Posted on 01/15/2022 6:47:06 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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Since every third thread I’m pinged to on FR these days is dealing with food shortages, supply line issues and rising inflation , I thought a good topic for this week would be getting the most bang for our buck when it comes to the home garden, saving money while gardening, which veggies are the most nutrient rich and planting for the biggest harvest.
With that said:
The Most Nutritious Vegetables You Can Grow
When it comes to growing our own food, we often think in terms of yields—how much, how big, how often. Fair enough, but putting the nutritional value of homegrown fruit and vegetables at the fore of a planting plan makes good sense; after all, healthful foods are the goal. Here are the some of the most nutritious vegetables you can grow (and eat!).
A garden rich in nutrients is chock-full of “powerhouse” (the latest buzzword) fruit and vegetables, with watercress, cabbage, and beet greens topping the list. Ideally, such a garden includes one-third leafy greens; one-third colored vegetables, such as carrots and sweet potatoes; and one-third sulfur-rich vegetables, like brassicas and alliums.
Sometimes referred to as a “superfoods garden,” this is one in which you will find produce that provides the ultimate combination of nutrients. There are 17 critical nutrients for optimal health; potassium, calcium folate, and vitamins B12, A, and D are tops among them.
https://www.almanac.com/most-nutritious-vegetables-you-can-grow
Zucchini (which surprised me!)
Green Beans
Spinach
Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers
Broccoli
Raspberries
Blueberries
Garlic
Kale
And since no one agrees on ANYTHING these days, here’s another list with some overlap, but other vegetables added for various reasons:
https://draxe.com/nutrition/winter-vegetables/
Jerusalem Artichokes (these can be invasive!)
Broccoli
Kale
Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower
Escarole
Cabbage
Beets
Carrots
Fennel
Winter Squash
Chicory
After a fairly mild week we are enjoying a nice snow shower this morning here in Central Missouri. It’s been quite a dry winter up until now. We’ve only had one good rain event prior to this snowfall.
Collards and kale are showing a bit of frostbite after the bitter cold weather that we had over New Years weekend. I don’t have the necessary materials to make proper row covers so the plants just have to tough it out.
I’d like to have a low tunnel out there, but those things are a bit of nuisance to put up up and take down every year. I’m thinking that a good compromise might be to cover the green bean arbor with visqueen and plant my fall greens under that.
Oranges too from two different orange trees. This is my small but mighty super-dwarf orange - planted almost 30 years ago, fruit is small but very sweet.
Christmas amaryllis that is just blooming now:
And, from my neighbors front yard garden:
Any advice for growing garlic in Florida? I try every year using Store bought garlic cloves and it sprouts but I never get new garlic bulbs or I never see the new garlic bulbs re-sprout after the green leaves die off.
Very elegant. Enjoy it more and more as I keep looking at it. As a gif, it encourages that long look and the details begin emerging. Really nice! Thank you.
IMO, the old “Victory Garden” concept needs to be resurrected big time. While just about everyone on this thread ‘gardens’ in one way or another, I think we should also encourage family/friends who do not garden to start something, even if it is a container garden on a patio, porch, etc. Empty shelves are going to be a reality ... if not already, then shortly. Between empty shelves and inflation (not going to be temporary), food supply is going to become critical.
A side note - we got a letter recently from someone (don’t know her) wanting to rent a patch of ground/my garden & they would do the work, share the produce ... quite the surprise. Evidently, she was driving by & saw my garden, which is sort of visible from the road. I said ‘no’ - I’m not giving up my garden & we do not want strangers on the place.
What Is A Victory Garden – Vintage Advice for a Modern Time
https://hillsborough-homesteading.com/victory-garden-free-pdf/
Excerpt from link:
Using Victory Gardens in Modern Times
The National Gardening Association reports that nearly 20 million Americans grow their own produce today, with many starting new Victory Garden projects in response to growing concerns about our nation’s food supply and the high cost of groceries.
While we’re not in a war anymore that threatens to empty our grocery store produce shelves, I think the message is still important:
Grow and preserve your own food, so that others who cannot can rely on the store.
We’ve seen in recent times the effect of the pandemic, food supply shortages, people hoarding and making runs on grocery stores.
Even global warming has begun effecting food supplies.
Where we are, it’s not uncommon to be snowed in for days or weeks at a time.
What if you lose your job or a source of income and suddenly don’t have the money for groceries?
Even something as simple as your car being in the shop, or you hurting yourself and not being able to drive.
Self-sufficiency is my safety blanket and makes it so that I never have to worry about whether I can make it to the store or if I have the money for food.
So while we’re not in a war (at the moment), I consider my own family’s well-being and security Victory enough.
We grow our own vegetables and fresh fruits and can, freeze, dehydrate and pickle for our food security.
So consider making your own victory garden and harvesting fresh produce from just a few seed packets.
Here’s my complete guide on how to start a garden from scratch if this is your first time with home gardens.
Even if you only have a small front yard, window boxes or tiny garden plots, you can grow a surprising amount of leafy greens and fresh vegetables.
Awhile ago I found several adorable pamphlets from, I believe, the USDA.
Note: links mentioned in the article are “live” at the source.
Diana’s Roasted Winter Vegetables
5 carrots, peeled
1 red onion, peeled
3 stalks celery
6 New Potatoes (or 3 medium) peel if desired or just scrub
Winter Squash peeled and chunked (about 2 cups)
Fresh Rosemary, or Thyme if on hand, but any dried spice blend that you like will do.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Cut up your veggies so they’re all in about the same size pieces for even roasting.
Put them in a large bowl, drizzle with EVOO, salt & pepper, and sprinkle with herbs, as desired. Toss to combine, well.
Transfer to a rimmed sheet pan lined with parchment paper or foil (makes clean-up easier), add a few fresh sprigs of herbs if you have them and roast for 45 minutes or so until veggies are browned, but still a bit firm.
Let cool for 10 minutes or so, but serve warm. This is really good with a sprinkle of Balsamic Vinegar at the table, too.
Other veggies I have addeed to this: Brussels Sprouts (halved), Cauliflower & Broccoli florets and canned beets (drained, rinsed, not pickled!) depending upon what was in the cupboard or on hand at the time.
LOVE IT ALL! :)
Please add me to your ping list. Thanks!
Store-bought garlic is sprayed with a sprouting inhibitor so that’s part of the problem. I’m thinking it’s way too hot for garlic in Florida; it needs a long chilling/resting period each fall/winter season before it perks up again in the spring.
HOWEVER, ‘The Survival Gardener’ says you CAN do it, if you get the proper variety of garlic and keep it in your fridge for 10-12 weeks so it gets the cold it needs to get going, again.
https://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/grow-garlic-florida/
Step by step guide, here:
https://www.wikihow.com/Grow-Garlic-In-Florida
Great add. I wanted to get into Victory Gardens this week, too. Thanks! :)
Pinging the Prepping ping list on this one. Gardening for the most nutrients.
Where’s the taters? They’re considered a staple.
As you say, a lot of food shortage articles as of late and #EmptyShelvesBiden has trended on twitter recently. Here’s the most recent; https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4029516/posts
I don’t know how bad the supply chain - food shortage issues really are but we all saw it in early 2020. Probably the first time since the Great Depression that every person in the country was affected.
We had an additional problem where I live. It’s a weekend haven for people from the St Louis area so during the 3 week lockdown we had, most of them came down for the whole 3 weeks and shopped at our grocery stores while they were here. Many own land here so even after the lockdown, they would come down to be mask free on the weekends so by Sunday afternoon, grocery store shelves were empty. I’m pretty sure some were bringing food back home with them.
Luckily, when I saw empty shelves in Italy and knew the virus would make it here, we finally got that little chest freezer we’d been wanting for years and I filled it. I also bought TP because I’ve seen that on prepper lists of the first things to run out. Canned goods too of course.
Speaking of canned, after 10 years of not canning anything, I finally broke out the pressure canner the other day and canned some chicken broth using carcasses I’d saved up for a year in the freezer. If you’re going to grow a bunch of food, you might need to preserve some of it and canning is one way. For better nutrition preservation, blanching and freezing does better but that takes up freezer space which you may not have. Drying/dehydrating is another way to preserve.
Here’s the link to my prepper library; https://permasteader.com/cloud/index.php/s/H8iLwmfLHiGFyjG which includes quite a bit of gardening info.
Here’s the USDA’s National Center for Home Food Preservation website with downloadable PDFs.(Canning, Freezing, Curing, Drying, Fermenting & Pickling)https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html
I mentioned taters being a staple. Unless you have a root cellar or want to can them, they won’t last forever. Rice, another staple will last a long time in nothing more than a bucket. I get the round frosting buckets from the bakery dept at the grocery store. The round ones have a rubber gasket that keeps the bugs out. I keep sugar in them too. Rice and sugar are cheap and easy to stock up on and store. Likewise with dry beans.
Rice & beans make a complete protein as well but meat has more nutrition/protein than any veggie or combo of. If you live in a suburb and can’t keep large four legged food or even chickens, many people keep rabbits for a high quality animal protein. There are meat breeds so you don’t want to get them from a pet store because that’s probably not what they’ll have.
Californian, New Zealand White, American Chinchilla, Flemish Giants are probably the most common meat breeds but there are many. They’re prolific breeders, quiet, small enough to eat in one sitting so require no preservation and can live off of lawn clippings(no fertilizer or pesticides) and veggie scraps.
Some of those gardens are better suited for northern climates, like this one with the cruciferous veggies.
A cold weather veggie grown in early spring or late fall is better than none when the frosts have killed off the cold tender ones like tomatoes and peppers.
There is also the storage issue. You can store veggies long term by selecting the right ones and varieties.
I am still using potatoes and onions from this summer and am amazed at how juicy and crispy they still are, just sitting in my garage. It’s not ideal storage conditions but it does give you an idea of how old some of the food in the supply chain is when the produce is soft and spongy and the potatoes start sprouting a couple days after you get them home.
Another thing to consider is garden space, cost effectiveness, and local agriculture. In CNY, there were tons of farms that grew onions and potatoes. You could get farm fresh ones at the farmers market or veggie stands cheap enough that if you had limited garden space, like I did, it was more worth it to buy those items than use the garden space to grow them.
Good morning from the Frozen Tundra of New England!
Howdy there! Very cold here in Western Pa too...12 degrees this morning...likely ‘feel’ even worse. I hate cold winters!
It’s the wind chill that makes it so horrible!
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
Thanks, I’ll have to check out places to buy Florida specific garlic for planting (hopefully from Florida, but one Florida you tuber still bought the Florida specific softneck variety in WA and Idaho which I thought was bizarre) as I’ e never seen big box stores like Lowes, Home Depot or Walmart, or even local nurseries selling garlic cloves or plants, which is honestly not surprising as everything I want to grow from hot peppers to banana trees all have to be special ordered.
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