Sarah Levy 
Your great-grandmother knew something modern grocery stores have erased from memory.
Back when families couldn’t just swing by the supermarket, survival meant knowing exactly what to plant.
These weren’t pretty Instagram vegetables. They were bulletproof. Hardy.
The kind that laughed at drought and poor soil while other crops withered.
Most of these have vanished from American gardens. Your grandparents relied on them through the toughest years this country has seen, yet today’s gardeners wouldn’t recognize half of them.
Here are 30 foods that kept entire families alive when everything else failed.
1. Rutabaga – The Poor Man’s Gold
Call it what you want—rutabaga, swede, or that weird yellow thing at the bottom of the produce bin.
Depression-era families called it survival.
These bowling-ball-sized roots packed more vitamin C than oranges. They thrived in garbage soil where potatoes would barely sprout. Plant them in late summer, harvest enough to last six months straight.
No fancy root cellar needed. Just a cool, dark corner.
One person remembered their grandmother mashing them with butter, salt and pepper. Simple. Filling. Kept you going when there wasn’t anything else.
2. Mangelwurzel – The Giant Nobody Remembers
Imagine a beet the size of a bowling ball.
Now imagine it feeding your family AND your livestock through winter.
Mangelwurzels grew massive. Twenty pounds each. Their high sugar content made them surprisingly tasty when baked or thrown into soups.
Plus they stored for months without special treatment.
Some folks called them mangos, which confused everyone. But there was nothing confusing about their value—pure sustenance when you needed it most.
3. Salsify – The Root That Tasted Like Oysters
This one brought a touch of luxury to dirt-poor tables.
The flavor? Like oysters from the garden. Strange but true.
You could leave salsify in the ground all winter. It waited patiently, staying fresh for six months without any fuss. When you were ready, dig one up. Still good.
Smart gardeners ate both the roots and the greens. Two vegetables for the effort of one.
4. Jerusalem Artichokes – Plant Once, Eat Forever
Native Americans knew the secret centuries before the Depression hit.
These perennial tubers came back every year on their own. No replanting. No babying. Just reliable food that spread and multiplied.
Someone on a farm ordered a few from Amazon a couple years back. Didn’t water them the second year. Didn’t fertilize. Weeds grew right through them. Still got a bumper crop.
That’s the kind of vegetable your ancestors needed.
5. Winter Radishes – The Giants That Protected Everything
Forget those cute little red radishes from the store.
Depression-era winter radishes grew as big as turnips. Every part got used—roots for meals, greens cooked like spinach, and here’s the kicker: they kept pests away from everything else in the garden.
Plant them around your other crops. Natural pest barrier. Fresh food through winter.
Stayed crisp in storage for months.
6. Parsnips – Nature’s Candy After Frost
Something magical happened when frost hit parsnips.
The starches converted to natural sugar. Free sweetness when buying sugar was impossible.
One person remembered them being “like apples and sugar” straight from the ground. Better than potatoes for energy. Packed with calories when you needed every one of them.
Leave them in frozen ground all winter. Mark the row with tall stakes so you could find them under snow. Dig whenever you wanted fresh vegetables.
Beats any grocery store.
7. Hamburg Rooted Parsley – Two Vegetables in One
When times were tough, plants had to pull double duty.
Hamburg parsley gave you regular parsley leaves all summer—more vitamin C than oranges. Then in fall, you dug up thick white roots that stored all winter.
The roots added depth to soups and stews while the leaves flavored everything or got dried for later.
One plant. Two harvests. That’s depression-era thinking.
8. Turnips – Six Weeks to Food
Speed mattered when other crops failed.
Turnips went from seed to harvest in six weeks flat. Faster than almost anything else you could plant.
Drought? Turnips didn’t care. They kept producing when other vegetables wilted. Eat the roots fresh, mash them like potatoes, store them for months. Cook the greens or throw them in soup.
Plant them multiple times during the season. Some for now. Some for later. Some for the greens alone.
9. Collard Greens – The Ones That Never Quit
Summer heat that killed lettuce? Collards stood tall.
Winter frost down to 10 degrees? Collards got sweeter.
These thick-leaved greens produced nearly year-round from the same plants. Pick the lower leaves in summer. The plant kept making new ones from the top. A never-ending food factory.
Can them, dry them, salt them down in barrels. They stored easy and packed more nutrition than most other greens.
10. Swiss Chard – Cut It, It Grows Back
The more you harvested Swiss chard, the more it produced.
Cut-and-come-again. That’s what made it priceless during the Depression.
A few plants fed a family for months. Pick young leaves for salads. Let them grow bigger for cooking. Even in brutal summer heat when lettuce turned bitter, chard stayed sweet.
One row planted near the kitchen door. Grab a few leaves every day from late spring until hard frost. Loaded with vitamins A and C when getting those any other way was near impossible.
11. Danish Ballhead Cabbage – The Storage Champion
Not all cabbages were created equal.
Danish ballhead was specifically bred to last. Dense as a bowling ball. Heavy enough to feel it in your arms.
That density meant 6-8 months of storage. No special treatment. Just a root cellar and time.
Frost made them sweeter. Families would harvest heads straight until the ground froze solid. Each one provided as much vitamin C as a glass of orange juice when orange juice wasn’t an option.
12. Navy Beans – Protein Without the Price Tag
Meat was expensive. Navy beans were nearly free.
These small white beans dried right on the vine. Foolproof storage. Last for years in simple glass jars or cloth sacks.
But here’s the secret: they improved the soil while growing. Fixed nitrogen from the air. Fed your family this year and made next year’s garden better.
Depression-era gardeners planted them alongside corn. Beans climbed the stalks. Both crops benefited.
One row produced enough dried beans for winter protein. All winter.
13. Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans – Growing Up, Not Out
When garden space was precious, these beans solved the problem.
They grew up. Seven, eight feet high.
The more you picked, the more they produced. Kids would go out every morning to harvest overnight beans. Single plants produced for months.
Set up poles from whatever you had—branches, twine, old ladders. Even tiny backyard gardens could grow enough to last through winter.
Fresh beans all summer. Dry beans for winter protein.
14. Ground Cherries – Nature’s Wrapped Candy
Every garden needed something sweet.
Ground cherries delivered. Small golden fruits wrapped in papery husks that looked like Chinese lanterns. The husks protected them naturally—stored for months without any work.
Kids loved finding these wrapped candies in the garden. Peel back the husk. Pop them in your mouth. They tasted like pineapple mixed with vanilla.
Plant them once. They came back on their own every year after that.
15. Field Peas – The Drought Survivors
When rain disappeared and other plants died, field peas kept going.
Deep roots found moisture even in the driest soil. Nature’s drought insurance.
Young pods eaten like snap beans. Tender peas shelled fresh. Or let them dry on the vine for winter storage.
Plus they enriched the soil with nitrogen. Fed families and improved the garden at the same time.
High protein content meant they could replace meat. Kept families healthy when affording protein any other way wasn’t happening.
16. Field Corn – The Foundation
Sweet corn is cute. Field corn kept people alive.
Let it mature fully on the stalk until kernels turned hard and dry. Then grind those kernels into cornmeal—the backbone of Depression-era eating.
Cornbread. Porridge. Corn cakes. Mush.
A single acre produced enough cornmeal to feed a family for a year. Stored perfectly in a barn or shed. No special equipment needed.
This was survival, not a side dish.
17. Storage Onions – The Flavor That Lasts
Yellow Globe and Australian Brown weren’t fancy varieties.
They were designed to last 8-10 months without refrigeration.
These tough onions fought disease and actually helped preserve other vegetables stored nearby. Their natural compounds prevented spoilage in the entire root cellar.
Easy to grow. Thrived in any soil. Plant in spring, harvest in late summer, braid the tops together and hang them somewhere cool.
Seasoning and vegetables all winter long.
18. Cardoon – Fresh Vegetables in Snow
When the garden looked most bare, cardoon still produced.
These perennial plants grew like giant silvery celery stalks. Close cousins to artichokes. They withstood frost and kept giving fresh vegetables in the middle of winter.
Families would wrap the stalks in paper or cloth to blanch them. Made them tender with an artichoke flavor. Baked, braised, or thrown in soup.
Fresh vegetables when most gardens were buried under snow. That’s what made them special.
19. Skirret – The Forgotten Sweet Root
While modern gardens focus on carrots, Depression-era families grew something better.
Skirret produced clusters of white roots sweeter than carrots. More natural sugar than almost any other root vegetable.
Perennial. Came back year after year. Produced more roots each season. Once planted, it kept expanding—more food with less work.
When sugar was too expensive, skirret provided natural sweetness that made plain meals bearable.
Stayed in the ground all winter. Nature’s own root cellar.
20. Good King Henry – The King of Spring
Before anything else was ready, Good King Henry provided food.
As soon as snow melted, tender shoots emerged. Harvest and cook them like asparagus. Then the leaves came up—eat them raw or cooked like spinach.
Self-seeding. Spread naturally without work from the gardener. Appeared weeks before other garden plants were ready.
Once established, they returned stronger every year. Required almost no care.
21. American Groundnut – Native Wisdom
Native Americans knew about this vine long before settlers showed up.
The underground tubers contained three times the protein of potatoes. One of the most nutritious root crops ever grown here.
Harvest without ending the plant. Tubers stayed fresh in the ground through winter. Each plant spread underground, creating new tubers year after year.
Virtually indestructible. Survived drought, poor soil, harsh winters. Kept producing nutritious tubers with almost zero effort.
22. Runner Beans – Beauty, Food, and More Food
During the Depression, every plant had to earn its keep.
Runner beans went beyond that. Beautiful red, white, or bicolored blossoms attracted pollinators to the entire garden. Fresh snap beans in summer. Large meaty dried beans for winter protein.
They climbed 10 feet or higher along fences or trellises. Created edible privacy screens that produced from ground to sky.
Yields were so high that many families traded excess beans for other necessities.
23. Dandelion – The Weed Worth Cultivating
Today’s lawn enemy was Depression-era food.
Gardeners cultivated special varieties with leaves twice the size of wild cousins. Not bitter like lawn dandelions. Selected carefully for food production.
Every part got used. Young leaves for early spring salads before other greens were ready. Older leaves cooked like spinach. Flowers made into wine or fritters. Roots roasted and ground as coffee substitute.
They appeared in early spring when families desperately needed vitamins. Deep taproots survived drought and poor soil.
24. Lamb’s Quarters – Iron-Rich Volunteers
Nature helped during the Depression through plants that grew themselves.
Lamb’s quarters packed more iron than spinach. Grew so easily many called it nature’s gift. While some considered it a weed, Depression families knew better.
More nutrition than cultivated greens. Required zero care. Appeared on its own every spring. Grew rapidly to produce tender leaves for salads or cooking.
Drought tolerance meant it stayed green when other greens withered. Self-seeded readily. Continuous supply year after year that cost nothing.
One person remembered their Greek friend getting excited finding them everywhere in the yard. No need to pull them as weeds anymore.
25. Sea Kale – The Coastal Survivor
Depression-era families near coastlines discovered something remarkable.
Sea kale mastered growing in salty, sandy soils where few food plants could survive. Once planted, it returned stronger every year for decades. Some plants produced food for over 20 years.
Two distinct harvests. Tender blanched shoots in early spring that tasted like asparagus. Thick blue-green leaves throughout summer cooked like cabbage.
Deep roots found moisture even in sand. Virtually drought-proof. Salt tolerance meant it grew where other vegetables failed.
26. Rhubarb – First Fruit of Spring
When fresh produce was months away, rhubarb appeared first.
Nearly every family had a mulberry tree too. The combination made incredible pies that people still remember decades later.
Perennial. Came back stronger every year. Required almost no care once established.
Grandma would have a massive patch out behind the barn. More than enough for fresh eating, pies, canning, and even wine.
27. Purslane – The Omega-3 Weed
Another volunteer that helped families survive.
This succulent weed grew itself everywhere. Packed with nutrition—especially omega-3 fatty acids that were hard to come by otherwise.
Ate it raw in salads. Cooked it like spinach. Incredibly drought tolerant. When everything else dried up, purslane stayed green and productive.
Families learned to recognize it and let it grow. Free food that required zero work.
28. Burdock – The Forgotten Root
While many knew it as a weed with sticky burrs, Depression families harvested the roots.
Young burdock roots were edible and nutritious. Foraged from wild areas or cultivated in the garden.
Deep taproot meant it survived conditions that would eliminate other plants. Available when you needed it.
29. Kale – The Winter Producer
Before kale became trendy, it was survival food.
This hardy green produced through brutal winters. Frost actually improved the flavor. Kept giving fresh leaves when everything else was finished.
Problem was the rotating pest attacks—aphids, caterpillars, birds, mildew. But the plants recovered every time.
One person started snapping off young flower heads like purple sprouting broccoli. Boil them a few minutes. The aphids fall right off.
30. Squash – The Three Sisters’ Third
Beans and corn get mentioned often. But Native Americans taught settlers about the third sister—squash.
Plant all three together. Corn provides structure. Beans climb the corn and fix nitrogen in soil. Squash spreads along the ground as living mulch, keeping soil cool and moist.
They all help each other. Maximum production from minimum space.
Winter squash stored for months. Hubbard squash grew so hard grandmothers would drop them on the sidewalk just to crack them open.
The Legacy Lives in Your Blood
Your ancestors didn’t just survive the Depression.
They thrived because they knew secrets modern gardeners have forgotten. These weren’t cute vegetables for farmers markets. They were insurance policies that paid out in survival.
Every family had stories. Sitting on the back porch shelling beans. Digging parsnips from frozen ground. Finding ground cherries wrapped like presents in the garden. Straightening old bent nails while listening to the radio.
That wild, resourceful, make-it-work childhood—that’s the stuff family legends are made of.
Those stories are still there, waiting in your family tree. The great-grandmother who knew exactly when to harvest. The grandfather who could grow anything in terrible soil. The parents who learned from the Depression and never stopped growing their own food.
Document those adventures. Save those survival stories. Because that knowledge—the kind that kept families alive through America’s toughest years—that’s what makes your family history worth preserving.
Need help uncovering those stories? Check out our Generational Journeys E-Book for 170 Interview Questions to Unlock Your Family’s Past. Ask the right questions now, before those memories disappear like these forgotten vegetables nearly did.
Your grandparents’ gardens held more than food. They held wisdom worth its weight in gold.