Preppers: Planning Primary and Secondary Crops
Kevin Felts 04.18.18
Preppers, have you given thought to what your primary and secondary food crops are? In other words, what would be your main food crops, and what are your secondary food crops?
Why plan a primary and secondary crop? Multitude of reasons, such as fighting food fatigue, and in case one crop fails. For example, the spring of 2018 had an excessive amount of rainfall early in the spring. Due to the excessive rain, and the way they were planted, the seed potatoes rotted in the ground. We will get into why the potatoes rotted in another article.
Thankfully, my primary and secondary crops for 2018 were potatoes, squash, and snap beans. Potatoes and beans can be preserved somewhat easily, but not squash. Potatoes can be stored in a cool dry location, and the beans can be either dried or canned.
Then there are the other crops planted for 2018 such as various peppers.
Primary and Secondary Crops
Think of it this way:
Primary crops – Main meals, used to make main meals.
Secondary crops – Side dishes.
Of course the two can be reversible. Someone could have a main meal of squirrel, and a side dish of bean soup.
For the sake of discussion let’s talk about crops which provide some type of nutrients, which excludes stuff like cucumbers. However, cucumbers can be pickled, which provides a nice snack.
Examples:
- Beans and peas – pinto, snap, purple hull, roma II
- Corn
- Okra
- Onions
- Peppers
- Potatoes
- Radishes
- Spinach
- Squash – summer and winter.
- Tomatoes
- Turnip greens
- Melons – watermelons and cantaloupe.
Meal Planning
Using the squash, peppers and onions we can make a main dish for a meal. Then have a side dish of greens, chopped onions and spinach.
With the corn and peppers we could make Mexican cornbread. Or, just use corn to make cornbread.
Beans and corn could be ground together to make a type flat bread eaten in the middle ages.
From the examples listed above, the main meals can use:
- Beans
- Squash
- Potatoes
- Turnips
Then mix in stuff like corn, onions, spinach, peppers, and okra.
Stockpiling Seeds
Stockpiling seeds is something I have talked about numerous times in the SurvivalistBoards forums and on my blog. However, rather than buying seeds at random, plan the garden, what crops will be planted, and how everything will fit together.
If the reader went to their seed stockpile right now and looked through it, what would be the primary food crops, and what would be the secondary crops?
Let’s take radishes for example. The entire radish plant can be eaten: tops can be mixed with a salad raw or boiled, and the bottom can be eaten raw or cooked. Thus, the radish would make an excellent secondary food crop. Take a few radishes, chop them up, add some spinach, and we have a side dish salad.
Peppers and onions could be used to spice up some fresh yard eggs from the chickens.
Final Thoughts
It is one thing to stockpile seeds, it is another thing to think about and plan the seed stockpile. Ask yourself, “Out of the seed stockpile, what are the main food crops?” Also, do those crops provide a range of nutrients?
Take corn for example. A lot of peppers think corn would be a primary staple food after a collapse. However, if someone tried to live off a mainly corn diet, they would probably develop Pellagra.
As with everything else in life (and prepping), moderation and balance is the key.
