Serious self-sufficiency buffs seeking to produced their own legume supply should also consider the fava, garbanzo bean, and Alaska pea.  Many favas can be overwintered:  sow in October, sprout on fall rains, grow over the winter, and dry down in June with the soil.  Garbanzos are grown like mildly frost-tolerant peas.  Alaska peas are the type used for pea soup.  They’re spring sown and grown like ordinary shelling peas.  Avoid overhead irrigation while seeds are drying down.

Beets

Beets will root far deeper and wider than most people realize—­in uncompacted, nonacid soils.  Double or triple dig the subsoil directly below the seed row.

Sowing date: Early April at Elkton, late March farther south, and as late as April 30 in British Columbia.  Beet seed germinates easily in moist, cool soil.  A single sowing may be harvested from June through early March the next year.  If properly thinned, good varieties remain tender.

Spacing: A single row will gradually exhaust subsoil moisture from an area 4 feet wide.  When the seedlings are 2 to 3 inches tall, thin carefully to about 1 inch apart.  When the edible part is radish size, thin to 2 inches apart and eat the thinings, tops and all.  When they’ve grown to golfball size, thin to 4 inches apart, thin again.  When they reach the size of large lemons, thin to 1 foot apart.  Given this much room and deep, open soil, the beets will continue to grow through the entire summer.  Hill up some soil over the huge roots early in November to protect them from freezing.

Irrigation: Probably not necessary with over 4 feet of deep, open soil.

Varieties: I’ve done best with Early Wonder Tall Top; when large, it develops a thick, protective skin and retains excellent eating quality.  Winterkeepers, normally sown in midsummer with irrigation, tend to bolt prematurely when sown in April.

Broccoli:  Italian Style

Italian-style broccoli needs abundant moisture to be tender and make large flowers.  Given enough elbow room, many varieties can endure long periods of moisture stress, but the smaller, woody, slow-developing florets won’t be great eating.  Without any irrigation, spring-sown broccoli may still be enjoyed in early summer and Purple Sprouting in March/April after overwintering.

Sowing date:Without any irrigation at all, mid-March through early April.  With fertigation, also mid-April through mid-May.  This later sowing will allow cutting through summer.

Spacing: Brocoli tastes better when big plants grow big, sweet heads.  Allow a 4-foot-wide row.  Space early sowings about 3 feet apart in the row; later sowings slated to mature during summer’s heat can use 4 feet.  On a fist-sized spot compacted to restore capillarity, sow a little pinch of seed atop a well-and deeply fertilized, double-dug patch of earth.  Thin gradually to the best single plant by the time three or four true leaves have developed.