Growing food that don't look like food

Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
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MissAnpassad
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Growing food that don't look like food

Post by MissAnpassad »

I'm a bugging in kind of a girl and as a smallholder, I grow a lot of my veggies. Something I have been pondering, is that the food I grow is things that could get stolen by hungry bugging out people. You know, the regular carrots, beans, tomatoes and so on.
I know how and what to forage, but I will not be the only one doing so and as my "garden" are some acres, i have started to consider planting things that are edible yet fairly unknown.

This autumn i sowed cicely (Myrrhis odorata), which is a weed, but you can eat the root, the leaves and the seeds. I want to get hold of some creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) which were a staple for the vikings. A already have a lot of wild masterwort (Aegopodium podagraria) and borage (Borago officinalis). I'm going to buy some jerusalem artichokes that blossom (the ones I have don't do that) and plant them in my flower beds, just to hide them a bit.

But what else could I grow? No need for nettles, they are truly everywhere.
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ukpreppergrrl
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Re: Growing food that don't look like food

Post by ukpreppergrrl »

From what I've read, generally the advice is to plant what you normally eat amongst normal flowers and shrubs, rather than grow obscure veggies. Few people, particularly city people, could recognise asparagus or carrots from nigella. Few scrotes could recognise a carrot growing full stop! Jerusalem artichokes with sunflowers - few people even realise that the sunflower seeds they buy in the shops come from the big yellow flowers! I was once asked by a passer by if the bunches of flowers on my wisteria would turn into bunches of grapes :shock: The average person, I think, actually has very little plant knowledge. The giveaway though I presume would be neat rows of the same plant. That generally looks like a veg garden as opposed to a normal garden, and even a scrote would think to investigate further. That said, in a post-SHTF world, a neat garden of any kind is going to look odd, so perhaps concentrating on hiding anything neatly growing behind rangy, weed-like shrubs. Of course anyone who does know about plants is going to recognise the carrots straight away, but that kind of person is probably also growing their own anyway.
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izzy_mack
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Re: Growing food that don't look like food

Post by izzy_mack »

Lots of herbs are pretty as well as useful, mints - theres lots of different ones, some less mint looking , applemint, pineapple mint etc., thyme, fennel amongst the ferns, lettuce beside the hosta. calendula and nasturiums are edible as are many ordinary flowers. Rose hips wouldn't register where brambles would and I would plant a few poisionous ones as well, nasty shock if they reckoned everything was edible and some have other handy uses too. Like ukpreppergrrl, I think you'd be surprised how little people, especially those who are raiding your garden, would know.
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Brambles
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Re: Growing food that don't look like food

Post by Brambles »

If you can find some, Hopniss is another good one. It's part of the pea family and has very pretty flowers. You can eat the tubers it produces as well as the pods and seeds.
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sethorly
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Re: Growing food that don't look like food

Post by sethorly »

Someone recently posted a link to the pdf files available from survivaluk.net. Under the Farming and Gardening section there's a great pdf chart which shows you which plants to put next to each other so they benefit from each other, either because they are not in competition or because they aid in pest reduction etc.
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grenfell
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Re: Growing food that don't look like food

Post by grenfell »

I posted a thread sometime ago where I said I had planted potatoes in the front garden. Non ever went missing and as said probably the majority of people can't recognise a vegatable unless it's in a Tesco plastic bag.
That said I do have other edibles in the front garden that are perhaps a little more obscure. There was already a mature almond tree when we moved in which every year except this has cropped well. I have planted sorrel , good king Henry and chard. If you get the bright lights variety it will look as if you are simply trying to brighten up the garden. I also have wild strawberries , rosemary , chives ( again leave some of the flowers on ) , lemon balm ( ties in with the other thread as it makes a decent drink) , white horehound (medicinal rather than a foodstuff) and compfry although there seems to be some doubts as to whether that should be eaten. There are a few bluebells , cowslips and other flowers scattered amongst to give the impression of an overgrown flowerbed.
Finally one I haven't planted but has recently appeared is the garlic mustard plant. This one I'm actually quite pleased about because while most consider it a weed I think it tastes really good.
JDandCoke
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Re: Growing food that don't look like food

Post by JDandCoke »

Arzosah
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Re: Growing food that don't look like food

Post by Arzosah »

A really important topic. I'm in a bit of a rush, but does hawthorn grow round where you are? It's a great plant, all of it is edible. I'm a big fan of perennials - salad burnet, lemon balm, comfrey for the plants, my oregano just looks like a rockery plant. There's chives (tho they're quite recognisable) yarrow, sage, seaweeds if you're close to the coast (I see grenfell has made most of these points, but I'll post this just in case).
jansman
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Re: Growing food that don't look like food

Post by jansman »

grenfell wrote:I posted a thread sometime ago where I said I had planted potatoes in the front garden. Non ever went missing and as said probably the majority of people can't recognise a vegatable unless it's in a Tesco plastic bag.
That said I do have other edibles in the front garden that are perhaps a little more obscure. There was already a mature almond tree when we moved in which every year except this has cropped well. I have planted sorrel , good king Henry and chard. If you get the bright lights variety it will look as if you are simply trying to brighten up the garden. I also have wild strawberries , rosemary , chives ( again leave some of the flowers on ) , lemon balm ( ties in with the other thread as it makes a decent drink) , white horehound (medicinal rather than a foodstuff) and compfry although there seems to be some doubts as to whether that should be eaten. There are a few bluebells , cowslips and other flowers scattered amongst to give the impression of an overgrown flowerbed.
Finally one I haven't planted but has recently appeared is the garlic mustard plant. This one I'm actually quite pleased about because while most consider it a weed I think it tastes really good.
Planting spuds on the front reminded me of a neighbour of my parents when I was a boy.Regardless of the scrap cars on the front garden next door, the council told Mr.Mee to tidy his front garden...or else. He must have been 90 and was a WW1 veteran.So be dug it and planted spuds! Nothing the council could do,as the tenancy agreement my dad said, was that householders must keep the gardens dug and tidy!!! :lol:
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junmist
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Re: Growing food that don't look like food

Post by junmist »

I love hedge garlic and it has a pretty little white flower that also taste of garlic for your salads, don't forget dandelion flowers for the salad either, again all parts of this plant are edible, chickweed which grows all year round and is a good source of vitamin c in winter and the dreaded ground elder Oh and that patch of nettles that you are growing for the butterfly's.
Of course these weeds may not grow in your part of the world but I'm betting that something like them does.
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