Updating this old post from 2 years ago with new plants
Here are the main plants I imagine we’ll be locally depending on for food on our land by 2025. Notice what is not there – many of the delicious but increasingly hard to grow annual vegetables we’re used to. This is based upon my beginner’s understanding of growing food in our specific area and of how climate pressures will change what can do well without increasing amounts of time and material inputs. There are also of course dozens of other plants we’ll depending on more for medicine and so many other needs not listed here.
Greens:
- Sochan
- Stinging Nettle
- Sweet Potato leaves
- Lamb’s Quarter
- Pokeweed
- Purslane
- Dandelion
- Day Lily
- Lotus
- Basswood
- Amaranth
- Chickweed
- Dock
- Sea Kale
- Wild Lettuce
- So many wild greens!! especially from young plants in early spring!!
Pulses:
- Lentis
- Chickpeas
- Fava beans
- Beans (dried)
- Peas (dried)
Veggies:
- Squash
- Beans (fresh)
- Tomatoes
- Peas (fresh)
- Peppers
- Potatoes (incl. Perennial Potatoes!)
- Asparagus
- Smilax tips
- Sunchokes
- Apios Americana
- Air Potato
- Malabar Spinach
- Sweet Potatoes
- Semi-Wild Mustards
- Collards
- Okra
- Perennial Onions
- Cattail
- Wapato
- Garlic
- Bamboo
- The shoots of so many plants! especially in early spring. including things like kudzu & squash shoots.
Grains & seeds:
- Amaranth
- Sorghum
- Chia
- Lotus Seeds
- Sunflower
- Buckwheat
- Oats
- Semi-Wild Mustards
- Winter Rye
- Perennialized grains
- Maize
- Buckwheat
Nuts:
- Acorns
- Hazlenuts
- Hickories
- Pecans
- Chinese Chestnuts
- Chinquapins
- Black Walnuts
Fruits:
- Asian Persimmons
- American Persimmons
- Asian Pears
- European Pears
- Peaches
- Mulberries
- Maypop
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
- Wineberries
- Pomegranate
- Black Raspberries
- Grapes
- Sour Cherries
- Regionally appropriate Apples
- Paw Paws
- Che
- Jujube
- Loquat
- Serviceberries
- Aronia
- Eleagnus
- Figs
Other wild plant foods:
- Pine bark
And for some of us:
- Some insects
- Hunted wild animals whose populations are in abundance on the land