HELP perennial plant instead of corn

[FedericoItaly]

Hi to all, i'm facing a big question: i'm looking for a perennial who produce carbohydrates (starch)similar to corn field, the objective is to "build" a forest garden (naturally! :mrgreen: ) i think that extended plantation or field are innaturaly..so... the perennial mix!

i've already think of chestnuts, but they have too much carbohidrates as "sugar" and they not be kept for long.

any ideas?

THANKS A LOT!!!

[abdullah]

what about globe artichoke or asparagus?

on behalf of the other members: whats your climate mate?

[SueinWA]

Limiting your foods to strictly perennial sources will produce quite a restrictive (and tiresome) diet. Personally, I don't see the point of that when so many annual and biennial foods are quite happy to reseed themselves so they almost act like perennials. You don't have any problem with annual and biennial weeds reproducing themselves, I'm certain.

Sources of starch: rice, wheat, potatoes, cassava, arrowroot, arracacha, buckwheat, barley, oat, millet, rye, banana, breadfruit, canna, colacasia, katakuri, kudzu, malanga, oca, polynesian arrowroot, sago, sorghum, sweet potato, taro, water chestnut, yams, and beans, such as favas, lentils, mung bean and peas.

At least some of these should grow in your area.

Sue

[FedericoItaly]

Limiting your foods to strictly perennial sources will produce quite a restrictive (and tiresome) diet. Personally, I don't see the point of that when so many annual and biennial foods are quite happy to reseed themselves so they almost act like perennials. You don't have any problem with annual and biennial weeds reproducing themselves, I'm certain.

Sources of starch: rice, wheat, potatoes, cassava, arrowroot, arracacha, buckwheat, barley, oat, millet, rye, banana, breadfruit, canna, colacasia, katakuri, kudzu, malanga, oca, polynesian arrowroot, sago, sorghum, sweet potato, taro, water chestnut, yams, and beans, such as favas, lentils, mung bean and peas.

At least some of these should grow in your area.

Sue

Thanks Sue,
but i don't have reseedeing problem, my problem is the need to oil of certain colture.
i mean:
in my land (Italy) grows perfectly: letils, beans and favas, potato, rice and wheat.
for theese cultivation, we need a lot of oil for the harvesting, and unfortunately, the old tecniques (all manual) are lost in time.

only for this: my objective is to have a permaculture situation with no "outside energy", oil first of all.

bye! :)

[abdullah]

federico the manual techniques are never lost, your just not looking hard enough, go to remote farm areas and ask around, do some reading from the pre industrial era, even fictional books may have references to old farming technique, and lastly develop your own methods!

[SueinWA]

Do you mean that it takes oil/fuel to harvest large amounts of these crops?

If so, that is not necessarily an oil problem as much as a labor problem. The only advantage with perennial crops in that respect is the planting -- the harvesting is still necessary, and if it isn't done mechanically, it has to be done manually.

How do you harvest perennial tree crops like apples, cherries, pears and nuts?

How do you harvest perennial crops like strawberries, blackberries, currents, asparagus, rhubarb and globe artichoke?

Perhaps you could elaborate more on what you are trying to do?

Sue

[FedericoItaly]

ok, you're right,
that's the point! a field of wheat needs at least two steps in order to have some grain.
be careful: with oil harvesting we need two step, without oil we need to cultivate the land, seeding, gahter and separate the seed from the straw, everything with bare hands (or with animals).
so: in a apple field, (or chestnut, or another perennials) we only need to gather the fruit...that is ready to be eaten, that's a big difference!

IMHO ... :mrgreen: