• Everything other than hot peppers. Questions, discussion, and grow logs. Cannabis grow pics are only allowed when posted from a legal juridstiction.

Victory garden, Home Steading, and Sustanance farming

AJ Drew

AJ Drew

I am curious to know if other folk grow and sto a significant amount of their own food.  Other than wraps, bread, rice and the likes; during the summer I am at darn near 100%.  Great for diabetics.  I would say wife is at about 50%.  Kids nearly none.  One is damn near carnivore and the other is addicted to cheese.

If you do fall into this category, curious to know what your main crops are.  For fresh foods, mine are sweet bell, onion, potato, corn, and kolrabi.  There is a dish with onion, potato, and cabbage that is a staple in my summer diet but I swap out kolrabi for the cabbage.  Love the extra zing.

For dried, same with the onion potato, and corn but also large amounts of beans and peas.  Cooked, flavored, and dehydrated peas make for a great snack.  Same as sweet corn, if you cook it before drying it it is a good finger food.  Baked, even better.
 
Dragonsfire, do you have any land to speak of?  You can do amazing things in the smallest space.  On buying in bulk, we used to but fell into this financial slump from hospital stays.  Especially rice, sugar, and flower.  Saves tons.  Will be back to it as soon as one we get in a good season.
 
Besides 8 pepper plants I'm growing sweet bells.cucumber,potato,lettuce,onion,pumpkin thanks GIP :) beans,strawberries,rhubarb,like trees,kumquat,peach trees, want to try garlic use a lot. And tons of fresh herbs, and usually 6/8 different tomato plants.
Heather and I can throughout the season. And we have a farmer friend we have been trading with for years he's a big corn grower as well as many other vegetables and raises pigs and cattle. Always had a good relationship with him and his family. Has been a real lifesaver when times get tough. And even better when times are good. Do a lot of welding and wrenching to save him from paying someone who'd charge him an arm and a leg.
Works for both our benefit. Hahaha

Great post brother!! :)
 
We try to eat from the garden as much as possible and storage is definitely an issue.  parsnips are great since they store right where you planted them.  onions and garlic get braided and decorate the walls. Beans and seeds dried like normal. Veg and fruit I freeze a lot and can some but I want to try more dehydrating, specifically tomatoes. Im going to stagger my planting times as well to prevent a summer glut.  The whole cooking and then drying is really interesting since I have a bunch of rugrats that always need something to keep their hands and their mouths busy.  Seriously though, healthy snacks that can be eaten out of hand and dont make a mess are hard to come by and my kids are getting sick of roasted chickpeas.
IMG_5244_zpscxg5maal.jpg

This is from 2014 and Ive expanded since then but you get the idea.
 
ajdrew said:
Dragonsfire, do you have any land to speak of?  You can do amazing things in the smallest space.  On buying in bulk, we used to but fell into this financial slump from hospital stays.  Especially rice, sugar, and flower.  Saves tons.  Will be back to it as soon as one we get in a good season.
Click to expand...
No Land, just porch and lawn of common ground. :(
 
We grow and put back quite a bit each year through canning, freezing, dehydrating, etc.  We plant lots of peppers and tomatoes, greens and lettuces, potatoes, garlic, onion, cukes, squash, beans, etc.  Have fruit trees and berry canes too - going to try my hand at gooseberry hot sauce this year!  :)
 
I'm living the hippie lifestyle here-growing and hunting wild plants here. We resource and utilize everything. The old grape vines that I grow(came with the property) make good reefs and peace signs. Grew up on a farm where even the South forty had something growing on it. Now my South forth is only a ten foot by ten foot but still is full to the gills with potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes with a marigold border. I can say the older I get the more perennials I put out. My Egyptian walking onions will be here long after I'm gone. Lol
 
At my parents' house where I lived during last season gardening and hunting alone cut yearly grocery costs by 40%.  It takes a lot of work and constant farming.  Once my dad gets it into his head that he can produce grain and even acorn flour too they'll cut it back even more.  My housemates where I live now keep talking about growing subsistence gardens...I don't think they really get that it's going to take a ton of work.  Neither of them really strikes me as people who ever have gardened much food, and even then it takes a lot bigger of a garden to supply enough produce for a year's stores for 3-4 people than most people realize.  The climate is weird here but happens to be great for growing vegetables because of the looong daylight hours in the "summer."  Strains of beans, cabbages, carrots, etc. do amazing up here and get huge.
 
Helvete, bet you laugh at the doomsday preppers n their seed vaults too.  The idea that a person can go from zero to sustenance garden in a single season cracks me up.
 
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