Rob: Florida is a state where most people
go to the supermarket to buy their food,
but they don't realize that they can
grow most of their food right at home.
Today, I'm really excited to have
Pete Kanaris on the channel.
He's going to introduce you to
10 different plants that you can grow
that are super-abundant and resilient
for the Florida climate to help you grow
a large amount of your food at home
and be able to skip those trips to
the grocery store.
This doesn't just apply to Florida,
though. Semitropical climates exist
around the world -- the Caribbean,
Central and South America,
southeast Asia, parts of Africa, and
parts of Australia, just to name some
places, are all places where this can
be a super-helpful video to you.
Pete: Alright, what's up, guys?
What's growing on?
Pete Kanaris here with Green Dreams
and I'm coming at you from Tampa,
Florida. I'm about 20 miles north of
Tampa and we're growing in a
subtropical environment here, in 9B,
and I'm taking over Rob Greenfield's
channel today. I'm putting a video
together for you all on our top 10
food crops to grow in a subtropical
environment for self-sufficiency.
These are the top 10 go-to food crops
that are super-easy to grow.
Something I'll tell you guys is we
focus on plants that thrive on neglect,
that grow with ease. Most of these
crops are perennial crops. By perennial,
I mean something that doesn't need
to be replanted every year, like you
would an annual. This is plant it one
time and typically forget it.
Perennial crops are crops that live
two or more years.
The first one I want to talk to you
guys about is actually right here,
behind me, just over my left shoulder.
This is chaya, or tree spinach.
You can see the big, giant leaves off
of this tree. This is a really easy one
to get established in your garden.
This is one that I tell people about
all the time and the first thing that
scares them about this one is that
it has to be cooked. Chaya does
need to be cooked for about 10 minutes.
There's an offgas of cyanide that comes
off of there. You definitely don't want
to use an aluminum pot, but this is
a big-time staple crop in Central America.
This is a really easy one to propagate
and start, so if you wanted to share
this with your friends, you would simply
take a cutting like this, stick it in the
ground, take off the leaves, and it will
start growing. It's really that easy.
The leaves from this are actually
quite delicious. I find this tree
to be really, the flavor of the leaves
to be hearty. They're really filling.
They go really well in a soup, really
well in a dish. Also known as tree
spinach. This is four times as
nutritious as typical spinach and it
wants to grow here. It wants to grow
here, through our hot summer,
our humidity, and our full sun.
The #2 plant I want to talk about that
is a must-have for your garden is
sitting here behind me. This is moringa
oleifera. This one likes full sun. If
you noticed, I had that chaya in a
dappled light, understory situation.
This one wants to be out in full sun.
I look at this tree as like having a
health food store in your back yard.
This one is like 22% protein, by
weight; 68 different antioxidants;
four times the calcium of milk.
I could go off about all the
different minerals and nutrients
that are inside of this plant.
This one is literally one of the
fastest growing trees we also have on
the farm. Commercially, they grow these
trees about a foot apart and they
prune off the new growth every week.
Most commonly, you would dry those
leaves and powder them, but you
could put this fresh into a salad. You
could put this fresh into a smoothie.
You could eat this fresh, like this.
The tree is also known as the
horseradish tree. That's because the
leaves can be a little bit on the spicy
side. I prefer this as a supplement.
I prefer this in a smoothie. I find
it to be a little bit on the strong
side, but it grows so well and is so
nutritious. The powder from
this tree goes for $30-40 -- I remember
when it was $60 a pound.
So, super-nutritious.
My #3 must-grow crop for Florida would
be what Rob would like to call yucca
or cassava or manihot. We got a
lot of comments on that one from
the videos we did together.
This is a must-grow crop, a super easy
to grow crop down here in Florida.
This is what they would make tapioca
pudding from. Cassava is a root crop
and it's really easy to get started in
the garden. It's one that you
literally, just like I showed you on
the chaya, you take a cutting of,
so probably something a little older
than this. You want three nodes above
and three nodes below the soil.
You just stick this guy in the ground
and it'll grow. Usually, cassava is
about an 8-9 month crop. You'll get
a root crop off of that. I just did a
specific video on cassava, on cooking
it, on harvesting it, on growing select
varieties, with my good friend, Josh,
from Hart. If you want more detail
on that, head over to my channel and
you'll see more specific stuff with
Josh -- how they cook it, how they
prepare it. I had cassava bread while
I was there. There are many different
ways to eat this.
Cassava? Must grow it.
The fourth crop I want to talk to you about today are sweet potatoes.
Many people, when you think sweet potato, you think of that typical orange
sweet potato, but there are hundreds
of heirloom varieties of sweet potato.
There are white sweet potatoes, purple
sweet potatoes, typical orange sweet
potatoes, but what a lot of people
don't know is you can eat the leaves
and the roots of a sweet potato.
Sweet potatoes just happen to be
one of the most nutritious crops in
the world for that reason.
What I really like to do is pull all
of these young leaves off of here.
This isn't a very good example of a
sweet potato patch. I just have a
couple of slips that we planted here
maybe a month ago, that are starting
to take over, but I can tell you, if I
came back in this area in just a few
weeks, this would be a solid sea of
green. The leaves are just starting
to fill in. You would start sweet potatoes
by buying just organic sweet potatoes
at the grocery store, sticking them in
some soil, letting the sprouts come
off and you break those off and that's
what would be called a slip. If you
don't start it from a potato, you
actually order slips in spring from a
sweet potato company. Like I said,
there are many different varieties
and types. Not only do you get this
awesome potato at the end of the season, which is really fun to dig up,
to pull them out of the ground. You don't have to eat them right away.
They can last 6-9 months inside of your house, but during that entire time,
you can eat the leaves off the sweet potatoes. So, sweet potatoes are
super-exciting for me because I love
the flavor of the greens. They're great
sauteed with just a little salt and
pepper on them, make a great side dish,
and then you get potatoes at the end
of the season. Digging up sweet
potatoes is one of my favorite events on the farm.
My #5 favorite perennial vegetable
to grow down here in the food
forest is sisso spinach or Miami spinach.
This one makes a really nice ground
cover. It can take full sun or dappled
light. You can see I accidentally
ripped a little bit of that root out.
I can stick it back in the ground.
It will easily grow. This is one
that doesn't need to be cooked.
It can be eaten raw. It really has a
nice texture to it, not too slimy, goes
really great in a salad, goes really
great just eating it fresh or in
any type of dish. This is a great
perennial vegetable that I planted
one time and it's been here for
multiple years, that's here all
summer long if I want to come outside
and have something to add as a
green in a salad or to a plate, so
sisso spinach is definitely worth
growing if you're in a subtropical
environment. We've got one or two
varieties of this one. It is just
great. Like I said, it has a nice crunch
to the leaf, it's not too slimy. It makes
a great perennial vegetable to add
to your landscape, so #5.
My #6 must-have for a sustainable
garden in Florida is definitely going to
be katuk. Katuk is an awesome
perennial vegetable, super-high in
protein, very similar to moringa,
where it's like 20% protein and it
tastes delicious. It literally tastes
like raw peas. It's one that really
has a nice flavor raw. Kids like
it. Everyone I've given it to is like,
wow, that tasted pretty good.
I have a variegated variety and
a green variety. They both thrive on
neglect. These plants never get
watered. These plants never get
fertilized. There is no irrigation here.
They live and thrive on neglect
all year long. With a lot of these
perennial vegetables -- sisso spinach,
moringa, katuk -- that young growth,
that new growth that's coming off
the top is going to be the most
tender, the softest. So, as I work my
way down the plant, these bottom
leaves are going to be a little
tougher. They're still great to eat.
They can still go in a dish. Probably
better in a cooked dish to break
them down a little bit, but for
eating fresh, I find the raw tips are
always best. So, katuk? Grow it.
My #6 food crop to grow here in
Florida, which probably would not
typically be looked at as a vegetable,
is papaya. Papaya was something that
I really enjoyed, spending time with
Rob. It's something he commonly made
in his dishes. I think my favorite was
his Thai coconut curry with the papaya
in it. I love green papaya. I think
it's great as a vegetable. I love
papaya salad at a Thai restaurant
and I love the flavor of a good, ripe
papaya as a fruit. Papayas don't have
to be eaten ripe; they can be eaten
green, like a vegetable. We're starting
to get some little papayas here and
you can get these while they get
larger and they're green, or you can
wait until they get ripe and eat it
as a fruit. This one doesn't
have a lot of fruit on it right now.
The other ones I have are tall and I
need to cut them back. You can cut
your papayas back every couple of
years. One of my mentors, a guy I
feature a lot on my channel, is
Jim Kovaleski. He's got a papaya tree
in his front yard that's 5-6 years old,
so these trees can last a while.
They can be perennial. They can
die back if you're further north,
but you can start them in your
greenhouse and get them outside
right after that last frost and
potentially get a green fruit in six
months, so papayas are worth
growing. Find a good one, grow the
seed. Easy to get started.
Highly suggest growing it.
#7, I've been really busy the last
couple of weeks with the nursery
business and all of my plants out
in the ground for these last three have
been cut down for cuttings and
propagation, so I'm over here, in
the nursery, where I have some
better examples. What I want to
talk to you about now is edible leaf
hibiscus. That's this big-leafed plant
behind me. This can be used as a
wrap. It can be eaten raw, chopped
up in a salad, be used as a green.
This is one that might be a little
bit more on the mucilaginous side,
maybe slightly slimy, some would say.
That's really good for lining our
insides. This variety is actually less
slimy than the variety I have over here,
on this side. This one definitely has
a little bit more mucilaginous to it.
I have a couple of different varieties.
I have this skinny-leafed variety. I
have this fat-leafed variety. There are
a couple of different names for
this one. I like to just call it
lettuce leaf hibiscus. I really like
this one as a wrap. If you wanted
a green wrap, something that's
gluten-free, you can grow this
for your wrap.
The #9 must-have for the sustainable
garden in Florida, this is one that the
kids really like: cranberry hibiscus.
The leaves are beautiful, nice deep red.
Some people call that like a mahogany.
These are sweet. They're sour. They're
delicious just raw. They go nice in a
salad, if you chop them up. My favorite
thing to do is, if I'm making a sandwich
or packing something for the day, I'm
going to be on the road, I come out and
get a handful of fresh leaves and,
just like I talked about with the
katuk, the younger leaves, the fresh
growth, like this is a really fresh
red one. You can see this is an
older leaf. You can see a color
difference. You see how that one
is pale and that one is dark red?
The younger growth is always going to
be the most tender and the sweetest.
Nothing wrong with the old growth; it's
just not going to be the best,
flavor-wise. So, cranberry hibiscus is
not only a stunner in the landscape,
a pretty-looking plant, but it has a
really nice edible factor and I
guarantee if you give it to one of the
kids, they're going to enjoy it too.
This one has been a perennial
here. It will set flowers. All hibiscuses
have edible flowers. You can eat the
flower on this, but after it's done
setting a flower, it's going to set
seed that you could save to replant
if you're in a more northern type
climate. So, cranberry hibiscus is
another must-have.
If you're into gardening down here,
in Florida, and you don't have it,
this is one to add to your system.
Last, but not least, must-have perennial
for a sustainable garden
in Florida or in any subtropical
climate is Okinawan spinach.
This is one that we've been propagating
really hard the last few weeks. This is
also one that the squirrels like,
that I have a hard time keeping
going in the beds, but I really like
the flavor of it. It's really nice to
eat raw. It's nice to eat cooked. It's
nice to put in a dish. It's very
similar to the longevity spinach,
which is right here, behind me,
but I think the longevity spinach
is a little stronger, a little
more like a medicine. The squirrels
don't like it as much, so it
grows here a lot better.
I've noticed that we plant these two
for clients all the time, longevity
spinach and Okinawan spinach. The
Okinawan is a little prettier. It's got
some purplish-red to the underside
of the leaves. It's hit or miss.
Sometimes the Okinawan does better
on your site, sometimes the longevity
does better on your site. I would say both
of these are a tie for #10, but this
one tastes a little better.
I hope you guys enjoyed this
video. Thank you, Rob, for the
opportunity. It's been a blast.
I can't wait to work with you
again. I can't wait for your next
challenge. I can't wait for you to get
back to Florida so we can do some
fun stuff. Thank you guys so much
for following. What we like to do
around here is pound dirt!
Rob: I hope you got a lot of
inspiration and education out of
this time with Pete. He is a wealth
of knowledge. He is an expert in
growing food and he helps a lot
of people to do this, both in person
and through his YouTube channel.
Make sure to subscribe to his
channel. The links to follow him are
in the description. If you got a lot
out of this video, make sure to
subscribe to this channel as well,
where I'll have many more
guests to come, as well as videos
led by me. Also, share this, comment,
and like it to spread it out into
the world and get this information out
there to people who need it, but
don't know it's there.
I love you all very much and I'll see
you again real soon.