9 Edible Perennials You Can Plant Once & Enjoy Forever

Image source: Pixabay.com

Who doesn’t love fresh produce straight out of the garden? Crisp, green snap peas, juicy tomatoes, crunchy zucchini and cool refreshing cucumbers are worth our gardening efforts.

But wouldn’t it be great to reap the rewards of a harvest year after year with just one planting effort? You can, with edible perennials. Edible perennials can decrease your annual workload while you still get to harvest some delicious crops.

Here are nine edible perennials to consider adding to your garden.

1. Asparagus. Plant once and enjoy fresh asparagus for years with minimal work. Asparagus can take three years to become established and ready to harvest, but they can produce for as many as 20 years before needing to be replaced. Once you plant the initial bed(s) of asparagus, all you need to do is mulch annually, and enjoy fresh asparagus year after year.

2. Rhubarb. This perennial is frequently used in jams and desserts, but it also can be used in savory dishes. The leaves and roots are poisonous, so use only the stems. Rhubarb should be divided every 3 to 4 years during the spring or fall when the plants are dormant.

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3. Jerusalem artichoke. These are a species of sunflower with a tuberous root similar to a potato when cooked, or a water chestnut when eaten raw. They store sugars as inulin rather than starch, so they could be beneficial to those with diabetes or those trying to cut down on sugars and starches. When harvesting, just leave the smallest tubers, and you will have another crop the following year. Cutting the flowers and enjoying them as cut flowers later in the season will prevent them from spreading seeds, and the plant will put its energy into producing bigger roots.

4. Chives. Like many herbs, chives can be grown as a perennial. If you live in cold climates, then you can bring your chives indoors during the winter months. Just transplant them into a pot and put them in a warm place with plenty of light. Clean the dirt off the roots so you are not bringing in any bugs or diseases, and then plant the chives in a good potting soil mix. Use the flowers and stems to add flavor to lots of foods, including chive vinegar and chive butter.

5. Walking onion (Egyptian walking onion). This plant forms bulbs at the top of its stems, which then fall over onto the ground as they get bigger and heavier, and if the conditions are right, will grow a new plant from the bulb. You can eat the top bulbs, the green stems of the onion, and the underground bulb. Just make sure to leave some to grow for the following year.

Lovage. Image source: Pixabay.com

6. Lovage. Similar to celery, lovage can be used in soups and salads, and every part of the plant is edible. Lovage is easier to grow than celery and can grow up to six-feet tall with proper growing conditions, so give it plenty of space. Lovage should be divided every few years just like rhubarb.

7. French sorrel. The broad green leaves of the French sorrel plant are tangy and sour, so you want to use this one in combination with other ingredients. Just like any other herb, use it sparingly as you get a feeling for how much you need to use.

8. Chinese artichoke (crosne). This is a member of the mint family and spreads through rhizomes underground. Just like mint, it can be invasive, so consider giving crosne its own space rather than mixing with other plants. The tubers are small but plentiful, and like the Jerusalem artichoke, flowering reduces the yield of tubers

9. Chrysanthemums. All chrysanthemums are edible, but the taste can vary widely. Garland chrysanthemum, or Chrysanthemum coronarium, is the most popular for eating because of its mild flavor. People use the leaves and the flowers of this plant to enhance salads and stir fries.

What would you add to our list? Share your tips in the section below:

5 Ways Your Great-Grandparents Stockpiled Fresh Produce

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Can you stockpile fresh produce? Yes! You can integrate your extra garden and orchard produce (or weekly specials from the supermarket) into a well-planned stockpile that includes fresh produce, just like your great-grandparents did.

Fresh items can be preserved for longer storage, and you can grow fruit trees, nut-bearing trees, berry bushes, and perennial edible plants and herbs to ensure a well-balanced diet that includes fresh fruits and vegetables.

This article will examine why preserving produce is a good idea, will compare nutritional benefits and costs to store of dehydrated foods versus canning or freezing, and will suggest the most useful fruits and vegetables to stockpile.

First, though, why would you stockpile perishable items?

• Fruits and vegetables are a good source of a broad array of vitamins and minerals for a balanced diet (like potassium for muscle health).


• “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” as the old English proverb says. Fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet prevent diseases like scurvy (caused by a lack of vitamin C).


• Fruits and vegetables are a source of fiber, which is filling and aids digestion,


• Variety! Vegetables and fruit offer sweet, spicy and sour tastes.


• Fruit- and nut-bearing trees, as well as some perennial plants or those that come true from seed, offer a unique opportunity to establish part of your stockpile as part of your home landscaping.

Fresh Produce Stockpile Option No. 1: Dehydrate

Drying or dehydrating fruits and vegetables is more cost-effective long-term than canning or freezing, and dried items (like apple slices) have a longer shelf life than canned or frozen items. In addition, drying produce using lower heat settings preserves essential nutrients that might be lost in cooking at high temperatures or in freezing. If you are interested in comparing costs between drying, canning and freezing, check out this article from the Colorado State University Extension.

Keep your eye out for fruit on sale, and dry it as a cost-effective way to incorporate fresh produce into your stockpile. Dehydrating is also an excellent way to preserve excess garden produce with less effort than canning, and less energy expenditure. Both methods generally require slicing or chopping to prepare produce, but water bath canning requires sterilized jars, a stove top for hot water bath boiling, and it takes more hands-on time, so more effort and more spent fuel energy.

What to dry? Apple slices are easy to dry and have a long shelf life when sealed in an airtight container. Pineapple can be easily dried, as can apples, pears, plums, tomatoes, herbs, plums, pears and bananas. Strawberries, kiwi, pumpkin and peppers are also good drying candidates. Slices of citrus fruit can be dried. You can also create fruit leathers and meat jerkies.

Store dehydrated food in airtight containers (I use glass jars), in a cool area, and label for rotation and use as you would other foods in your stockpile.

A brief note on dehydrator equipment: If it is humid in your area, then you need a dehydrator (preferably with a heat source and electric fan), but if you are in a dry area, then you can actually dry food on trays in the sun.

Fresh Produce Stockpile Option No. 2: Canning

Standard canning favorites are applesauce, tomato sauce and salsa, dilly beans, whole peaches, and jams and jellies. Canned produce is good for a year or more before it starts to lose its nutritional value, so clearly label canned food and rotate its use in your short-term stockpile.

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Canning is hot and takes quite a bit of effort. Jars must be sterilized before filling, the food is generally cooked (or a hot broth is added to uncooked food in jars), and then jars are submerged in a boiling water bath for a set period of time, depending on what is being canned and in what size jar.

Fresh Produce Stockpile Option No. 3: Cold Storage

Cold storage options include freezing fresh produce and using a cool area (such as a root cellar) to preserve items like potatoes, onions, pumpkin, winter squash, apples and garlic.

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Freezing produce is obviously dependent on a power supply in warmer months or warmer climates. The shelf life of frozen items is similar to canned food. Preparation of fruits and vegetables for freezing may include “blanching” the produce in a hot water bath and then drying before packing and freezing.  Remove as much air from packages as you can to extend shelf life. A vacuum sealer to package food is an excellent way to remove air and package items for freezing.

Root cellars are typically used to preserve a late summer or fall harvest of fruit and vegetables into the winter months. A root cellar temperature is typically near 40 degrees Fahrenheit and has a high humidity level (80 percent or more). This temperature and humidity is good for storing potatoes, apples, carrots and pumpkins.

Fresh Produce Stockpile Option No. 4: Ferment & More

Do you like sauerkraut, pickles and salty green beans? Don’t forget the options of salt water brining, fermentation and preserving in solutions such as oil, vinegar and alcohol. A handy resource to learn more is “Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation” published by Chelsea Green Press (2007).

Fermenting is also used to produce alcohol; the high sugar content of many fruits in combination with yeast will produce alcohol if allowed to ferment long enough. Bubbly apple cider or homemade wine anyone?

Fresh Produce Stockpile Option No. 5: Planting

My favorite option for stockpiling fresh produce is to plan ahead for future harvests by planting fruit & nut trees, berry bushes, and perennial herbs and edible plants.

The best time to plant a fruit or nut tree is now; fruit-bearing trees can take 3-7 years to produce fruit. Consider apples, pears, plums, chestnuts and hazelnuts. In more southerly areas, citrus, almonds and figs are also possible. Crabapples are a natural source of pectin for canned jams and jellies, if you don’t want to have to rely on store-bought pectin.

Consider planting berry bushes such as raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. Grapes are relatively easy to grow, and hardy in many areas. Rosehips, found on many old-fashioned roses, are a good source of vitamin C. Herbs, such as parsley, are high in vitamin C, and herbs like chives and sage come back year after year. Perennial garden staples such as rhubarb and asparagus will come back year after year, and can be supplemented with a store of garden seeds for things like tomatoes, cucumbers and beans.

Martin Luther may have said it best: “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

In conclusion, a supply of fresh fruits and vegetables is an excellent addition to a well-planned stockpile. You can preserve and grow fresh produce to ensure a well-balanced diet. So, what are you waiting for? Get growing, drying, canning, fermenting, and root cellaring!

What advice would you add on stockpiling and preserving fresh product? Share your tips in the section below:

Feed your backyard chickens for free with garden produce, common weeds

Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

(NaturalNews) One of the biggest complaints people who raise backyard chickens have is that commercial feed costs are often prohibitively expensive, especially when trying to raise chickens naturally without genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and pesticides. But did you know that many common garden weeds make excellent feed for chickens and that these weeds are probably growing right now for free in your garden or yard?

In a recent article published in Backyard Poultry Magazine entitled “Feeding Chickens for Free: Weeds, Wonderful Weeds!,” poultry farmer Lisa Murano shares tips on how to naturally supplement chicken feed with common garden weeds. Otherwise nuisance plants like dandelion and clover, she explains, are actually a chicken favorite and can go a long way in helping to keep them fed at minimal cost.

As it turns out, those beautiful, thick, orange yolks that every egg connoisseur looks for in quality, pastured chicken eggs is often the result of chickens chowing down on dandelion. According to Murano, chickens love to feast on every part of the dandelion plant, from its roots to its stem and all the way on up to the flower. All that nuisance dandelion, in other words, is free food for your chickens that just so happens to be loaded with beneficial nutrients.

“The chickens think dandelions, pulled up with their long tentacles and all, are the best food on earth,” explains TheCrunchyChicken.com. “[S]ince the chickens love dandelions and turn them into brightly yolked high nutrient eggs… I’m more than happy to let them convert my weeds into even better homegrown eggs for me.”

Another weed favorite for chickens is clover, which, like the dandelion, is notorious for popping up all over the yard. The same goes for bittercress and smartweed, both of which are easy to uproot and grow like weeds (because they are weeds!). Murano also lists fat hen and chickweed as two other common weeds that chickens love to eat, and that can help dramatically reduce feeds costs.

“I have no better motivation for weeding the garden than those cute little fuzzy faces begging for treats,” she writes. “If you’re weeding just to feed the chickens simply pull off the leaves and most grow back shortly for a new treat. That way you’ll have a never ending supply of free treats!”

You can view Murano’s full article, with pictures, here:
http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com.

Leftover garden veggies another great option for reducing chicken feed costs

In the same vein, taking advantage of leftover garden produce can help substantially trim chicken feed costs as well. Murano recommends salvaging all those extra cucumbers, beans, corn and broccoli that you and your family do not plan to eat and tossing them in your chicken run. Not only will the chickens go crazy for these foods, but they will also get an added nutrition boost at the same time.

“I feed anything we won’t eat straight to the chickens,” explains Murano in a related article. “Apples, cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, peas, corn, zucchini, broccoli and more. They love every bite of it! The only thing I do to doctor it up at all is cut off moldy spots. Otherwise I just chop it up and feed it to them.”

There are only three things Murano does not feed to her chickens: onions, rhubarb and green potato peels. These items are toxic to chickens, she says.

You can check out Murano’s full article on garden produce here:
http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com.

Natural News