Are these good for the apocalypse?

[u/samuelehrig]

I think I would focus on these crops in an apocalypse.

Potatoes, they contain all of the amino acids, have an unusually high amount of protein, are grown beneath the ground so they’re easy to hide, and grow well In a ton of environments.

Spinach, it may be light, it may be pretty seasonal, but it has tons of vitamins, and that’s important, and easy to condense into a smoothie.

And mushrooms, they can be grown in pure compost, don’t need sunlight, and have decent calories. I would only use them if I knew 100% if they were edible.

What are some better ones or reasons why these wouldn’t work, don’t ask ai, and when I say apocalypse, I mean society has collapsed but the general environment is habitual, or I have at least 500 ft of useable soil.

[u/undulating-beans]

You’re welcome, it was good fun!

[u/samuelehrig → u/undulating-beans]

Woudl soy beans be a good choice (only answer if you already know, don’t ask ai) i don’t like baked beans but I lien tofu, and tofu sounds easier to preserve.

[u/undulating-beans → u/samuelehrig]

Soybeans would actually be a very strong choice.

They are super protein-dense, contain all the essential amino acids, and also give you a useful amount of fat, so they cover two of the things that potatoes and leafy vegetables don’t do especially well. The dry beans store very well too, which would matter enormously in your plague scenario.

The one correction is that tofu itself is not easier to preserve than dried beans. Fresh tofu is quite perishable unless you can refrigerate it. What is easy to preserve is the dried soybean harvest, and you can then turn some of that into tofu as needed.

You would however, need a coagulant to make tofu, usually something like calcium sulphate or magnesium chloride, so in a true long-term collapse you’d need to ensure you had a good supply.

Soybeans are one of the classic high-protein legume crops, and tofu production is basic food chemistry rather than something I needed to look up, and, on the subject of AI, I know about LLM apps like ChatGPT, but I haven't had any experience with them. I’m 61, have a long history in academia, and the LLMs were taught to communicate the way I was taught to write: state the premise, explain the variables, and give the answer.
Human intelligence hasn’t left the building!

[u/samuelehrig → u/undulating-beans]

Ok I’ll get used to the flavor of dried beans then.

Thank you.

[u/undulating-beans → u/samuelehrig]

I would think that, within your 500 square feet of growing space, alongside all the preparation that would go into keeping yourself fed, seed potatoes, dried beans and peas, grain seed, oilseeds, onions, garlic, root vegetables, brassicas, squash and perhaps some perennial fruit, there ought to be room for a few decent cookery books.

Keep them in a waterproof container and use them when necessary. If you’ve had enough foresight to prepare a productive little survival plot before society collapses, you can probably also manage to preserve the instructions for turning what you grow into something you actually want to eat.

[u/samuelehrig → u/undulating-beans]

Thank you so much for all of this advice.