What staple crops are you growing?

Tyler Ludens wrote:Nicole, have you tried Hardy Yams?  http://www.pfaf.org/user/cmspage.aspx?pageid=60

I have one plant of Hardy Yam but it isn't doing much because it doesn't get sufficient water.

Regarding deer; I wouldn't be able to grow anything without fences.  

I did not know there were hardy yams! WOW! One of the things I have missed about the South has been the long growing seasons and the sweet potatoes. It seems like these might be an acceptable substitute. NICE!!

We’ve been in our present home in Tucson for around a year now.  The modest lot is covered in several inches of small rock, and the “soil” underneath is rock-hard.  I’ve been willing to chip my way thru the “soil” to put in trees, but not yet at least dig to put in a garden.  Trees include six moringa.  I begun looking for perennial plants, with a deep taproot, so digging a hole for them is worth the effort.

Suggestions?

Our “staples” are primarily sweet potatoes in self-watering containers, similar to the commercial “Earthbox” product.  We have six different varieties growing, to see which does the best at our location.  Sweet potatoes have the advantage over potatoes, in that sweet potato leaves and young vines are edible.  Those for a potato are not.  

Are there any permaculture groups in Tucson that actually meet to exchange ideas?

tomatoes are the only thing id consider a staple, although it doesn't make a huge caloric source, i eat them a lot when they are fresh, and turn them into sauce and salsa for storage. ill make fried green tomatoes and freeze them as well. so good for a quick winter dinner, or sanwhich for lunch.

dont have much space, so focusing mostly on expensive veggies, and then with the money saved, buy higher caloric staples like potatoes, squashes, corn, grains and processed foods. I would like to grow more sunflowers, dry beans, onions, garlic and carrots though, consider these staples.

in one sense id also like to abolish the role of "staples" in my life by diversifying the garden to the point there is just always something abundant and ripe, and binge on that until something else is available. i guess then anything that lasts the winter would be considered a staple, but with season extension even that becomes irrelevent.

It's very interesting reading this thread, unfortunately for us 90% of what you guys call staple crops won't grow here.  Potatos are the staple, potatos and grains. We don't grow grains as they are too much work with hand equipment and take too much land, potatos however we do grow, Traditionaly they only grow what I would call earlies here waxy boilers, but some of the new blight resistant bakers (caroulus) have done well for me the last couple of years, despite blight hitting in august as per normal. Maize doesn't mature here our summers are not warm enough, same goes for tomatos peppers etc etc they are all greenhouse crops. Wallnuts do produce a crop, but chestnuts do not, issue with wallnuts is the 10 years before you get anything, Hazelnuts are also here I'm not sure on the land requirements for a decent amount though, I imagine it would be pretty huge.
The staples we grow personally are Potatos, carrots, parsnips and dried beans, the dried beans are very limited I grow runner beans which do well and about 50% of them reach maturity before the frost comes, and broad beans (fava?)  those we prefer fresh dried I find them very gloopy, though they do make an acceptable humus. I think the biggest issue people (like me!) have in a truly oceanic climate is damp and cool, it never gets truly cold here, we don't freeze solid over winter but not even kale will reliably survive outside over winter, constant damp and freeze thaw soon turns it into slimy rotten mush. Equally while I'm technically in 7b I cannot grow anything that likes warmth, summers hit 20C with the average being around 16 nights can drop under 10C at any time except perhaps July and August.

Skandi Rogers wrote:We don't grow grains as they are too much work with hand equipment and take too much land,

At my place, a 50 foot row of wheat produces 5 pounds of grain, and takes about an hour to harvest, thresh, and clean using only simple tools like secateurs, a tarp, a stick, and some buckets. That's enough wheat from an hour's labor to make 5 loaves of bread, and essentially feed me for a week. I personally don't eat wheat, cause I think it's not suitable for human consumption, and specifically I'm allergic to it,  but in my climate and with my attitude, it's a very easy to grow, high calorie crop.

We are in Tucson, AZ.  Our primary calorie crops are several varieties of sweet potato.  With them, the leaves and young stems are edible.  

I may go back and finish reading what has become a very long thread, but wanted to post first:  my daughter and I both have serious auto-immune diseases, and can't eat any plants from the nightshade family (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplant, along with a few less common plants), nor can we eat anything with gluten.  In my experience, any seed-derived food causes problems even if it isn't technically a grain.  So those are all out for our main calorie crops.  What I've settled on is sweet potatoes; winter squash; carrots; beets; turnips and rutabagas; parsnips; and berries and fruits for our plant calories.  But we also have (or soon will have again) chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and dairy/meat goats, and I am considering raising a few of the small-breed pigs such as Guinea hogs.  With milk, eggs, and meat in our diet, plus the vegetable garden and berry patch and some fruit trees, we will be able to grow nearly all of our food.  Oh, and our new place has a small pond on it.  It needs to be cleaned out, but then we can stock some fish in it, so we'll have fish, too.  

Unless you are vegan, and live in a city apartment, you should be able to add some kind of animal products to your diet.  Even one egg a day will add a lot of nutritional value to what you can grow in your garden.

Kathleen

Tyler Ludens wrote:Nicole, have you tried Hardy Yams?  http://www.pfaf.org/user/cmspage.aspx?pageid=60

I have one plant of Hardy Yam but it isn't doing much because it doesn't get sufficient water.

Regarding deer; I wouldn't be able to grow anything without fences.  

Never heard of those! Ug, I hope they aren't  as aggressive as kudzu.

kathleen, obviously do your own due deligence, check with your doc, etc., but I read that sweet potatoes are not a member of the nightshade family, rather they are in the convolvulaceae family.

fred greek wrote:kathleen, obviously do your own due deligence, check with your doc, etc., but I read that sweet potatoes are not a member of the nightshade family, rather they are in the convolvulaceae family.

Yes, you are correct.  We cannot eat 'Irish' potatoes, which are in the nightshade family.  We can eat sweet potatoes, which are not nightshades.

Kathleen

Taro, Colocasia esculenta, is a favorite staple, as it is a do-nothing crop once established in the right spot. By do-nothing I mean, I have to thin out and eat the big ones.

I was asked by a local tribe to cultivate the Red Taro as they'd forgotten how. Ten years of reading and failing later the Taro showed me how.

Plant on the edge of a natural bowl where water collects in heavy weather. Plant as an understory beneath bananas. Plant slightly down slope of bananas. Compost under the bananas let the Taro get the overflow. Use the Taro to protect emerging coffee.

Share excess plants and knowledge with others.

I liked this person's video on year one of working on a wheat landrace for his location.  He does things like calculate how many grains he gets back for each one planted, and what his yield per square meter was.

I don't feel the need to do the math any more... If a plant excels, then it is going to produce more seeds, and it's progeny will thus occupy a higher proportion of the population. If a plant is a piker, then it will produce little seed, and will tend to be minimized in the population. In other words, if I just collect bulk seed, and replant it, the most productive plants will tend to become more common, and the less productive plants will tend to become less common.

Re: taro. Most Americans have never heard of it, or if they have, they think "poi". Of the Americans who have tried poi, it probably was at a tourist luau in Hawaii , and in my opinion, that poi is terrible. I wouldn't eat it unless I was starving. But I enjoy fresh homemade poi made from the right taro varieties.

Taro has lots of varieties, some grown for the leaves, others for the stems, yet others for the corm. Some varieties produce corms that are best for poi, others for making chips, and others for steaming or boiling. There's lots of ways to use taro, including soups, stir fries, fried chips, in desserts, in baking....and as poi.

Taro can easily be a staple food in the right environment.

Genevieve Higgs wrote:I liked this person's video on year one of working on a wheat landrace for his location.  He does things like calculate how many grains he gets back for each one planted, and what his yield per square meter was. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkO3EhG7v3c

As illustrated Growing wheat to make bread is labor intensive but raising it for chicken feed is easy. I found that the chickens always planted some as I moved the chicken tractor along. It dose most of it's growing in the winter feeding the soil organisms and storing up soar energy that would otherwise be wasted. It does not have to be possessed for chicken feed just throw the bundle in and let them pick the grain out of the head.  It also works for millet and sunflowers so I planted bird seed mix for my summer cover crop.  I am working the blackberry roots out of my pear orchard so I am going to plant a bag of wheat in the bare soil this winter and next summer I wont have to buy feed.

Currently i’d consider my staples to be potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, eggs, assorted beans (fava and gigante), assorted roots (carrot, beetroot, swede, celeriac) and winter squash. Over the years though i’ve tried:

Sweet potato - just too cold here to grow a large crop
Yacon - very easy to grow I just don’t like it
Oca - too wet here - they rot before I can get them all out of the ground
Hazelnuts - I get a modest crop but just don’t have the space to grow enough to consider them a staple
Quinoa - too much effort to get the grain but still good to grow for animal food or to use the leaves in salads
Sunflower seeds - I gave up trying to beat the birds to it but a very productive crop
Amaranth - same as quinoa but still grow it for leaves and give the seed heads to the animals

John Jeavons has an interesting and very short list of high calorie root crops which includes some crops I grow already and some I do not.

Grow already:

Potatoes
Jerusalem Artichoke
Garlic (if it's still surviving)
Parsnips

Haven't tried yet:

Sweet Potatoes
Leeks
Salsify

Of these the one's I plan to try are leeks and salsify.

Salsify is particularly interesting to me because it sounds like something with good potential to grow here, that a person could eat a lot of.

Sweet potatoes are very interesting but not adapted to my climate - yet- there are folks here like Joseph Lofthouse working on that.

What makes Jeavons high calorie root crops list so interesting is that his grow biointensive system is designed to provide a complete vegan diet with a lot of long term study and this list is a critical component and so short. Not that I personally am adverse to meat, eggs, and milk but don't currently have the ability to easily care for animals. It seems to me that if trying to grow some of ones own food these 7 crops are important from a caloric standpoint especially in a small space which is what the biointensive method is designed for.

Currently reading Carol Deppe's book on resilient gardening her crops are corn, squash, beans, potatoes, and eggs. I grow these as well, or have in the past. She adds a few crops like tomatoes that are near staples in her Tao of Gardening book which I just finished.

I think currently the staple crops that make the most sense for me with livestock limits, pleny of space, but sometimes time limits are squash, parsnips, Jerusalem artichoke, and maybe salsify.

Parsnips and Jerusalem artichokes practically grow themselves. Salsify may as well. My squash patch takes a lot of space but only limited work.

I am pretty focused on tomatoes right now as a breeding project so if I have to spend time on something it's them.

Potatoes are inexpensive so it may make the most sense to  freeze some TPS and not worry about it right now.

Alliums are nice well cooked and in small quantities so a small patch of onions, leeks, and garlic should be plenty. Raw they disagree with both me and my wife.

If grown right I've had figs produce from Late June/Early July until frost in November, and that was just the 2nd crop! We do get a lot of rain in the Spring so the breba crop is meh. We also get a big crop of blueberries and blackberries that we can freeze for later. We also get a massive yield of black walnuts from wild trees on the farm I have contemplated having them processed at a local facility for winter use. As far as most vegetables they stay pretty seasonal for myself, and I would like to work in more perennial vegetables to offset this. Especially sunchokes for winter harvests, but they are pretty expensive to buy where I have seen them.

My experimental calorie crops are doing pretty well.  Chinese Hardy Yam is doing the least well, getting off to an extremely slow start.

That's exciting Tyler! You try so hard in a seemingly tough area for gardening. I hope these work out really well for you.

I need to take my time and read through this thread with a fine-toothed comb. Skimming already has my mind racing. You friendly folks already reminded me to put in Jerusalem artichokes into my perennial garden, and give sweet potatoes another chance.

We, as a family, eat a lot of rice, so I've been trying to rack my brain on whether or not I really did see a dry land rice variety seed for sale a few years ago somewhere (Baker Creek??), or if I dreamed it and need to start terracing my hillside for dedicated rice paddies. In the meantime, we keep dabbling with corn, and have a test patch of Emmer wheat and multiple kinds of sunflowers going this year. I have had great success with winter squashes, and was eating squashes to my heart's content until mid-January, so I increased my garden space dedicated to storage squashes and planted 9 varieties this year, if I count right. Not discouraged by a previous bout of potato blight, I planted 5 varieties in a newly established garden patch. They're up to my waist and in full bloom, so I'm hopeful that this year, my cellar will be better stocked on spuds. I'm growing peas as a field crop (because nothing soothes the soul like a pot of peas and a ham hock on a cold winter day), and have penciled chickpeas into my test patch next season, because although I don't love hummus, I like chickpeas in curry types of applications, and with some vegan friends, I can always get rid of my extras.

I consider eggs to be a staple crop, as my chickens provide a substantial amount of calories to my kitchen, and selling the extras frees up some funds to buy in feed and other resources, and old or injured layer hens and mean roosters end up in the stock pot, and the mature birds usually have a lot of rich yellow chicken fat on them that I render for cooking other stuff. I'm planning on adding pigs so I don't have to buy them annually for the freezer, and establishing a small sheep herd for milk, meat, and wool, because both my son and I have trouble digesting cow's and goat's milk, and he can't have soy. If my experiments in legumes, grains, and seeds don't go quite to plan, I can always feed them to my chickens as treats, so I don't see any of my effort going to "waste".

Edited for side note: Our homestead was otherwise rather barren after previous owners mowed and herbicided a lot of it to clean it up for sale, but some judicious pruning and side dressing with manure brought back the 100 year old apple trees, so I have too many apples to use them all up most years. The first variety that ripens is good for fresh eating, the next is amazing in sauce and cider, and the last one is a tart storage type apple. I preserve a lot of them as applesauce and apple cider vinegar. I've added berry patches and peaches, grapes, and pears, so I get many, many, many gallons of "sugar" wrapped in fruit off our property in addition to the blackberries and I'm really tired today, because I completely forgot that the highest calorie "crop" per labor input I think I have, is honey! A lot of the fruit ends up canned, or juiced, but I try to freeze some for use throughout the winter, too. All my new plantings follow the example of whomever planted the apple trees, all varieties ripen at a different time of the season, so pear season starts in July, and goes all the way through October/November.

(P.S. Although I'd like to say I could live off of coffee, it will never count as a true "staple", even if I might be able to figure out the black magic to grow a few beans. Oh bother. :P)

Hi everyone! I haven't read through this whole thread yet, but liking it so far. We grow mostly staple crops in our gardens, ranked here by quantity, most to least:

1: Tepary bean landrace
2: Squash landrace
3: Cowpea/black-eyed pea landrace
4: Mechudo beans (common bean cross between black and pinto)
5: Nopales and tunas (prickly pear)

When they produce well, pods from the mesquite trees all around us are another staple. Last year was a good year; this year not. Also, we grow so much arugula and mustard greens that they're practically staples, and I intend to start grinding some of the seeds into homemade cultured mustard.

Here are things we're starting to add in, or try again, now that I have an area devoted to roots and tubers:

* Sweet potatoes
* Sunchokes
* Potatoes
* Carrots
* Beets
* Turnips
* Oca

I'll have to read through the thread for other ideas to try here in the high-ish desert! Thank you, all!

P.S. Check out the beautiful Tohono O'odham cowpea variety we added into our landrace mix this year. It's the first dry bean I've harvested this year, and -- as with the Mechudo beans when we first grew them last year -- this variety surprised us by being a pole type rather than bush type like the other varieties in the mix, so they're swarming up the yucca stalk teepees and all over our chickenwire fences. Looks just like orca/yin yang/calypso common beans, right?

Poles pears grapes! Avocados! Berries! Potatoes! Sweet potatoes! Snap peas! Carrots! Tomatoes! Onions! Garlic! Loads of herbs! Medicinal flowers! Hemp!  Oops I meant apples I can’t backspace my text!

By staples, is meant, calorie crops, so - Avocados, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Onions, Garlic!

Penny, if you're still looking for dryland/upland rice, Sherck Seeds seems to have a pretty extensive catalog of all types of rice, including several dryland types. I got a few types from him to try to grow out this year.

Staple-wise, I'm limited to a few containers and about 20 square feet of garden, so my current staples is more of a work in progress for seed saving and trialing out new plants to see how they survive the weather.

Things that did well last year in my central coastal Maryland garden:
1. Cowpeas (Ozark Razorback)
2. Common Beans (Slippery Silks survived heatwaves and produced very well until hard frost)
3. Eggplant (Black Beauty was the insect resistant champion)
4. Tomatoes
5. Carrots

Ginger and Galangal - Galangal is overwintering well in pots in the dark garage nicely without dying back, whereas the ginger died back to the roots. Very nice looking, attractive foliage plants.

Massive 95F heatwave with high humidity killed some (a lot) of plants and wilted a lot of my garden, but really highlighted the heat resilience of subtropical/tropical plants. Also got to experience insect and rodent problems... Squirrels ate my sunflowers before the seeds matured, every last head! The birds didn't get any and it was upsetting.

Staples for next year:
1. Early potatoes (due to heatwaves). Will try for TPS.
2. Sweet Potato (the one in my cupboard is starting to sprout)
2. Cowpeas and Yardlong Beans (Different varieties)
3. Heirloom Beans
4. Runner beans (will be trying to hybridize with heirloom beans)
5. Rice (Upland and lowland)
6. Wheat
7. Barley

Fruit trees - Figs are pretty low maintenance and I'm awaiting delivery of several hardy cuttings, might buy a multi-grafted plum from a nursery. Saved a bunch of apple and pear seeds from what I've eaten and put them in the fridge, a good amount have sprouted. I know its not likely to be a choice edible, but it will be interesting and I can practice grafting on them in a few years.

Nut Trees - Will probably buy some blight resistant hazelnuts in the further future, might try to find American Chestnut seedlings as well. Good source of calories.

I'm not expecting a meal from anything but the beans and cowpeas, but its worth it to spend a year growing a bunch of plants to see which ones survive and yield adequately, than to plant a lot of one type and have it fail!

My ultimate ambition is cold hardy avocados and citrus, but I need space to grow them!

My staple crops are....

1) Tomatoes - eat fresh or can & freeze to preserve.

  a) Siberian - 60 days determinate. It is called "Siberian,"because it is capable of setting fruit at 38 degrees F; however, it is still not very frost hardy but germinates and can handle colder soil and night temps               (as long as its above freezing) better than most other tomatoes. I grow them early (before last frost date) to get a very early crop and use covers if night temps are below freezing here (zone 8b, so we don't hardly get below 32 deg F) so covers usually will keep them from being killed here.
  b) Pink brandywine - 80-100 days indeterminate. Is an heirloom cultivar of the species, with large potato-leaved foliage and which bears large pink beefsteak-shaped fruit (1.5 lbs), popularly considered among the best tasting available.
  c) Morgage Lifter - 85 days indeterminate. Large, smooth, 1-lb pink fruit has a delicious, rich, sweet taste. This variety has become very popular in recent years and was developed by M.C. Byles of Logan, West Virginia. After crossing varieties for 6 years and selecting the best, he introduced this beauty that he named Mortgage Lifter in the 1940s, after he sold plants for $1 each and paid off the $6000 mortgage on his house.
  d) Purple Cherokee- 80 days indeterminate.  originating from Tennessee, are thought to have been passed down from Native Americans of the Cherokee tribe. This heirloom tomato variety consistently ranks very high in taste tests. Slice Cherokee Purple tomato for rich, dark color and unmatched sweet, rich taste ...
  e)Old German - 85 Days. An old favorite of gardeners for many years, Old German tomato still stands up with the best of them! For as long as I have grown tomatoes, I always keep them in my rotation. Fruits average 1 pound and are beautifully bi-colored (yellow & red-orange). Our vines have always displayed good disease resistance! Old German is on the meaty side, sweeter and delicious. nothing complexed about this one.

2) Okra - best if eaten fresh but can cut up and freeze to preserve. *Note- when they grow too tall to harvest or slow in production cut them to 3-4' tall and add side dressing of manure and they will bush up and produce again.

  a) Clemson spineless - 60 days. The most popular okra on the market. Full Description. This 1939 All-America Selections winner is still the most popular variety on the market. The vigorous, 4-ft. high plants (thats what THEY say but mine grows over 7' tall) plants produce an abundance of dark green, grooved pods without spines. Best picked when 2.5 to 3" long.
  b) Red burgundy - 60 days. A relative newcomer, Red Burgundy okra was bred by Leon Robbins at Clemson University and introduced in 1983, becoming the All-America Selections winner in 1988. When pickled it remains maroon/burgundy in color but turns green when cooked. Okra and stems are maroon/burgundy but leaves are green. Many also add this to their flower garden as its a very beautiful plant that makes lovely flowers...

3) Onions - My sweet onions last 3-6 months in storage and can be cut up and frozen for longer storage.

  a) 1015Y Texas sweet (aka) Texas super sweet, (aka) Vidalia Onion when grown in GA... - The 1015 stands for planting date (Oct-15th) Y stands for yellow onion. 110 days. Sweet yellow onion that can last 3-6 months and is the sweetest of onions, no heat here. Though they grow in the hottest of weather but sorry for ya'll yankees, it doesn't grow well up north as it will not produce large bulbs there. Though it will make scallions to small bulbs, the farther south you are the larger the bulbs will grow.... (short day type)
  b) Red Creole Onion 110 days. The red creole onion was developed in 1962 by the Dessert Seed Company right here in California. This red onion is know for its storage ability and quick production in the South. Red creole has a flavor that is not quite as sweet as some red onions, but is spicy and excellent for cooking. Great storage 6+ months (though I never get em to stay that long as I use em all before then LOL)

4) Garlic (though my elephant garlic is technically a leek) 4 months and can be cut up and kept longer but best used fresh. Though technically again its best to let them age a month or longer from time you harvest to let them age to best taste, some will almost have no taste to onion taste if eaten to soon from harvest. Here is where ya'll yankee's got me though, northern gardens can grow both hard AND soft neck garlic while suthurnurz can only grow soft neck types. Hard neck also last longer in storage =(

  a) Elephant garlic- HUGE cloves though they have a mild garlic taste, I like baking them in olive oil w/ some salt n pepper or adding cloves to pot roast along w/ carrots, onion and small potatoes.
  b) California White - soft neck type. The most common garlic you see in most stores.

5) Peppers best if used fresh but can be pickled or frozen for long time storage.

  a) Tabasco - 90 days. This famous heirloom was introduced into Louisiana in 1848 and became the main ingredient in Tabasco Pepper Sauce. This pepper is very hot and has a delicious flavor. The plants grow up to 4 feet tall and are covered with small, thin peppers. Needs a warm summer or can be grown as a potted plant. Fruit ripen from green to orange, then red. I make hot sauce/pickle them.
  b) Cayenne - 70-75 days. 6" long peppers that are green to red when fully mature. Very hot used in my cajun cooking and sold as crushed peppers.
  c) Pepperoncini - 62 days. Funny thing about this name is all it means in Italian is "Pepper" so someone named this pepper from Greece and Italy as just "PEPPER" LOL when translated!!! This is the pickled pepper you get with pizza and at most salad bars. I pickle them, they are mildly hot. Though it seems the ones that grow latter in the season as it gets hotter so do the peppers.
  d) Poblano - 80 days, also mildly hot, this is also known as Ancho pepper depending on when you harvest them (green or red). They are used allot in mexican food, usually stuffed w/ cheese and meat.

Here's a tour of our garden last fall. A lot of our calories came from a variety of sweet potatoes.

Has anyone planted pigeon peas or had experience with pigeon peas?

My staple is Potatoes. I use a drop and cover with compost method. I harvested about 300lbs in my front yard. I ran out of room in the garden rows so I stuck them every where in my "food forest''

Just found this interesting thread gonna have to go back and read all of it. I used to grow a lot of potatoes and squash but no longer consider them as staples. Potatoes because they are getting harder to grow in my area and because I have no luck at all growing from true seed.  Squash have fallen off my list also because they are so much harder to grow than they used to be mostly because of bugs. I love my winter squash though so sill always plant some and usually get a few.

Sweet potatoes is a new to me since a few years ago staple. I can grow them from seed and in most years produce abundantly. They keep in storage without any special conditions for a full year.

Beans, both specific varieties we like to can for green beans and two different landrace mixes for dry beans.

Tomatoes, always, we can lots of juice and sauces.

Garlic and onions, both easy perennials in my garden.

Trying out cow peas and peanuts this year and so far they look real good except a critter chomped on the peanuts some.  

It's a long game, but I've planted a number of nut trees as staple crops in my native riparian buffer food forest.  Different species can begin bearing nuts over a wide variety of ages.  The earliest is American Hazelnut (Corylus americana) at 4 years old.  American Pecan (Carya illinoinensis) will follow at 10 years old.  Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor) could be next at 20 years old.  Lastly, Shellbark Hickory (Carya laciniosa) may not bear for 40 years.  

In non-riparian areas, I'm fortunate to have inherited some established nut trees including Black Walnut (Juglans nigra), American Beech (Fagus grandifolia), and Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata).  These all provide bountiful and delicious staple crops (though the Beech trees don't crop every year).  All native to my region and require no maintenance.

Acorn is an easy staple crop to forage, for the simple fact that most people don't know it's food, so there's little competition.

In the garden, I grow Sunchokes (Helianthus tuberosus) and Sunflowers (Helianthus annus).  Both are native to my region, prolific, and easy to grow.  There are many different kinds of harvests from the sunflower, not just the seeds.  

Right now I have to focus on growing plants that require very low care, because the bulk of my time and energy is devoted to planting and nurturing a young food forest.  As that becomes more established and low care, I will definitely return to growing many other kinds of staple crops in the garden.  I'm not listing any of the fruits that I grow in this thread, because "staple crops" are typically crops that provide a high amount of energy AND can be stored long-term.  But I propose that most fruits would qualify as staples if dehydrated.

french shallots, garlic, tomato, sunflowers, pes, beans, a lot of red and white clover.

Ann Thomas wrote:Has anyone planted pigeon peas or had experience with pigeon peas?

Not quite yet. but tracked down some seeds from Texas that should work for me here.  Next year.  Hoping they turn out hardy enough to be perennials here.  I may actually try to get some going before fall, to see how they do over winter.

Hey there, new to this forum, but I'm loving this discussion on staples, because I am putting in a new garden, planning to do the Permie way, and am experimenting with potatoes from true seed, not tubers. I have some fall producers in the ground now, just harvested some that I grew in pots through the summer, and have ordered and will now plant a couple frost resistant varieties in a week or so.
Here's where I'm buying my seed: https://www.cultivariable.com/catalog/potato/   They are fairly reasonable.  I plan to put row covers on them to protect them from the torrential rain, and will let you know what happens.
Does anyone have any experience growing potatoes from true seed?
I love the fava bean idea for a fall and winter garden. I love the idea of succession planting favas all around my place.
I am in the process of planting a winter garden of garlic, multiplier onion, carrots, parsnips, parsley root, celeriac, celery, Lovage, spinach, kale, Good King Henry, potatoes, favas. My learning curve here is horrendous, LOL! But I am loving it.
I'm also broadcasting a thin crop of diakon radish for cover and soil amending. We have pure clay/silt soil with almost no drainage and no nitrogen content - being located near the Columbia river in the rainy end of the gorge. We are also on the Chip Drop list service and got our first drop of near free 10yard load of woodchips last month. That didn't go very far. Need about three more loads.
There's also a very acidic layer of Mt St Helen's ash that was turned over onto the top of the soil when our land was was being excavated for home building. This stuff is 5PH!! Have quick lime will travel, eh? Great for Blueberries though. Got lots of blueberry starts thriving here.
All input is SO welcome!!

We harvested our first American hazelnuts this fall.  
It is only a full soup bowl of nuts but it is a start.  I will be replanting most of them so we will have more shrubs in the years to come.  

Randie Ray wrote:
There's also a very acidic layer of Mt St Helen's ash that was turned over onto the top of the soil when our land was was being excavated for home building. This stuff is 5PH!! Have quick lime will travel, eh? Great for Blueberries though. Got lots of blueberry starts thriving here.

Wow! I'm sure it's still loaded with nutrients, but that's some pretty low pH. We're dealing with similar poor draining soil, nearly pure clay, with low pH out here on the opposite side of the country. What seems to have worked best for it is copious amounts of organic matter on the surface. Trying to mix it in turns things to soup when wet, then it sets up like concrete, but thick mulch in a matter of two years gives us a gorgeous 4" layer of water retentive topsoil that everything seems to love. By year 6, some of the beds are looking rich down to nearly 1 foot (quite the accomplishment with this soil!)

One thing with the very low pH comes to mind - mind your other minerals and the soil type. Clay often binds up badly when there's high magnesium in the soil, which is why the idea of using gypsum rather than dolomite lime works out so well. Sulfur in the gypsum will actually pull the magnesium out from between plates of clay particles, the "deflocculation" process, while actually freeing up calcium and potassium already in the soil. I've seen some "soilologists" talk about treating highly acid, hard pack clay soils with elemental sulfur first to help fix magnesium issues, and have run into my own experience of accidentally (ignorantly) adding magnesium to a bed only to find the soil got tighter and plants suffered. High-Cal lime, wallastonite, and even the various potassium amendments will have much more impact on the soil if you're dealing with heavy clay than dolomitic lime.

Something to look at if you've done a soil test and see normal-ish magnesium but low numbers for everything else along with a low pH.

All that said, cover crop everything with anything that will grow. It's amazing what a multispecies cover crop will do in a couple years. Shoot for 8 or more species with varying root structures, and go heavy on the hardy, low growing, standing-water tolerant white clover to help fix that nitrogen issue. 8 seems to be the magic number, but more is always better. Even in hard pack clay with a ~5.5 pH and waterlogging issues, we've seen excellent results doing this and then letting the ducks and chickens run wild once or twice a year - once you find your compost worms prefer the future crop fields and pasture areas to their bin, you know you're doing it the right way

Tristan Vitali wrote:

Randie Ray wrote:
There's also a very acidic layer of Mt St Helen's ash that was turned over onto the top of the soil when our land was was being excavated for home building. This stuff is 5PH!! Have quick lime will travel, eh? Great for Blueberries though. Got lots of blueberry starts thriving here.

Wow! I'm sure it's still loaded with nutrients, but that's some pretty low pH. We're dealing with similar poor draining soil, nearly pure clay, with low pH out here on the opposite side of the country. What seems to have worked best for it is copious amounts of organic matter on the surface. Trying to mix it in turns things to soup when wet, then it sets up like concrete, but thick mulch in a matter of two years gives us a gorgeous 4" layer of water retentive topsoil that everything seems to love. By year 6, some of the beds are looking rich down to nearly 1 foot (quite the accomplishment with this soil!)

One thing with the very low pH comes to mind - mind your other minerals and the soil type. Clay often binds up badly when there's high magnesium in the soil, which is why the idea of using gypsum rather than dolomite lime works out so well. Sulfur in the gypsum will actually pull the magnesium out from between plates of clay particles, the "deflocculation" process, while actually freeing up calcium and potassium already in the soil. I've seen some "soilologists" talk about treating highly acid, hard pack clay soils with elemental sulfur first to help fix magnesium issues, and have run into my own experience of accidentally (ignorantly) adding magnesium to a bed only to find the soil got tighter and plants suffered. High-Cal lime, wallastonite, and even the various potassium amendments will have much more impact on the soil if you're dealing with heavy clay than dolomitic lime.

Something to look at if you've done a soil test and see normal-ish magnesium but low numbers for everything else along with a low pH.

All that said, cover crop everything with anything that will grow. It's amazing what a multi-species cover crop will do in a couple years. Shoot for 8 or more species with varying root structures, and go heavy on the hardy, low growing, standing-water tolerant white clover to help fix that nitrogen issue. 8 seems to be the magic number, but more is always better. Even in hard pack clay with a ~5.5 pH and water-logging issues, we've seen excellent results doing this and then letting the ducks and chickens run wild once or twice a year - once you find your compost worms prefer the future crop fields and pasture areas to their bin, you know you're doing it the right way

Thanks for all this good experience with your very similar situation. Good to know that we are heading in the right direction with the mulch. We do want to have some chickens. Our soil is actually normal on magnesium and high in sulfur, and that layer that was turned over looks like white ash. So our soil tester suggested we stay away from Gypsum and Dolomite and stick with quick lime which is the high calcium kind, like you suggested. We have a cover crop of white clover and also are planting fava and diakon, and some rye grass is coming up from the straw we had used temporarily for erosion control.  I'm putting in as many nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs that I can find.  I do hope that in 6 years we can say the same about our soil that you are saying about yours.

Trees
Apples
Peaches
Plums
Cherries
Fig
Almond
Chestnut
Hazelnut
Pear
Black Oak (for the nuts)
Sugar Maple (for syrup)

Vegetable Garden
Pole Beans
Peas
Squash
Pumpkin
Melon
Cucumber
Gourds
Tomato (discontinuing hereafter due to ulcer)
Peppers
Onions
Brassicas (basically all of them, broccoli, rutabaga, turnip, cabbage, mustard, radish, etc...)
Carrots
Celery
Fennel
Dill
Coriander
Rosemary
Sage
Basil
Shiso
Mint
Oregano
Parsley

Field Crops (Starting next year)
Bush Beans
Winter Wheat
Field Peas
Flax
Chicory
...planting blocks rotated annually

I don't have a whole lot of space, but I grow what I can.

Potatoes, carrots, and beets.
I grew some sweet potatoes for the first time this last year, and they were surprisingly productive. I will replant the most productive this year.

We also grow fava beans (most of the front yard is currently covered in favas from which we will eat green shoots in the winter/spring and seeds in the spring/summer until I need the space for other crops).
I grow a family heirloom pole bean variety from MS which surprisingly grows very well here in the wet NW.
I sometimes grow chickpeas (just the regular kind from the supermarket bulk bins), and I want to get a siberian pea shrub.

I'd also like to get a thornless honey locust.
Our fig and prune trees are particularly productive from among our fruit trees.
We have a couple hazelnuts but I'm still trying to figure out how to get the nuts instead of the squirrels!
I harvest pinecones from around the city. Not enough room in my yard to grow my own.
If I had the room, I'd also love a walnut and oregon white oak.

I always grow Sweet Meat squash, but on a calorie per sqft basis, it's not particularly productive compared to root crops.
I also consider kale a "staple". Not very calorie dense, but reliably available in the garden year round. Along with other wild greens, various kinds year round.

I'm establishing a native staple crop patch: silverweed, springbank clover, and riceroot.
Unfortunately camas and sunchoke don't agree with my digestive system at all.
I grow garlic and onion, but even those need special processing so I don't grow a lot.