Some of the best vegetables to grow during times of crisis

potato – Potatoes can be stored for up to six months, providing a source of nutrients that don’t require refrigeration. They can also be canned, extending their shelf life to three to five years. Hawes recommends planting potatoes two to three weeks before the last frost in your area, spacing 36 inches between rows. You should incorporate compost into the soil before planting.

Their favorite varieties include the Kennebec, a round white potato with fine flesh and low to medium starch content, and the Yukon Gold potato, which has a creamy yellow flesh. The Red Norland potato is a medium-sized rose-colored potato with dense flesh and low starch content, making it another favorite potato.

Importantly, potatoes like to be tilled, which means adding extra soil to the bed and molding it around the plant. You should hill your potatoes two to three times during the growing season. The idea is that since potatoes are part of the plant’s stem, not the roots, the more “stems” underground, the more potatoes will grow and the better the harvest will be.³

Rich in fiber, vitamins B and C, and minerals such as potassium, potatoes are easy to grow in early spring and take about 85 to 100 days to mature, depending on environmental conditions.

After you harvest your potatoes, it’s important to store them properly – loosely (not in plastic bags) in a dark, dry place with a temperature of about 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Although potatoes like dark, cool conditions, they should not be refrigerated as they will be damaged by refrigeration.

green beans – Rich in vitamins A, C and K as well as manganese, fiber and folate, green beans are another excellent, high-yielding storage crop that can be canned or fermented alongside potatoes.

Green beans can also be blanched and frozen for up to a year. Hawes recommends the Momentum Bush Bean variety,⁴ They say it is the highest-yielding bush bean variety currently available, with high yields, concentrated harvesting and high stress tolerance.

Beans should be planted after the last frost in spring because germination usually occurs when soil temperatures are 65 degrees Fahrenheit or higher (optimal germination temperature is 77 degrees Fahrenheit).

Seeds can be planted directly outdoors or planted every few weeks in spring and early summer, allowing you to produce throughout the growing season.

Plant them as early in the spring as the plants will drop flowers or stop producing in hot summer temperatures. Bush beans can be harvested three to four times a season or can be grown in double rows to save space and increase harvest.

To do this, make two rows of beans 6 inches apart and double rows 3 feet apart.⁵

If you have a drip or soaker hose, you can use it to provide irrigation to both rows of beans at the same time. Beans can also be planted close together, and Hawes advises gardeners to “pile the plants thickly” to ensure you have enough beans to eat during the cooler months.

Heirloom Onions— Heirloom onions are a truly sustainable food source. Homesteaders who grew this type of onion in the past would go out into the fields and dig out the onions they needed, then dig up the bulbs and store them, like regular onions, to replant next year.

Not only do onions store well, lasting two months or more after harvest, depending on the variety, but you have your own stock of seeds that you can reuse and share with your neighbors. In addition, onions are rich in vitamin C, sulfur compounds, flavonoids and other phytochemicals, making them very healthy.

radish – As with most homegrown vegetables, the flavor of store-bought carrots cannot compare to the taste of homegrown varieties. Also, carrots are another vegetable that comes in handy during tough times, as they can be kept in the refrigerator for two to three weeks, or blanched and frozen for longer.

Other options include canning and fermentation, making them a versatile vegetable suitable for long-term use.

Like green beans, carrots can be grown in double rows with irrigation in between. Plant rows 6 inches apart, skipping 3 feet, then plant two more rows 6 inches apart. Hawes recommends sowing carrots in thick strips rather than thinning them out, so you have a “dense carrot forest” and get a lot of yield in a little space.

When grown this way, your carrots may not be uniform in size—some will be smaller, some larger—but they will all taste just as good. Carrots should be sown directly outdoors as they do not transplant well and do best when grown in early spring or fall when temperatures are cooler.

Carrots, which are rich in valuable beta carotene, take longer to germinate than most other crops, and you need to keep the soil moist for at least 7 days to germinate. A soil temperature of approximately 75 degrees Fahrenheit is optimal.

If you live in the South, you can grow two crops of carrots per year. Plant one in the fall and let the crop overwinter so you can harvest in the spring. Since it’s not too hot yet, the carrots will sit well in the soil so you can harvest them when you need them. You can then plant another crop in early spring to be ready for a late spring/early summer harvest.

Winter melon— Winter melon has a thick skin and is another great food to store. Although they are called “winter” pumpkins, they are grown during the warmer times of the year but can be stored without refrigeration for winter use. Generally speaking, the sweeter the variety, the shorter the storage time.

Kabocha, a winter squash with creamy flesh that’s used in soups, keeps for about three months, while the more common butternut and acorn squash keep for six months. The sweet dumpling variety is one of the sweetest winter melons and has an average storage life of 30 to 45 days.

Winter melon is a good source of vitamins K1, A, C and E, as well as B-complex vitamins, calcium and magnesium. Storage time is important because winter squash are harvested once at the end of the growing season, providing you with food throughout the winter.

Okra – Okra is a warm-weather crop that produces 2- to 3-inch-long pods grown on large, leafy, hibiscus-shaped perennials. Okra is rich in fiber and also provides vitamin K, manganese, folate and vitamin C, as well as high amounts of flavonoids and antioxidants.

It is an important crisis crop because it is a high-yielding, long-term crop. Plants may begin to produce pods when they reach 1 to 2 feet tall, and they will continue to produce pods when plants reach 5 to 6 feet tall.⁶ However, when it reaches about 4 feet tall, you can cut off the top and plant three consecutive plants each year.

Hawes recommends planting okra in the spring, especially the highest-yielding jambalaya variety, and then planting okra in mid-summer and early fall because it will continue to grow until the first frost. Due to the influence of nematodes (tiny worms that act as plant parasites), it is important to rotate where okra is grown only once every three years.

Once grown, however, okra is a hearty and versatile food that can be frozen, canned or pickled. It is a staple food source in the South, and although it prefers irrigation for maximum productivity, it is somewhat drought-resistant and can still grow well in very hot, dry conditions.