I want to take more advantage of growing during the winter rainy season here in the mediterranean, I’m lucky that we rarely have frost and where my garden is located the temperature never goes below minus 3.
I want to trial potatoes grown from true seed (if I get my air con low enough for the seeds to germinate in this heatwave), as yields from the 10+ varieties I’ve tested never really produce that well.
I know fava beans, brassicas, daikons, garlic and onions already grow well. Peas tend to die of mildew before they really produce except for the wild peas of umbria.
Sweet potatoes continue growing well into december and store in the ground all winter and early spring, so they kind of count.
But what other potential staple crops could be grown?
Scarlet runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) are short day producers. They might go dormant during your coldest months but it sounds like your climate is warm enough for their tuberous root to survive the winter. If so, that would give them a head start on the spring season.
Here in USA zone 6a in January i planted scarlet runner beans that hung on the dead vine overwinter. They grew, flowered and produced bean pods in the spring before the weather got hot. They didn’t grow much during the hot dry summer, but now that the heat has broken and we have had rain, they are flowering again, so i hope for more pods in autumn.
I know there’s at least one vendor on eBay that sells scarlet runner beans that they grow in Greece… unfortunately US Customs intercepted and destroyed my order because the vendor doesn’t have a phytosanitary certificate. Apparently the certificates are expensive for a small vendor…
Did you try yacon? It hates frost but seems ok with lower temperatures. It might even flower where you are.
Corn could be good. As a climbing rack for beans as well.
Wheats of all kinds. Millet, quinoa, sorgo…
Are sunflowers a staple crop?
Thanks for sharing this video. How very inspiring, this model for self sufficiently growing 100 percent of your food. Glad to learn about the space necessary as well, 750 square meters is less than half of an acre? Had never thought of the “cereal- pulse-oil” recipe for all staple foods. Im glad Alik made the connection to different cultures who focus on a particular cereal grain…like the corn-bean-squash grouping also for staples. Curious about the recipes Alik utilizes as well.
Perhaps any oil seed grown would be considered a staple?
Yes Kim, very inspiring gardener indeed. There’s a lot to do health wise about bad oils and good oils. And if I understood right, good oils are pressed cold and bad oils need heat or chemicals to be removed from the seeds.
I think I was moving in Alik’s direction anyway, but see more urgency to push it with staples. The growing and harvesting is less of an issue than the after processes. That will be time consuming. But once in place will liberate enormously.
How funny, I saw this video yesterday! Super inspiring.
Yacon grows well here from march until january when in goes dormant. And it does flower. I normally start harvesting in december after the flowers wither. I don’t know if it’s my cultivars or growing techniques, but the rhizome with propagules grows much larger than the tubers so yields are quite low. Maybe I need to harvest before they put energy into flowering.
Sunflowers and grains could be fun to experiment with.
I love runner beans but have had very little luck with them, but I’ve probably planted too late, so I’ll try your growing times and look for that ebay vendor.
