You know that feeling you get when a package arrives you've been expecting? That surge of excitement and anticipation? We got that yesterday as we opened our box from Oikos nursery (check them out here.)
For those who have read any of our posts, you'll know we're in love with edible, medicinal and useful plants and our purposes on Earth involve growing, trading, spreading and teaching about all the blessed plants that call Earth their home.
Furthermore, some of you may remember a previous post about us making our first purchase with Steem$$. This order was all thanks to that first experience of us taking out some SBDs, just to get a taste for it. Although we appreciate the immediate return, we believe in Steem long term and are committed to continuing to power up and building the platform through curation.
We'd like to share a little of our experience with increasing biodiversity and productivity on our homestead this season by expanding our perennial vegetable production.
Perennial Vegtables
Like rhubarb or asparagus, right? Yes, but there are many more plants that can be planted once and offer vegetables year after year. We believe there's a lot of room for growth in this realm and folks like Eric Toensmeier have done a great job of compiling data, researching and promoting the use of perennials as food. One major source of inspiration and information for us is his book Perennial Vegetables.
Strawberries, a well known and beloved perennial
There is truly a dazzling variety of underutilized foods that fit the bill of long-lived food producing plants. Gardening without soil disturbance and no seed stating required! Some perennials won't survive in our zone, but many certainly can.
(Levisticum officinale or lovage, a perennial related to celery, sticking its head up this spring)
We have already brought some plants to our homestead and happily ate of first taste of "pink crispy" sunchokes (Helianthus Tuberosus) last fall. We have established 2 varieties of asparagus, but are still in their 2nd year so we haven't harvested them yet, prickly pear spineless cacti (unknown Opuntia), watercress (Nasturtium Officinale), walking onion (Allium Cepa Proliferum), dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale), nettle (Uritca Dioica), skirret (Sium Sisarum), Lovage (Levisticum officinale*) and more!
*Heres a little taste of what we brought onto our land this year to strengthen and diversify our food production systems.
$$ What we got with SBDs! $$
- Asparagus (Asparagus Officinalis var. Collosal)
- Chufa aka tiger nut (*Cyperus Esculentus var. sativa)
- Earth Pea (Lathyrus Tuberosus)
- Groundnut (Apios Americana var. Nutty #3 and Simon)
- Sunchoke (Helianthus Tuberosus var. spindel)
- Chinese Mountain Yam (*Dioscoria Opposita)
Asparagus
By far the most well known perennial vegetable and for good reason. We are happy to add this large variety to our garden. Anything that tastes this good has to be good for you and even better that it is known as "weedy" and easily naturalizes. The wide variety of asparagus is a great example of what can be achieved if efforts are focused on improving quality of crop though breeding. A healthy patch can yield quality food for 15 years.
Chufa
One of the few sedges cultivated for food, chufa was important enough to Egyptians to be buried with them in tombs. The edible part is an underground tuber not dissimilar to an almond with a delightful flavor. It was used in the original horchata and each plant can yield up to 100 tubers. Being another weedy species, it's a good choice for us because of the ability to survive a wide range of conditions.
Earth Pea
Reported to taste somewhere between peas and water chestnut, earth peas aka earth chestnut or tuberous vetch receives rave taste reviews. Producing small tubers on underground strings, this plant makes tasty food and fixes nitrogen. It can tolerate partial shade, but yields best in full sun.
Groundnut
A member of the pea family (Fabaceae), groundnuts grow similarly to peanuts and also fix nitrogen. Tubers born on underground strings are starchier than peanuts, but can yield up to 8 pounds per plant in hot climates like Louisiana. They were once a crucial food to Native Americans and groundnuts have since undergone selective breeding to increase yields, size, flavor and other aspects of the plant.
Sunchoke
Another popular weedy perennial vegetable is the Sunchoke aka Jerusalem Artichoke. It can produce copious quantities of tubers year after year. We have 3 varieties already established, but couldn't resist getting more. Be warned, once you plant them it may be hard to eradicate them, so plant them in a spot where they stay and expand.
They are excellent raw, baked, mashed, fried, boiled, dried and fermented. Truly a versatile food crop that is just so easy to grow. Their reputation as "fartichokes" is due to the insulin content that may cause gas. While good for stabilizing blood sugar, inulin is digested in the colon which causes the wind to rise from within, although I have found lacto-fermentation to remedy this (I presume because lactobacillus breaks the inulin down). (And it doesn’t affect everyone in this way. You may be one of the lucky ones.)
Chinese Mountain Yam
It is a popular vining staple crop in China and Japan. The plant produces large tubers that can extend 3-4 feet deep in the soil! After harvesting the tuber (2 or 3 year old), the top portion can be replanted. Rudolph Steiner claimed this would be the staple crop of the future as it embodied ether in physical form.
Of course, we’ve planted a huge 50 lb crop of potatoes as our main staple, but really hope to up these perennial vegetables year after year and reduce our annual plantings accordingly! We hope this was useful to you all and that you too will expand diversity and help create a strong culture of perennial vegetables where you live.
Part of our dream and vision is to see a thriving ecology everywhere and perennial foods are an important part of this. Eventually we will be able to share the propagules from the many plants we are collecting. Thanks for reading.
This post was written by passengers of the #ecotrain. Check out the tag for more awesome-sauce on sustainable living!
Banner by the talented @soulturtle
Upgoat by @bobydimitrov
Perennial food is my absolutely favourite food/garden related topic. Earth pea sounds really interesting. I'm off to find out if I can grow it around here :)
Yayyy!!! Thanks for the resteem too 😘
I was given some Jerusalem artichokes and have been growing them every year, but still not tried to eat them, lol. I am a food-chicken!
I grabbed some horseradish someone was giving away, so have that too (again, not tried any). I like having diversity, and the more heirloom the better.
Last week I put in an order for seeds, so they should arrive any day now. Some I can plant now (autumn) but some will wait for spring. I also bought a few more fruit trees which I must find spaces for. (I think my design plan has turned into random-this'll do here.)
At least autumn sees leaf drop, which I will be happily collecting for the compost. yay Bumblebees are still around, so I can't cut back any of my over-enthusiastic flowers - such as the Nepeta (not sure if it is catmint or some other variety). I can finally begin to take cuttings off trees such as the Elderberry to start off new plants.
With all this gardening work to do, I really should stop being on Steemit so much ... :D
Haha
I hear you here! I’ve definitely been slowing down my efforts here as life is taking over 😊 so much to plant!
Sounds like you have your hands full with a vibrant and bustling ecosystem! Congrats!! Glad to hear the bumblebees are still around and you’re leaving the flowers for them 😁 our catnip just returned and our kitties are very happy about that!
Can’t believe you haven’t tried the sunchokes! You may really like them 😉 I personally love the flavor and texture. Cut up fresh or lightly sautéed. Which fruit trees will you be planting? Happy perennial gardening!! 💚🌿
I've been meaning to get my new trees to pose for some photos, which I can then turn into another good Steemit post (and stall on planting them). :D
Catnip - I've only ever had one cat who actually wasn't indifferent to it. Found him curled up asleep in the flowerpot the stuff was planted in, lol. I feel like all the other cats have been genetic freaks because they haven't gone mad over the stuff!
Do you grow sunflowers, and harvest the seeds for use in cooking? I am looking for hulling & storage tips, because last year's attempt wasn't successful and I hate seeing a harvest go to waste.
Hmmm we haven’t used the seeds from our sunnies for cooking, but Ini does use them often for growing microgreens! That’s an easy way to get them to pop out of their own shells lol oddly enough we’re just now seeing some sunflower volunteers from plants from last year. Kind of exciting, but sorry I can’t be of help here. That’s a great idea; to use them in cooking!!
Hilarious about your cat in the pot! My cat wasn’t interested til she got a bit older, I thought she must be one of these anomalies of which you speak 😉 hehe it is kinda weird when they’re not into it. We’re like their parent drug pushers- what?! You aren’t into catnip?! lol
Looking forward to your posed fruit trees. Fingers crossed that they consent to a photo shoot! Xo
The way the weather has been behaving, it'll be the Swimsuit & Snorkel edition of Fruit Tree Monthly. :D
Hahaha 🎉🤪🎉
Asparagus! Yes! Can't wait, and you bought with steem $$. How fun, so the vendor you purchased from accepted Steem $$? Love your post, spring is definitely here ox
No we got the steem.card with our SBD and it works like a visa 😉 can’t wait to have you here, feed ya so your pee smells like... 🤪🍃xoxo
Mountain Yam (*Dioscorea alata ) this is our yame variety that have in the homestead, always should get this kind of planta in the honestas similar to ginger, jerusalem artichokes, cúrcuma, malangas, Manihot esculenta, . And a great kind of plants that you plant and enjoy during a Lot of time thank you for shared best regar.
Interesting, good to hear you know of and like this plant. What’s the taste and texture like? Thanks!
The texture is soft And very delicious imagine a potatoe soft but a big potatoe this is me witht a fruit ready to cook, told me what do you think.
whaaat! Is that a Chinese yam? If so wowzer, that's huge. I've never eaten any tuber that big before. Very impressed.
Really informative! Ah we just harvested our sunchokes. I let mine grow as shade fir vegetables in the summer but we dont eat them much. Here is a nice recipe for them if you like:
https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/saut-ed-jerusalem-artichokes-with-garlic-and-bay-leaves/
Thank you for the recipe. Garlic and bay leaves/ I’m in! Sautéing is a favorite way to eat them here too. That’s a great idea to grow them as shade for veggies as they get so tall! Lovely companions for the garden 💚
They are. And I always figure that if there is a zombie apocalypse, at least I have sunchokes!
I hadn't heard of most of those, but it's cool that you're branching out. Also neat that you were able to buy them with SBDs. Did you cash them out through an exchange, or did you transfer directly to the individual?
We got a steem.card and it was quite easy. With sbd so low though currently, we’ll just keep holding onto them 😊
That's what kind of plant it is,,?
can be consumed to eat?
No comment
Invaluable information. I will be adding a few of these to my soil. Thank you for sharing.
Awesome to hear!!! We hope many catch on to these “forgotten” perennial plants 💚🌿
I am so so happy that Steem helped you get your hands on some great plants. I love how you two are so passionate about homesteading and growing things organically.
😘😘thanks dear! Isn’t it a blessing?! Getting to follow your passion! Many gifts to you.
I agree that earth pea sounds interesting! Now I need to get translations of these plants to portuguese... It's a pain in the ass to find them, scientific names most times don't match with common names!
Hmmm good point! Perhaps you can go to the site we listed at the top for Oikos, they have all of the scientific names listed on their site next to these products. Many of them are listed under the roots/tubers in their site 😉best wishes!
Yeah that's my strategy lately but the problem is to match common names with scientific names... Because people on the street sometimes refer to another similar plant that's not what I'm looking for. It's confusing sometimes. But I almost always get there after some hours (luckily both my sisters are biologists!)
Nice!!
É o chícharo-tuberoso, da família dos vários chícharos endémicos e autoctones da flora Portuguesa ;)
Wow! Obrigado! Vou procurar :) olha o telegram dos tugas no steemit: https://t.me/joinchat/HOd7SRGRHe1RzXN_9B0mBw
Awesome! Yay for perennials :) This is the first time I heard about Tiger Nut and Earth Peas.. I had to look them up. They sound very interesting and worthwhile. On a side note it would make good dinner conversations to tell your guests that they are eating Tiger Nuts :)
So true, tiger nuts sound so exotic! Happy to spread the good news. I've met several farmers who have had great success growing tiger nuts, so we're looking forward to seeing what kind of yields are possible.
I'm excited for yoU! Will look forward to your findings this fall :)