Nutritionally speaking, it’s easy to get carbs (including sugar and fiber) from plants. Protein’s harder. I’m perfectly happy to eat meat and other animal products, but I don’t have the space on my land to keep animals. I’d like to be a localvore who eats as much from my own land as possible. Thus, I think paying attention to growing more of my own protein is smart.
What are the most nutritionally dense (and tasty) protein crops you can grow?
I’m thinking seeds are usually better protein sources than fruits, roots, stems, and leaves, so selecting for a higher mass of seeds per plant may be valuable for that purpose. Incorporating edible fungi also seems like a good idea.
Is there a way to breed for plants to have higher protein? Is there a way to tell by taste or texture or some other measure if a plant you’re eating has more protein than most others of its species? That would be an excellent trait to stabilize a landrace around.
Sunflower leaves are high protein. It’s right up there with alfalfa for livestock. I don’t know how edible the leaves are to people.
Rabbits and guinea pigs make good “micro livestock” for small spaces. And can be pretty well fed primarily from pulling weeds, garden waste, and if you have any yard or disused neighbor lot etc that grows up.
I think the highest plant protein is going to be hard to beat soy…
I know clover is edible and good for vit C. It’s high protein for livestock but for human digestion levels I don’t know how much is usable by us.
Sunflower leaves, huh? Interesting! They taste just fine to me. It’s the sandpapery texture I’m not wild about. Does the roughness go away when cooked? If so, those would make a great green.
Wow, you’re right about soy! I looked it up, and they have 68g of protein per cup, whereas peanuts have 38g of protein per cup. I assumed they’d be comparable! Sadly, I’m trying to avoid growing soybeans because my daughter is allergic to them.
I second the rabbit idea and would be happy to find some real Cuy. Quail also have extremely low space requirements. All of those and of course chickens can be raised in discrete movable shelters.
I wish Heliciculture (Escargot) wasn’t so legally restricted here in the states.
Fish are also pretty regulated, but not as bad as snails.
For plants: beans, soy, peas, (any dry legume), potatoes, comfrey, nuts… there are a few options.
Cuy ard becoming more popular in the USA. Several breeders now. They are pricey but would be worth it. I raised guinea pigs for a while. It would be worth starting with some of what you can get. See if you like raising them or like the meat. It’s got a different texture. If you like it it’d be worth the investment of cuy.
Rabbits are more meat for basically the same work and feed. It takes a bit of learning curve but that’s true for all animals.
I’m getting back into rabbits this year and will be moving them to a natural diet, only feeding what I can grow or harvest myself. When I had them before it was mainly pellets and I’d supplement them with cut forage through the summer.
Good point about small-space animals. I’ve started a separate thread about that, because that’s a very important discussion. I don’t think it’s possible for me to raise animals, but if I’m wrong, please tell me!
The high protein levels in beans are precisely the reason I’m trying to focus on them this year! Squashes seem to do great at giving me a high quantity of food with a long shelf life, so I’m definitely going to keep growing them. First priority was quantity of food – check! I’m thinking my next priority should be a high quantity of digestible protein.
Dry Nettle powder contains 33.8% protein on average. They also cook down to be palatable whereas sunflower leaves might not.
Blue-green algaes can have dry protein content up to 40-60%
I prefer the taste and perenniality of nettles.
Mulberry leaves are edible, often used as a minor vegetable in Asia, and relatively easy to grow at scale in a coppiced/hedged system. Personally I would use them as animal feed (I’m taking a few hundred cuttings this year to scale them up for my goats) but have tried them in stirfries and found them acceptable in taste and texture.
Grain amaranth tastes high protein for me. I’ve eaten it regularly in my morning porridge and it is very filling. Decent fat levels too. But the yields are much lower than maize which is all carbs.
It is worth pointing out that even industrial agriculture in all its glory hasn’t completely solved the protein production problem. A substantial chunk of the world’s protein intake still comes from hunting and gathering- albeit with giant diesel powered fishing boats that are scraping the last fish from the oceans.
That’s a very good point. Tree nuts seem like they might a great way for humans to get a lot of protein, since they’re trees, thus should be pretty resilient, but tree nut allergies are so common that it’s not a viable option for a substantial portion of the human population.
Moringa seems really promising, if only it weren’t a tropical tree. (Wry grin.)
Moringa regrows for me from the roots after dying down in winter freezes. They are also harvested as young plants for the leaves when eating them so this is not a bad thing! You just miss out on pods and new seed. Just get some raw seed health food bag from Amazon. That’s how I started mine.
Ooh, that sounds great! What growing zone are you in?
I bought some Dwarf Moringa seeds from Baker Creek Seeds because I was thinking I could eat the leaves, even if I had to grow it as an annual. I’m hoping those might be able to give me seeds before frosts kill them. If so, I’ll be able to go from seed to seed every year!
I figure I have a chance, since moringa’s supposed to be able to go from seed to seed in 160-170 days, and I have 180 frost-free days most years. (Not this year – we had snow in May!)
8a. But I bury mine under deep mulch wood chips. Having a deep mulch is what may help with your colder zone as well. I don’t know how far north it can be grown this way as we are kind of blazing new trails with growing it this way of letting it die down in winter and regrow from the roots. This year they regrew starting closer to summer. If you can get it to grow during the warm season you may get a perennial Moringa tree lot.
I assumed they’d be comparable! Sadly, I’m trying to avoid growing soybeans because my daughter is allergic to them.