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

culi tea wrote:Any plant that's considered by the UN to be a "neglected and underutilized crop" is a good bet.
(zip)
That includes Chaya, Fonio, Bambara Groundnut, Kodo Millet, Tepary Bean, and more

Others might be camas, silverweed, pigweed, springbank clover. Most of those listed are hot climate crops, but breeding of many perennial food crops has been neglected in recent years because annuals are so much quicker.

Not a cool climate perennial, but one I only needed to actually plant once:

I was just thinking about salsify, which used to be prized as "the vegetable oyster" as an under improved prolific self-seeding biennial which might also benefit from more attention.

If the roots formed more like carrots: fatter, with thinner skins, I think they'd be more popular?

Ac Baker wrote:If the roots formed more like carrots: fatter, with thinner skins, I think they'd be more popular?

Sounds like a breeding opportunity there! As a biannual it would be relatively quick, at least to explore the possibilities. I just love it's purple dandelion flowers - first ones opened here this week. It only seeds around in the stone paths here - I think it prefers warmer...

Nancy Reading wrote:

culi tea wrote:Any plant that's considered by the UN to be a "neglected and underutilized crop" is a good bet.
(zip)
That includes Chaya, Fonio, Bambara Groundnut, Kodo Millet, Tepary Bean, and more

Others might be camas, silverweed, pigweed, springbank clover. Most of those listed are hot climate crops, but breeding of many perennial food crops has been neglected in recent years because annuals are so much quicker.

The people I know who grow camas, say they grow like weeds, and don’t eat them. I was recently allowed to dig up an entire large clump to transplant which was a pleasure. I have eaten some raw but haven’t had a sufficient quantity to make cooking worthwhile.

Do you eat your camas yet?

Maieshe Ljin wrote:Do you eat your camas yet?

Still experimenting: https://permies.com/t/5717/Camas-Quamash-growing-cooking-harvesting#1772198 I didn't try any last year as my new main patch is establishing.

Perennial tree collards. Propagates like a succulent. One stick in the ground makes a 10'x10' patch or more if it's happy. In Socal it's a year around green machine.

Ed Lewis wrote:Perennial tree collards. Propagates like a succulent. One stick in the ground makes a 10'x10' patch or more if it's happy. In Socal it's a year around green machine.

Is this the walking stick kale Baker Creek sells or something else?

A few more plants to add to the discussion:

Mulberry - fruit, greens, animal fodder, lumber, firewood, silkworm starter kit.

Kudzu - edible/medicinal root, great animal fodder.

Cardoon - vigorous artichoke cousin that takes some work to process for food but grows big and survives with zero maintenance.

If you have a pond...

Duckweed - nutritional powerhouse that grows at insane rates and can't be killed.

Water lotus - seeds and roots, and the most beautiful plant out there.

Mulberry is a good one to add! I hear that the birds eat them readily and they can work to draw them away from other plants. And hopefully they leave a few for us!

Sam Shade wrote:

Ed Lewis wrote:Perennial tree collards. Propagates like a succulent. One stick in the ground makes a 10'x10' patch or more if it's happy. In Socal it's a year around green machine.

Is this the walking stick kale Baker Creek sells or something else?

No, here's one I found on etsy Tree Collard Seeds There is a green variety that thrives where I'm at and a purple one that is sweeter. I have a lot of critter pressure and the green one does well surviving that. We hit 28 degrees and they have no issues. We get to 110 in summer and they handle that as well but their sweet spot is socal winter and spring. The purple one gets eaten before it can thrive so I have never been able to grown them. I eat collards all the time and I hand them out to people left and right. It's ridiculous abundance. There are even people who love collards and want them in winter and will pay you for them.

Sam Shade wrote:A few more plants to add to the discussion:

Mulberry - fruit, greens, animal fodder, lumber, firewood, silkworm starter kit.

Kudzu - edible/medicinal root, great animal fodder.

Cardoon - vigorous artichoke cousin that takes some work to process for food but grows big and survives with zero maintenance.

If you have a pond...

Duckweed - nutritional powerhouse that grows at insane rates and can't be killed.

Water lotus - seeds and roots, and the most beautiful plant out there.

How would you eat the Duckweed? On a salad or cooked?

Ed Lewis wrote:

Sam Shade wrote:A few more plants to add to the discussion:

Mulberry - fruit, greens, animal fodder, lumber, firewood, silkworm starter kit.

Kudzu - edible/medicinal root, great animal fodder.

Cardoon - vigorous artichoke cousin that takes some work to process for food but grows big and survives with zero maintenance.

If you have a pond...

Duckweed - nutritional powerhouse that grows at insane rates and can't be killed.

Water lotus - seeds and roots, and the most beautiful plant out there.

How would you eat the Duckweed? On a salad or cooked?

I mainly feed it to my chickens but I've read people throw it smoothies.

Incidentally, I think garlic mustard and dame’s rocket fit this category. They are both evergreen vegetables in my climate so can be gathered whenever the ground is not covered in snow (though dame’s rocket disappears about mid summer). So they can help with the provision of vegetables during the colder times of year when it might be quite expensive to buy a satisfying amount of greens, or expect anything from the garden without significant inputs.

I agree with nettle too—very lovely, nourishing food! They are a rampant vegetable that enjoys the sorts of disturbance and fertility that humans create, and are wonderful medicine for the body as well.

Ramps are another wonderful vegetable that sticks around. They grow as a spring ephemeral in full shade and multiply slowly every year, but if well tended they can grow into a carpet over the entire woodland floor, and be a source of good springtime root and leaf vegetables that are highly nourishing.

I have many candidates for food including rhubarb, oak, brambles, apples(including crab apples- best apple butter!) and ramps but can I include a nonfood use? Maple trees are amazing firewood producers. In our household, maple trees provide almost all of our home heating and cooking fuel needs, and I use a bow saw and have never had to cut a living tree.

I'm dividing up some of my skirret plants this year - the clumps get bigger and bigger and need dividing after a few years. Next to my polytunnel I will have a damp area where the run off will hopefully keep the roots nice and tender. If I'm organised these can be a staple food for me during the winter - nice insect attracting flowers next to my kitchen garden in summer!

Hi @ll:

Honestly, it’s comforting to be surrounded by all of you. This feels like a conversation in the garden where everyone joins in and brings something to the table.

Food prices have gone up so much, and I think they’ll keep rising, because it’s just another way to squeeze and control us. So every time I see a plant producing something, I think: that’s a dollar plant. Seriously. It’s a way to save money, or simply not have to spend it in the first place, and that is something precious in a world that seems to understand only material things.

I truly love being able to read you all. Every day you add something new to this expanding brain of mine.

A hug!

I like the "bank" idea.  And does your "bank" say that you can have your money back only in late september?  I think it would be great to create a table of the "bank" foods and:

   - ROI
   - max return per acre
   - date range for withdrawal

Walking onions are available for "withdrawal" all year long.  Sunchokes are limited to 9 months of the year - but those are months when a lot of other stuff is available.

Something like?

plant	% annual increase by weight	hassle factor (0 (good) - 10 (bad))	calorific value	nutrient density	harvest spring	harvest summer	harvest autumn	harvest winter
skirret	400	3	good	fair	yes	yes (leaves)	yes	yes

I can make a wiki.

Any perennial food plant.
Trees give you food forever!
Mulberry has edible leaves as well berries.
Oaks - acorns make amazing flour and starchy gelatin

Potatoes are great because they overwinter well and give you food at any time and they continue to produce more all the time from those left in ground.
You can move or increase locations simply by grabbing the tiny ones and planting in new places. Under trees etc.

Honestly some of the best constant food is obtained *indirectly*!from plants via poultry. Always there when needed. Meat & eggs. Complete nutrition.
I think ruminants even better because no feeds needed at all. just pasture and hay. Constant food on the hoof storage, year round. Energy-free.

Other long lasting roots are yacon and yuca.

Dandelion and hickory roots and greens. Not very large tho.

If live in warmth: coconut palms.

Tomatoes for us for sure, we grow amish paste and I can sauce, ketchup, tomato paste, bbq sauce, salsas.  Husband is italian-american so we eat pasta at least once a week.  Canning sauce alone is a huge savings for us.

Rasberries.  The are our snacks, our juice for drinks, our jam, in desserts.   1 cane turns into a thousand and we have extras to share and swap.

Ramps though our are true literally money maker.  We have a patch we maintain and I harvest and sell some locally to a few local restaurants and a health food store.  They pay for all our annual garden expenses & projects.   Ah the perks of living near the bourgeois.

Carrie Savo wrote:Rasberries.  The are our snacks, our juice for drinks, our jam, in desserts.   1 cane turns into a thousand and we have extras to share and swap.

Ooh - I'd vote for raspberries too! They cost a fortune in the shop, but just go feral here

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:
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.

I planted my asparagus along with strawberries since they are shallow root plants.  They keep the weeds down but don’t interfere with the asparagus crowns growth.  So far so good, though i’m keeping an eye on them to make sure they don’t fight.

I am also testing asparagus as an erosion preventer along my driveway since i’m up a steep hill.  Not eating those per say, but trying to spread out the supply in case my main stand of them have problems.

One thing I don't see listed that many people have growing already is hostas.  They are super nutritious and you can steam or sauté the young leaves or add them to soups and I think they are tastier than kale.  

I'm a sucker for berries. Get it? A sucker?

I've got honeyberry bushes and a blackberry bramble near the front of my property. But the back of my yard, "the ditch" is my real producer. I've babied the wild black raspberry canes that grow along the forest edge for the past five years. This year's canes are healthy and abundant. I pick them at the peak of ripeness and immediately freeze them. This year, I'm hoping they last through the winter.

j

Nancy Reading wrote:

Carrie Savo wrote:Rasberries.  The are our snacks, our juice for drinks, our jam, in desserts.   1 cane turns into a thousand and we have extras to share and swap.

Ooh - I'd vote for raspberries too! They cost a fortune in the shop, but just go feral here

where can you buy yacon to plant?

If you live in a climate that does not freeze which I don't, sweet potatoes might be hard to beat. I still grow a lot of them, and they keep easily until the next season. If you like the greens, they can also pretty easily be grown as house plants. Pecans are probably the most productive perennial thing I have but again are not a harvest in winter crop. Turnips, carrots, winter radishes various wild and feral domestic onions and some other things can sometimes be harvested in winter, it just depends on conditions year to year.

For things that can be winter harvested reliably, garlic is one of the biggest here. It is far more productive, and we enjoy it a lot more than walking onions. Plus, it grows and spreads on its own even in the weeds outside the garden and yard where walking onions have to be tended inside the garden itself. Nothing has ever attracted more voles to my yard than sunchokes. So much so that the patch completely died out and then the voles attacked other things. Our area has an abundance of wild ones, but they are little knobby things.

There is a big range of mostly self-caring things like peaches, pears, blackberries and lots more but of course you have to harvest and store them one way or another instead of harvesting any time. My peach and pear trees are absolutely loaded with little fruits this year, fingers crossed nothing happens to them. Dandelions, dock and some other wild weeds are often available in winter too. I saw someone mentioned dames rocket, we have lots of that, but I didn't know it was edible, going to have to look into that.