11 Crops to Grow To Survive Difficult Times! 

Don't forget oyster mushrooms. You can grow them low teck on wasteproducts like straw, cardboard, spent coffee, sawdust... And harvest within 4 weeks

Great video and very educative. The thought of retirement makes me worry. My apologies to everyone who have retired and filing social security during this time after putting in all those years of work just to lose everything to a problem you never imagined to happen. It’s so difficult for people who are retired and have no savings to fall back on.

Great content, as always 💪 My great-grandparents survived both world wars. And they kept repeating that they managed to do it thanks to potatoes (calories), onions (or garlic - as an antibiotic) and kale (micronutrients) + faith in God and help from a neighbors. To protect from scurvy, I would add a carrot.

Beets are two crops, the greens are edible. Squash has three crops-blossoms, the squash and the seeds. Sunflower seeds can be pressed for oil. Collards are the most nutritious green and can be fermented but i love kale also. Calories will be important in a shtf situation but so will nutrient content. Grow your corn, squash and beans in a Three Sisters configuration for better yields and soil replenishment.

Jerusalem artichokes are one of the plants that I have transplanted into several wooded areas to enhance my forage foods.

As a botanical biodiversity research specialist who has trialed dozens of nutrient-dense food plants from all over the world, I am now in production of quinoa which loves the N. Calif. coastal climate. Few people are aware that quinoa leaves contain 14.66 % full amino spectrum protein, even more than the seed, and are delicious raw in salads or steamed as greens. Quinoa is the cool-loving cousin of amaranth which needs heat to set seed. The on-going research on quinoa varieties has identified some which are salty soil tolerant. I would add that scarlet runner beans are an amazingly abundant legume and have a vertical growth habit that saves space in the garden. I am also growing yacon, another of the tuberous sunflower species like jerusalem artichokes containing inulin sugars that are prebiotic yet do not cause flatulence. Thanks for the great vid series. As we head into a global food shortage, this information is lifesaving....

# 1 Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes # 2 Corn # 3 Jerusalem Artichoke # 4 Squash # 5 Dry Beans # 6 Fruit Trees # 7 Sunflowers # 8 Beets # 9 Kale #10 Hazelnut/Filbert Tree #11 Amaranth

My parents lived in a small farming community during the depression and root crops played a major food source. Items such as turnups, parsnips, onions, carrots, beets and potatoes were eaten every day plus knowing how to make good gravy kept it all palatable.

•Amaranth-we grow the red variety and we pluck the large mature red flower/seed head as soon as possible, and 10-20 more quickly start growing, which increases yields dramatically. •Jerusalem Artichoke/Sunchokes-we harvest as late as possible in winter eliminating flatulence. •Luffa-grows like crazy here in Texas dangling from the pecan trees. It provides lots of food and scrubbers for bathing and dishes. •Parched corn-according to Lewis or Clark was carried by Iroquois Indians as they traveled, in a small bag providing about a month’s supply of food. They’d take a palm full once or twice a day with water, which would swell up in their stomach staving off hunger. •Beet leaves-are very high in potassium. Plant the leftover beet top to regrow more. Same for regrowing romaine lettuce, onions, celery, fennel, leeks, and lemon grass except use the bottom. •Acorns-were the main staple for Indians in our area. Roast them by the fire until they crack open, then scrape the brown tannin layer off the nut to eat. •Lambs Quarters/Goosefoot/wild spinach reseeds itself in abundance every year and is very nutritious. •Same for Purselane. •Woodsorrel-is very high in iron growing around most peoples homes. •Peach and Nectarines- if you eat a good one, remember to plant the pit to get an exact tasty replica of the parent tree. •Mulberry-is said to grow in more climate zones than any other tree, so most everyone should be able to grow it too. •Autumn Olives and Japanese Honeysuckles are another invasive food abundance likely growing around you. •Water plants-Cattails, Wapata, Lotus, Chinese water chestnut and wild rice-remember them too. •Learn your wild edibles which are more resilient. Try not overindulging in any one plant to protect your health.

The japanese cook sweet potato differently. Add it whole to your bbq grill without cutting it, wait till soft. Tastes amazing.

The Chia plant (Salvia Hispanica) is good for survival. The seeds are high in protein, essential fats, fiber, calcium, iron, phosphorous, zinc, magnesium, B1, and B3. Also, the leaves are edible and can be used as a spinach substitute. The downside is that they are considered invasive because they self seed. But that means less time spent planting.

I would recommend multiple types of perennial berry bushes. They're extremely high in nutrition and polyphenols. They're also more resistant to drought and frost than annuals. That's really important when you're depending on your own production. You don't want all of your food wiped out in one weather event. By planting a variety of them, you can have harvests from late spring through late fall. Strawberries and currants first thing followed by raspberries, blueberries, and mulberries. You can also find very cold hardy varieties such as aronia, grapes, mountain cranberries, and lingonberries. Plus many of them such as raspberries, gooseberries, goji berries, and elderberries will readily self-seed and increase your yield without having to put in additional work.

Black eyed peas (Cowpeas). Excellent, versatile, hardy, high protein crop. All parts of the plant are edible at all stages. You can pick the leaves to eat before the plant starts putting on pods. Then you can harvest immature pods and eat like green beans. Finally, you can harvest the dried pods to save as dried black eyed peas for winter storage.

So glad to have found you….. very inspiring….. you don’t have to listen to music or watch children or pets or bees buzzing round flowers…. Straight to the point with exceptionally well scientifically referenced data …. easily the best gardening site I have ever watched….. and I have watched a lot….. well done

Something I would definitely add to the list is chayote squash. I have harvested around 400 fruits from one vine this year. The fruits, leaves and roots are edible, and there are so many ways to prepare them. They are definitely one of my favorite foods. Also, spinach (swiss chard, lamb's quarters, NZ spinach and mustard spinach), as we struggle to grow kale on our property.

Amaranth is a decent choice if you want to go for ancient grains. Another two ancient grains I'd like to add to this list are Sorghum and Quinoa. Sorghum if you live in a hot climate, quinoa if you live in a colder climate. The U.S. is the highest producer of sorghum in the world; Kansas is the #1 state in terms of acreage and Texas is #2. Ancient grains usually don't have gluten so you can't make bread out of them but you can make flatbread like tortillas. Some of them you can boil like rice or pop like popcorn. Also, most ancient grains are hardier than grains like corn or wheat so you can afford a few mistakes.

I see people mentioned you can eat squash and sweet potato leaves. You can also eat amaranth and beets leaves. Both are very nutritious. Also it’s a great idea to get familiar with native edibles in your area. There are so many and they often have more nutrients than the ones we have in our gardens. Purselane has more omega 3 fatty acids than any other plant. Lambs quarters, dandelion, including the roots which make a good coffee/ tea substitute when chopped and lightly roasted. As does chicory. Plantain leaves are not only edible but medicinal. And there are so many many more. As well as mushrooms. Just be careful that you know what your getting. Mushrooms can be very healthy but some can make you horribly I’ll and even kill.

Dry Mung Beans have an incredible long storage life. They don't seem to attract pests and can be sprouted in 3-4 days. They can also be Cooked in various recipes. If you Plant the dry seed EACH PLANT produces 100's of more mung beans. I get several hundred beans from EACH plant using NO Till methods and 3+ harvests if you are careful to harvest the mature pods only.

Governments talk about 'Food Insecurity' Because they CREATE IT !

Squash actually technically has 3 sources of calories. The leaf, the meat, and the seeds. In my parents native culture they ate the flower of the squash plant.

What an important video! This video could very well save millions of lives someday. To me, the way you explained these crops--calories per acre and native origin--are so helpful in understanding them more thoroughly. Excellent explanations here!

Pears were one of the first fruit trees I planted 30 years ago. Still love home canned pears, but I also make Pear Cider Vinegar.

The very first american I see mentioning 'Polenta', one of the most important survival foods that you cold have. Amazing content.

In my part of the world (the tropics) its: 1. Cassava 2. Breadfruit 3. Yam 4. Peanuts

I planted hazel trees all over my acreage, for nuts, firewood and to make greenwood furniture. But it'd take about 15 years growth to get the quantity of nuts you suggest. Also, grey squirrels know they're there, and believe me, you won't get a look in before the nuts are stripped out. The squirrels take them green, and just bury them when they can't eat any more. On the plus side, I have little hazels growing everywhere.

A note on the hazel / filbert tree: many of them require two different tree species to be fertile enough to grow nuts, especially if you're looking to grow native species in your area (always best). Speak with a reputable nursery or even with a local hazelnut orchard farm (within 200 miles) to see what they recommend for the area; if this is the case, make sure you do have 1 male tree of the right species for every 4-6 female trees. Native hazels in western WA require two different species to seed properly, so this is what someone like me has to do, to grow hazels. Do remember that hazelnuts come with a prickly outer husk, and handle with care & caution. There are instructions online for proper harvesting, but it is also recommended that the hucked in-the-shell nuts also be air-dried for a while before consumption, which can be done on mesh racks that are stacked in ways that provide good airflow. (The indigenous peoples of Western WA used to dry them for many months this way.) Additionally, hazels can be coppiced, e.g. cut back down to the stump. (Please watch videos on proper coppicing methods; I am not an expert by any means, lol.) Coppicing helps the trees remain short and easily harvested, albeit with a 2-3 year pause for the returning branches to be big enough for nut growth, but the biggest advantage of doing so is the fact that hazel branches can make perfect weaving material for things like stout baskets and sturdy yet decorative fences. These are known as "hurdles" in the British Isles, where it's a very popular method of fencing material. (You can see lots of beautiful weaving patterns in images found online, which can add decorative touches to your property.) And though its main use has been for weaving, the wood of the hazel tree is actually fairly dense and makes a very good firewood in terms of BTUs. When properly coppiced, split, thoroughly seasoned & fully dried before use, hazelwood is an ideal sustainable source of firewood for rocket mass heaters as well as a good source of delicious food. Most hazel trees never grow huge trunks, so traditional sizes & scales of firewood aren't as useful, but rocket mass heaters are best used with smaller chunks and segments of wood, much closer to kindling in size, since that maximizes airflow through the burn tube.

This year we planted a lot of corn in the three sisters method with black beans and butternut squash. This is my first year growing Jerusalem Artichokes. I’ve got a big bed of red, white and purple potatoes, and another of sweet potatoes. What I’d like to do is plant out a full acre of these high calorie crops. We are in a ministry and live on ministry property. No other staff want to help with the “community” garden.

I gotta say, the graph is what made this video stand out for me and made me put extra effort to find this video when doing research on what to plant in my own garden. I know it's not super high effort (compared to some other forms of graphics and video editing), but it had great returns in the quality it added to the video for me! Great video!

I'd add a fig tree in there, as they are a complete food, easy to grow, and very prolific if you pick the righ variety for your area. Better for warmer climates, with dry summers.

Hazel trees are also really useful for the thin flexible stems/branches that are great for all sorts of things even traps and bows for small game.

Add Moringa to your list. It's native to India and won't grow in cold climates during the winter, but it is so nutritious some poor people use it as their primary food source and it sustains them. It grows FAST! You can grow a bush the size of a tree even when harvesting from it regularly. You can dry the leaves, freeze, or preserve them too. As much as it produces in the summer, you'd be able to save some for winter even when eating it in the summer. Save seeds or a cutting indoors for the next year.

You're doing a great job. One of the best survival garden video's I've seen . Very concise information.

Squash (or pumpkin as we call their here) have a third option, “The Leaves” not many folk realize pumpkin leaves are very edible and nutritional when slightly cooked. Make a great option as a wrap after light steaming. The light cooking eliminates the spikiness. 👍

Such good videos. No filler, just excellent information, clearly explained. Can't tell you how much I enjoy your videos.

First timer here. You had me at amaranth! I’m growing it for the first time to supplement our hens’ diet. I grew kale, too for the first time and filed it in my brain as highly nutritious. I need to learn to do better with beets. I love them. Thank you for a great video!

I like my brassica frankenplants. 😂 Also, something good to know about sunflower, squash, beets, and sweet potato is that the leaves are edible. You can harvest about a third of their leaves without slowing the production of the part you normally eat, and then you can use up all the greens at harvest. The male flowers of squash (the ones without fruit under them) can also be harvested without messing up fruit production, just be sure to harvest them after they've spent one morning fully blossomed. After that, they're pretty useless to the plant.

So glad you mentioned sunchokes, you don't need to work hard to get a patch started, you just have to keep it from taking over the whole garden! I moved my patch two years ago and am still digging out stragglers. The nice thing is the bugs don't seem to like them too much either, as long as you don't let things get too crowded. And even with my area's harsh winters, it's the only thing I can harvest in spring before my asparagus patch gets going! I refer to it as my apocalypse crop... I wish I could grow sweet potatoes but the largest I've managed so far was the size of a hotdog, maybe next year I'll try a few in my new hoop house with the more sensitive nightshades and see if extending the growing season a bit on each side works any better, but the way my garden produces, some things are just better bought at the store... like dry beans.

An honorable mention that grows everywhere is the dandelion. It's completely edible and grows quickly. The sunflower is also a plant that yield to types of food. The seeds and the blossom itself not sure about the stalks.

I am trying out amaranth and quinoa this year along with loads of winter squash, potatoes, carrots, beets and beans. Pretty much every time I watch the news I go put some more seeds in the ground 😝 I opted not to grow spinach or kale this year to make way for more calorie dense plants and instead am using amaranth leaves and beet greens as well as foraging nettle leaves (which grow like crazy here) to get additional micronutrients.

I found swiss chard very easy to grow and very well producing. I am glad that I gave it a try last year.

Always well researched and presented. Never wasted time watching your vids.

I'd add turnip's. They store well & delicious in soups/stews, sauteed w/onions in butter, fried w potatoes...

If I may, I wish to add something to the chicken carb yield; Chickens are also a way to: 1.) regain some of your wasted scraps back into food (eggs, meat) 2.) access a resource on your land that would otherwise go to waste I'll elaborate. With point 1 I mean you can feed your chicken things you may otherwise discard. They eat it and convert the nutrients to chicken, or into chicken manure. Point 2 is that every piece of land will have its fair number of insects and other criters. Protein that would otherwise not become available to you unless you start going the WEF way and eat those. Your chicks will use this food source, and again will convert those into chicken meat or eggs. The yield of chickens is therefore possibly slightly higher, and also will the kind of nutrients they produce be very valiable. My 2 cents for who was curious

If you're going to eat a lot of grain corn, you should boil it with alkali to make the niacin bioavailable and get rid of some of the mycotoxins.

The beets are also 2 foods in one… I don’t really care for beets much but I love beet greens.

I have hazelnut trees. They are great. In fact i have so many i started using them as hedges. Most annoying thing it that you may forget to pick up just handfull of nuts wich is around 15-25 pieces, and at least 10 will start growing. Every year i find new ones growing somewhere, and transplanting them is no issue either. I took out 2 that were pretty big, and had to lob off over 60% of the root system (And i mean major roots), but after planting them in new place, and giving each a bucket of water 1-3 times a week for next 2 months they had no issue growing again. Of course it stopped their growth for next 2 years because they were developing the roots back, but they are back at it.

Pumpkin seeds are also great for getting rid of internal pests. We used them to worm our goats

I live in the Mojave desert in a place that gets like 3 inches of rain a year and gets really hot in summer. Fruits and vegatables that grow above ground get burned pretty easy, but I'm discovering things that grow their eatin' parts underground are great. Things like radishes and stuff. Lettuce of different types grows well, too. Not a lot of calories but they're both good things to bulk up a meal and they only take three weeks from planting the seed to producing an edible plant. Gonna try to grow me some 'taters soon. I hear you can do it in a big trash bag full o' dirt.

Thank you Chad. Great work here, and very important knowledge you’re passing along. Great job all around.

Great list. I wrote it all down. The only thing I think you missed was the great varieties of Berries. That was high on my list of perennial plantings this year. Fast & easy to grow. Thanks for your helpful quality videos!

Straight to the point! Most information and a good Voice to listen to

You are the reason I started my RU-vid channel so I could connect with people and make them think about their future survival and help them! Thank you!

This is one of the best survival food list, great work, concise and ranked by calories per acre. There is a region skew, up here in new England the 7 sisters include groundnuts and ground cherry Down south peanuts & Cassava Storage and the hungry gap is the true seasonal Starvation challenge Consider in ground food storage ie turnips

In a subtropical climate so we also have bananas avocados macadamia & yakon Also use Asian greens a lot Thank you great vid 🙏💜

Jerusalem Artichoke provides both pollen and nectar for honey bees in late summer through early fall; cannot have enough of them, so I surreptitiously spread the tubers far beyond my property lines.

Very educational. Thanks. I often tell my wife when we retired I’d like to get a small spread of land maybe 20-50 acres up in Oregon. These plants would go perfect. You’ve got a new subscriber here 🙌🏼

I agree with all the foods you’ve listed and we have grown most of them except amaranth. I’m going to try it next year. Thank you for the suggestions and links.

My first house was built in 1926 and there were filbert bushes / hedges. I pruned the hedge / bushes and had nuts the next year! Those bushes were old and the only thing I did was to prune suckers at the base and prune out dead stuff. Nothing else. They were tall, between 8 and 12 feet and had been planted as a fence on the property line.

Thank you for this list. Looking forward to learning the best varieties for my region. Be well.

Potatoes are best in my climate. (Austrian Alps). And did you know that you can breed them to adapt to your climate, for better yields and taste? You just need the seeds from the berries and a few years of selection work.

Sorghum is the trifecta plant, Small seeds for storage, several thousands seeds for next years crop. Can be used for flour, stalks used for syrup, can be used to make ethanol, Its more drought tolerant than corn, yields a ton of seeds that can also be used for poultry feed.

Brilliant! I would just like to personally thank you for this amazing presentation. Cheers from Ottawa, Canada 🇨🇦

Thank you for sharing your content. I appreciate your clarity and concise presentation in your videos. Learning so much!

Amaranth is still very labor intensive to process. I took just one head of those Golden Amaranths and processed it for seed clean enough for eating. Took me an hour an a half. Worth investing in some type of device that can seperate the chaff.

What a great video!! Such good information. What about carrots? My grandma would put them in sand in her cellar and they lasted all year.

Man, this is some seriously valuable knowledge you're laying down. Thank You so much!

Amazing! I've been trying to put this information together and here it is all in one place! One piece of information I didn't pick up in the video is that the average adult needs about 0.73 million calories per year. (2,000 per day x 365 days per year). It's great to see that basically any plant in this video provides more than enough calories for 2 people on one acre! Fast paced, great information, and very practical. Thanks Chad!

The two crops that I like to grow together are corn and beans. I really like the painted mountain corn and the Rosso di Lucca bush beans. Great calories in both and they store well. Great thoughts Chad. God bless you brother.

Off grid tools for grain corn are hand crank grinder and a volcanic matate which is a large curved surface to mash ground nixtamilzed corn into fine paste after grinding to make tortillas that puff on dry griddle. Matate likely is great at mashing sprouted wheat berries into fine dough for flat breads as well.

I thought this was going to be a stupid video but gave it a shot. Wow, outstanding info, presented quickly and with just enough detail. Well done!

Just found this channel, what a treat.

My problem with growing sweet potato is I eat too much of the leaves while it's growing so I rarely get a good root harvest. It does grow practically all year here though and it is so easy to just shove cuttings in the ground to grow new plants. Another crop I am interested in is winged bean. It is a more tropical plant but has more nutrition than even soy and practically every part of it is edible including the roots!

Here's another thing you can do with potatoes for an even better yield. Graft a tomato plant to the potato root stock and now you've got tomatoes and potatoes on the same plant, giving you more variety without taking up more space. Results may vary but it is possible.

Thank you dear brother, for another awesome video!!! Always waiting for more !

Great vid-I need to write this list down when I get home from work!

Man, that’s awesome! I was going to say the sun choke. I just dedicated a 1/3 of my garden to it. It is quite prolific. Slice them in 1/2 or 1/4s and bake them with salt on them. Amazing!

I've focused on perennials over the last couple years... berry's, asparagus, nut and fruit trees, grape, horse radish, comfy, greek Oregano and peppers. Only grow a few annuals tomatoes, brassicas, peas and beans.

Good Job. I like watching videos that actually have usable info in them

Great list & presentation. Thanks for educating others.

Really well thought out suggestions, personally I’d put some alliums in there but just for a flavour flourish but I think with/on these ten crops alone you could live a long life while eating some really great dishes... nice work!

Butternut squash and acorn squash store very well. I don't know about 1 or two years, but easily 6 months. I think they actually taste much better after storing in my basement for 2-3 months.

These videos are great! Can't stop watching them.

Thank you so much for sharing such details and information about what we could potentially look into growing to provide for ourselves and family. It really helps to have this type of information, in order to make plans and to have the knowledge and know-how ahead of time when needed. May the Father bless you, and your time.

Excellent vid. Also, hemp - which used to be a REQUIRED crop of all homesteaders - complete protein, fibres for clothing, rope, etc., & animal feed (or so I've read). I also love flax, (same - seeds for eating/ nutrition, and fibres for clothing (linen), though I have no idea how hard it is to grow/ its viability/ processig/ storage, etc. Cheers!

Thanks for the great tips!👍🏻 Yes i have one crop missing: the chard, or Swiss chard! Happen to have it in my garden. It tastes great and also very easy to grow 😊

Awesome! Thank you for all these tips. I’m gonna get some amaranth and Jerusalem artichokes for the garden. God bless you 🙏

Wow... fantastic vid, Chad. Worth studying several times.

This channel is awesome.

We have perennial kale that grows into a bush. You only need 2 to 4 of those bushes to have an unlimited supply of kale year round. Also Plantain and millets have high calorific yield with some millets being very drought tolerant. There is even a variety of millet with a stalk that's sweet as sugarcane.

Thank you from NZ and to everyone for their useful and enjoyable comments.

Thank you for all your advices.

Can you recommend a video on harvesting seeds at the end of the season?

You can eat the leaves of amaranth, sweet potatoes, beets and even Pumpkin. When they jung and tender put them in salads, later use them as spinach. Beet greens contain oxalates and should not be eaten raw daily.

Sunflowers are great as they can also be pressed for their oil, to use for cooking, and are super quick and easy to grow. And bees live them, plus good for selfies.

Thank you for sharing! Great harvesting info.

Excellent video. One of the best on the topic. I am growing every year a bit more to achieve vegetables sustainability. Hope soon to add some chickens for the eggs. Eggs can be mixed for improved taste to many vegetables. I have a suburban garden and a few chickens should still be possible.

Great suggestions here, and thanks for providing source links too. I laughed when you were talking about filberts though, because I'm stuck in suburbia with a small yard. We have a very prolofic filbert tree, and it spreads itself all around the yard. Since we're in a more densely populated area though, what is more prolific than the filberts are the squirrels, so while we see plenty of nuts on the go, we have yet to glean any for ourselves! They are an excellent suggestion though if you're not beset with 'tree rabbits'. 😄

Excellent, interesting and informative. And more timely than ever! Thanks!

Nutrient dense information. Love the presentation and cadence.

Love this vid, had to save it to reference back! I love sunflower seeds, but hadn't considered growing them. Def going to buy some seeds! I live in south FL, so hopefully can grow them well here.