Grain crops this year?

Beyond Salads: Planting a Garden to Feed a Family

As more and more of us recognize the failings of corporate agriculture and turn to local, small farms, CSAs or our own garden plots to fulfill at least part of our dietary needs, there are a few things we should all be growing to provide ourselves with not only salads, but options for full-blown meals as well.


This argument comes via two gardening gurus I've been following for a while: John Jeavons (author of The Sustainable Vegetable Garden) and Carol Deppe, author of the recent book The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times.) They argue that salads are great, but "calorie crops" are the way to go if the goal is feeding yourself and your family more often from your own garden.


Both Jeavons and Deppe argue, individually, that calorie crops should be the foundation of our gardens. These calorie crops include:


Potatoes


Corn


Beans


Wheat


Winter Squash




Most of us focus on growing salad-type vegetables in our gardens: tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes. And while Jeavons and Deppe both agree that these crops are worthwhile, they argue that we should perhaps be devoting less space to them and more to the crops listed above.

Grains? I was thinking about oats. How about buckwheat? Anyone have any thoughts or experience?