If you have a water source near the growing area there is a pretty handy and easy solution that will allow you to grow most anything. Use soaker hoses (or drip irrigation) with a timer that opens the water flow and shuts it off.

Fertility of the soil can be handled either with a fall incorporation of lots of organic matter like manure and compost or near planting time with the incorporation of a synthetic fertilizer.

The only other thing necessary would be training plants to grow up a trellis where necessary and dealing with any pest issues, but that is optional if you just want to plant a lot and harvest whatever makes it.

Automate the water and ensure fertile soil and you can pretty much plant and forget.

Wow. What a concept!.. I guess I've heard of "low maintenance" but can't say I've heard of "no maintenance"... This is not to imply that I know the answer to your question.. I think this would be difficult in our Louisiana climate. Perhaps it might be more doable in your area. So I'm anxious to see the feeback on your post..

A clarification note on my above post.. While your subject said "douught resistant vegetables", our Louisiana climate supports a wide variety of insect pests and plant diseases, which can get out of control in short order. If asking the question for OUR area, since moisture is typically not an issue, I would have asked "are there any pest and disease resistant vegetables that can be left unattended from planting to harvest?".

The only thing I know of for sure is raspberries and blackberries. I've not only neglected them but tried to kill off the ones that escaped the area I had them in...the buggers just don't die LOL.

If there would be predators to control asparagus beetles, you could try asparagus, It grows on ditch banks and in orchards in the West. Of course, your harvest would be limited to the days you visited during asparagus season.

Some of the edible gourds seem pretty carefree to me, but they have to be picked at a certain stage for best quality.

Do Muscadine grapes grow where the farm is?

Sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) can be left alone all season, but like raspberries and blackberries, they are impossible to kill and difficult, if not impossible, to remove once they are in an area.

Interestingly, aren't all 3 of these native plants? You could see what other native plants there are that thrive in your area, plant them and leave them alone.

Great ideas. I did have the idea of using native plants. Natural water is odd around here. Sometimes we get frequent rains, but then for a long while it won't rain, then it will pick up again. It's that downtime I'm worrried about. I do think muscadine grapes would grow. I'll take all this into consideration. Unfortunately there's only a well with a pump (which is broken) so using drip irrigation won't work. It's going to have to have a deep taproot or be somewhat drought resistant (like most native plants seem to be).

One plant I'm considering is Groundnut, which I am experimenting with this year (not talking about peanuts). It does require water though, but is native and prolific.

Isn't Groundnut pretty invasive, too? What is the species?

Yes, Groundnut (apios americana) is quite invasive, which leads me to believe it can tolerate alot of neglect. But it's also native and replenishes nitrogen. I have no problem with this going hog wild.