I have a number of things I want to try, based on what I’ve tried so far and what’s left to accomplish. The goal was to grow every survival-style crop, either in a pot or in a small section of garden, and be able to get a decent yield and seeds for future use. I also wanted to harvest, prepare, and store each one. Here’s the “success” list to date:

• Carrots
• Onions
• Wheat
• Basil
• Berries
• Chives
• Kale

Here’s the ones I am still working on:

• Oregano (waiting for them to go to seed)
• Broccoli. I just cannot win, the damn worms strip the plants or they flower immediately without making a decent floret. I may try using new dirt and putting window screen around them to keep the moths out.
• Leeks. I have a crop in a totally inadequate location, will try again but fingers crossed they may shoot up in the spring.
• Celery. Grew fine but waiting on seed….
• Potatoes.
• Corn. It’s a variety/timing issue, I can get small ears of the painted mountain corn but it’s just not yielding. I have plenty of seed now, but now enough to mill into corn meal. Here’s the plants at the peak:

Next spring:

• Sweet corn.
• Sorghum. Big win, will do a large plot and then refine the syrup making process. I keep finding out what I’m doing wrong, last time it was not allowing the syrup to settle out the sediment and starch particles, plus not taking the stalks at the soft dough stage. I wanted to get a ton of seeds, so I left them in too long. It made the syrup taste grassy/borderline unpleasant.  I’ll also make the big press, the little one was a total PITA to run.
• Peanuts. High hopes for these bad boys.
• Herbs in the ground vs in planters.