M.D. Creekmore

by Matilda

With limited space, time and money, I want an optimal, seasonal yield from my cool climate garden.  No matter where I live or how much room I have, the garden is a significant part of my daily life. It also provides an opportunity for appreciation of God’s provision.

Most vegetables are beyond comparison for taste if you grow them yourself.  However, some take up garden space for a very long time or, if the season is too short for heat-loving plants, you may end up being disappointed with the crop.

Everyone can grow something, even if it is only sprouts on the kitchen bench. Everything you grow yourself makes you more self-reliant and can reduce your potential chemical exposure.

Those folk fortunate enough to have a greenhouse (especially one with some form of warmth) can extend their growing season considerably in some cases.

I don’t have a greenhouse so this is the criteria I use to determine what to plant in my garden. Ponder these considerations within your own context and growing zone.  I have included a few of my own examples.

1. 1. Does it grow well in my zone?
      Only fast crops of tomatoes, corn, pumpkins, melons etc ripen or mature for me. Even then, the cool humidity puts them at greater risk of disease.  I only put in a few plants for immediate blissful eating, not to store.  I just don’t have the space to potentially waste.  Of course, every now and then, you might get a bumper crop as a result of an extended period of lovely weather.  In that case, thank God for the crop and preserve what you can.
      For the most part, though, there seems little point trying and trying to grow something that just doesn’t thrive in your garden.
   2. What frozen, dried or tinned foods are cheaper to buy than grow?
      For me, dried beans, grains and legumes are way cheaper to buy as well as frozen cauliflower, peas, corn, brussels sprouts. Tinned tomatoes, pineapple, beans, legumes, and asparagus are better value for my time and space too.  I have a couple of olive trees but they are unlikely to provide all our needs.  Bottled olives are on my shopping list.
   3. It grows well here but how long does it take to grow?
      Cauliflowers, large cabbages, storage onions all grow well in my district.
      But I don’t give them priority because they take up space for a long time.
      So do other plants, but they are better value, which brings me to the next point:
   4. Can the whole plant be eaten or used?
      Of course, you can compost any of your spent vegetable plants. However, I give priority growing space to those with the most edible parts – even the ones that take up space for a long time such as:

Garlic
My favorite cool climate vegetable is garlic.  I plant it very close together in rows, thinning it out as it grows.  First I use the shoots, then the slightly swollen bulbs as green garlic when it just starts to bulb up.

By the time the bulbs really start to swell as the weather warms, the remaining garlic is spaced well to encourage large bulbs.  By that time we’ve been eating fresh garlic for months already!
Any garlic not eaten, dried or planted by the time it’s ready to sprout again in autumn, gets brined and hot smoked in a makeshift smoker – the wok.  I’ve only just started doing this and found that hot smoked garlic lasts a couple of months or so in the fridge.

Sprouting Broccoli:
It makes little flowering side shoots for a long time.  Additionally, you can eat the leaves as greens.  Has anyone tried making little savory rice rolls (similar to dolmades) out of broccoli or other brassica leaves?

Beetroot and Carrots:
Quite fast growing.  The tops are also useful as steamed or salad greens and in soups.  I make pesto out of carrot leaves and it’s not too bad.

Parsely:
Excellent value for space.  It produces lush leaves until it flowers and goes to seed.  The flowers are among the best beneficial insect attractors.  Then you can collect the seeds.  First green seeds to add to salads and soups, then after the seeds have dried on the plant, they can be used as a cooking spice.  When I eventually pull the plant out, the root is scrubbed and used to flavor stock.

Other “cut and come again” greens:
Lettuce, Asian vegetables, spinach, chard, rocket, celery, kale, and many others all keep producing leaves until they eventually go to seed.  As a bonus, some seed is suitable for saving and sprouting after you’ve eaten all that leaf produce.

Fast growing veggies:
Radish is a great value for everything vegetable.  It grows very fast and there are winter varieties, that if planted at the right time, will overwinter in your garden, to be used as you want until the warm weather arrives and they eventually bolt to seed.  Collect the seed for sprouting before adding the spent plant to the compost heap.  Young leaves are tasty in salads, as steamed greens, and in soups.

Radish also has a surprisingly beneficial nutrient profile.
http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/radish.html
Asian greens and rocket are other examples of speedy vegetables.

Edible “weeds”
Truly a survival food.  Foraging is growing in popularity.  There are many edible “weeds” that we like to include in our diet.  There are also lots of books and websites to help identify edible and poisonous plants.  One good thing about edible “weeds” is that most of them self seed.  They will always be in your garden happily cohabitating with your fruit and vegetables.
Dandelion is my favorite “weed”.  The young, tender, slightly bitter leaves are excellent steamed with other greens and in salads.  They also have medicinal properties.
http://foodfacts.mercola.com/dandelion-greens.html

When the dandelion plant gets a bit old, especially after flowering, we chop off all the old bitter leaves and new tender ones emerge from the root again.
Eventually, the root can be dug up, scrubbed, roasted and ground as a coffee substitute.  Caffeine free and delicious! Other edible weeds in my garden are chickweed (for salads), sheep sorrel (adds a citrus tang to salads), milk or sow thistle, amaranth, nettle, fat hen, to name a few.  Here are some great ways to eat your weeds!
http://greekfood.about.com/od/discovergreekfood/a/wild_greens.htm

1. 1. 1. Invest in perennials
         Can be slow to establish but generally low maintenance. Just keep them fed and mulched in their “permanent” bed…  They stay in the same spot for some years and can share a bed with a few fast annuals like radish and lettuce that won’t interfere with their growth..  Asparagus, globe artichoke, bramble berries, rhubarb, horseradish are all examples of edible perennials.
      2. Do I have any “Volunteers”?
         Edible weeds are in this category but also a few others. Potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, peas from pea straw, and anything that germinates from the compost bin.  Tomatoes are some of best examples.  They germinate from compost when they are ready, they usually grow very vigorously and yield a surprisingly good crop – especially the cherry and bush varieties.
         We purchase spent mushroom compost in autumn and spread it on the garden.  One year we had such a yield of volunteers that we had bottles and bottles of dried sliced and ground mushrooms for the pantry!  Be careful with field mushrooms though.  Make sure you can identify them and rule out any poisonous ones.
         So – don’t be too hasty to weed out volunteers.  Assess their potential worth first!

A few final points:

1. 1. • Most people can eat a varied diet of fruit, vegetable, and foraged foods without concern. Do your research about the nutrient profiles of the foods you eat in a balanced diet and plant to provide a variety of nutrients.  Check with your doctor if there are any foods that may interfere with the medications you take.
      • Ensure you have the resources and knowledge to identify edible wild foods. There are some that can kill you like certain mushrooms and others like this one: http://wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/food/poisonousplants/waterhemlock/index.html
      • Don’t forage for food in places contaminated with chemicals, exhaust fumes, peeling lead paint or dog/cat droppings. Be careful what you put in your compost.
      • You can make the most of any growing space you have from pots on a balcony or sunny window to a backyard patch by assessing the value for space, time and money of the edible plants you can grow.
      • Share your experiences with others. Teach the little ones especially where food comes from, how to grow it and how to find it.

God bless your gardening efforts!

by Debbie S

I’ve been seeing a lot of people on forums and comments on other blogs asking about how to save vegetable seeds for next years planning, so I decided to write this article to share what I’ve learned through years of gardening and seed saving…

Hybrids are basically for commercial production and flavor is not necessarily what they are after.  Most of us know they are designed for good shipping ability or for ripening all at once for harvest.  Heirlooms are different.  They’re ripe when they’re ready.  Tomatoes have very thin skins and wouldn’t ship well.  But they have fabulous flavor.  If you’ve never had a Brandywine tomato you’re missing out!

Seed saving is a massive subject and I’m only going to be able to scratch the surface.  There are many books and organizations dedicated to this subject.

• http://www.seedsavers.org/
• http://www.seedsofchange.com/
• Seed saving guidebook
• Join this group (yes it costs money) and you’ll get the yearly catalog that lists other seed savers who’ll sell you their seed at a very nice price, plus you can sell yours.  http://www.seedsavers.org/Content.aspx?src=membership.htm

The first step to seed saving is pollination.  Your plants must be true to form and not cross-pollinated.  Some plants are self-pollinating, others via insects (bees, moths, butterflies) and yet others via wind.  To maintain varietal purity you need to watch how your plants are pollinated.  Isolation via distance is great if you’re on acreage.  If like me you’re gardening in a city there are other techniques available for you.

Time:  Time isolation works well for certain crops provided you’ve enough space.  If for instance, you’re growing two different types of corn you could plant corn one and then wait a couple of weeks and plant corn two.  That way the pollen from corn one will have done its job before corn two has pollen ready.

Mechanical Isolation:  This is pretty much what I do given the small garden I have.  Bagging is great on corn.  Cages wrapped with floating row cover or old sheer curtains from Goodwill work well for tomatoes.  Masking tape closes female flowers on squash, cucumbers, and melons.

It is important to have more than one fruit or veggie to save from.  You’ll want to have the choice of which is truest to the parent and grew well in your garden.  Don’t think one tomato or one corn is enough.  It’s not.  You want to have seed saved from several of the best.  Also be sure you are harvesting from fully ripened fruits and veggies.

I think the queen of the garden is the tomato, so let’s look at saving from this plant first.  Oddly enough there is quite the controversy among seed saver over the extent of cross-pollination.  Some believe that crossing is rampant, while others feel after many years of growing there is no problem.  I don’t want to risk mine so this is what I do.

I cage my tomatoes rather than steak them.  This makes it easy for me to isolate them for pollination.  I have floating row cover although you can use old sheer curtains, mosquito netting or something similar.  I quite literally wrap the entire tomato cage being sure the wrap is taller than my cage.  I then twist the top extra material and tie it off.  This encloses my tomato keeping any little bee out.  I leave this in place until I have fruit set (baby tomatoes) then I remove the wrap and tie a small piece of colorful yarn LOOSELY around the stem so I can locate those first few tomatoes.

Come harvest time I pick all the tomatoes with the yarn and head to the kitchen to start the seed saving process.  I’m sure we all know these little seeds are covered with a jelly-like substance.  It’s important to remove this gel before trying to save the seed.  It’s very easy to accomplish.  All you need is a container, a knife, and some water.

Cut the tomatoes in half and carefully squeeze the seeds into the container.  Careful removal here leaves you with a seedless tomato to eat!  Love not having to forfeit eating one of them.  Once you have all the seeds into the container add enough water to cover them with lots of room to spare.  I use an old water tumbler and half fill with water.  Let it sit on the counter for a long time as you’re going to be fermenting the gel sack off the seeds.  This process not only cleans the seed of the sack but also kills many of the seed-borne diseases.

During this process, your container will begin to stink and a grey/white layer of gunk will form on the top.  It’s pretty stinky so it’s best if you can do this outside; hopefully in an area where kids or pets won’t be able to dump it over.  You’ll want to pay close attention to the seeds as if left too long in the water they will begin to germinate.

You want to stir your seed/water mix a couple of times a day.  When you see bubbles rising in the mix or the grey gunk covers the surface then the process is complete.  Add enough water to double the liquid in the glass and stir vigorously.  The good seed will fall to the bottom of the glass and the bad seed will float.

Pour off the water being careful to keep the good seed.  Repeat this process of adding water, stirring and pouring off until only clean seed remains.  The final rinse should be poured into a fine mesh wire strainer and set on a towel to remove as much water as possible.  Then pour out seeds on a small plate and spread out evenly in a single layer.  Do not try to dry on a paper towel, a piece of cloth or flexible plastic (think plastic wrap).  It’s very, very hard to get the seed off of these things.

You want them to dry quickly and not bunch together so stir them twice a day.  Never dry then in the sun or oven.  If it’s hot and humid, a fan will help speed up the process.  Tomato seed should remain viable for 4-10 years depending of the variety.  Completely dried seed should be sealed in an airtight container and stored in a cool, dry area or frozen for long-term storage.

The next seed I like to save is my green beans.  Again, cross-pollination is an issue.  Bush type plants are easier to work with as you can cover just like you do the tomato plants.  If you’re growing pole beans you could cover one section or use special little bags and cover each flower you’ll be saving from.

They must remain covered until the last flower sets beans.  They are, however, very easy to save from as once the vine/bush is dry at the end of the season you just pull the vine/bush down and let it sit for a day or two.  Then you pull the bean pods off and open the pods.

Opening the pods can sometimes be frustrating.  If so, then place them in an old feed sack or pillowcase, close the top, lay it on the ground and then run in place.  You can also hang it from a tree and beat it with a stick or baseball bat.

Once you’ve opened all the pods you’ll need to clean the seed.  This can be done on a windy day by pouring from one bowl or basket to another.  Be sure to cover your work area with a tarp as sometimes the wind can gust and blow your seed into the grass.  I will sometimes use a box fan to assist if there’s no wind.

Weevil damage can occur so it’s a good idea to freeze them in your freezer for 5 days before storing them for next garden season.  You want to be sure they are dry before doing this so take a few and place on a hard surface like the driveway.  Hit them with a hammer.  If they shatter they are dry enough for storage if they just mash then you’ll need to dry them longer.

They should have about 50% germination for up to four years if stored in a cool, dry, dark spot.

Next, let’s look at corn:

All corn varieties are pollinated by the wind and will easily cross with each other.  Pollen is made by the tassels that form at the top of the stalk.  The silk that forms on the top of the corn cob is the female section.  As the wind blows grains of pollen from the tassel drifts to the silk.  An interesting fact is each silk that is pollinated results in a kernel of corn on that ear.  Corn pollen is light and can be carried a long way by the wind.  Isolation would require about 2 miles between corn patches.

You always want to grow your corn in large blocks or patches rather than long rows.  It’s best to grow at least 100 stalks although more is better.  This will help you avoid inbreeding.    Never work with the tassels and the ears on the same plants and when saving seed try to save from 20 to 50 different plants.  If you are growing more than one variety of corn than time isolation would be an option for pollination.  Plant corn ‘A’ and 2-3 weeks later plant corn ‘B’.

Hand pollination is time-consuming but not hard.  You’ll need a pocket knife, stapler, and bags.  This company has bags: http://www.seedtodayequipment.com/index.php?cat=1&industry_id=4&category=bags_and_packaging_supplies

It takes a few days to hand pollinate and in a drought even longer.  You start just before the silks begin to emerge from the tiny ears; if any silks have already emerged then that ear will be ruined for seed saving purposes.  So when you’re sure the silks are about to appear you want to bag as many ears as are ready.

Always bag the top ear (the plant feeds that one first and drops last in a drought).  To bag your ear you will tear off the ‘leaf’ that is covering the baby ear, cut the tip-off with the pocket knife, cutting enough off to expose the silks, this will look like a pea-sized circle in the center of the cut.  Use care when doing this too far down can damage the cob and cause smut.  You can tear off an ear or two from a plant you’re not going to save from and look to see about how far down to cut if you want.

Once that’s done you cover the ear with a ‘shoot bag’, it covers the whole ear and is wedged next to the stock.  The number you can bag the first day will depend on how many have silks ready to emerge.  You can bag more on the second day and third or fourth days if needed, particularly if the pollen is shedding yet.

The next trick is to staple a brown ‘tassel bag’ around each tassel just as it begins to shed pollen.  Bag too early and the pollen won’t develop.  Once you’re ready to bag your tassels give the stalk just below the tassel a good shake.  This will help dislodge any pollen that may have floated in.

Then pull the branches upward and put the ‘tassel bag’ over the tassel.  You’ll want stalk of the plant in the corner of the bag…  Fold the opening of the bag back towards the stalk and then staple closed.  The object, of course, is to fasten the bag tightly enough to keep the pollen from falling down and out of the bag.  You may notice some of the leaves just below the tassel have pollen in them.  You’ll want to remove those leaves as they have contaminated pollen there.

The pollen will fall in the morning and you’ll want to collect it before the high heat of the afternoon as the sun can kill the pollen inside the bag.  If you can’t collect until later in the day you’ll need to have more pollen to get good seed set as the sun will reduce the quality.  Your best bet is to bag in the evening and do your pollination is the late morning or early afternoon.

When ready to collect pollen bend each tassel bag over slightly downward, don’t break the tassel or the plant!  Give the bag a good shake to dislodge as much pollen as possible.  Unfasten the staple and still keeping the bag down gently shake the tassel as you pull it from the bag.  Once you’ve collected all the pollen bags carefully pour your pollen into one bag and mix well.

Keep the shoot bags on until time to sprinkle the pollen onto that ear.  If the silk has grown long you can trim it to about one inch in length.  Try to think about how many ears you’ll be pollinating and how much pollen you have so you can divide it evenly.

Shake the pollen from the bag along one of the ‘fold’ lines on the edge.  When you first shake it down the bag there will be some debris, just remove it.  Then gently shake the pollen onto the silk, maybe just less than ½ teaspoon per ear.  Try to be even and don’t just dump it in one spot.  Cover your pollinated ear with one of the used pollen bags and pull the bag around the ear and staple a couple of times.  You want it to be loose enough for the ear to grow but not so loose the wind can blow it off  The bag can be left in place until harvest and that way you’ll know to save seed from that ear.

To harvest the seed, leave ears on until the stalks are completely dry.  If animals or weather makes that impossible, you can harvest mature cobs, husk and dry them under shelter.  Drying should be done in less than 95 degrees F.  Do not remove seed until both cob and kernels are dry.

To remove seed just rub two cobs together.  Any silk or cob debris should be removed by pouring seed from one bowl to another on a windy day.  Any kernels not completely formed should be removed.  Always mix your seed from at least 25-50 plants for best results.  As always, seed should be completely dried before storing.  Sweet corn should maintain 50% germination for up to three years if stored in a cool, dry, dark spot.

Melons:  These are very difficult to save seed from as they need bees and flies for pollination, plus the plants will drop up to 80% of their female flowers.  It’s impossible to know which flowers will be dropped so you’re looking at maybe 10-15% of the hand pollinated ones developing into fruit.

Of course, the best isolation is with ½ mile distance between varieties and for those of you living in outer nowhere that may be possible.  For the rest of us, we’re looking at hand pollination.  It’s not hard but it is time-consuming.  You’ll need to know the difference between male and female flowers and you’ll need to know when they are ready to open.  Male flowers have straight stems clear to the flower while female flowers have a small bump/ball at the base of the flower where it attaches to the stem.

You’ll need a small piece of tape about ¼ inch wide and ½ inch long, tape flowers closed in the early evening.  When you tape the female flowers pinch the tape together beside the flower but leave the tape ends apart, that will make removing the tape easier the next morning.  If you break off the stem from the male flower you can use a piece of tape as a stand-in to help with holding the flower.

In the morning after the dew has dried carefully remove the tape from the female flower try not to damage the blossom.  Then take the male flower and remove the tape and its petals, gently rub/dab the pollen from the male flower onto the stigma (that’s the long slender stick thing) of the female blossom.  Once done carefully re-tape the blossom closed and then mark with a small piece of floss or yarn.  If after 3-4 days the stem attachment is still green and the tiny fruit has grown slightly, then your chances are good you were successful.

Melons seed are ready when the fruits are ready to eat, however, if you can let them slightly overripe you’ll have up to 10% more seeds although the melons aren’t as good to eat.  When you save the seed have a bowl ready and then slice the melon open and collect in the bowl.  Try to remove as much pulp and threads as you can.  Then add water to allow the bad seed and debris to float, pour off and repeat until only good clean seed remains.

Pour the seed into a strainer and rinse thoroughly to remove any of the natural sugar from the melon.  Dry in the strainer on a dish towel to remove as much water as you can.  Then pour onto a cookie sheet to dry.  Seed should remain good for up to 5 years if stored in a cool, dry and dark place.

Cucumbers:  The pollination for cuke’s is the same as for melons.  They don’t like high heat or drought conditions so don’t pollinate during those times.  For seed saving, you need to grow the cuke’s to maturity and allow them to ripen way past eating.  Depending on the type they should turn to a white, deep yellow or even orange.

Each cuke will have hundreds of seeds.  If you keep fully mature cucumbers for about two weeks after cutting from the plant, you should have a greater number of viable seed.  If you find you have few if any seed inside the cuke that generally means you didn’t get enough pollen or it could be a type that doesn’t require fertilization.

To clean the seed follow the same process as for tomato seed.  Use just enough water to cover the seed but not too much.  Set the bowl outside and out of direct light.  After about 3 days, follow the tomato water and drain information.  Pour clean seed into the strainer and dry as for melons.  Under super conditions seed should be good for up to 10 years.

Sorry for the lack of photos, as I said at the beginning; it’s been a long time between gardens due to the deer.  Thankfully the electric fence is keeping them out and I’m hopefully saving seed again.

Heirloom seed saving is a wonderful experience.  It’s easy to save your garden seed for next year and can help with not just prepping for disaster but also reduce the cost of a garden.  There are many books that will help you learn to save heirloom seed and they should be part of any preppers’ library.

by Petermccue

Like me, I’m sure you’ve seen the numbers out on the internet – “You only need a quarter of an acre to support a family of four” or “Five acres for a family of four” or “20 acres for a family of four” – but what is the basis for these figures?

I originally started this article to debunk the “seed safety in a can” products. I’m sure everyone’s seen them, and I’ve always had the idea they were a crock of … err, horse-by-product, but I’d never seen anyone actually sit down and crunch numbers on why they aren’t. So I began looking at numbers – figuring out food you could get for a given amount of seed.

I knew that the numbers I’d seen in various gardening books for recommended numbers of plants to have were insane – mainly based on my own experience with gardening. Those numbers may be enough to supplement a family during the summer, but they aren’t enough to actually support a family for a whole year.

So, I started by looking for data on how much food a typical family consumes in a year. Weirdly, this was quite difficult to find. Oh, yeah, there’s plenty of lists out there for how much to store for a family/person, but not much on how much fresh food a family will consume in a year. While I could have tracked my family’s consumption for the year, this would have delayed this article a bit! Eventually, I tracked down some data from the USDA (hey, finally some use from my tax dollars!) where they gave stats for various ages of both genders.

While the information on meat and such like wasn’t that useful to me, the vegetable and fruit guidelines were quite helpful. Under their “thrifty” plan (and allowing for loss/wastage, and taking the highest possible number for the various age/sex breakdowns), I came up with needing 100 pounds of potatoes, 125 pounds of dark green veggies (broccoli, chard, spinach, etc), 100 pounds of orange veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash, pumpkins), 120 pounds of legumes, 305 pounds of other veggies (this includes ALL others – tomatoes, radishes, onions, garlic, etc.), 425 pounds of fruit, and 240 pounds of grains.

The fruit, I’m leaving out of this (except in as far as melons and watermelons figure in), mainly because you mostly get that from bushes and trees. Because in a SHTF situation (or even in an off-grid homesteading situation) we will likely eat a lot fewer fruits and more veggies than the current American diet, I did increase the veggies a bit to account for fewer fruits (especially those from tropical sources – such as bananas or citrus).

I then looked at the various veggies/beans/fruits/grains in the categories and looked for ease of seed saving and ease of growing. I wanted to avoid “finicky” vegetables such as cauliflower or ones that aren’t really that nutritious such as celery (which is also picky on growing). I also wanted to avoid too many biennial vegetables, but that was more difficult – lots of very nutritious veggies are biennials, which makes saving seed a bit more difficult.

My assumption was that we were dealing with a family of four, who had never gardened before, and who would make LOTS of mistakes in the process of learning how to garden well. Also, I assumed they’d need to do other things than a garden, so we went with plain row cropping for the garden, rather than more intensive (and thus more productive) methods of gardening. Thus, I took the lowest yield assumptions for the various veggies I chose, as well as assuming a lot of wastage in seeds.

I then plugged a LOT of data into a spreadsheet (Which if you contact me, I’m happy to share – MD, if you want if for your next edition of the CD, I’ll get you a cleaned up version with the ability for folks to plug in their specifics and get data out… my spreadsheet doesn’t only include a “thrifty” plan, but also a stepped-up version for moderate needs and then a “lavish” plan for what I’m aiming at. It will give you approximate numbers of seed you need each year, etc as well as figure what sort of spacing requirements you’ll need.)

So, with those assumptions in mind – I looked over the choices and made some picks. Any biennials I figured I needed twice as many seeds, so I could plant the second year as well. (I’m not going to show the row feet or the square feet calculations I made, but they are in the spreadsheet).

In the dark green veggies, it’s very hard to avoid biennials. It’s also very hard to avoid vegetables that could potentially cross with each other, which makes seed saving even more difficult, as you must bag/isolate/etc the various plants you’re saving for seed. I ended up settling on broccoli, collard greens, mustard greens, and spinach.

Mustard and spinach are annuals, which makes them easier to deal with, and along with the collards, they can be canned for storage. Broccoli doesn’t can well, but it can be dehydrated and it is also cold hardy, so you can grow it in spring and fall as well as winter if you’re in a mild climate or have cold frames. Kale and chard, although falling in this category, are not only more unfamiliar with most Americans but also biennials.

For our mythical family of four, I was aiming for 280 pounds of broccoli, 60 pounds of collards, 60 pounds of mustard greens, and 100 pounds of spinach. Including plants raised for seeds, they would need 14,000 (2 ounces) broccoli seeds (remember, it’s a biennial, so we double the seeds to allow for two years before our seed saving bears fruit), 2800 (third of an ounce) collard seeds (also a biennial), 3200 (quarter of an ounce) mustard seeds, 3200 (1.5 ounces) spinach seeds.

Orange veggies only have one biennial, but it’s an important one – carrots. Carrots are tricky to save seed from because they can so easily cross with Queen Anne’s Lace. So having extra carrot seed is probably a good idea, so you can keep your seeds pure (and make lots of mistakes in the process of learning). The other tricky veggie here is sweet potatoes, which are very nutritious but do not reproduce from seed.

So you can’t store seed for them. Note that squash and pumpkins will cross with each other, but the procedure for saving their seeds is a bit easier than say … carrots. Although my spreadsheet plans on using sweet potatoes for my family (because we grow them already), I’ve replaced that for our phantom family with extra pumpkins and winter squash, to go along with the carrots. I’ve assumed that our family would need 160 pounds of carrots (they want good eyesight!), 80 pounds of pumpkins, and 160 pounds of winter squash.

Note that the carrots can be canned, but can also be stored long-term, so these are good choices. For this family’s need, they’d probably want 26,400 (1.5 ounces) carrot seeds, 150 (1 ounce) pumpkin seeds, and 1200 (4 ounces) squash seeds.

Beans and legumes are basic to nutrition and can help make up for lack of meat in our diet. Beans aren’t that difficult to save seeds from and the whole family is annuals, so they aren’t tricky for our family. (The main problem is learning when to start harvesting the dry pods!) For our family, I’ve figured on them wanting 280 pounds of dry bush beans, 120 pounds of dry pole beans, and 80 pounds of cowpeas (crowder peas/southern peas/black-eyed peas). For this, they’d need 14,000 (156 ounces or about 9.75 pounds) of bush dry beans, 2800 (43 ounces or 2.75 pounds) pole dry beans, and 5200 (20.8 ounces) of cowpeas. Luckily, you can mostly use storage beans for this, if you increase the amounts somewhat to allow for lower germination rates.

Potatoes are a problem. You need them but you can’t grow them from seeds. And they don’t store past a year. You need about 10 pounds of seed potatoes to plant a 100′ row, which will usually yield about 100 pounds of potatoes. Our mythical family of four will need about 400 pounds of potatoes to eat, and about 40 pounds to seed for next year. What we’re doing here is always trying to keep at least 10 pounds of potatoes in the house, so we can grow them if need be. It’s not an ideal solution, but it’s the best we can do.

Other veggies include a LOT of things that American’s really want to eat. For our mythical family, I’ve culled the large list down to pole green beans, beets (good for both roots AND greens but a biennial), cabbage (biennial and will cross with our broccoli and collards!), sweet corn, cucumbers, garlic (doesn’t reproduce from seed – we’ll discuss later), leaf lettuce, onions (biennial), garden peas, peppers (both hot and sweet), radish, summer squash, and tomatoes.

Peppers and tomatoes don’t cross-pollinate easily, so you can choose a number of different varieties if needed. They are also easy to save seed from. Cucumbers will cross with themselves but can be hand-pollinated if more than one variety is desired to be grown. Garlic is a bit more difficult as it is not only best grown in the fall in most of the US, but it also doesn’t seed, so you need to have cloves to start from. Best bet is to keep some garlic cloves around at all times to have some to start.

Ideally, our family would need 100 pounds of pole green beans, 120 pounds of beetroots (and that would give them about 20 pounds of greens to eat fresh), 120 pounds of cabbage, 120 pounds of sweet corn, 60 pounds of cucumbers (although you’ll likely get a LOT more), 80 pounds of garlic, 80 pounds of leaf lettuce, 120 pounds of onions, 80 pounds of garden peas, 60 pounds of peppers, 20 pounds of radish, 80 pounds of summer squash (although since this is zucchini – it’ll likely be more), and 160 pounds of tomatoes (likely more, but …).

For this, you’ll need 560 (9 ounces) pole green bean seeds, 4400 (2 ounces) beet seeds, 5200 (three quarters of an ounce or so) cabbage seeds, 2400 (2 pounds) sweet corn seed, 320 (half an ounce or so) cucumber seeds, 4 pounds of garlic, 12,400 (half an ounce) leaf lettuce seeds, 21,200 (3 ounces) onion seeds, 9200 (84 ounces or 5.25 pounds) garden peas, 400 (tenth of an ounce) peppers, 1320 (half an ounce) radish seeds, 120 (half an ounce) summer squash seeds, and 240 (under a tenth of an ounce) tomato seeds.

Fruits mainly concern melons and watermelons – you don’t need much of these because they don’t store well and are hot weather growing plants. I’d be comfortable with 200 seeds of each type for our mythical family, which should give them plenty of fruit.

Grains are the last category. For our mythical family, I’ve chosen flint or dent corn, popcorn (which can do double duty but will have to be hand pollinated to keep it from cross-pollinating with each other and with the sweet corn), wheat and oats. The wheat can come from storage – like the beans, just increase what’s used for lower germination. The corn cannot come from storage, as it’s most likely hybrid.

And most folks store rolled oats, which won’t work for sprouting. Ideally, the family would grow 100 pounds of dent corn, 100 pounds of popcorn, 120 pounds of oats, and 600 pounds of wheat. To get that, they’ll need 2 pounds of dent corn, 2 pounds of popcorn, 32 pounds of oats, and 100 pounds of wheat. The corns would be planted in rows, but the oats and wheat would be broadcast as it’s unlikely they will have the equipment to drill plant the other grains.

Now, what amount of space would be needed for this? Assuming row cropping the garden vegetables, and broadcasting the oats and wheat, and NOT doing any double planting throughout the year, you’re looking at about 1.68 acres for our family of four – assuming normal soil conditions. If you have access to manure/compost, spacing requirements would probably be lower. If you’re in dry conditions or on poor soil, it’d be more. And this doesn’t allow for letting a field lie fallow for a while or something similar.

Looking at those numbers of seeds, it’s easy to see that most “survival seed banks” are not really worth it. They won’t be tailored to your climate, firstly. Also, they will include seeds that will not store well – onions for example. Sweet corn is another seed that doesn’t store long. They also get the numbers way wrong. For example – one seed vault has 65 green bean seeds. This isn’t going to be near enough to allow for any loss in germination or other catastrophes.

Another one out there (marketed as working for 1 acre of gardening) has 1700 tomato seeds! That’s about 1000 more than even *I* would store at my most paranoid. And they are all one variety too! But they don’t just get the numbers wrong – they also get the varieties wrong. Many many vaults include onions that don’t keep well – such as Walla Walla. Don’t get me wrong, WW’s are a great onion, but they don’t keep. You want a long keeper such as Stuttgarter or Yellow Flat Dutch.

I found one vault that included 700 jalapeno seeds – really? Does anyone need that many jalapenos?? I had 10 plants last summer and that made so many peppers we were drowning in them. (Lesson learned – next year – 4 plants!). They also include vegetables that are very difficult to grow for beginners – such as eggplant or celery. And celery is not exactly high in calories or nutrition, so it’s taking up space better used for other seeds. Even the ones that include grains, don’t include enough. Most include at most half a pound of grain seed – which isn’t going to be near enough.

When I started this project, I’d originally thought that having one of those seed vaults wouldn’t be a complete waste of space. I had hoped I’d find one that could serve as a useful backup to my own seeds. However, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are pretty much utterly useless.

And that’s without having seen the “instructions” that are included! I’ve come to the conclusion that they give a false sense of security to folks, who think that if they have one, they don’t need to bother with gardening or practicing – but they can just “grab the can” and start gardening and grow tons of food. You’re better off getting the supplies to store your own choices and tailor it to your own needs than buy one of the over the counter collections.