Yesterday I receive this comment from a referee seeking survival foods for Tennessee that he can plant and forget in his Wood :
It ’s somewhat inauspicious that the land is forest , since Tennessee is home to a all-inclusive range of wild survival foods such as hickory nut , acorn , antecedent , shoots , berries and putting surface . The woods of Tennessee are broadly speaking rich with forage opportunity . I ’ve found many black walnuts , persimmon , blackberries and other great snack while boost . There are also native pawpaws , allegedly , but I ’ve never been golden enough to find oneself any .
My Quaker Dr. Momhas an excellent blog on foraging in Tennesseethat everyone in that clime should be read . I met hera couple of years ago and she ’s the existent deal . lie with her stuff , plus she ’s funny .
But back to the question : what survival food for thought can be grown on timberland in Tennessee without tutelage ? Here are my thinking .
Wild Survival Foods For Tennessee
My gratuity - top suggestion for a survival crop you may plant and blank out : Jerusalem artichokes . A sunny spot with some becoming grime is all you require . I spell quite a moment about their utility as an emergency endurance food in my new bookGrow or expire : The Good Guide to Survival Gardening .
They involve to be institute now until any metre before it warm up in March and the Tuber start deteriorating . I take NO care of my Jerusalem globe artichoke in Tennessee and they flourished , producing buckets of tuber in my backyard outside the main cultivated garden area .
After Jerusalem artichokes , I would plant chestnuts everywhere . Though blight - destitute varieties are expensive , you’re able to sometimes have them shipped mere - root for planting . control outChestnut Hill Tree Farm and their Dunstan chestnut . chestnut tree trees will often start setting nuts in as little as three twelvemonth and yields retain to increase for a long clip . They ’re an first-class and salubrious rootage of survival of the fittest gram calorie .
Other tree nut to see are black walnuts , hazel , pecan and improved hickory varieties .
Furthermore , I ’d start adding edible fruiting mintage such as persimmon tree and papaw if I could get my deal on them at a good price . persimmon can often be acquire for next - to - nothing from forestry department .
Another fruit tree diagram I ’d put everywhere : the mulberry . snowy , reddened , black – just set ’em all over . dandy fruit and extremely productive .
As for potatoes and peanuts : my stake is that you wo n’t get a passel of takings on either but it ’s worth trying anyhow . You never get it on . Potatoes are really susceptible to getting diseases when they remain in the same location , plus they ’re probable to be overwhelmed by weed . I ’ve had peanuts come back from come multiple times in a row but never harvested them to run through because I was too in use with high - give in crops like Seminole pumpkins and sweet Irish potato .
But what about the wild hogs?
I would keep those hogs fed . They might end up being your top survival food . tot in tree crop will give them forage and you might also through around some wildlife seed mixes just for the heck of it .
There ’s a risk that they ’ll eat all of your Jerusalem artichokes , but hopefully not . If they do , you’re able to switch those tooth root for Baron Verulam .
The tree diagram crops should be fine , though they take a little longer to get going .
Good luck .
