What to Grow on Your Homestead

This chapter is designed to focus on growing items you may not have previously thought of. Also while
you can grow most of these items anywhere I am putting this section together mainly for the person
with a homestead of at least a half-acre and it is an ideal addendum to the previous section on setting
up a one acre homestead. I am not discouraging anyone regardless of the size of your land from
growing any of the items in this section, I am just pointing out the mindset here is large amounts of
easily storable food.

On that note, you won’t find peppers, tomatoes, green beans, broccoli, etc. in this section. This should
not be taken as any sort of recommendation not to grow those types of things. I grow tons of them
myself especially sweet and hot peppers; this section is for things that we might consider a bit more
“broad acre” in nature and again with pest resistance, drought resistance and storability in mind. Most
are also gown with livestock in mind for at least a portion of their production.

Annuals

Austrian Hulless Pumpkin – While not highly drought resistant they do well with minimal irrigation but
the bigger news for those plagued with squash bugs and squash vine bores is they seem fairly resistant
to both. I have grown them when even butternuts were hard hit by insects and they seem mostly
untouched. The plants produce medium sized green striped pumpkins.

The flesh is largely useless (though hogs like it) but the seeds are the key. They store well when dried,
have lots of protein and oil in them so they are nutritional powerhouses. They can simply be dried and
eaten raw or roasted and seasoned as you see fit. The big news is the “hulless” component; the seeds
have no shells and are very large. So no real work in cleaning them, no threshing, etc. Just remove from
the pumpkin and clean off the pulp and allow the seeds to dry. Think of them as giant great tasting
sunflowers seeds without the shell!

Birdhouse Gourd aka Bottle Gourd – These are the gourds you might find all hollowed out at craft fairs
made into birdhouses, hence the common name. In America these are seen mostly as a novelty and
grown simply as a craft item. The reality though is in India they are a staple food item and no not just
for starving people. Markets are full of them and they are mostly curried. To use them for food they
need to be harvested young. I think it would shock most people how “gourd like” a cucumber becomes
if left on the vine long enough. The flesh of birdhouse gourd is very mild and tends to take on the flavor
of whatever it is cooked in, so most people will like them as long as they are flavored to their individual
tastes.

Also do not overlook the value of growing them to maturity for containers. In a long term catastrophe
containers will have a huge value. Making them into bottles is a simple process and they are certainly
useable for many things around the homestead day to day. You will also want to encourage birds for
pest control. To make a bird house you can use wood, nails, saws, etc. or simply core a hole in a gourd,
apply a preservative and add a perch to it. Doing more with less is smart homesteading and a key to
modern survivalism.
The best part is from my experience they are pest free, the squash bugs and borers totally ignore them,
even the deer seem to leave them be. They grow like mad; I have seen vines approach 30 feet so they
make a good planting along a fence. They also love heat and never seemed bothered by even 100 plus
degree days as long as they get at least a bit of irrigation.

Butternut Squash, Long Neck Pumpkin, etc. – I am a huge believer in long keeping winter squash. One
time I placed a butternut squash on a window sill in our kitchen. My wife asked “how long are you going
to leave that thing there”? My response was simply, I just want to see how long it takes for it to go bad.
A full year later it started to get some dark spots on it, my wife was less then pleased but I was elated.

The key for many growers is the typical problems with insects when it comes to squash. If you have no
issues great just grow what you like. Also if you have a long growing season planting a very early and
very late crop can help but my best results come from growing pest resistant varieties. Most members
of the C. mocheta are very resistant to vine bores because the vines are so dense. Butternut and Long
Neck Pumpkin are two of my favorites. While often bothered somewhat by squash bugs that damage
the leaves they almost always manage to produce before the bugs damage them to the point where
they need to be removed.

Corn (Parching and Meal) – If you want to grow sweet corn nock yourself out. It tastes great and we
grow a bit here and there. However it is so inexpensive it is one area I prefer to support my local
growers rather than tie up my resources growing it. Sweet corn, even heirloom varieties tends to be
very demanding on nutrients and water. The other key is “sweet corn” doesn’t really store well unless
blanched and frozen. On the other hand many old varieties that are considered mostly “ornamental”
today store beautifully. In fact they are one of the original survival foods of Native Americans.

The problem is most people simply don’t know what to do with these types of corn today. One of my
favorite ways to use them is parching, this is almost like “half popping” but larger kernel corns are used
then for popcorn. They are heated in a bit of oil on low heat until they plump up and become easy to
chew. They can then be flavored with anything from chili and salt to brown sugar to whatever you
fancy. They are a high energy food and last damn near forever.

Another method is making your own “corn nuts”. This is quite simple but requires care to not burn
yourself. The corn is simply soaked in water for about three days where it will double in size. You then
deep fry it in oil until it floats and season as for parched corn. The key is it must be well drained of water
and only fried a small amount at a time (say a few table spoons) to avoid exploding oil from the
absorbed water content.

Lastly with a good grinder you can make corn meal (ground course) or corn flour (ground fine) and use
them as you would any such product from the store. Corn tortillas are okay from a store but fresh made
they are one of life’s true pleasures. The key is all of these items, parched corn, corn nuts, corn meal
and corn flour can be made as you need them and the corn can be stored almost indefinitely even with
no energy inputs until you need it.
Lastly these old style flint, dent and parching corns have much higher disease resistance, require a lot
less fertility and a lot less irrigation then modern sweet corn varieties. If planted early enough even corn
ear worms won’t get very far before the kernels become too hard for their tastes. Finally the corn
plants themselves can be used for stock feed. Of course all of the methods of preparation apply to dry
corn you can purchase as well and are part of why it makes such a good long term option as well.

Sunflower (Giant Heirloom Varieties) – Sunflowers grow well just about anywhere in the US and are
largely unbothered by pests. They do serve well as a “trap crop” for squash bugs though. Squash bugs
will often choose to suck on large sunflower leaves over squash leaves. Not only do the sunflowers not
really seem to be bothered by this very much but it makes finding and killing the pests pretty easy as
well. Many times I have found a sunflower leaf coated in squash bug nymphs as in dozens or even
hundreds of them. I simply cut the leave off and toss it in the trash burner or a bucket of water. A
mammoth sunflower can lose a lot of leaves with no harm to it.

Sunflowers are also a magnet for bees and we need them on our property as much as possible to
pollinate everything. They also attract many other nectar loving insects, many of which are predators
and will help keep pests in check. They can serve as a trellis of sorts for beans, I always plant 4 or so
“pole beans” around any mammoth sunflower once it gets about 3 feet tall, if you do it to early the fast
growing flowers can and will literally pull your beans out of the ground. On top of this they provide
shade so I plant them in and around the main garden as well, just well-spaced out. While plants need
lots of sun some shade during the day helps them cope with heavy heat.

The sunflower isn’t done yet, of course we get seeds. Seeds we can dry or roast and eat ourselves, or
seeds we can feed to our chickens. Chickens should never be over fed sunflower seed, the high oil
content can cause them to molt excessively. A few handfuls here and there with their other feed
though will provide high energy nutrition that makes for a happy, healthy, egg laying flock. Again
though the big issue is we can store the seeds for honestly years with no energy inputs. Harvesting is
simple, cut the heads, hang them to dry and then shuck the seeds into a bag. We can also chop up the
huge stems for a lot of great organic matter for our composting.

Another good variety is “black oil sunflower”. These are much smaller plants and often get many
flowers per plant. I consider them worthless for human food but chickens and birds relish them. If you
are growing pigeons for squab this is a great feed source, though just like chickens sunflower needs to
be fed in moderation. While we can by 50 pound bags of this stuff for “bird seed” our chickens don’t
require it all nicely shucked and cleaned. You can just cut the heads and dry them and store them in a
sack like an onion bag. Then toss a head or two to your flock a few times a week and let them do the
work. Watching a dozen hens fighting over few heads and knocking them around like some sort of
“chicken soccer match” is great entertainment. You can also grow some of these in your “pasture”
areas and simply allow your chickens into the area and trust me they will find the seeds once they
mature.

Sorghum – Sorghum was once a staple of the American grower. Not just for large scale production but
almost ever homestead grew some for syrup. Just 100 years ago sorghum syrup was the number one
sweetener in America. It was used more than sugar, honey or maple syrup. Now that ships cross the
oceans daily sugar is far more plentiful then it once was and the food industry of course uses mostly high
fructose corn syrup for sweetener. Sorghum is still grown on a large scale but most homesteaders
today have all but forgotten it.

What I am not suggesting though is that the average homesteader grow it for syrup production.
Sorghum presses are very specialized pieces of equipment and getting harder and harder to come by.
Now if you want to