In every steading domain, there is an easy win you can start with. Cruise to victory in the starter zone.
For fermenting food, there's sauerkraut. For kids growing veggies, there's radish. For first time gardeners, you have squash and pumpkins. For first time stockraisers, get chickens.
And for first time fruit growers, in most climates you want to grow grapes.
Fall is the best time to plant.
With grapes you get your choice of hardy, quick, easy, flexible, prolific, tasty -- pick any six.
Hardy
Grapes grow well in a wide variety of climates and they take a beating and keep on ticking. In the very far north you want cold hardy varieties and may have to flop to the ground and cover with straw for the winter. In the very far south you may also have to pay attention to the varieties. But we know folks who have grown "southern" grapes in New York and Quebec varieties in the southwest desert, without any real issues or special technique.
Grapes can pull through droughts and you will usually get at least an acceptable harvest even with a late frost. Grapes generally seem less prone to insect and disease problems that other fruit unless you are in the middle of a big commercial vineyard area. They are not guaranteed disease free--nothing is--but they do seem to be less generally susceptible.
(Berries can also be a good choice, but the climate range will be tighter. You will need to research a berry that is right for your weather and soil. Blackberries probably cover the widest range of your berry choices, though not everyone likes the flavor.)
Quick
You will usually have enough to keep you interested your second year and usually a full harvest by year 3. Grapes grow fast.
Easy
There is less 'art' to pruning grapes than most fruits. The instructions are mechanical and easy to follow. You can find plenty of guides but mostly you have a "core" vine plus a few second year branches that you leave in place according to what shape you are going for. Cutting off everything that isn't that shape. Most commonly you have a vertical "trunk" plus two or four horizontal second year branches. (Please do read a guide though). The grape will generally attach itself to whatever support you want it to grow on without any effort on your part.
Picking is also easy though you will usually want scissors or small knife. One snip and you have the whole hefty cluster in your hand. Grapes usually don't require ladders for picking.
Because grapes are small and grow in clusters, insect damage or bird pecks on one grape doesn't damage the whole bunch, unlike with most fruit where the one bite leads to rot that infests the whole thing.
Now, unlike fruit trees or berries you do need some kind of support structure. For the easiest version, use your home or a fence. Grapes love both! There is no reason the fences of America should not be lined with thriving grapes. There is no reason why your home can't be cooled in the summer by fast growing leafy vines on the southern exposure that shed their leaves to expose your walls to the sun in the winter.
Flexible
Grape vines can be trained to grow up or out in almost any kind of odd shaped spot you have. The normal spacing is 6 - 8 feet so you can fit more varieties in a smaller space. You can keep them small enough for a pot or you can allow one grape vine to thrive and cover 20 feet or more.
Prolific
Your third year and beyond, you will be shocked about how heavily your vines put on, year after year.
Tasty
The biggest grape flexibility is in flavor or type. Table grapes, American grapes (concord-style), Muscat grapes, wine grapes . . .
Move beyond your standard Thompson Seedless supermarket varieties. The ones you grow won't taste much better than the ones in the store. There are other varieties out there with more flavor. We recommend Reliance as a good first choice. Although in fact we really recommend growing wine grapes for use as a table grape. The vineyard man at an agricultural research station once recommended this to us and experience has shown how wonderfully right he was. Blue-black wine grapes in particular are rich with thick rich juices and just a speck of a crunch of seed. Everyone who has tried our Frontenac has raved about it. Careful--they will stain!
The reward factor is very high.
Most states will have an agricultural research station somewhere with a vineyard that has a whole bunch of varieties you can try. It makes for a fun outing. Or just pick something out of a catalog because you like the description.
Storage
The downside of grapes is the difficulty in storing them. You can freeze them for later snacking, though they take up a lot of space. Probably delicious with cream . . .Canned grapes are sloppy and often too juicy to be good for most dessert recipes. Probably the standard method for storing grapes is juicing, though you need juicing equipment and the juice flavor profile often changes noticeably during the canning. You will have to experiment.
If you have a food dehydrator, we recommend raisins. They store well at room temperature, have a better flavor than the raisins you are used to, and make for a perfect treat during the winter.
Making Raisins
Household raisins have flavors you can’t name or even describe, unknown exotic flavors. You’ll love them.
These are from a white American-style grape. They almost tasted like chocolate with tang.
Below are untended grape vines. They get watered and one spreading of manure in the spring. They haven’t been pruned for several years or fertilized or sprayed ever. The crop this year was good but not quite heavy. It would be heavy with a little care.
You can see a couple of the grapes that have been hit by insects.
As you can see from the colors, there are a couple of different varieties in this little patch.
Pulling all the grapes off the stem is work. We did it as a family while watching a football game on TV. Some grapes you will discard. Some grapes are wrinkled because they have started drying on the vine, some because they are damaged. With time you will learn to feel the difference, but at first you should just discard them all
We filled two large Excalibur dryers. One is ours, the other we borrowed.
How dry you want them is up to you. Dryer stores longer but isn’t as pleasant for snacking, though still nice. These were dried longer. We use a lower temperature than normal because it gives a better flavor.
Obviously no one person or family can make use of all the steading techniques and options we discuss, not with only 24 hours in the day. Take this one for consideration.
What you should include in your consideration are the psychological effects on your family when they see the hoard your family has preserved. It makes them feel rich and happy in the winter.
We like to eat raisins with fall and winter breakfast oatmeal or wheat porridge or corn mush. They are good added straight or else allowed to soak in the cooking breakfast for awhile.
Happy steading!