Many homesteaders get started with the dream of a fully self sufficient homestead. This is achievable if you put in enough work and build up to it. One of the biggest hurdles that people need to get over in achieving a self sufficient homestead is selecting the correct crops. While often we recommend that people grow what they like to eat, if you just want to get in calories and nutrients, you’re looking at a different set of plants entirely. Let’s look at what you need to be self sufficient and highlight the best crops to get you there.
What Does a Self Sufficient Homestead Look Like?
To be self sufficient on your homestead you need to produce most if not all of your calories in your garden. This means getting 2,000 calories a day 365 days a year. This is the stumbling point for most people who are just starting out. They either don’t allocate enough space or don’t choose shelf stable calorie dense crops.
From first harvest to last, getting calories is your number one concern. Sure you need to make sure you’re getting vitamins and minerals that are key to your basic health, but you actually get most of those from eating a vegetable heavy diet.
For the purposes of this article we are only looking at crops, but in many cases a self sufficient homestead will also include chickens or some other animal product for additional protein sources. Eggs are the easiest and best way to supplement protein on a homestead, but vegan living is also possible.
The Best Crops for Self Sufficiency
As highlighted, we’re focusing on shelf stable calories as our north start for these crops. They won’t be the only crops you need to grow. An ideal homestead garden will produce a wide variety of plants to both help stagger harvests and ensure consistent production in case of crop loss.
1. Potatoes
Potatoes are the most calorie dense food you can grow in the smallest amount of space on a typical homestead. They grow relatively quickly between 65-100 days depending on potato size and variety.
One of the best things about growing potatoes for self sufficiency is that a modest area can grow hundreds of pounds of potatoes. Potatoes are also rich in vitamins and minerals and keep fairly well.
If you do end up growing hundreds of pounds of potatoes you will want to spend some time preserving some which you can do in a variety of ways. While canning is possible you can also prepare them for freezing as shredded hash browns, french fries, or other forms that are ready to use straight from the freezer.
You can learn more about how to grow potatoes here.
2. Corn
Corn is one of the most widely grown crops in the US. It grows easily and well in many parts of the country and it is a calorie dense crow with a wide variety of uses. Corn can be dried and worked down into flour that has a wide array of uses and can keep for many months if stored properly.
Fresh corn also has a long shelf life, but you should really decide how you are going to use corn before you plant it so you make sure you are providing enough to last you after the growing season.
3. Green Beans
Green beans are a food that takes to canning very well. They grow abundantly and don’t take up much space. They are high in both nutrition and calories as most beans are, but during the harvest you’ll also be able to enjoy their versatility in being used fresh.
Green beans are also fantastic for places with longer growing seasons as you are often able to get in three or four plantings and harvesting to keep them coming in throughout the year.
4. Dry Beans
Dry beans are not necessarily an exciting plant to grow in your garden, but they win the shelf stable aware hear for sure. If you really do a good job with dry beans you can get 3 or more pounds of beans out of a single 100 square foot plot. It might now sound like a lot, but 3 pounds of dry beans lasts for quite a long time and if kept properly store nearly indefinitely in your pantry.
Dry beans are not great for every garden. Typically you’re going to get best results growing these types of beans in areas that don’t have excessively high humidity. Choose the beans that are best suited for your locations. These could be any of a variety of beans including pinto, black beans, kidney beans, Lima beans, or even chickpeas.
5. Wheat
If you have enough space in your homestead, wheat is a definite must. A thousand square foot field can grow enough wheat to make 60 pounds of flour which in turn can produce roughly 90 loves of bread. If you have the space for it, this is hard to beat in terms of shelf life and calories combined.
The downside to wheat is that not only do you need a lot of it to do anything with, but you also need to process it. A 12 square foot garden of wheat will get you about a loaf of bread’s worth of flour, but given the time it takes, the processing requirements, and relatively small payout, it only makes sense to grow wheat if you can grow enough to get at least a bushel out of it.
If you do end up growing wheat, processing and storing it must be done correctly to ensure you’re not going to end up with wasted flour. Flour keeps for a long time if it is kept bone dry, but if moisture gets into it you can end up with a mold problem that will spoil your crop.
6. Cabbage
Cabbage seems like an odd choice given that we are focusing on calories and things you can grow more quickly, but bear with us here. Cabbage takes many months to grow, but it generates a large edible mass that stores well. In addition to its long grow time it also grows into the fall where other crops are not going to make it, so it can be an effective use of space in the garden if you plan ahead properly.
The real secret to cabbage though is getting the calories out of it without wasting them, and to do that you need to cook or ferment it. Raw cabbage has very few calories initially, but steam it or boil it and it will breakdown into a much more nutritious food. Fermenting it into sauerkraut will also unlock additional nutritional benefits you won’t normally get from raw cabbage either.
The great thing about sauerkraut and other fermented forms of cabbage is that it keeps at room temperature when jarred properly. If you want to hold on to your raw cabbage a bit longer, you can actually freeze it rather decently too.
7. Squash (Summer and Winter)
Squash are some interesting vegetables in that many make great companion plants for things you are already growing. Summer square can be grown alongside corn and acts as a ground cover to keep the soil moist. Winter squash on the other hand grows long after many other crops have already been harvested and allows you to capitalize on your garden space for a longer period of time.
No matter what type of squash you choose, it easily prepares for freezing and then can be used in soups, casseroles, and all sorts of warm nutritious meals throughout the year.
8. Onions
Onions are a great crop to grow for long term storage. They keep for quite a long time and are relatively easy to store. They don’t take up a whole lot of space in your garden either, which makes them great for this list.
The main downside to onions is you will almost never eat them alone. They add a lot of flavor to the other things you are already growing, so they’re worth mentioning on that merit alone. If you find yourself in a bind though, you can make onion soup very easily with few other ingredients. Though it may not seem like it’s much of a winner, onions can really be a staple of your garden.
You can learn more about how to grow onions here.
9. Tomatoes
Tomatoes make in on this list solely because they are one of the most used plants in cooking and they can be canned easier than anything else we’ve mentioned. If you are careful about the variety of tomatoes you grow you can get some plants that will produce for most of the growing season and leave you with hundreds of tomatoes. A strong indeterminate variety can get you several cans of tomatoes a month from a single plant. While not amazing on their own, tomatoes make a great base for soups and sauces and are the cornerstone of a lot of standard recipes anyone would cook.
While Tomatoes are included here, they can be more difficult to grow so make sure they are not going to be your only primary calorie source in your garden.
You can learn more about how to grow tomatoes in our other article here.