even get my chickens to eat it.

My chickens don't eat them either - but I do.

We have juniperus virginiana, or eastern red cedar trees, by the thousands.  All their berries are edible, but taste varies widely tree to tree.  I grab some to taste-test as I'm walking by, and I get to know the reliably sweet berry producers.

*We gather the sweet ones and munch them by the handful.  
*We pack them into mason jars and fill with apple cider vinegar for beverages/dressings.  
*I use them to start a "juniper bug," meaning I add a handful of them to a honey/water solution to activate the natural yeast.  The berries with more of a cloudy white appearance are better for this - the appearance comes from native yeast.  After a few days of periodic agitation, it starts to form bubbles/foam at the top.  This means the yeast is proliferating as it consumes the honey, converting to alcohol.  I use that starter to ferment beverages from other foraged goods.  You can learn more about this from Pascal Baudar's The Wildcrafting Brewer.

Skyler, juniper berries can be added to casseroles, marinades, and stuffings.  The berries can be used fresh or dried and add flavor to most meats.

If you don't already know it is the flavoring for gin.

We miss several sweet potatoes  every year at harvest, when all the sprouts pop up the following year we pluck them up and spread them out.
We leave ginger and turmeric in the ground year round, dig up as needed.
Lemon grass and sugar cane patches keep growing every year.  Chives never die back much.

Skyler Weber wrote:Beau, what do you do with the juniper berries? I can't even get my chickens to eat it.

I've used juniper berries in a pork belly cure, and in a brine for venison.

Laurel Jones wrote:

Skyler Weber wrote:Beau, what do you do with the juniper berries? I can't even get my chickens to eat it.

I've used juniper berries in a pork belly cure, and in a brine for venison.

What variety is this Juniper berry?
There are fifty varieties of Juniper berries, which one do you use.

This past winter I had lots of fun harvesting the fruit from my prickly pears. It’s super easy if you know how: pick the fruit with tongs and put them in a plastic bag or a container and put them in the freezer until frozen. After they’re frozen let them defrost in a pot on your stove top. When they are defrosted they become like frozen strawberries and the fruit juice oozes out. Bring the fruit to a boil for several minutes to dissolve the spines. Strain the contents of the pot through a colander to make jelly and gelatin with the juice. I use the leftover skins to make tea adding a little sweetener. It’s quite tasty! I dehydrate most of them for later use. You could even add the skins to a soup in an emergency situation after making the tea.

Maybe bamboo. I think I read somewhere that it was an excellent survival crop.

Mint, if you like herbs.  

Depending on where you live,  stinging nettles. Used to find massive groves of them in IL.

Def love the prickly pear and have a ton of it here.  I think if you give it too "good" of conditions it won't thrive. It grows here naturally in dry, rocky soil. Give it good drainage.  I propagate by cutting off a pad and throwing it where I want it. Easy peasy and excellent nutrition. We like to add the nopalitos to a sheet roast. The tuna (fruit) are awesome, too, if a lot of work.

Oak for acorn flour.

Mulberry (berries, edible leaves).

I love my walking onions. Not a ton of calories I guess, but I planted them once years ago and have ignored them ever since.  Then in the middle of January, when I realize I need an onion but my big storage onions are all gone or mushy, I can go brush the snow off of them and pull up a couple from the ground.

I let my kale go to seed a few years ago and it grows in all the cracks and corners now and I let that continue to self seed.  I always have kale to eat.  It's my favorite variety too.  I keep trying other varieties and planting them in my garden beds but nothing tastes as great as the one that now grows wild all over my yard.

I have a perennial kale in my garden (Taunton Dean) that always has some leaves. Even after the caterpillars got to it last summer it just resprouted.

Rhubarb, sunchokes, ground nuts, shitake logs, day lily, horseradish, chives, garlic chives, mint (spearmint and peppermint), kale, alpine strawberries, raspberries, hazelnuts, and fruit trees.  Last year I had a hard time getting enough time away from work (healthcare in a pandemic!) to do much in my garden, but all these things took care of themselves.  Did the peppermint and alpine strawberries take over most of my prime garden space?  Yes, yes they did.  But I still ate them and did NO work.  Not a great harvest year all together (yay for farmer's markets to make up for the loss) but I was still eating stuff from my backyard most of the growing season.  
I also had some cherry tomatoes, dill, and cilantro that reseeded from their spots the year before.  
In theory I have some Japanese knotweed that is reported to be edible, but I have yet to try eating the shoots.  
And then there are always dandelions!

Forgot to say purslane. I love that stuff!  Unfortunately, so do my chickens, so I have to fight them for it.  :p

Oh, and I planted amaranth one year and it comes back full force ever since.  So pretty, too (red garnet).

I see groundnuts listed a lot. Does anyone have a good source for them? They're not the same as peanuts, right?

Joe Grand wrote:

Laurel Jones wrote:

Skyler Weber wrote:Beau, what do you do with the juniper berries? I can't even get my chickens to eat it.

I've used juniper berries in a pork belly cure, and in a brine for venison.

What variety is this Juniper berry?
There are fifty varieties of Juniper berries, which one do you use.

No clue.  I bought them dried online from a spice shop.

Jenny Wright wrote:I love my walking onions. Not a ton of calories I guess, but I planted them once years ago and have ignored them ever since.  Then in the middle of January, when I realize I need an onion but my big storage onions are all gone or mushy, I can go brush the snow off of them and pull up a couple from the ground.

yes!  Walking onions are great!  Wonderful to just go grab a handful of the stems from the garden, and chop them up to make scallion pancakes.

I have an old cistern that no longer holds water, so i filled it with soil and planted walking onions and mint in it.  They're currently in a fight to the death, but I know when one of them starts getting strangled, it'll be easy to take a tiny bit of it to start a new patch.

I agree about lazy food...rhubarb is a big one for me and I've been developing an Asparagus patch. While I plant alot of garlic every fall I am also experimenting by allowing some garlic to grow as a perennial.
The laziest I can do is to make space for native volunteers to thrive nearby without me having to go look for them, like mushrooms,primrose, plantain, nettles, dandelions, milkweed, sunchokes, wild raspberries, blueberries, highbush cranberry,  saskatoon berry(or as we call them in  NE Ontario, Canada, Sugar Plums).

Hmmm. Money in the bank and food in the ground without much work...
Tall order. First, it has to taste good, of course, and not be fussy.
Asparagus are the number one I can think of. Just a scattering of wood ashes, winter mulch against the weeds and pick to your heart's content.
Sunchokes definitely fit the bill if you like them. They are not all created equal and the kind that does not spread too much is definitely wonderful, especially in a bed. The pink skinned one is a fart/ methane/ colic causing machine. Even in Wisconsin, I can keep them in the ground and they will come back like a storm trooper the following year. I could harvest them all along if I was inclined to cover them with a very heavy mulch as out ground freezes... too much work to retrieve them in -40F weather.
A food that I was not used to is quickly becoming my favorite: Asian Sweet Potatoes. They are not the yam, nor the sweet potato at the Thanksgiving table; I don't care for those and they can be a bit stringy, but these Asian ones grow easily without much help in my zone 4b Central Wisconsin. Just like sunchokes, you want to grow them in loose soil in a tall bed . 12" is not too much. They will easily give you as much in volume as a Yukon Gold or a Russet, per plant.
They are very starchy with no strings whatsoever and I prefer them over regular potatoes, [even the Yukon Gold!]. Taste wise, they remind me of chestnuts. A great reason I love them, beside this great taste, is that they will keep on a shelf in my house until at least March, without any special tending. [No wrapping, checking on them or anything]. I have mine in Homer buckets in a closet, just out of the sun. This means that I can be self sufficient in sweet Asian potatoes as I can easily grow slips in March-April and plant them after last frost for a crop. Easy peasy!
By contrast, regular potatoes need 90% humidity in storage at a temperature as close as possible to your refrigerator's crisper. So I must buy potatoes: Even if I could get a great crop, which I can here as Central WI is potato country, I still could not *store* hundreds of pounds of potatoes successfully.
Another relatively work free crop is elderberries. I have several and since they needed a little pruning anyway, and I love elderberries, I made 36 cuttings, figuring that even if I only got 2 or 3, I would count it as a success... Well, they are all coming and here I am, in early April wondering where will I put them all?! Well, a hedge, of course. And so what  if birds eat most of them?  I only have 5 that are producing, but even that is enough to keep me in syrup all year. [and jelly, and wine!]
and when you say "Money in the bank", while potatoes are cheap, even sunchokes are a bit pricey. Elderberries are close to unobtanium so If I wanted to sell a few plants, I'd make money.
Same thing with my raspberries: In a bed and with a lot of leaf mulch, they are producing like crazy. They send tons of runners, and family and friends will give me a pretty penny for those plants, [after they get a taste of them!]
Garlic grows with abandon if you mulch against weeds. They will do well in our winters if I don't find all of them in the Fall too.

I'm thinking of other tubers - hereabouts we can harvest daylilly and yucca tubers year round.

Laurel Jones wrote:

Joe Grand wrote:

Laurel Jones wrote:

Skyler Weber wrote:Beau, what do you do with the juniper berries? I can't even get my chickens to eat it.

I've used juniper berries in a pork belly cure, and in a brine for venison.

What variety is this Juniper berry?
There are fifty varieties of Juniper berries, which one do you use.

No clue.  I bought them dried online from a spice shop.

Sorry, I thought you grew them!

A juniper berry is the female seed cone produced by the various species of junipers. It is not a true berry, but a cone with unusually fleshy and merged scales, which gives it a berry-like appearance. The cones from a handful of species, especially Juniperus communis, are used as a spice, particularly in European cuisine, and also give gin its distinctive flavour. Juniper berries are among the only spices derived from conifers,[1] along with spruce buds.[2]
All juniper species grow berries, but some are considered too bitter to eat. In addition to J. communis, other edible species include Juniperus drupacea,[3][4] Juniperus phoenicea,[5] Juniperus deppeana, and Juniperus californica.[6] But the berries of some species, such as Juniperus sabina, are toxic and consumption of them is inadvisable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniper_berry#:~:text=It%20is%20not%20a%20true,give%20gin%20its%20distinctive%20flavour.

On a nice warm day - grab your salt shaker and the garden hose.
Walk over to your tomato patch, pull a ripe one out of the patch, and hose it down quickly.
Now lick it, salt it, bite into it!
A bit of heaven, huh?

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:
A food that I was not used to is quickly becoming my favorite: Asian Sweet Potatoes. They are not the yam, nor the sweet potato at the Thanksgiving table; I don't care for those and they can be a bit stringy, but these Asian ones grow easily without much help in my zone 4b Central Wisconsin. Just like sunchokes, you want to grow them in loose soil in a tall bed . 12" is not too much. They will easily give you as much in volume as a Yukon Gold or a Russet, per plant.
They are very starchy with no strings whatsoever and I prefer them over regular potatoes, [even the Yukon Gold!]. Taste wise, they remind me of chestnuts. A great reason I love them, beside this great taste, is that they will keep on a shelf in my house until at least March, without any special tending. [No wrapping, checking on them or anything]. I have mine in Homer buckets in a closet, just out of the sun. This means that I can be self sufficient in sweet Asian potatoes as I can easily grow slips in March-April and plant them after last frost for a crop. Easy peasy!

Do you have a source for those plants? The sound great!

Chickweed, dead nettle, violets, and wild garlic pop up all over the garden in early spring. All mild, and easy to cut a bowlfull and toss in stir fry or stew.

Many good suggestions already listed. I'll add peanuts & buckwheat. Buckwheat dies off in winter but reseeds itself & volunteers easily. Peanuts will also come back the next year if some are left in the ground. Consider moringa too.

I want to add another shout out to stinging nettle, which packs a bunch of protein, vitamin A and K and other nutrients into one scraggly plant. They're tastiest as young shoots in the early spring but can be harvested for tea any time. I add them to broths all winter. Nettle seeds are also nutrient dense and medicinal, too.

For those who prefer native plants, there's also the wood nettle.

They're not as calorically dense as other plants mentioned here, but berries like currants, elderberries and aronia (black chokeberry) are pretty indestructible, low-maintenance and nutritional powerhouses too. If you don't want to can/preserve you can always freeze and add to oatmeal.

Lina Joana wrote:

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:
A food that I was not used to is quickly becoming my favorite: Asian Sweet Potatoes. They are not the yam, nor the sweet potato at the Thanksgiving table; I don't care for those and they can be a bit stringy, but these Asian ones grow easily without much help in my zone 4b Central Wisconsin.

Do you have a source for those plants? The sound great!
Chickweed, dead nettle, violets, and wild garlic pop up all over the garden in early spring. All mild, and easy to cut a bowlfull and toss in stir fry or stew.

Lina, you didn't tell us where you are from. In Central Wisconsin, we can reach out to Gurney's:
https://www.gurneys.com/product/murasaki_sweet_potato_?p=0515548&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjN-SBhCkARIsACsrBz6sDaZUSPpoq5z9e3LzpuHgw9ih0SvpBSatLaLrisMod_fz-OqDqTgaAhocEALw_wcB
But that may not advance you much for this year: Typically, I start my slips in March. If you are north of me and Gurney's rushes the order, you might instead plant the whole tuber, but that is quite a waste as from one tuber, you could get 10-15 slips, each ready to give you a whole hill. And a hill that you start by planting the whole tuber will not be more prolific than the one you start from a slip. I'm still picking slips from my tubers.
Here is a video on how to make slips from sweet potatoes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato
The only thing I do differently is I do not *cut* the slip with scissors. Instead, I practically submerge the whole tuber. The small roots start best where the base of the slip makes contact with the water and I carefully *tear* it from the mother plant. At this time, it often has roots already attached. I figure I may gain a week or so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbc1rnEfbcM
I got mine from a health food store near me a couple of years ago and made slips. You might want to google "Asian sweet Potato slips for sale near me", or Murasaki Sweet potato for sale and see what comes up in your State. Unfortunately, the providers of my Health Food store started spraying the tubers with something that prevents them from sprouting, so buying a tuber to make your own slips may not work. I'm going to go and complain to them today. For this year, I'm using the tubers that lasted the whole year in my homer pail.

This sweet potato  has a deep purple skin and very white flesh as you see in the Gurney picture. Have the water going before you start peeling as the flesh will oxidize very quickly and be less appetizing. It melts in your mouth. No need to add butter or brown sugar either!
I use it in turkey stuffing because it does have a taste reminiscent of chestnuts. [and I love chestnuts!]
You may be able to purchase sweet potato slips from Southern Exposure as well, but if you are North of me, you may not get them till past May, giving you a really short season. Along with the slips ,you can get a "growing guide".  I grow mine in raised beds, as they are wanderers and they will "layer" anywhere the vine makes contact with the soil, a bit like pumpkins. https://www.southernexposure.com/sweet-potato-growing-guide/
Or you could go to a food store that caters to Asian tastes.
There is also a deep purple sweet potato from which you can grow tubers used in many Hawaiian/ Thai/ Asian desserts:
https://www.yummly.com/recipes/purple-sweet-potato desserts.
Hope this helps.

Cattails - there's something you can eat from them, pretty much year round, and all over the world. I found some perennial artichokes, to put in, this year. Dandelions. I'm trying my hand at the multiplier onions, this year, too.

I have two kinds of purple yam half buried in moist potting soil.
So far one has not sprouted at all and the other has barely sprouted.
The "Japanese yam" has been going gang busters.
I should be potting up slips, but mostly I've been feeding them to the bunnies!

Here's a trusted source for quality sweet potatoes.

Multiplier or potato onions seem like they fit the bill.

William Bronson wrote:I have two kinds of purple yam half buried in moist potting soil.
So far one has not sprouted at all and the other has barely sprouted.
The "Japanese yam" has been going gang busters.
I should be potting up slips, but mostly I've been feeding them to the bunnies!

Yikes! You are really missing out on a great treat!

Mike Barkley wrote:Here's a trusted source for quality sweet potatoes.

Thanks for finding this great source. I'd like to get me some of them in the fall as they store quite easily and they cannot ship slips in March because of the cold here.
That is the one thing I've learned [the hard way] about sweet potatoes: They absolutely cannot take cold storage!

As far as I know they sell slips only. Here's their shipment dates.

Mike Barkley wrote:As far as I know they sell slips only. Here's their shipment dates.

Thanks again, Mike. That might actually work in my zone [WI-6]. We can't really plant tomatoes either until after Memorial day.
Maybe I can write them a nice letter and add a lot of pretty please and maybe they would sell me the tubers in the Fall so I can make slips in the Spring. That would work.