Long term self sustaining food and water plans?

[ShooterJM]

I've heard garlic grows well at elevation as well.

[J Tactical Firearms]

Yeah, you need a way to season your veggies! Could you grow your own wheat/grains for bread? I like the idea of a couple fruit trees. I have heard twice now about certain apples growing well out here.

[Rust_shackleford]

You'll need a green house

Taters, carrots, lettuce, spinach, radish's, broccolli, strawberry's, peas, and in the green house maters, cukes, beans, and whatever else I can.
Have a plum tree, and an apple tree, both blooming.
Deer are a problem so have to fence your open garden and your fruit trees.

[King]

Ive seen wild raspberries in the mountains so I know those will grow. What about some livestock? My parents have chickens. Very low maintenance and they pop eggs out daily.

[Irving]

Sure raspberries grow in the mountains, but how much sustenance will they really provide for you?
I've eaten wild raspberries, and I tell you what, they were pretty delicious, and I wasn't scrounging around for food, near starving to death. I can only imagine how wonderful they'd taste if I were short on food.

[King]

Your definitely right, they probably wont sustain life for long. I was just adding to what others have mentioned as to what will grow.

[KevDen2005]

What do you think you'll be growing in the mountains?

Medicinal Marijuana

[MED]

You'll need a green house

My wife put out a tomato plant this year much to my fun poking at the futility of doing so...it was dead in a week. My house sits just under 9,000ft. I plan to build a greenhouse with solar power for the fall when temps drop below freezing.

[MED]

I guess with a well you would be good on water?

Only if you have the power to pump it out of the ground!

[lasinvegas]

A small greenhouse with an aquaculture set up would be the way to go in the mtns in my opinion. My experience with aquaculture has shown a huge growth jump over plants grown in other manners. Your fertilizer is self replacing and you get the added benefit of meat.

As far as growing grains go, i'm not sure you could grow enough to make a loaf of bread reliably. I could be wrong, but it might be worth a try from someone already living in the mtns to see what they come up with. Be worth knowing before you actually had to grow them.

As far as livestock, I am a big fan of goats. They can feed and thrive in areas that a lot of other livestock would never thrive in. Plus you can get milk and make cheese from them. I am a big fan of ducks over chickens for eggs. We have ducks now and have averaged over 300 eggs each a year from our girls.