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As a prepper who believes in a healthy diet, I have experimented with various ways to provide greens in a winter SHTF scenario.

Lettuce and other greens grow quickly. In the Upper Midwest, the South side of a building with a cold frame will provide greens in a few weeks and they can be planted out in February, as soon as you can feel the sun on your back on a mild, windless day.

Farmers will always farm and since greens are so easily produced, they will likely be available for barter.

I tried AeroGrow countertop hydroponic machines. They are a toy, IMO. You can harvest a couple of salads worth of Baby Bok Choy or the like in about 6 weeks if you have power and spend a lot of time keeping the nutrient solution up to par. You can start seeds in rock wool insulation, but you do need the liquid nutrients. I have a machine stashed, but I’m not that reassured by its presence.

I have just moved and we have poor, sandy soils here. I will put in raised beds next Spring, but I’ve gardened enough to know, aside from tomatoes, not to expect much beyond our immediate needs during Summer and fall. However, this soil is good for cukes and I prefer pickling cukes in salads, anyway. A bumper crop of small cucumbers can be fermented (half sour dills)and will keep well over winter. Dill itself is a weed, easily grown and it can be frozen as well as dried.(Beware: it will scent your entire freezer, even in plastic). You will need garlic, pickling spice, Kosher salt and distilled water, as well as canning jars. Instructions are all over the web.

Tomatoes can be easily dehydrated. They will reconstitute come winter and the dried tomatoes take up a lot less room than either canned or frozen sauce. The green ones at the end of the season also do well as fermented pickles.

I’ve done container gardening, too. Cherry tomatoes and mini peppers did well. Full sized fruit suffered from the containers due to the likelihood of inconsistent watering. They are heavy and you can’t always protect them from heavy rains. I’ve used plastic greenhouses and fuchsia shade cloth, both of which helped for different situations, but I still needed to buy produce.

Remember, that crop of greens does well until hot weather and later on in the Fall, but won’t produce in high summer.

I do want to try barrel or trashbag potatoes, but I haven’t done those yet.

My main approach to the need for fresh greens is sprouts. I have several bags of various sprouting seeds in the freezer. I also think microgreens grown on the north side of buildings with shade cloth would be viable. Probably, microgreens could be successful in a small way in an inside South-facing window if protected from the intensity of mid-day sun.

But we will all have more pressing problems if it comes to that. Supplies of Vit. C stashed in a freezer take up little space and would work. Sumac is everywhere in the Upper Midwest and is full of Vit. C. It is an ingredient in Middle Eastern spice mixes, is prolific and can be dried and then stored for winter.

If you have A LOT of milkweed, judiciously harvest the green flower heads, which can be lightly steamed and taste like broccoli. Just let enough fully flower to create seeds for the next season. Again, this is available in the Upper Midwest.

Many of us are already too old for extensive gardening in summer heat or are headed that way, so look for younger people to barter with. No matter what, we are not going to replicate our former life style during times of extreme civil disruption.