Best crops for survival gardening

[gtarman]

I think I'd also have to include one of the newly bred varieties of high-yielding thornless blackberries...which I know is frowned upon from the weed perspective, but if we're talking survival that's a good thing IMO

[bℓσωηG]

harvest the ocean , if youre lucky enough to be somewhere cleanish ... mussels , abalone , oysters , sea urchins , damn periwinkles even , ive watched asians strip the rocks of everything including limpets , chitons and rock crabs .. id love to know what they do with them , some sort of seafood soup im guessing... , got me a few mussels today just cos i was bored ''pic"... just watched ''Into the Wild" good movie based on a true story...

http://s388.photobucket.com/user/blowng/media/IMG_0455_zps5ba82786.jpg.html'>

Edited April 13, 2013 by bℓσωηG

[shortly]

Top one bℓσωηG gotta love those big cold water mussels

All of the above are great in paella, soups, on hot salads or on pizza. Stillmans probably got dozens of other uses.

I love the looks we get from people particularly elderly white women when they spot my 5 year old picking seaweed straight off the rocks & scoffing it like sweets while i'm concentrating on oysters & mussels. priceless

And yes she only eats the ones that she has been told that she can eat & when she's not sure she asks.

[waterboy 2.0]

lol..its gettin into hunter gatherer time

Freshwater mussels are usually found in most freshwater systems, wherever I can find water ribbons (Triglochin procerum) growing instream I can find a feed of these amongst them.

EDIT - can also eat the tubers of the water ribbons as well

Edited April 13, 2013 by waterboy

[shortly]

That it is, as bℓσωηG said if you're lucky enough to be somewhere cleanish if there is such a place, in the cooler months there are likely to be LOTS of good edible seaweeds, just make sure you have your Id's right folks.

Not to mention Disphyma crassifolium leaves, Ruby Saltbush fruits, Carpobrotus fruits, Cotton-tree flowers & young leaves, Portulaca spp, Samphire (Sarcocornia), Warrigal Greens can all be foraged from along the foreshores.

Actually water ribbons is easy enough to cultivate in a pond or dam, along with most waterlilies, lotus, water chestnut, watercress, taro, foxnut (if you can ever locate some i've been trying for years ) , the rice's (including Oryza spp & Zizania spp), lebanese cress, kangkong, Typha spp, Aponogeton spp, Pondeteria, Saggitaria, rice paddy herb, water rose, swamp taro & even duckweed & sedge nuts at a pinch Probably lots of other good edibles. Come to think of it you could have an entire pond and wetland system that contained nothing but edible, medicinal or generally useful plants.

[bℓσωηG]

Ive always wanted to try fresh water mussels there were heaps in the rivers south of Perth. Theyre numbers are meant reflect the health of a waterway , but most of the rivers had so much farm runoff with agricultural chemicals etc.. flowing into them that i never did try them .

Sedges like Bullrush , are meant to have edible stalk bases dont they?.

There is loads of watercress in New Zealand , i collected a whole heap of it once but had to turf it when a smelly sheep carcass upstream was discovered ugh .

I have found water cress growing in Australia too in the Margaret river region south of Perth, at Ellensbrook spring which is fairly clean , you just have to check for wee aquatic snails before munching.

[bullit]

years ago i fell sic as eating fresh water mussels from the mary river [conondale] i love mussels but sooo scared to eat freshies again

[waterboy 2.0]

yep , we're not pre-european anymore... also got a keep an eye open for signs of dairy effluent and human shit being poured into rivers from wastewater plants etc. Rivers are not meant to be sewers.....

Cumbungi has a starchy root/rhizome, and the young stems and leaves can be tied into a knot/ball and chewed on to get the "goodness" out then the fibrous bits spat out. Best for harvesting the roots in late summer when the leaves start to die back, best roasted.

I know sedges mostly for fibres, but a few can have the seeds harvested and roasted and milled. But yields are low compared to other preferred species so work to food ratio doesnt stack up. Another group of useful fibre plants though, they need treatment through soaking in water, roasting and scraping.... a mussel shell is good for this . Juncus spp also yield fibres (mosly for basketry)but dont know how if any treatment was used.

As far as cordage goes Pimelea spp are favoured down here (commonly called bushmans bootlace).The thin pliable bark can be used straight off the plant, but more durable with treatment.

And you've nailed it Shortly, I translocated quite a few species into my dams and they have thrived. Which has created great little ecosystems , probably would have happened in time naturally but doesnt help to speed up the process.

Edited April 13, 2013 by waterboy

[shortly]

If you get the white part of the young Cumbungi stems they fry up nicely in stirfrys or paella, or even sliced into salads or coleslaw's but you have to cut only the tender bit much the same as you would with Lomandra stems.

You can also eat the immature male flower, picking the ones that are just about to emerge

If your keen enough you can collect the pollen from mature male flowers to use as a flour substitute but its a bloody lot of work for the weight of food you get. I have heard of ppl collecting the mature seed & toasting it or grinding it but personally i recon it would be more work than it was worth.

And like Bullits mussels you want to be a bit careful about where you harvest Cumbungi

I wouldn't mind having a crack at raising mussels in an aquaponics system at some stage, probably be the only way i would eat them anymore. Pretty much EVERY freshwater waterway for 200km of here is not to be trusted these days

[weraroa]

This is a good thread, has anyone mentioned growing kale? Kale is definitely at the top of my list for a survival food and it grows well in a bush garden, you have to fence it off so the pigs and goats don't get in there! beetroots would be my next one, followed closely by onions.

I eat a bit of seafood, like the mussels before they get to big usually around the length of my index finger and when they are fat! love paua and kina mostly..

Just did a quick search and kale has been mentioned, yep my fave leafy greeen.

Edited April 15, 2013 by weraroa

[bℓσωηG]

This is a good thread, has anyone mentioned growing kale? Kale is definitely at the top of my list for a survival food and it grows well in a bush garden, you have to fence it off so the pigs and goats don't get in there! beetroots would be my next one, followed closely by onions.

I eat a bit of seafood, like the mussels before they get to big usually around the length of my index finger and when they are fat! love paua and kina mostly..

Just did a quick search and kale has been mentioned, yep my fave leafy greeen.

Kale rocks , its so underrated , but in New Zealand possums too would be a problem? Speaking of which ive been fantasizing recently of disappearing into Fiord-land somewhere with a kayak and some fishing gear for some months and i thought i could take along some possum traps and live on possum drumbsticks! Anyone eaten possums ? Being an introduced species they are not protected here...

[Bigred]

I love game meats not many people like the taste. I grew up on a acreage and we always ate rabbits and

we used to go out and hunt deer . I think the best survival animal would be goats and chickens. What

other animals would be great for a survival garden.

[weraroa]

Kale rocks , its so underrated , but in New Zealand possums too would be a problem? Speaking of which ive been fantasizing recently of disappearing into Fiord-land somewhere with a kayak and some fishing gear for some months and i thought i could take along some possum traps and live on possum drumbsticks! Anyone eaten possums ? Being an introduced species they are not protected here...

I have never been to Fiordland, would be a sweet place to spend time. I wouldn't want to spend months on end or be there at the wrong time of year as it would get pretty cold with all the humidity, mist and clouds of sandflies and midgies. I've had possum roasted stuffed with a can of watties before that was pretty good lol. Still prefer rabbit, especially domestic rabbit. Where I live there is some ridgelines nearby with literally hundreds of goats with kids and good fishing, and diving.

I love game meats not many people like the taste. I grew up on a acreage and we always ate rabbits and

we used to go out and hunt deer . I think the best survival animal would be goats and chickens. What

other animals would be great for a survival garden.

In Australia croc snakes and kangaroo? In NZ would be Goat, deer, pig, possum and seafood.

As for plants in NZ bush theres a good book by Andrew Crowe called Native edible plants of NZ.

Fresh supplejack sprouts are edible, also by the coast there is NZ spinach Tetragonia tetragonioides.

and kawa kawa is a good one also, which you can make a tea from.

Edited April 16, 2013 by weraroa

[waterboy 2.0]

Brushtail Possum is edible, but its dog food as far as I am concerned....much tastier game to be had. But if the proverbial hit they are a decent source of protein that are easy to catch.

I've heard NZ was exporting them into Malaysia, marketed as "Kiwi Bears"...rofl ...masters of marketing

[Stillman]

Heres some shots of a really interesting I batatas I recieved from a member here. One of my favourite to grow. Short node produces small white tuber and possibly a spinach substitute green as a secondary food source.

IMG]http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n153/stillmanz/Cacti/DSCF2010-9_zpsc1e056d1.jpg[/img]

IMG]http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n153/stillmanz/Cacti/DSCF2011-10_zps297bf929.jpg[/img]

I may have picked these a touch early, but they were being overrun in a different patch by other sweet potato.

[Stillman]

Not sure why those 2 pics won't go direct? Photobucket has been playing up quite a bit lately.

[poisonshroom]

What colour are they inside? I love the ones which are purple inside, but they are hard to find here (and usually not very purple - but cooking seems to increase the colouration). We got a bunch of shoots from the market intended for use as greens/spinach substitute, and just put them in some water until they sprouted roots - now we have like 20 plants lol

not sure if Iv mentioned it, but capers are probably a good one - I got some cuttings out west where they grow wild, and all except one is starting to sprout some new leaves. Apparently the leaves are edible (but these ones have spines on the tip of the leaf), and the fruit tastes like passionfruit and has lots of vitamin C, and of course you can pickle the flower buds and eat the flowers. Australia has a few native species too, which are variable in taste of the fruit (but all should be suitable for pickling), and almost all of them are arid climate species, which can grow on pretty much bare rock and the ones i saw had some flowers even after like 6mm of rain since january and salty ground water. It's probably a good idea to take some local soil if making cuttings though, because they are likely to have a symbiotic fungus or bacteria.

[bℓσωηG]

Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)

shit i cant get over how many tubers these plants produce , easy to grow , tubers are eaten raw or cooked , related to sunflowers.

[gtarman]

^^^almost weedy really. But I wouldn't say eating them raw would be the way to go...I've read that the tubers are 50% or so (sometimes more) indigestible if not processed. I think it has something similar to what makes beans harder to digest (hence the gas etc) but in much higher quanities - I think that same source said beans were only 10-15% indigestible in comparison.

Still, if you process enough so it's mostly simple starches which apparently isn't overly difficult, it seems like a great source of calories...especially in survival situations.

[waterboy 2.0]

fartichokes contain inulin, which is good for diabetics cause they dont get a sugar spike as well.

[gtarman]

So I'm looking into this a little more, and it seems the inulin in Jerusalem artichoke is actually a soluble fibre - this must be why it doesn't affect blood sugar, because it is essentially passing through the stomach completely undigested, only being consumed by microbial organisms once it reaches the bowels...so really your body isn't getting much energy out of it.

It also seems that other source I referred to might not be correct - I don't think you can convert fibre to starch with food prep? Apparently the American indians ate them raw too.

Edited April 21, 2013 by gtarman

[Sallubrious]

So I'm looking into this a little more, and it seems the inulin in Jerusalem artichoke is actually a soluble fibre - this must be why it doesn't affect blood sugar, because it is essentially passing through the stomach completely undigested, only being consumed by microbial organisms once it reaches the bowels...so really your body isn't getting much energy out of it.

It also seems that other source I referred to might not be correct - I don't think you can convert fibre to starch with food prep? Apparently the American indians ate them raw too.

That's partially correct.

Soluble fibres such as inulin & oligofructose (polysaccharides) don't digest in the stomach and don't get digested by enzymes in the small intestine, but once they reach the large intestine they are fermented by microbial action to produce several by-products.

Some of the typical by-products are gases, lactic acid and short chain fatty acids (SCFA) including butyrate, propionate and acetate which are used as energy sources by our bodies.

This is never accounted for in calorific energy ratings on food labels, due to the way the energy rating is calculated. So food sources containing soluble fibre typically have a misleading energy rating in kilojoules.

[Stillman]

Jerusalem artichoke are amazing. I use them when I can in specials where I work. Roasted they are delicious.

Poisonshroom The white with the purple centres common name is Hawaiian sweet potato I grow a heap of that too. I like the purple ones too, I figure they have to have some sort of extra vitamin with that colour.

[poisonshroom]

yea, the purple is some kind of antioxidant (anthocyanins or something). theres a story going round that in Japan there is a region where the purple sweet potatos are a staple food and the people there have a very high life-expectancy. correlation isnt the same as causality, but when it comes to a healthy diet (especially for 'survival crops'), emulating the diets of people in areas with high life-expectancy and low disease rates is a good idea

oh and i dug up some oxalis tubers from the species randomly growing thru my yard (big, rounded leaves, green with some patches of faint purple), and they looked like tiny onions. tasted one and although it was pretty flavourless, it was slightly sweet and had a nice crispy texture (also onion-like, but didnt taste like an onion). i think theyd go good in a sauce (like pasta sauce) or raw in salad etc

Edited April 21, 2013 by poisonshroom

[gtarman]

Just been looking into the hardy/weedy food plant thing again and came across these online pdf's of the books titled "Lost Crops of Africa" which may be of interest to this discussion. Lots of obscure plants from various African climates. The pdf for volume II (vegetables) can be downloaded here:

https://download.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11763