If food production is your goal, try these high yeild plants to make your time and effort in the garden worthwhile.
Highlighted below are plants that are most likely to provide you with a good source of fresh food in the spring and summer months, along with some suggested ways to prolong the production or preserve some of the harvest for use into the fall and winter months.
1. Lettuce
Lettuce comes in many varieties and can be started indoors or sown directly into the garden in early spring. It does well in part sun locations and can be planted in succession (plant more seed every week or two) to extend the growing period.
Lettuce leaves can be plucked from the outside of the plant leaving the middle to continue growing, or you can cut the whole head depending on your needs. Though lettuce doesn't really lend itself to preserving, one way to make the best use of a bumper crop is to get creative with your use of lettuce, such as adding it into a pureed soup, blended juice or smoothie.
2. Mizuna & Mustard Greens
I love mizuna and mustard greens! They add a kick to sandwiches and salads and hold up well as garnishes with cooked foods like poached eggs or burgers. Mustard greens can also be sauteed as a tasty and nutritious side dish. Once the season heats up and these plants start to go to seed, save some seed for next year's crop, and use the rest to grow microgreens throughout the winter.
“With food prices rising, this may be a perfect time to try growing a few food plants that are most likely to help offset your grocery bill.”
3. Tomatoes
Costaluto Tomato
While tomatos come later in the season, a bountiful crop of full size or cherry tomatoes can be used in so many ways. Large tomatoes like beefsteak are delicious sliced right onto a piece of fresh bread in peak tomato season.
A family favourite quick dish is to layer tomato slices, zucchini slices, onion rounds and mozzarella cheese in a caserole with salt and pepper to taste. Bake in the oven or microwave until the veggies are cooked through and the cheese has melted and started to crisp. Serve with fresh bread to sop up the juice!
When it comes to extending the season, try roasting halved cherry tomatoes in the oven to bring out the flavour and freeze for later use. Similarly halved cherry tomatoes can be placed in a dehydrator and stored in mason jars to be added to recipies later.
If sauces or salsas are more your thing, try growing roma tomatoes, though know that these are a "determinate" variety of tomato, meaning they will all ripen around the same time. Be ready to do your canning all at once.
4. Beans
Trionfo Violetto Pole Beans
Pole beans take up very little ground space, allowing you to grow them just about anywhere you can provide them with sun and water. They also have a fairly long period of production. As you pick beans to eat, more will begin to grow, lasting right up until first frost.
There are many varieties that are delicious eaten fresh or cooked while they are slender, but can also be allowed to grow to seed where the pods can be dried and the dry beans harvested for winter use. One of my favourite varieties are the Trionfo Violetto pole beans pictured above, but there are so many tasty varieties to choose from. I'm hoping to experiment with True Red Cranberry Beans and Orca Beans this season.
5. Radishes
The beauty of radishes is that they are an early crop that will be in and out of the garden before you know it, leaving room for other crops to be planted in their place. They are also a fantastic root to bloom plant, where you can eat not only the radish roots, but also make use of the greens.
For those radishes that don't get picked before they start to get woody and less palatable, let them grow to seed. Blooms and seed pods are delicious! Radishes and pods also lend themselves to fermenting and pickling, allowing you to preserve some of the bounty for later in the season.
6. Cucumber
If you get a good year for it, cucumbers can be very productive throughout the summer months. In addition to using them in salads and veggie platters, try making tatziki, fermented pickles or cucumber relish to create preserves beyond the usual dill pickles.
7. Zucchini or Summer Squash
Though zucchini may not seem to be the most exciting crop, it is definitely very productive and versatile. Use fresh zucchini in salads or with dip, or grate it into muffins and loaves. One of my favourite ways to eat zucchini is to spiralize it to make a tasty gluten free noodle substitute for pasta dishes.
Extra zucchini grown in the summer can be dehydrated, preserving it for winter months where you can use it in pureed soups, baking and a variety of other dishes.
8. Sunchokes
Sunchokes (or Jerusalem Artichokes) are a less familiar food crop, but grow really well in zone 5, are perennial, and with little to no effort produce an abundance of tubors that can be eaten fresh, roasted, frozen or dehydrated. Similar to potatoes, all you need are a few tubors to plant in the ground and you will have a crop to harvest by fall. You can also leave sunchokes in the ground over the winter for an early spring harvest before other plants have started to produce.
I’d love to hear what your most abundant crops have been. Please feel free to share in comments! ~ Jill
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