The Easiest, Most Abundant Edible Plants to Grow in a Garden - Gardening in a Cold Climate

Hey everybody, Rob Greenfield here and

today I'm going to share with you some of

the most easy and abundant foods to grow

for those of you that are in a colder

climate, so this applies to people across

much of the Northern United States,

Northern Europe and around many climates

around the world. So if that fits you and

you want to grow a lot of food in your

garden and have a lot of food on your

table then this is definitely the video for you.

A lot of you know me for my year

of growing and foraging 100% of my food

where literally everything that I ate

for a year was either from my garden or
foraged.

But I did that in Florida in a very hot

climate where I could grow food year

around. A lot of people saw what I did

and they thought "Oh, you can only do
this because you're in a warm climate"

but the truth is: warm climate, cold climate,

as long as you work within your

region you can grow an incredible amount

of food, and a lot of the most

self-sufficient people that I've ever

met live in cold climate places like

Wisconsin or Ohio or New York so there's

so many foods that you can grow it's

just about growing what grows well and

abundantly in your area. So when I'm

talking about easiest and most abundant;

easiest means they grow really well, it's

hard to kill them, even if you have what

you consider a black thumb there's a

good chance you'll be able to grow these

and walk away feeling like you have a

green thumb.

And then abundant means that

they produce a lot of food but there's a

second part to that and that is that

they produce a substantial amount of

food on your plate and that they'll

actually be able to fill yourself up and

fill your pantry up to get through the

winter, because that's the key in the

colder climates if you want to grow a

large portion of your food - it's that you

produce as much as you can during those

growing months during the growing season

and then you store it in jars,

in freezers, dehydrating it and such,

in order to be able to make it through the

winter with the food from your garden.

So these foods are gonna help you

drastically reduce the number of times

that you need to go to the grocery store

and drastically increase the nutrition and

the abundance that you're getting

straight at home or on your farm right

where you are.

I have to start with the potato.

One thing that a lot of people

have the hardest time with is calories,

now I wanted to show you this potato in

particular, it might look crazy to a lot

of you but this is a potato that has

been stored in the pantry for about six

or seven months now. I'm in Southern

France and it's mid-May, and this was put

into the pantry in around October or November.

So these store for a very long time, so

as far as your calories go potatoes are

gonna be one of the most calorie dense,

producing a large bulk of your food and

they store really well so this knocks

out two really important things and the

potatoes that are left over that you

don't eat - this one right here

could be planted to produce more so that

is the wonderful potato.

The second one I

want to share with you is pumpkins and I

am in love with pumpkins, not just the

ones you see that you make

jack-o'-lanterns out of, there's many

different shapes, colors and sizes of

pumpkins. This is just a beautiful one at

the farm that I'm staying at. Pumpkins

are amazing because they store a really

long time, again it's May and this is

from the last season and it's just as

good as can be and you can also eat the

seeds, you can eat the skin - in a matter

of fact I will take the entire thing

except the stem and blend it up into a

soup. So pumpkin and different winter

squashes, they provide a lot of

sustenance, nutrients and a lot of them

are very easy to grow. Grow the ones that

are adapted to your climate.

Now next I want to share summer squashes,

so zucchini - this actually is more of a

winter squash but it looks kind of like

a summer squash so I'm using it.

Now, zucchinis are truly amazing.

I've traveled through Washington,
through Wisconsin, through New York,

all across the Northern United States

and people tell me that they have so

many zucchinis that they

have to try to give them away but they

can't because everybody has so many of

them. They get huge, you can eat him when

they're giant or you can eat them when

they're small if you want them to be

more tender, so zucchinis are a must

for a huge amount of sustenance and

being extremely easy to grow.

The next one I want to talk about is beans

and beans are truly incredible, you can

either eat them fresh, right off of the

vine or the bush, there's there's pole

beans and there's bush beans, you can eat

them fresh, you can wait for them to dry

on the vine to have dried beans like you

would buy at the store, like your pinto

beans or your black beans or your lentils.

Or you can can them, these are

canned ones for example and another way

to store them is freezing them, so the

freezer is a really great way to store

food, it generally costs only a few

dollars a month to run a deep chest

freezer and you can store a few hundred

pounds of food. So again, one of the most

important things in the colder climates

is storing the abundance. Canning is one

way to do that, freezing is another and then

there's drying as well and then jams, I'll

show those as well there's also the

pantry for things like potatoes and

carrots that can store in the pantry.

So there's a lot of different ways to store

your food and that's the key. Beans are

very easy, very abundant and I also want

to mention peas which are kind of my

runner up to beans but very easy to grow

for a lot of people, some people have

problems with them and they're not

nearly as filling as beans but peas are

another really great crop as well.

Alright the next one is carrots, this is

definitely a favorite for me although to

be honest I just love all foods that

grow really abundantly and easily, I mean,

so this is a great video for me to be

filming because this is my passion.

But carrots, now these carrots have been

stored in boxes of sand in a cold pantry,

again these have been stored for about

six months so they're not your fresh,

super crisp ones, but let me give this a

bite - (chews) that's still pretty crunchy

these are about six months stored, well,

it's actually uh, wow, they're even sweet still,

nice, not as flavorful as some carrots

that I've had, but sweet, so these

can be stored, they can be canned as well,

I love to make carrot juice, I mean

that's one of my favorite things so

carrots that's an important one. And I

want to mention with carrots - beets, now

for a lot of people beets are super easy,

some people beets have been a challenge

so I don't necessarily consider them the

most easy but I have to mention them

because they can be very abundant for

some people, they're very easy but if you

grow beets you have to eat the greens, if

you're wasting the greens

you're wasting some of the best

nutrients and taste, they're one of the

most incredible greens if you ask me.

They're, they're absolutely my favorite

or one of my top favorite greens so

carrots and beets. To continue on I want

to mention a few more root vegetables

and that would be radishes and turnips.

So radishes are one of the easiest foods

to grow and you can actually harvest

radishes in about 30 days, the small

radishes, they're one of the fastest

growing crops that there are and you can

grow daikon radishes which get really

huge and I grew a lot of daikon radish

in Florida. And then turnips, turnips can

be pretty easy to grow as well, they are

a nice root they go really well with

potatoes and beets and carrots baked

together. I love baked turnip.

Living off of garden doesn't mean living

without flavor, in fact it can mean a really

delicious garden full of flavor, this

food can be grown right here and you can

harvest it within moments before you're

putting it on your plate so you can get

some of the most delicious foods that
you'll ever eat.

But I really like, in order to have that for

me there's some key ingredients - onions

are one of them, herbs are as well which

I'll get into pretty soon. Now onions can

be extremely easy - I want to say that you

might have a hard time getting those big

giant onions that you would get at the

store, that's not something that every

gardener or beginner gardener will be

able to get. It's more likely that you'll

be able to be successful with small

bulbs and the other thing that's really

one of the easiest is bunching onions

and you can eat the greens. Now you can

eat the Greens of all onions as well and

actually if you eat just the right amount

you'll get a crop of green onions and then

a crop of the bulbs as well. So the

smaller ones are generally easier

for beginner gardeners.

Another one that I want to mention is garlic.

Now garlic is super important to me, it's a

wonderful medicine, it adds an incredible

amount of flavor. For some people they

found garlic to be super easy, it's a

little bit more of a challenging one

because you plant it in the fall and

then harvest it in the late spring. It

sits under the snow for the winter so

that makes it not quite the easiest, it's

a little more challenging especially for

beginners but it can be pretty easy. With

garlic this is a clove - pop that in the

ground, starts to sprout and then you've

got garlic. Now if you're not successful

with the bulbs you can grow it just for

its greens and you can get really, really

productive, abundant greens out of garlic

and they're very strong - that was quite

strong just like garlic. So onions and

garlic, those are also extremely

important for preserving food when

you're canning, and adding to soups,

those really fill out the meal and add a

whole lot of flavor.

I want to talk to you about greens now

and greens are where you get a
lot of your nutrients.

They're one of the things that makes the

most sense to grow locally rather than

having them be shipped, they take up a huge

amount of space and they really are just

one thing that does not make sense to be

shipping long distance. So this is kale

right here and some of the beginner

greens that are really easy would

include kale, arugula, lettuce, mustard
greens, swiss chard, spinach and amaranth.

Those are 7 of the easier ones to grow.

Amaranth, what's really special about

that is it's often self seeding and once

you get it going you'll have amaranth

coming back time and time again.

So greens are one of the most nutrient

dense foods out there and if you can eat

greens every meal you are, you have the

ability to change your life if you're

not eating healthy and they make a
huge difference.

Now greens are generally what you're

going to be eating during the the months,

during the the growing season. A lot of

people don't preserve their greens so

much. You can and one of the greens

that's easiest to preserve is sauerkraut.

So this here isn't exactly sauerkraut,

this is more like preserved cabbage,

sauerkraut though comes from cabbage and

you can store away jars and jars and

jars of sauerkraut. It's just salt, cabbage

and not even water. And then you add

other things if you want like herbs.

But literally just salt and cabbage stores

easily for through the winter and it's

delicious, adds so much value to your meal.

The fermentation of it through wild fermentation

actually increases the nutrient value of it

so cabbage is one that grows pretty well,

stores and makes a really value added food

to add to each of your meals. Can't say

enough about sauerkraut. And if you're

interested in wild fermentation check out

Sandor Katz's book called 'Wild Fermentation'
- it is a must read if you're going to

get into the storing and fermenting of foods.

Alright, next I want to talk to you about herbs.

These add incredible amount of flavor to

your meals, you can make teas with them and

they are often one of the absolute
easiest things to grow.

Some of the herbs that I am going to mention

are basil, dill, cilantro, oregano, rosemary,
thyme and mint.

Here is basil, this is being grown in a

greenhouse to get it started, i want to

mention one thing about basil and that's

that it likes heat. So this is more of the

peak of the summer. If you try to grow

this while it's cold in the beginning of the

year you're gonna have a really hard time.

And that's an important thing, growing

the right things at the right time of
the year.

Now another herb that I want to mention,

this one is just, I mean for a lot of

people it's a problem because it's so

successful and it reproduces so well

that it takes over a garden. So when I'm

talking about easy and abundant,

mint is the picture plant for that. It

reproduces through these roots and they

just spread through the soil. So all you

have to do is take some roots from a

friends garden, put those down and those

will produce mint. So mint is definitely

one of my top recommendations and it

can end up being a problem, so if you

do plant it, I mean for me when I was a

beginner gardener I said that any plant

that becomes a problem is a friend of

mine and I still generally feel that way.

One thing I want to mention about herbs

and that is some herbs grow really well

from seed, like for example coriander,
cilantro.

These are really great to plant from seed.

Now on the other hand mint is a

difficult one to start from seed so for

the one's that are difficult to start from

seed I would recommend buying those

as already started plants from your

local nursery or another gardener or
a plant sale or something of that sort.

So, herbs galore, there are so many.

I just named seven but there are

a lot of other easy herbs to grow as well.

Now I want to talk to you about fruit trees

which are totally different from a lot of

these crops, most of these are annual

crops that you have to plant again and
again each year.

If you can invest in fruit trees you're

investing in your future. You can plant

fruit trees and now the thing is, you are

investing in the future. To start getting

a lot of apples might take a few years

before you get your first apples and

five years before you start to get a lot,

but you'll have apples for decades to come.

So fruit trees that I recommend -

apples, pears, plums, mulberries and cherries.

Those are some the easiest ones to grow

in those more northern climates.

Apples can store just like this through

the winter, you can freeze them, you

can make jams - there's so much that you

can do with your fresh fruits and you

can also just enjoy incredible amounts

of them during the season. So fruit trees

are definitely a must, you can plant those

around the edges of the property and

make use of that vertical space with
fruit trees.

It's starting to rain here in the garden

so I got to cruise through these but

we're getting towards the end.

Keeping along the lines with fruits

I want to mention some berries.

Raspberries and blackberries

generally are the easiest and those can

go crazy and become a problem for a

lot of people. Blueberries, on the other

hand need acidic soil so for a lot of

people they are not a beginner.

Strawberries also can be pretty easy

however generally raspberries and

blackberries are more abundant than

strawberries. So raspberries and

blackberries are my two biggest

recommendations for berries.

But I just want to say there's a lot of

other ones out there, got to mention

juneberries, also called Saskatoon or

service berries are a really great one
as well.

Right here I am holding blackberry

chutney, and jams are an incredible thing

to make out of your raspberries and

blackberries. You can store lots and lots

of jam so that is a really, really great

thing about those berries.

Ok, next thing I want to mention is tomatoes.

Tomatoes grow super abundantly for so many

people, and with tomatoes you can make

huge amounts of sauce. I've just realized

how many times I've said
'huge and abundance'

over the last twenty minutes of so but

that's what we're talking about - plants

that produce a huge amount.

I've just said it again!

So, tomatoes, one that I absolutely

recommend in abundance. At my

friend's house this weekend we just planted

over a hundred tomato plants for a

family of four. It's a lot of tomatoes are,

I mean most people love them.

Hot pepper is another one, this is something

that can often grow in huge abundance

and be very easy. I took one seed from a

my friends serrano pepper plant and

that produced over a thousand serrano

peppers, just from that one seed.

Another thing that I want to mention,

sometimes this is a little bit harder but

cucumbers for making pickles.

Alright, I've got two last ones for you.

And these are perennials and with that

I want to mention that I really recommend

perennials. These are plants that grow for

year after year after year rather than

things that you have to plant each year

like carrots. So rhubarb is one of the most

incredible perennials. You plant

rhubarb and about, it will produce

for about twenty five years.

Really recommend rhubarb.

And then lastly we're going to finish

it off with Jerusalem artichoke, also
called sunchokes.

And these another one where if you don't

contain them, they can spread though your

garden and they can become wild as well.

They produce a huge amount,

I just said huge again! (laughs)

They produce an incredible amount of food

and they're very tasty and I cook them

basically like a potato.

So there you have it, that is about forty

of my top recommendation for the

easiest and most abundant foods to grow

in your garden, I just want to say there's

a lot more out there. I picked a lot of the

common foods that people have a lot

of experience with and recognise

because it's easier to get started with

that, rather than plants that you might

never heard of - like gooseberries which

grow well in northern climates or like

Moringa Kale and Moringa Kotuk and
Chaya which are more

southern climate. So I just want to say

that I did kind of pick things that are

more known but there is a lot of

unknown foods that grow extremely well.

I want to say try your best to get your

seeds locally. Locally adapted seeds will

grow much better in your area because they

are adapted to that area. And then buying

plants from local nurseries that are using

varieties that have been grown in the area

for decades helps a lot. Also for support

join a community garden if you feel like

you have a black thumb, it would be

incredible helpful to be around other

people. And then also volunteer at

farms and gardens. That way you can be

learning and you can be helping at the

same time, and the amount of knowledge

that you gain from volunteering at gardens

and farms is pretty priceless.

I hope that this video has really inspired

you to grow a lot of food this year and

the years to come. Start small, don't feel

like you have to grow all forty of these

crops this year and add on each year as

you start to get better and better.

I'm excited for you to get the out there

and start growing some of your own food.

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I love you all very much

And see you again soon!