Britesea
Sustainability Master
Welcome to Sufficient Self! We are on the dry side of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon at just short of a mile up. There are records of snow every month of the year here, and very little rain, so gardening is more of an art than a science, lol. I am slowly developing an array of crops that give us a fairly reliable harvest in a 90 day window. This year, I'm trying some leeks that supposedly only need 75 days, and some winter squash that was popular among the Ute Indians in Utah (pretty dry there, too). Some tepary bean landraces- maybe be able to select for early finish and extra drought resistance, and I have some tomatoes that are so early that the volunteers that popped up in the garden in June gave me tomatoes before the greenhouse grown plants that I got from the nursery. Also gonna try Painted Mountain corn for masa for tortillas. As I understand it, the reason it does well even in mountainous short seasons (like us!) is that the plants are quite short, and the ears have a small core, so it is able to put more time into actually growing the kernels (not a real high yield, but ANY yield is a win, here). I also have seeds of Black Tail Mountain watermelon, which is supposed to be good for northern climes, but I haven't grown them yet, as well as Tommy Apple melons, which are the only melon that ever gave me a harvest here. Now if I can just get some chickens that will actually go broody and take care of sustaining the flock, I'll be happy.
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