Hard Times Seeds3

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Vegetable Recommendations

for New Gardeners

Copyright © January 14, 2011 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.

All Rights Reserved

Introduction

To grow your own vegetables you will need some seeds,

some good rich soil, some water, and lots of sun.

Do not buy hybrid vegetable seeds. Most hybrid seeds areonly good for one growing season.

(Hybrid Seed Note: Some people recommend that you

should try to reverse engineer the second generation seedsfrom a hybrid vegetable to get one of the original parents of

the hybrid vegetable. I totally disagree with thisrecommendation. During a serious hard times event when

your family may be desperate for food, and when you have

to work hard all summer trying to grow some food, then

why would you want to bet your life and the lives of your

family members on some random experiment where you aretrying to force some second generation hybrid seeds to grow

something you can eat. This is a gamble I strongly

recommend that you do not participate in.)

Instead please look for and purchase heirloom vegetable seeds or open-pollinated seeds, unlessyou have a very good reason to do otherwise.

Many of the heirloom vegetables have been popular with home gardeners since the mid to late

1800s.

Heirloom seeds will produce the same exact vegetable year after year after year if you will save

the seed that is grown each year and plant it again the next year.

During a serious hard times event I suggest you consider growing mostly root vegetables, such

as beets, carrots, onions, potatoes, radishes, turnips, and peanuts.

The edible part of a root vegetable grows below ground. Therefore it is invisible unless youknow what is growing below the vines or leaves you see on top of the ground.

However, in order to provide some reasonable variety in your meals and to help avoid appetite

fatigue, you will also need to grow some vegetables where the edible part of the vegetable is

above ground. Anyone who happens to walk by your garden area will see these vegetables and

they will know exactly what you are growing and how much you are growing.

Vegetable Recommendations for New Gardeners - of 6



Therefore in order to help minimize the complete loss of your entire vegetable crop to looters

and thieves during a serious hard times tragedy event, it might be a good idea to have at least

two or more vegetable plots. One vegetable plot should contain y our above ground vegetables

and it should be conveniently located in any area that gets full sun all day. A second or third

vegetable plot should be in a more obscure area that also gets full sun and it should contain your

below ground vegetables. You should probably allow a few random weeds to grow in this area

to help hide your below ground vegetables. Since the vegetables will be growing below ground

the only thing visible above ground would be some leaves or vines. And unless a person knewexactly what type of leaf or vine it was, then it would be very easy to mistake those leaves and

vines as random weeds. In order for this to work you should not plant your underground

vegetables in a nice neat straight row. Instead plant them in a random hapha zard fashion all

over this remote garden area, and whenever possible, mix the different types of vegetables

together so you don’t have all the leaves of one specific type of vegetable growing close to one

another. This means each type of vegetable would b e randomly scattered throughout this

garden plot and this would help to create the visual picture of lots of different types of weeds

just haphazardly growing together.

The heirloom seed varieties recommended below areones I have had previous experience with. There are a

lot of other good heirloom varieties in addition to the

ones mentioned below. Therefore if you are not able to

find the varieties I suggest then it is perfectly okay to

buy a different heirloom variety of vegetable seed.

Several online seed companies are listed at:

http://www.grandpappy.info/hseedint.htm

Beans: Pinto, a heirloom bean.

Pinto beans reach full maturity in about 65 to 90 days after planting depending on your climate.Almost all beans, except green snap beans, contain l ost of protein, lots of carbohydrates, and

lots of calories. Therefore beans are a very good choice for a hard times garden.

Pinto beans may be eaten as green snap beans when they are first harvested if the bean pod is

still soft. Or you can remove the pinto beans from their pods, discard the pods, and dry the

beans for future consumption. Pinto beans also make excellent refried beans.

Dry pinto beans may be purchased at your local grocery store in one -pound, or two-pound, or

four-pound plastic bags. Dry pinto beans are usually sold very close to the area where white

rice is sold. All dry pinto beans are the same and the only d ifference between the major brand

names is how many times the beans are sifted and cleaned to remove tiny dirt particles or tiny

twigs.Planting Instructions: Soak the hard dry pinto beans for one hour in lukewarm water. Placethe beans inside a damp tow el in a warm dark spot for about 4 days and they will sprout. Plant

the sprouted bean 1-inch deep about 6-inches apart in warm soil (60ºF).

Beets, Regular: Detroit Dark Red, a heirloom variety since 1892.Detroit Dark Red beets will reach full maturity in 58 to 65 days after planting. Therefore you

may be able to harvest two crops of beets in one growing season.




The Detroit Dark Red beet has edible green tops and edible beets. You can usually harvest the

green tops several times during the growing season without hurting the beet below ground. This

is a significant advantage during hard times because your body will crave fresh green leafy

vegetables. The beet leaf greens taste great in a salad. The Detroit Dark Red beet also stores

well for winter consumption.

Planting Instructions: Plant the seeds 1/2 inch deep and 6 inches apart. Do not plant beets inthe same area two years in a row. Rotate beets with either corn or potatoes to maximize the

yield from your soil.

Beets, Sugar: Sugar beets will reach full maturity in about 45 days after planting.Regular beets have about 6% sugar but the special sugar beet has between 14% to 20% sucrose

sugar. You can extract the sugar from these beets and make a sweet sugar water or a suga r

syrup and you can still eat the beet that remains in the cook pot.

One internet store that sells Sugar Beet Seeds is:

http://www.sandmountainherbs.com/beet_sugar.html

Planting Instructions: Plant the seeds 1/4 inch deep and 6 inches apart in the early spring.Keep the ground moist by covering the ground with a layer or mulch. Do not let the ground dry

out. Sprouts will appear in about 14 to 21 days. Weed frequently. When the leaves are 12inches tall they begin storing sucrose sugar in their roots.

Harvesting Instructions: You may harvest the green leaves anytime and eat them as a saladgreen but be careful to not damage the top of the underground beet when you harvest the green

leaves. Dig or pull up the beets when their roots are 2 inches or longer.

Carrots: Danvers Half Long, a heirloom variety since 1871.Danvers Half Long carrots will reach full maturity in abou t 75 days after planting. Therefore

you may be able to harvest two crops of carrots in one growing season.

The Danvers Half Long carrots are excellent for storing, freezing or canning.

Planting Instructions: Soak the seeds in water for about 3 hours. Plant each seed 1/2 inch

deep. When mature, eat the carrots fresh in a salad, or cook them in stews or soups. Only plantone carrot variety per year, or plant different carrot varieties at least 1,000 feet apart. If you

have short mild winters then you may leave the carrots in the ground all winter and harvest them

as you need them.

Corn, Sweet: Stowell's Evergreen, a heirloom variety since 1848.This is a white corn. It will reach full maturity in 80 to 100 days after planting.

One internet store that sells Stowell's Evergreen Corn is:

http://www.seedsavers.org/Items.aspx?search=corn+seeds

Planting Instructions: Soak the seeds in warm water for about 3 hours. Plant 2 inches deep

and 12 inches apart in warm soil.Harvesting Instructions: You can harvest the corn before it fully ripens by pulling up theentire corn stalk with its roots still attached. Then store the entire corn stalk upside down in a

cool indoor area. The corn will continue to gradually ripen and you can eat fresh corn on the

cob every month for another 3 to 5 months. That is why this corn was named “evergreen.”

(Note: If you allow the corn kernels to completely dry out on a few ears of corn then these will

become corn seed and they may be planted in the spring to yield a new crop of corn.)




Corn, Dent: Reid’s Yellow Dent, a heirloom variety.This is a yellow corn. It will reach full maturity in about 115 days after planting.

Reid's Yellow Dent corn may be eaten fresh when it is first harvested or it may be dried and

then ground into corn meal using a wheat grinder.

Reid’s Yellow Dent corn may be purchased at the internet store listed above that sells Stowell’s

Evergreen Corn.

Planting Instructions: Soak the seeds in warm water for about 3 hours. Plant 2 inches deep

and 12 inches apart in warm soil.Caution: Corn is open pollinated by the wind so plant different corn varieties as far apart as possible. In other words, plant the Reid’s dent corn far away from the Stowell’s corn.

Harvesting Instructions: Leave the best ears on the stalk. Harvest and eat the other ears asfresh corn. Wait 4 weeks and then pull up the stalks with the corn. Peel back the husks. Hang

the corn on their stalks upside down in a well-ventilated area for 4 more weeks. Wait until the

kernels are hard and dry. Twist off the full kernels of corn using your hands. Discard the small

kernels near the end of the cob. (Note: The dried corn kernels are corn seed and they may be

planted in the spring to yield a new crop of corn.) When you need some fresh corn meal you

can grind the corn kernels in a wheat grinder. The corn meal may then be used to make a wide

variety of tasty things such as corn bread, hush puppies, nacho corn chips, and taco shells.

Onions: Although onions are a root vegetable they have two major shortcomings during aserious hard times event:

1. You can smell the onions from a good distance away while they are growing.

2. I have not been able to find a heirloom onion seed variety that produces an onion that has an

acceptable flavor.

Therefore I grow whatever onion seeds I can find at the seed store each spring. I have had good

results with white onions and yellow onions. I no longer grow purple onions because they do

not store well. If you don’t eat purple onions very soon after they mature then they go bad very

quickly.

Onion seeds may be planted in the very early spring. If you have mild winters then onion s eedsmay be planted in the fall for harvesting the next year.

Yellow Sweet Spanish: A hybrid variety that reaches full maturity in about 105 to 130 days.

Plant seeds 1/4 inch deep and about 3 inches apart.

White Lisbon Bunching: A hybrid variety that reaches full maturity in about 40 to 95 days.

Plant seeds 1/4 inch deep and about 1 inch apart.

Peanuts: Buy a bag of raw peanuts (unsalted, unroasted) at your local grocery store and thenfollow the planting instructions below.

Peanuts will grow in clusters underground to full maturity in 120 to 150 days.

Peanuts are a good choice because you can eat them fresh and you can easily make your own peanut butter using an ordinary food blender if you have a little vegetable oil or olive oil. Only

plant one variety of peanut each year.

Planting Instructions: Plant the peanut inside its pink paper thin seed coat for the bestgermination results. Plant the peanut between 1.5 inches to 2 inches below the top of the

ground in soil that you have dug and loosened. You will need a 12 inch diameter wide hole at

least 12 inches deep for each peanut so the peanut plant can easily grow underground to its full

size. Dig the hole, replace all of the dirt in the hole, step on the dirt to pack it down, and then




dig a small hole in the center of the original hole that is no deeper than 2 inches for the peanut.

After planting the peanut, cover the peanut with dirt, and step on the dirt above the peanut to

drive out any air. Then water the ground and wait.

Harvesting Instructions: When the above ground leaves turn yellow, dig up the entire plantand store indoors for an additional four weeks in a cool, dry area. Leave the peanuts inside their

shells until you are ready to eat them or use them for seed. If you sh ell them for seed, be very

careful to not break or tear the pink paper thin seed coat around the peanut.

Radishes: Cherry Belle, a heirloom variety and an “All American Selection” winner in 1949.Cherry Belle radishes will grow to full maturity in abou t 20 to 24 days. This has two significant

advantages as follows:

1. You have a fresh vegetable to eat in the very early part of spring.

2. You can plant radishes several times during the spring, summer, and fall and continue to

harvest fresh vegetables throughout the growing season using the same exact small plot of

ground.

The Cherry Belle radish may also be grown as a fall crop.

Most radish varieties will mature in about 20 to 25 days. However, some radish varieties will

require about 50 or 55 days to mature so you should read the seed package very carefully beforeyou invest in radishes.

Planting Instructions: Plant the seed 1/2 inch deep about 1.5 inches apart. Radishes do notkeep well so each spring you should plant one or two rows of radishes every two weeks. This

will provide fresh edible radishes for your family to enjoy throughout the spring, summer and

early fall.

Potatoes: Red Skin potatoes will reach full maturity in 90 to 100 days after planting.Remove one red skin potato from your next bag of red potatoes and set it aside and wait for it to

grow sprouts about one-inch long. Cut off about 1/2 inch of the potato with the sprout. If there

are more than 3 sprouts at one small spot on the potato then break some of the extra sprouts off

the potato. Let the cut sprout "harden" in the air for two days. (Note: You can eat the rest of the potato after removing the sprouts.)

Planting Instructions: Place the cut sprout cut side down about 4 inches above the bottom of alarge deep planting pot and then cover it with about 3 more inches of dirt. When the green vine

appears cover it with 2 inches of dirt. When the green vine reappears cover it with another 2

inches of dirt. Continue until you eventually reach the top of your planting pot. Water as

necessary. When the top green vine dies wait 2 more weeks and then harvest the potatoes in

your pot.

Spinach: Bloomsdale, a heirloom variety since 1908.

Bloomsdale spinach will grow to full maturity in about 45 to 50 days. You can eat some of the baby spinach leaves at about 25 days.

Spinach may be eaten fresh, or it can be boiled, or its leaves may be dried and eate n during the

winter months. Dried spinach leaves should be boiled in some water before eating.

Planting Instructions: Soak the seeds overnight. Then plant the seeds 1 inch deep about 9inches apart. Plant spinach every 2 weeks to produce a continuous supply of spinach for fresh

eating, or boiling, or drying for the winter. Spinach prefers the cool weather of early spring or

late summer.




Tomatoes: Roma, a heirloom variety.The Roma tomato will reach full maturity in 75 to 80 days.

The Roma tomato is excellent when eaten fresh and it can be made into a tomato paste, or

tomato sauce, or it can be one of the major ingredients in a homemad e Mexican salsa.

Visit your local grocery store and buy one fresh Roma tomato, slice it, carefully pick out the

seeds, and then eat the tomato slices.

Planting Instructions: After you have dried the tomato seeds on a piece of paper you can plant

the seeds about 1/4 inch deep and about two feet apart. You will need to support the tomato plant as it grows with wooden stakes beside each tomato vine, or with a wire cage around each

tomato plant.

Turnips: Purple Top White Globe, a heirloom variety since 1870.Purple Top turnips will grow to full maturity in about 52 to 55 days. You can plant turnip seeds

again in the late summer to yield a fall crop of edible greens and turnips.

The Purple Top turnip produces an edible green top and an edible below groun d turnip.

The Purple Top turnip stores extremely well for winter consumption.

Whenever possible, select a turnip variety with ed ible green tops and edible turnips. You can

usually harvest the green tops several times during the growing season without hurt ing theturnip below ground. This is a significant advantage during hard times because your body will

crave fresh green leafy vegetables. Turnips are usually grown in southern climates whereas

rutabagas are typically grown in northern climates.

Planting Instructions: Plant the seed between 1/4 inch to 1/2 deep and space them about 3inches apart. You may eat the above ground greens but do not damage the top of the turnip

when you harvest some of the greens.


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