In her Book, The Resilient Gardener, Carol Deppe devotes separate chapters to each of five foods she considers essential to self-reliance -- potatoes, corn, beans, squash, and eggs. She explains the values of each (potatoes are a great source of both carbohydrates and protein), how they are cultivated (you can grow corn with nothing but a shovel or hoe), how they are stored (beans are the ultimate survival crop because they are so long-storing) , how they are prepared (dried squash makes wonderful soups and stews and chips ), and why they are nutritionally important (eggs provide important long-chain omega-3 fatty acids that are unavailable from plant foods.)
“Perhaps the all-time masters at farming in an era of erratic weather in North America are the Hopi Indians of the American Southwest... Corn was their most important staple crop. Hopi culture called for storing enough corn for two years.”
“After water, the most important characteristic of food is calories. It is lack of calories that will put you in the most trouble the fastest. After water and calories, protein is next in importance. As gardeners, we grow a variety of greens and vegetables. But to be resilient gardeners, we need to be skilled at growing more than just salads.”