Quote:
Originally Posted by Olefin
keep in mind there are all kinds of things you can eat (just watch Man Vs. Wild or Survivorman to see what I mean) that people dont think of normally - I am betting that a lot of starving people would walk right by things that they dont know are edible
for instance cattails are very very common here in the US - and you get more edible starch from them then you do potatoes - and have eaten them myself
another is burdocks - we used to eat them all the time - to most its a weed but in western NY you can find lots of people eating them
and dandelions make one very good salad
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My mom used to cook dandelion leaves like endive: with a white sauce and bacon bits. Although this would denature the Vitamin C. Rosehips are high in vitamin C, and chives have not only vitamin C, but lots of others (A,B-complex, E, & K) as well as being high in essential minerals, too. Enough of these picked and stored or prepared properly, any your unit or canton will not suffer from deficiency diseases over the winter, until the new early crops start coming in. Spinach is a cold-weather loving plant, and can be planted up to 6 weeks before the last frost or as soon as the soil can be worked. It does NOT have huge amounts of Iron, but it does have tons of Vitamin K, folates, and other goodies, and 6 cups of raw spinach (think a BIG salad) will get you your full daily vitamin C complement. Also, from any students of Native American culture, the Three Sisters provide a balanced form of intensive gardening, having each cornstalk provide the pole for the pole beans to climb up, and the squash also planted at the bottom will spread its leaves around to conserve moisture for the roots of its own plants and the roots of its sisters. I can easily see the urban homesteaders in NYC making bucket/tub gardens with lots of 3 Sisters units that can be moved with the sun for extended exposure, or set up "under glass" in individually-crafted double-glazed booths and watered via a glass or plastic rain collector on the top .