- Oh, good day! I'm Mark from Self Sufficient Me. Are you worried about the rising
cost of food or even worse, a food crisis, running out
of food, no food at all? Well, a worldwide fertilizer
shortage, supply problems, energy crisis, and even a lack of fruit and veg workers is putting
pressure on food supplies. And how about inflation?
It's out of control. The only thing that's
been going down and fast, in the last few years is
the IQ of our politicians. What a bunch of bananas. Well, it's enough to drive your bananas. So if we can't rely on
governments and big corporations, and we can't, well then we must take steps on an individual level to buffer ourselves against hard times. And, that's why in this video. I'm gonna give you my six top crops to grow at home to save you from starving. Let's (thud) get into it. (nature and piano music) These six foods, I've put
a lot of thought into them. They had to be ones that
you can effectively, and easily grow at home,
in an average sized yard, which also give the
best return for harvest, have good preserving qualities, and of course high sustenance to
keep us going in an emergency. Number one is potatoes. You say "potato" and I say "potato". I saved these potatoes from last season. If only could remember the date, but anyway let's have a look at them. Little bit over chitted, but we might be able to get
away with planting some. Anyway, I'll have a go growing them later. Luckily, I've got some new
seed potatoes to plant as well. But, did you know the
great famine in Ireland, back in 1845 was due
to a lack of potatoes? It's true, over a million
people died of hunger, despite efforts from
England and the USA to help. Potatoes grew so easily
and are so full of calories that the Irish population basically became dependent on them, and when the crops were
suddenly devastated by a fungal disease called late blight, they effectively ran out of
potato chips and starved. What the Irish didn't
know back then was the key to growing potatoes is diversity. Grow different varieties at the same time, and from year to year to limit a buildup of pests and disease. These days there are more
varieties of potatoes and ones that have better
resistance to disease. And, speaking of diversity,
I love the diverse ways that potatoes can be growing,
such as direct in ground or hilled up, in trenches,
boxes or containers. There's a way to grow potatoes that suits just about everywhere, every budget, and every sized property. I think it's interesting
how potatoes have gone from a main to a side
on a plate like fries. And during tough times, potatoes could become your main again. And just quietly, it wouldn't be that bad. I'm a sucker for potato chips. Number two is corn. Not
this, it looks very similar, but that's sugar cane. During the potato famine,
the USA sent tons of corn to Ireland in order to help
the starving population. And then the Irish made bourbon out of it. Only joking, about the bourbon bit. No, they survived off corn chips, and of course many other things derived from this wonderful grain/vegetable depending on how it's consumed. Corn is one of the three
biggest plant based food sources in the world. Rice and wheat are the others,
in case you're wondering. But, unlike rice and wheat,
corn can be grown effectively on a much smaller scale and
still produce a lot of food. Corn has a compact and
upright growing habit, which saves space. It can be interplanted in the garden with other crops like beans and squash, to
utilize even more space. And, corn grows as fast as grass, because it is grass.
Just like commercially, homegrown corn has many
uses from eating it straight on the cob to making flowers,
grits, tortillas, and popcorn. All these things can
be easily done at home without too much effort, making
corn extremely versatile. Even the whole plant can be chipped, and put back into the garden
as a nutritious mulch. No wonder corn became such an
important crop for humanity after its discovery in Mexico
about 10,000 years ago. And, now it's grown on every continent around the world except for Antarctica. And, I encourage you to grow it as well because the way things are going, we're not gonna be able to
afford to eat at Taco Bell. Number three is cabbage. Now
before you screw your nose up, hear me out. Firstly, cabbage is known to lower blood pressure. And, with all the terrible news spewing out of the idiot box these days we need all the help we can get to lower our blood
pressure, and heart rate. And, cabbage has a heap
of other health benefits such as its full of nutrients
to help bone building, immune system, muscle function and energy, which are all vital if
you're trying to survive. Cabbage grows relatively fast, and I think it's remarkable how tight and juicy the heads grow in
such a short amount of time. And cabbage can go a
long way feeding a family using it as a filling stew, shredded on its own and
fried, or raw in a slaw. KFC even use it in their burgers. It's easy to preserve too. You can freeze cabbage,
freeze dry it, simply keep it in the crisper for several
weeks to use all the time, or ferment it to make tasty
foods like kimchi and sauerkraut which also accentuates the health benefit. This kraut was made
from last season's crop almost 12 months ago and it still awesome. And, if you don't like
the taste of cabbage, I say get used to it or
fry it up with bacon, that makes everything taste good. Growing cabbage is
easier than people think. I hear food gardeners say how cabbage moth destroys their crops or the
birds eat it before they can, but it's one of the
easiest crops to protect. Cabbage doesn't need to be pollinated, so you don't have to worry about
bees or anything like that. And, there aren't really any long stalks that can be easily broken off. So, all you need to do is drape over with a fine net and that's it. Sit back and your cabbage
crop is protected. Number four is pumpkin. There
couldn't be anything easier than sowing a few pumpkin seeds, and letting the vine
meander around your garden doing whatever it wants. If
you look around our place, you'll find pumpkins everywhere. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe pumpkins
originated in North America, which makes sense about Halloween, because if you can't
possibly eat them all, well you might as well
make something out of them. But, just imagine for a
sec that you are starving, Well, you wouldn't be carving, instead, you'd be eating every one of
these scary squashes. Squashes? Pumpkins aren't just a pretty face. They are very good for you. And, whilst being
surprisingly low in calories for such a dense and often
large veggie slash fruit, they make up for it in
fiber making you feel fuller than you are, which can
help if you're hungry. Plus pumpkins are full of vitamin A which is needed for good eyesight. So, you can eyeball
the next politician who comes walking along, smiling like a moron, handing out $200 to grandma
to try to compensate her for the rising cost of living. Number five is beans. These are a dwarf French bean, grown on this mini trellis
in this raised garden bed. And, it was for good reason
that the early settlers in the outback and also
out west in the USA ate a lot of beans and it
wasn't for cheap entertainment. (farting sound) Beans are almost the complete food, containing most vitamins, nutrients, and essential amino acids
needed by humans to live. The bean seed can be stored or preserved easily
through drying or canning, and they don't take up much storage space. So, they are ideal to
keep as a survival food. Beans don't take up much
room in the garden either, as they typically grow vertical. So, you can fit more in a smaller area, which means that you can
get bigger bang for a buck for harvest, compared to space. There are a ton of different
varieties of beans to grow, and because they practically make their own nitrogen fertilizer by forming a relationship
with bacteria in the soil, beans can also add more to
your garden than they take. So forgive the flatulence because if you're fighting to survive, you won't worry about that. And, remember, if you
don't eat, you don't fart, and if you don't fart, you die. Number six is tomatoes. Nothing goes better with
beans, then tomato sauce. And cooked tomatoes to
make tomato sauce actually enhances a very important
antioxidant called lycopene. This antioxidant is known
to be one of the most important cancer preventative
antioxidants we can eat. So growing tomatoes for the sauce alone is good enough reason.
Behind me is a tomato, and this one here in my
hand is a berry tomato. But, there are many more benefits such as tomatoes go well with most
other foods and help to bulk up, and add flavor to otherwise
dull tasting dishes. And, of course, tomatoes
are just good on their own. They can be dried and made into tasty snacks that are healthy to eat, or pickled and spread
on breads or biscuits, and canned or frozen to
preserve and use later. Tomatoes are easy to grow,
especially these cherry types. And they also have a
good soil tolerance range which means you can grow them in a lot of mediums without
too much preparation or worry. You can grow tomatoes from
seed or simply clone it in the garden from off cuts,
bury it several inches deep, keep it watered, and in no
time a new plant will grow. I've said this a lot in the
past and I'll keep saying it. Homegrown tomatoes aren't
artificially ripened with ethane gas, unlike
supermarket tomatoes. Our tomatoes taste better, they're healthier for you, and they cost considerably
less to grow than to buy them. And one other question, what is a tomato? Is it a fruit or a vegetable? Botness call it a fruit. And, nutritionists call it a vegetable. I call it a fruitable. Can you think of any other crops that might save you from starving? If you can, tell me what and why down in the comments section below. You know, growing these six staples that we just talked about, or being self-sufficient
in at least something, is more than just about saving money. It's peace of mind knowing
that you'll have something in case the world turns
to custard, and probably because of the actions of
some custard gut politicians. Well, I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, make sure you give it a big I'm not gonna star thumbs up
and share the video around, because of course it helps my channel out more than just about anything. Thanks a lot for watching. Bye for now. (Birds chirping)
LET’S
GET INTO IT!
Step 1: be a land owner.
For all you folks in apartment buildings, just evacuate the cities, find the people that do this, and then kill them and take their stuff when the bread lines turn violent.
"over a million people died of hunger despite efforts from England and the USA to help"
England definitely did not help. The English government saw this as opportunity for genocide by famine and actively worsened the famines effects.
That dude should read some history.
The things that always amazed me on the plot were beans, peas, tomatoes, courgettes and hazelnuts strangely.
If you have some sort of greenhouse, you can get thousands of tomatoes out of a space the size of a room. You don't even really need to look after them. Warm tomatoes fresh picked are so much better than store bought that it makes store bought taste like nothing.
Beans just don't give a fuck, they grow like crazy and you'll get sick of beans before the plant gets sick of making them.
Peas are the same, they'll grow up anything and are incredibly dense growing plants.
Courgettes take a lot of water but for their footprint you get a lot of vegetable from them. I dont like courgettes though so fuck em.
We have a hazelnut tree, and we get thousands of them a year. They're a pain in the ass to harvest and shell, but they keep forever. They take no maintenance either.
Had to stop the video because of the Irish potato famine white washing. "Despite British and American attempts to help..." horseshit. British aid was cut off when a Hardline conservative came into power. Because helping Ireland was cutting into British landlords profits.
Irish food exports from British landlords were only briefly interrupted during the famine. It was a blatant act of genocide.
Also, we planted potatoes once and have had new potatoes every year as long as you leave the smallest ones in the ground. They're typically too small to be worth eating anyway. Carrots also grow like weeds. We planted carrots once and soon had an entire box full of them without having to plant more. I honestly don't know how the world isn't full of them they grew so much.
So in the event of a true food crisis where people starving to death is a real possibility, wouldn't a garden which is large enough to sustain a household become a prime target for attacks by desperate people? I feel like within a week, the verdant garden in the thumbnail would be a picked over pile of dirt while the attached household would be a burnt out husk after the desperate mob turns on the self defending homeowner.
Holy shit I needed to stop watching after his bit on the potato famine. What an absolute shit take on history right there.