If you intend to feed yourself and your family, there are a few staple crops you absolutely need in rotation. These crops either have high yields, high nutrient values, or are easy to rear. Whether you are a new gardener or an old hand in the yard, it is important to plan out your garden with your future goals in mind. The sooner you can keep up with your family’s nutrition needs, the sooner you can save on groceries and unnecessary food purchases.
Beets
These hardy roots are a nutrient-dense and easy-to-store crop, which means they will both fill your family and your food storage. In fact, beets are actually known as a ‘superfood’ because of their antioxidants, fiber, and vitamins. Beets are also hardy vegetables that can grow in almost any climate or weather condition. Plant them when the temperature outside reaches about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, or about a month before the last frost. Because beets grow quickly, you can usually get two harvest out of them a year! Plant your second rotation towards the end of summer to have a nice winter yield.
Make sure you pre-soak the seeds and thin the crop every few weeks (the baby shoots do well in salads). In addition, you can plant more seeds every few weeks to maintain a continual harvest. You shouldn’t plant beets in plots that have previously held plants like spinach, but it makes great friends with another crop on our self-sufficient list: the onion.
Onion
Like beets, onions are hardy crops that can withstand cold temperatures well. They are good to plant int the fall or spring for a summer harvest. You can usually mix planting white, yellow, and red onions without any problems. You will want to prepare for your crop by creating raised beds or rows, and selecting the best onion seeds or sets. An onion set is a bulb that’s been prepared for planting and will take only a few months to grow.
Onions, like beets, do need a good amount of sun to grow, and they need some time to set up their roots to withstand the winter. For this reason, they should be planted in the fall before it gets too cold (and it should never get lower than 28 degrees after you plant them. If you live in a colder area, stick to spring crops). They can be planted in the spring as soon as the ground is warm enough to be worked in.
Potatoes
Potatoes are famous for their starchiness, nutrition-density, and versatility in recipes. You can do almost anything with potatoes, from mashing, to roasting, to baking, to frying. There are all sorts of recipes that can be made from potatoes, and like the other crops on this list, they store easily. Potatoes are also incredibly easy to grow—if you place a small seed potato dirt, you will easily get a potato yield in few months. For the best results, make sure you are planting in a well-drained bed that gets 7 or 8 hours of sunlight.
Plant potatoes during cool months, not when it is freezing or too hot. They can even be grown inside of sacks and other containers, making harvest easy. As they grow, you will want to pile dirt onto the potato stems that break the ground (as potatoes actually sprout from the lower stem, not the roots). It’s hard to ruin a potato crop, but some things that will help ensure success include getting your seed potatoes from a garden supply store (not using a grocery-bought spud), cutting the spuds before planting, and letting them dry indoors before planting cut-side down.
Cabbage
As you have probably guessed from the other crops on this list, cabbage is also an easy-to-grow and easy-to-store crop. While you may not have a lot of experience using cabbage, you should know that it goes well in salads, stir fries, casseroles, and almost anything else you can imagine. You will want to plant yours when its cool; warmer temperatures will cause the cabbage to split instead of forming its signature ‘head.’ Like onions, cabbage often functions as a fall and spring crop, though in more temperate areas they can be planted in the winter. The seeds usually take a week or two to sprout, and require plenty of sunlight and rich soil.
Although cabbage is easy to grow, it does have more trouble with temperature changes and pests than other crops on this list. One nice thing about cabbage, though, is that it comes in plenty of varieties. If your area is too temperate for the typical cabbage ‘head’ yield, then oriental or savoy varieties may be planted instead. As far as pests like aphids and cabbage worms are concerned, there are a few ways to combat them. One is to plant onions, one of the other vegetables on this list! Onions, along with radishes, can deter pests if planted around cabbages. Use row covers when plants are young to keep away enterprising buggy invaders, and build ‘collars’ of newspaper or other material around cabbage heads. You also may want to pick off caterpillars by hand each morning and night.
Tomatoes
Finally, let’s talk tomatoes. These juicy ‘vegetables’ (technically fruits) provide great hydration, and are great for sauces, soups, purees, and salads. While they don’t store fresh as long as other crops on this list, they are easy to can and can be incorporated into many different recipes. However, tomatoes are prone to more issues than the other crops on this list, so be sure to pay attention to your location, soil quality, and these tips.
Start by choosing healthy heirloom varieties, and make sure not to overcrowd your plot. Tomatoes need space, and they need to be thinned regularly so they don’t develop diseases later on. They also need plenty of light and warmth, so if you do plant them during the winter, be sure to provide artificial plant lighting if you are not growing them in greenhouse conditions. Tomatoes handle best when outside, as the blowing of the wind promotes thick, strong stem growth. If you are starting them indoors, provide a fan and put the seedlings only a few inches away from the lights, then lower them as they grow. If you don’t want to wait for tomato-growing weather, utilize row covers and cover the planting area with plastic to speed up the thaw. After the soil warms up, mulch them regularly and make sure when you first plant them that they are buried over their stems up to the top few leaves. This will also promote strong root growth.
These are just some of the staple crops that can boost your self-sufficiency as a gardener. A mix of hardy, resilient options like onions and potatoes with more pest- and temperature-sensitive choices like tomatoes and cabbages will give you a healthy variety and challenge your gardening chops. Be sure to pay attention to the weather and temperature of your state and area, and talk to other gardeners and homesteaders for tips. Some other crops that can help a self-sufficient farmer include squash, corn, garlic, and other herbs.