I knew I'd get a ton of input at this forum.

I want to keep it mixed as far as crops go, because variety makes for more interesting eating. But, I also realize that is likely to interfere or defeat my desire to be able to make it sustainable. Sue's post on collecting your own seeds is really helpful.

My thinking, incorporating some of the comments, is as follows:

1. If I do not have enough calories, then enough vitamins will not matter in the least. So, I want to concentrate first on calories and then try to have some way of completing protein requirements, without meat. (We're not vegetarians, but I'm not about to begin to raise animals for livestock, yet.) If getitng enough calories and protein is doable, then the final part of the calculations would be to try to fill out the rest of our nutritional requirements, but I don't know that I am up to planning all that at this time.
2. If the plants I grow year are either no around or providing seed for a crop next year, then it's not sustainable. So, I need to stick with heirloom and open-pollinated varieties. Pursuant to Sue's advice in her thread, I am going to need to minimize the varieties to avoid creating my own hybrids, which may not produce in the following years.
3. I think I could get a fair amount of storable calories, so I can store food, seed, etc., by growing some varieties of legumes, squash and root vegetables. Also, from what I can discern, the seeds are relatively easy to harvest from many legumes and squash. So, if I grew some heirloom squash, beans and/or peas, and some root veggies, I should be able to put a fair amount of calories on the table, and my guess is that the combination would provide much in the way of completing other nutritional needs. Not sure of the specific varieties.
4. I'd also want some greens such as spinach or lettuce's in the picture, as I know these grow early, and we'd desperately want some greens if we ever had to make it through a winter on what we had grown.
5. In the middle of summer, I'd want summer squashes, and would probably want them planted early enough so that I felt I had my fill of them before switching to winter squashes for storing.
6. I probably should add in a dehyrdrator for summer veggies and greens.
7. Adding some perrenial fruits and nuts would be a great idea. The ones I am considering: apples (maybe McIntosh and something that would pollinate it well), cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, filberts and sunflower seeds.
8. I like the idea of edible landscaping, and I think I need to have a grain somewhere. I might try some corn for a grain, but I intend to grow some amaranth. It's an ornamental, and both the seeds and leaves an be eaten. I also understand that tiger lily tubers are edible, are our area has tons of them.
9. While I don't need to feed DW and myself out of this, if I am not putting a significant contribution to the table from the garden, then it's not something that can I'll know can be ramped up easily to take care of us. Additionally, I don't know that we'll be the only ones of which I need to take care. I'd want enough seed to step the whole thing up by a multiple, assuming I could get more labor from others.
10. It's one thing to have food and another to want to eat it. If it does not taste good, then we won't want to eat it. That means we need some flavorings to improve the taste of some things that we don't alrady enjoy eating. If I was in a longterm scenario, then I have to think we would be eating some things opportunistically, to save our stores, etc. I suspect some of these would not have a great flavor. So, I think i also need to add some things just for flavor: herbs, hops as mentioned by urbansurvivalist, some chili or hot peppers.

Thanks for the comments and any others you might have on the above.

Edit: I have been a homebrewer and appreciate the reminder. It's the right time of year, so I just ordered hop rhizomes.


Edited by Dan_McI (02/28/09 09:05 PM)