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    Ravenous: Subsistence Foods for Where You Live

    What five things could your community grow?

    Started by: spinnerin Raves:16 Badge Winner! Longbroading

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    My five in Portland, OR, USA are potatoes, swiss chard, rhubarb, eggs (I prefer duck), and honey. All of these things do well in my climate, and provide a pretty balanced diet. These aren't the only things I eat, but they give us some stability. What five things would work for your local climate and landscape? What local foods are you already eating? Historical foods might provide guidance, but in my area that would involve salmon, which is now in decline.

    I live on a polluted inland waterway which, in the past, was a vital fish spawning area. (SE Florida). On the mainland, sugarcane and citrus are industrial crops, but any tropical/subtropical fruit does well: bananas, pineapples, papayas, avocados. It\\\'s also hard *not* to do well with tomatoes, especially in winter. As for what I\\\'m already eating: Vitamins are not an issue, except in mid-summer. For protein, I take my chances with polluted fish, I swap for eggs when I can get \\\'em, and am not above frying locusts the way my grandmother did.

    My partner is from Florida, and he says they had a banana tree in the backyard when he was a kid. It sounds so exotic to me (a Pacific Northwest native). Could sugarcane become a backyard crop too?

    Another example: when I visited rural El Salvador in college (2001), the community we stayed with subsisted on corn meal (as tortillas), beans, squash, and chicken (egg and meat), all grown in town. The only main item that was purchased by the package in a store was rice.

    I\\\'d add strawberries, blackberries and rose hips - to make our meals and tea more enjoyable. And they are abundant in the Portland area.

    Here in Chicago we have the Rooftop Victory Gardens which was started a lil over 10 years ago which grows quite a lot of foods Amaranth Basil Buckwheat Collard greens Eggplant Green beans Horseradish, et cetera and have grown quite extensively since their start. The main growing season is from May to October here depending on the weather. I\\\'m not quite sure on the numbers of rooftop gardens but can find out if needed.

    We have a few acres with a few goats and some chickens. So goat cheese, eggs, and being in the more tropical area of Texas, we have a banana tree and small citrus like limes. Our garden is more warm weather plants like corn, wheat, and peppers. I can get some other things to grow, but not in abundance. We don\\\'t have the space for rice, but there is a rice farm a few miles away and he accepts barter.

    With current drought conditions in the Midwest and the scarcity of honeybee pollination, many of our traditional crops are no longer feasible. Corn is still strong although much smaller and more disease ridden than usual. Dill, Sage, Shelly Beans and Popcorn.

    In upstate New York we've got apples, cabbage, potatoes, squash, beans, corn, plums, cherries and currants. There's lots of wild plants that are edible/have healing properties.

    A number of common urban 'weeds' can be used in food or brewed as teas. It would be good to get herbalists and other specialists to visit community centres and discuss what is locally availalbe to the people in that area.

    In addition to things already mentioned: 1. Lemon sorrel is my #1 because it grows easily and can survive the winters here in Portland, OR. I'm still harvesting salad greens from the same plant I planted 3 years ago. 2. Arugula grows quickly and tastes great. 3. Beets are easy to grow from seed and make a delicious salad ingredient. 4. Cardoon is edible and grows with basically no effort like a weed. 5. Jostaberry works well in the Portland climate and grows with little or no effort. 6. (And I'd second the previous suggestion about Swiss chard. It is extremely easy to grow.)

    Here in NC, we're surrounded by corn and beans, plus a ton of cotton. Many farms are family owned, for generations. I fear the threat of squatters and inter-family squabbles would put these farms at risk, though.

    my five would be beans, eggs, honey, fish, and blackberries

    Great topic! This is just the sort of information that my superstruct is intended to distribute through its members. I invite everyone to check it out! As for Northern California, we have a great climate and can grow: Squashes, apples, most leafy vegetables, carrots, beans, some corn I also think it's important to remember that there are great sources of protein that don't come from meat and that eating meat is incredibly wasteful of resources (about 100 calories of non-meat food go into 1 calorie of meat). I know, in better times, we were used to cheap meat, but now I think we should focus on non-meat alternatives.

    Minnesota: good for lots of stuff, but for staples I'm fond of walnuts, apples, beans, corn, and chickens

    Nova Scotia (similar to Maine for those of you unfamiliar with Canada!) I live in an agricultural community and food variety isn't really an issue as long as you put up food for the winter - but our bare bones basics are apples, berries, chicken products, dairy products (I prefer my sweet little inoffensive goats but my husband and kids are lobbying for a cow now), potatoes, corn, and turnips. I'm a wildcrafter and that is a pretty big part of our diet - wild greens, roots and fruits. We're on the Minas Basin and as long as you pay attention to red tide reports we do pretty well with wildcrafting the beaches too, seaweed - in particular dulse and kelps should be on that basic list, and clams, and herring ... ummm this would be why we give so much to organizations that feed the hungry in the city!

    It's hard staying here in Southern Nevada. Yet the people during the archaic period survived, mostly on maize, beens and squash. Pinon nuts and agave where also important. Occasional hunting of small critters. But we've destroyed a lot of the natural springs in the area making any kind of agriculture nearly impossible.

    Most milk products and meat animals can be locally produce throughout the year. These can result in specialty businesses that support local communities that increase the resilience of the food web. Fruits and vegetables are seasonal and will have the inconvenience of not being freshly available year round when ground in a natural environment. We can return to food preservation to provide that food during the winter months. The internet enables better connection between the food sources and the food consumers to create a local commerce aspect as significant as it was in "flattening the world" for commercial products.

    Crops in my area (South Australia) are difficult to grow due to drought and salinity. Farmers have begun to plant drought-resistant crops such as sorghum for grain, in the place of wheat, rice and barley. In private gardens, we grow fruit-bearing trees, such as avocadoes, loquats, and citrus fruits -- trees are hardier during dry seasons, and help reduce erosion. We grow succulent plants like aloe vera, watering periodically using rainwater.

    Here in Washington, I've been learning to value perennial food sources such as fruit and nut trees, asparagus, rhubarb, potatoes, sweet potatoes and various berries. In addition, many vegetables can be semi-renewable by preparing their seeds for replanting in the spring.

    Definately the three sisters (maize, squash, common beans pretty close together), potatoes, and tomatoes.

    Ottawa is Canada's agriculture capital and we can grow many crops - because my partner is on a special diet that rules out most carbs, for us personally we would have chicken /hens eggs beef and dairy squash and apples as our top choices. Where I lived in 2008 in downtown, we could do all but the livestock in container gardening and through community gardens like the bugs garden http://www.spcottawa.on.ca/OFSC/en/community_garden_network.asp

    Eggs, honey, lamb, corn, and squash. Though traditionally there are few sheep raised in Northern Arizona, they are the most sustainable protein option available to us with out arid climate. We rely on chicken eggs, not duck, again because of the climate. And we are reverting to traditional crops like corn, squash, and beans for their ease of cultivation. Finally, though we are struggling to maintain the bee population here, we have had some success with hardier species and careful bee-husbandry, and the result is well worth it. Honey is useful not only as a food stuff, but also as an antibacterial. And as the decline in infrastructure and the rising number of refugees make proper medical care and the transport of medical supplies more and more difficult, we happily utilize any effective medical alternative available.

    We can grow corn, squash, and raise chickens and goats (or sheep) for food. Within ten or twenty minuted of our borders of Flag Mountain, the desert provides plants for teas and medicine. Agave and Yucca have hearts (like an artichoke) that are sweet and edible. The juniper trees have berries that are also edible (it also ferments into a delicious gin). The agave also makes tequila. The alcohol created from these plants replace pain medicines during surgeries, help people to sleep through hunger, and keep teething children, or dental patients content.

    I'm in Zambia. There is plenty of land for cultivation, good rainfall and labour is plentiful. Less than 10% of the population is in formal employment. Most farming is subsistence. The reason is that there is NO MARKET for surplus production. Part of the problem arises from the subsidies Western countries give to their inefficient commercial farmers, and barriers placed on imports of agricultural goods into these countries. More money is spent on keeping our produce out of the markets in the developed world than all the aid given. Does this make sense?

    Detroit, Mi: Corn, wheat, beans, onions, and lots of fruits. The land would have to be revitalized in some manner (the dirt cleaned) because most of the area was at one time wasteland, but there is enough left of Lake Huron to feed water into the area.

    In Syracuse, NY, the land is great for growing many crops. This is because we have many fresh water sources all around and the land is rich in minerals because the farmers have preserved it well over the years. The crops that we would decide to grow are corn, apples, potatoes, many kinds of squash, cherries, cabbages, and corn. These crops also provide good nutrition to keep the wildlife healthy and numerous in upstate New York.

    Spinach beet is preety good. easy to grow, it gives you salad leaves in the summer and green leaves like cabbage in the winter. Chard is much the same. Apples and pears are good too eat them or ferment them

    I am from New Zealand, the original country to prevent food exports. This was cleaver but not balanced. It was about rising domestic costs in a global market. The answer was and is Grow Your Own to create surplus; potato, spinach, pumpkin, tomatoes, peppers.




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