Potatoes — Potatoes will be saved for as much as six months, providing a supply of diet that does not require refrigeration. They may also be canned, which extends their storage life to 3 to 5 years. Hoss recommends planting potatoes two to 3 weeks earlier than your area’s final frost, in rows spaced 36 inches aside. It’s best to incorporate compost into your soil earlier than planting.

Their favourite varieties embody Kennebec, a spherical white potato with creamy flesh and low- to medium starch, and Yukon gold, which has a buttery yellow flesh. Pink Norland, which is a medium-sized rose-colored potato with dense flesh and low starch, is one other favourite.

Importantly, potatoes like to be hilled, which implies including extra soil to the mattress and molding it across the vegetation. It’s best to hill the potatoes two or 3 times throughout the rising season. The thought is that, since potatoes are part of the plant’s stem, not the foundation, the extra “stem” you retain underground, the extra potatoes will develop and the higher your harvest will likely be.³

Potatoes, that are wealthy in fiber, nutritional vitamins B and C and minerals like potassium, are straightforward to develop within the early spring and take about 85 to 100 days to mature, relying on environmental situations.

When you harvest the potatoes, it is vital to retailer them correctly — loosely (not in plastic) in a darkish, dry spot at round 50 to 60 levels F. Whereas potatoes like a darkish, cool setting, they shouldn’t be chilled, as they’re broken by refrigeration.

Inexperienced beans — Inexperienced beans, which supply a wealthy supply of nutritional vitamins A, C and Okay and manganese, fiber and folate, are one other glorious, productive storage crop, which will be canned proper together with potatoes, or fermented.

Inexperienced beans may also be blanched and frozen for as much as a 12 months. Hoss recommends the momentum bush bean selection,⁴ which they are saying is the best bush bean selection on the market, with excessive yields, concentrated harvests and excessive tolerance to emphasize.

Beans ought to be planted in spring after the final frost has occurred, as germination sometimes happens when soil temperatures are 65 levels F or larger (with optimum germination temperature being 77 levels F).

The seeds will be planted immediately outside and will be planted each couple of weeks within the spring and early summer season so you may have manufacturing all through all the rising season.

Plant them as early as doable within the spring, for the reason that vegetation will drop blooms, or stop manufacturing, throughout sizzling summer season temperatures. Bush beans will be harvested three or 4 occasions within the season, and may also be planted in double rows to save lots of area and enhance your harvest.

To do that, make two rows of beans spaced 6 inches aside, with the double rows spaced 3 toes aside.⁵

When you’ve got entry to drip irrigation or a soaker hose, you should utilize it to supply irrigation to each rows of beans directly. Beans may also be planted densely, with Hoss suggesting gardeners “stack the vegetation thick” to make sure you’ll have loads of beans to eat within the cooler months when you can them.

Heirloom onions — Heirloom onions are a really sustainable meals supply. Homesteaders prior to now rising such onions would come out to the sector and dig up onions as they wanted them, then dig up the bulbs and retailer them as you’d regular onions to be replanted the following 12 months.

Not solely do onions retailer very well, holding for 2 months or extra after harvest, relying on selection, however you have got your personal seed inventory which you can reuse and share along with your neighbors. Additional, onions, that are wealthy in vitamin C, sulphuric compounds, flavonoids and different phytochemicals, are extremely wholesome.

Carrots — As with most homegrown greens, the style of a store-bought carrot cannot evaluate to the flavour of a homegrown selection. Plus, carrots are one other helpful vegetable throughout arduous occasions, as they are often saved within the fridge for 2 to 3 weeks or blanched and frozen for even longer storage.

Different choices embody canning and fermenting, making these a flexible vegetable for long-term utilization.

Like inexperienced beans, carrots will be grown in double rows with irrigation in between. Plant rows 6 inches aside, skip 3 toes, then plant two extra rows 6 inches aside. Hoss recommends seeding carrots in a thick band and never thinning them, so you may have a “dense forest of carrots” and get a number of manufacturing out of just a little little bit of area.

When grown this manner, your carrots could not all come out uniform in measurement — some will likely be smaller and a few greater — however they will style nice simply the identical. Carrots ought to be seeded immediately outside, as they do not transplant properly, and do finest when planted in cooler temperatures throughout the early spring or fall.

Carrots, that are wealthy in precious beta carotene, require longer to germinate than most different crops, and you may must maintain the soil moist for no less than seven days for germination to happen. A soil temperature of about 75 levels F is perfect.

If you happen to reside within the South, you may develop two crops of carrots per 12 months. Plant one within the fall, permitting the crop to overwinter so you may harvest within the spring. Since it isn’t too sizzling but, the carrots will maintain properly within the soil, permitting you to reap them as you want them. You possibly can then plant one other crop within the early spring, which will likely be prepared for a late spring/early summer season harvest.

Winter squash — Winter squash, with its thick pores and skin, is one other glorious meals for storage functions. Although they’re referred to as “winter” squash, they’re grown throughout the heat a part of the 12 months however will be saved with out refrigeration to be used throughout the winter. Typically, the sweeter the variability, the much less time they are often saved.

Kabocha, a winter squash with a creamy flesh that is helpful for soups, will be saved for about three months whereas extra widespread butternut and acorn squash will maintain for six months. The candy dumpling selection, which is without doubt one of the sweetest winter squashes, has a median storage time of 30 to 45 days.

Winter squash is an efficient supply of nutritional vitamins K1, A, C and E, in addition to B nutritional vitamins, calcium and magnesium. Storage time is vital, as winter squash produce one harvest on the finish of the rising season, supplying you with meals to get pleasure from all winter lengthy.

Okra — Okra is a warm-weather crop that produces pods measuring 2 to three inches lengthy, which develop on a big, leafy and perennial plant with hibiscus-type flowers. Excessive in fiber, okra additionally affords vitamin Okay, manganese, folate and vitamin C, in addition to plentiful quantities of flavonoids and antioxidants.

It is an vital crisis-crop as a result of it is a high-producing crop with long-term manufacturing. The vegetation could begin producing pods once they’re 1 to 2 toes tall and can proceed producing, because the vegetation develop 5 to six toes tall.⁶ Nonetheless, you may minimize the tops off when it will get about 4 toes tall, and plant three succession vegetation per 12 months.

Hoss recommends planting okra — particularly the best jambalaya selection — within the spring and once more in midsummer and early fall, as it would develop up till the primary frost date. It is vital to rotate the place you plant okra, coming again solely on a three-year rotation, as a result of nematodes, that are tiny worms that act as plant parasites.

Nonetheless, as soon as planted, okra is a hearty and versatile meals that may be frozen, canned or pickled. It is a staple meals supply within the South, and although it prefers irrigation for probably the most plentiful productiveness, it’s considerably drought-resistant and can nonetheless develop properly in highly regarded, drier situations.