1Oh, good day!
2I'm Mark from Self Sufficient Me.
3Are you worried about the rising cost of food or even worse...
4a food crisis, running out of food, no food at all?
5Well, a worldwide fertilizer shortage, supply problems,
6energy crisis, and even a lack of fruit and veg workers is putting pressure on food supplies.
7And how about inflation?
8It's out of control.
9The only thing that's been going down and fast, in the last few years
10is the IQ of our politicians.
11What a bunch of bananas.
12Well, it's enough to drive you bananas.
13So if we can't rely on governments and big corporations, and we can't,
14well then, we must take steps on an individual level to buffer ourselves against hard times.
15And, that's why in this video,
16I'm gonna give you my six top crops to grow at home
17to save you from starving.
18Let's get into it.
19These six foods, I've put a lot of thought into them.
20They had to be ones that you can effectively, and easily grow at home,
21in an average sized yard,
22which also give the best return for harvest,
23have good preserving qualities,
24and of course high sustenance to keep us going in an emergency.
25Number one is potatoes.
26You say "potato" and I say "potato".
27I saved these potatoes from last season.
28If only I could remember the date,
29anyway, let's have a look at them.
30Little bit over chitted,
31but we might be able to get away with planting some.
32Anyway, I'll have a go growing them later.
33Luckily, I've got some new seed potatoes to plant as well.
34But, did you know the great famine in Ireland back in 1845
35was due to a lack of potatoes?
36It's true, over a million people died of hunger,
37despite efforts from England and the USA to help.
38Potatoes grew so easily and are so full of calories
39that the Irish population basically became dependent on them,
40and when the crops were suddenly devastated by a fungal disease called late blight,
41they effectively ran out of potato chips and starved.
42What the Irish didn't know back then was the key to growing potatoes is diversity.
43Grow different varieties at the same time, and from year to year
44to limit a buildup of pests and disease.
45These days there are more varieties of potatoes and ones that have better resistance to disease.
46And, speaking of diversity,
47I love the diverse ways that potatoes can be grown,
48such as direct in ground or hilled up,
49in trenches, boxes or containers.
50There's a way to grow potatoes that suits just about everywhere,
51every budget, and every sized property.
52I think it's interesting how potatoes have gone from a main to a side on a plate like fries.
53And during tough times, potatoes could become your main again.
54And just quietly, it wouldn't be that bad.
55I'm a sucker for potato chips.
56Number two is corn.
57Not this, it looks very similar, but that's sugar cane.
58During the potato famine,
59the USA sent tons of corn to Ireland in order to help the starving population.
60And then the Irish made bourbon out of it.
61Only joking, about the bourbon bit.
62No, they survived off corn chips,
63and of course many other things derived from this wonderful grain/vegetable
64depending on how it's consumed.
65Corn is one of the three biggest plant based food sources in the world.
66Rice and wheat are the others, in case you're wondering.
67But, unlike rice and wheat, corn can be grown effectively on a much smaller scale
68and still produce a lot of food.
69Corn has a compact and upright growing habit, which saves space.
70It can be interplanted in the garden with other crops like beans and squash, to utilize even more space.
71And, corn grows as fast as grass,
72because it is grass.
73Just like commercially, homegrown corn has many uses from eating it straight on the cob
74to making flours, grits, tortillas, and popcorn.
75All these things can be easily done at home without too much effort, making corn extremely versatile.
76Even the whole plant can be chipped, and put back into the garden as a nutritious mulch.
77No wonder corn became such an important crop for humanity
78after its discovery in Mexico about 10,000 years ago.
79And, now it's grown on every continent around the world except for Antarctica.
80And, I encourage you to grow it as well because the way things are going,
81we're not gonna be able to afford to eat at Taco Bell.
82Number three is cabbage.
83Now before you screw your nose up, hear me out.
84Firstly, cabbage is known to lower blood pressure.
85And, with all the terrible news spewing out of the idiot box these days
86we need all the help we can get to lower our blood pressure, and heart rate.
87And, cabbage has a heap of other health benefits
88such as its full of nutrients to help bone building, immune system,
89muscle function and energy, which are all vital if you're trying to survive.
90Cabbage grows relatively fast,
91and I think it's remarkable how tight and juicy the heads grow in such a short amount of time.
92And cabbage can go a long way feeding a family using it as a filling stew,
93shredded on its own and fried, or raw in a slaw.
94KFC even use it in their burgers.
95It's easy to preserve too. You can freeze cabbage,
96freeze dry it, simply keep it in the crisper for several weeks to use all the time,
97or ferment it to make tasty foods like Kimchi and Sauerkraut
98which also accentuates the health benefit.
99This kraut was made from last season's crop almost 12 months ago and it still awesome.
100And, if you don't like the taste of cabbage, I say get used to it
101or fry it up with bacon, that makes everything taste good.
102Growing cabbage is easier than people think.
103I hear food gardeners say how cabbage moth destroys their crops or the birds eat it before they can,
104but it's one of the easiest crops to protect.
105Cabbage doesn't need to be pollinated, so you don't have to worry about bees or anything like that.
106And, there aren't really any long stalks that can be easily broken off.
107So, all you need to do is drape over with a fine net and that's it.
108Sit back and your cabbage crop is protected.
109Number four is pumpkin.
110There couldn't be anything easier than sowing a few pumpkin seeds,
111and letting the vine meander around your garden doing whatever it wants.
112If you look around our place, you'll find pumpkins everywhere.
113Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe pumpkins originated in North America,
114which makes sense about Halloween,
115because if you can't possibly eat them all, well, you might as well make something out of them.
116But, just imagine for a sec that you are starving.
117Well, you wouldn't be carving, instead, you'd be eating every one of these scary squash.
118Squashes?
119Pumpkins aren't just a pretty face.
120They are very good for you.
121And, whilst being surprisingly low in calories for such a dense and often large veggie slash fruit,
122they make up for it in fiber making you feel fuller than you are,
123which can help if you're hungry.
124Plus pumpkins are full of vitamin A which is needed for good eyesight.
125So, you can eyeball the next politician who comes walking along, smiling like a moron,
126handing out $200 to grandma to try to compensate her for the rising cost of living.
127Number five is beans.
128These are a dwarf French bean, grown on this mini trellis in this raised garden bed.
129And, it was for good reason that the early settlers in the outback and also out west in the USA
130ate a lot of beans and it wasn't for cheap entertainment.
131Beans are almost the complete food, containing most vitamins,
132nutrients, and essential amino acids needed by humans to live.
133The bean seed can be stored or preserved easily through drying or canning,
134and they don't take up much storage space.
135So, they are ideal to keep as a survival food.
136Beans don't take up much room in the garden either, as they typically grow vertical.
137So, you can fit more in a smaller area,
138which means that you can get bigger bang for a buck for harvest, compared to space.
139There are a ton of different varieties of beans to grow,
140and because they practically make their own nitrogen fertilizer
141by forming a relationship with bacteria in the soil,
142beans can also add more to your garden than they take.
143So forgive the flatulence because if you're fighting to survive, you won't worry about that.
144And, remember, if you don't eat, you don't fart,
145and if you don't fart, you die.
146Number six is tomatoes.
147Nothing goes better with beans, than tomato sauce.
148And cooked tomatoes to make tomato sauce actually enhances a very important antioxidant called lycopene.
149This antioxidant is known to be one of the most important cancer preventative antioxidants we can eat.
150So growing tomatoes for the sauce alone is good enough reason.
151Behind me is a tomato, and this one here in my hand is a berry tomato.
152But, there are many more benefits such as tomatoes go well with most other foods
153and help to bulk up, and add flavor to otherwise dull tasting dishes.
154And, of course, tomatoes are just good on their own.
155They can be dried and made into tasty snacks that are healthy to eat,
156or pickled and spread on breads or biscuits,
157and canned or frozen to preserve and use later.
158Tomatoes are easy to grow, especially these cherry types.
159And they also have a good soil tolerance range
160which means you can grow them in a lot of mediums without too much preparation or worry.
161You can grow tomatoes from seed or simply clone it in the garden from off cuts,
162bury it several inches deep, keep it watered, and in no time a new plant will grow.
163I've said this a lot in the past and I'll keep saying it.
164Homegrown tomatoes aren't artificially ripened with ethane gas, unlike supermarket tomatoes.
165Our tomatoes taste better, they're healthier for you,
166and they cost considerably less to grow than to buy them.
167And one other question,
168What is a tomato? Is it a fruit or a vegetable?
169Botanists call it a fruit.
170And, nutritionists call it a vegetable.
171I call it a fruitable.
172Can you think of any other crops that might save you from starving?
173If you can, tell me what and why down in the comments section below.
174You know, growing these six staples that we just talked about,
175or being self-sufficient in at least something, is more than just about saving money.
176It's peace of mind knowing that
177you'll have something in case the world turns to custard,
178and probably because of the actions of some custard gut politicians.