Apr
Growing your own vegetables has several health benefits, from controlling what fertilizers are used to determining when to harvest your crops. Whether you live on a homestead or in an urban area, anyone can learn how to grow survival gardening crops, gardening techniques, and which crops are best grown for survival food.
These are the top eight survival gardening crops to grow in a depression or economic collapse.
What is Self-Sustainable Living?
According to UNICEF, more than one billion people live in poverty today, and it’s only getting worse. A self-sufficient lifestyle reduces poverty, helps the environment, and protects the climate.
But self-sustainable living is more than just growing your own food, raising your own livestock, and possibly living off-grid. It’s working hard to preserve the land you farm and developing resources to survive when others cannot.
The first step in living a self-sustainable lifestyle is learning how to grow your food and which survival crops you should grow.
Best Gardening Crops to Grow
Potatoes
Potatoes are one of the most well-known survival crops. Potatoes are super easy to grow, whether on a farm or in an urban garden. They provide much-needed nutrients and vitamins needed for survival during a depression or economic collapse, such as carbohydrates, potassium, and Vitamins B and C.
Kale
Kale is one of those survival gardening crops that should be grown in the winter months. If harvested during the warm summer months, kale may taste bitter when eaten. On the other hand, if kale is planted and harvested in the winter, it provides an almost sweet taste. It is also very tolerant to the cold weather, making this survival vegetable a total superfood.
Corn
When growing corn, one of the first tasks is to learn how to shuck the corn. There are several techniques, but all are quite simple to accomplish. After the husk and silk are removed from the corn, the vegetable is beautiful, golden, and sweet to the taste. Corn is versatile and nutritious: it can be eaten directly from the cob, made into creamy-style corn, or ground into cornmeal to make other farm staples.
Beans
Beans should always be a constant staple when growing survival food. They are nutritionally dense, easy to grow, and can be prepared in several different ways. Not to mention, beans are also easy to dry and preserve. There are many varieties of beans that you can grow, from pinto beans and red beans to protein-packed lima beans. While some beans grow as a bush, others need a pole or trellis to grow on.
Cabbage
While cabbage may smell unpleasant when cooking, it sure does taste spectacular to eat. Cabbage can be eaten raw on salads, steamed using it in a soup or stew, and it’s an all-around nutritious vegetable consisting of vitamin B6, vitamin C, and tons of fiber.
Lentils
Lentils are one of the best survival crops to grow. They provide tons of vitamins and nutrients, but the best of all is that they are packed with protein. In addition, lentils are one of the oldest survival crops grown for self-sustainability for many years.
Sweet Potatoes
Another favorite survival food is the sweet potato, a different crop than the regular potato. Sweet potatoes are calorie-dense, providing more nutrients than the common potato. It is a versatile vegetable that has good sugar content.
Sweet potatoes grow below the ground while the leafy green parts are left exposed. One difference between the sweet potato and the regular potato is that the green leafy parts of the sweet potato are edible.
Herbs
Your survival crops aren’t complete unless you add garden herbs like rosemary, oregano, parsley, and basil to your garden. Herbs are easy to grow, smell great, and help add flavor to your food.
Final Thoughts
If you’re wondering how to survive during a depression or economic collapse, try your hand at vegetable gardening. Whether you have room to grow your crops in the ground or are limited in space, growing survival crops is a great way to save money, help the environment, and become self-sufficient.