Someone gave me a book called, "stalking the wild asparagus". It talks all about what plants you can find and eat in the wild. While I agree that this info is important to know, we are talking about preparedness. To me, preparedness means preparing.

Go out into the area in which you live and look around to see what edible plants grow in your area. The whole idea of planning is to save time. Knowing in advance makes a big difference in an emergency situation. Additionally, you can seed your area with edible plants. Yes, you can grow a garden. I have a nice one. But you can also seed your area with edible plants that will self seed in successive years. Wild berries and nut tress come to mind.

One benefit to this approach is that those plants don't look like a garden to most people. People in your area will tend to leave wild edible plants alone. More for you.

In very long term preparedness, your garden should be comprised primarily of heirloom plants. These are varieties that you can save seed from and plant the following year. This is in contrast to hybrid varieties which tend to either yeild sterile seed or seed that has reverted back to one of the parent varieties. The point of this is "know your seed."

A root cellar or ice house can help preserve your garden crops for many months after harvest. They are fairly easy to build if you have access to digging machinery.

-peace