Reddit reviews Perennial Vegetables: From Artichoke to Zuiki Taro, a Gardener's Guide to Over 100 Delicious, Easy-to-grow Edibles

Over at r/seedstock we have nearly 500 listings of places to buy seeds and the like. Do your own research though, while people have commented on those they've purchased from in the past, there are many submissions that have no such comments. Between c-ray and I, many are permaculture-oriented, but a few are your typical mail order nursery fare.

You probably want to think about fruit trees. In the central Illinois region, you've probably alot of choice in that regard. Pecans and walnuts will do fine, almonds are probably too iffy. Apples of all types, more than a few pears, apricots and cherries and peaches. All sorts of berries should do well, blackberry, blueberry and the like. Grapevines too, for that matter. All of these things will reduce your need to till, since they continue to fruit year after year without replanting.

You could also check out this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Perennial-Vegetables-Artichokes-Gardeners-Delicious/dp/1931498407

My mother-in-law bought it for me for Christmas, and I like it quite a bit. Good for ideas. I don't know that half of what's in there is anything I'd ever want to eat, but the other half is still 80 or 90 edible plants most of which I was quite unfamiliar with.

Also, do you have any chickens? 3 acres is enough to consider having a sizable flock, and their poop's as important as any of the eggs.

Perennial Vegetables: From Artichoke to Zuiki Taro, a Gardener's Guide to Over 100 Delicious, Easy-to-grow Edibles

It will be useful for process, less useful for specific plants. Eric has another great book, Perennial Vegetables that includes resources for all over the US. Lots of familiar and lots of weirder but interesting food plants, coming from a permaculture perspective.

Ground nuts apparently kept the original American colonists from bitin' the dust when they first arrived. According to Perennial Vegetables by Eric Toensmeier, its got something like 4x the protein of a potato but can be quite dry and mealy if not prepared well.

I think that just means add lots of butter.
Mmmmm....butter....

And there's a give-away - a choice of one of Eric's workshops,either a forest garden tasting workshop or a bioshelter workshop. Or a copy of Perennial Vegetables if you can't make it to a workshop.