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Post by robertb on Nov 8, 2011 10:49:12 GMT -5
I've got about 1/8 acre, and I look at it and remember that there was a time when a man would be expected to feed his family year round of that much land. I suppose I could plant it all up with Lumpers, and hope to avoid the blight.
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Post by Walk on Nov 8, 2011 10:56:03 GMT -5
We've been working on our homestead self sufficiency for the last 3 decades, not because of a sense of doomsday (although we think things can't continue with peak oil, climate disruptions, and excessive population). We've been motivated to see how much of our foodstuffs (and power, clothing, etc.) we can produce ourselves. I guess we're just the kind of people that like to create from raw materials - an example would be when we wanted to make some beer and so first we grew barley....... We do buy some bulk foods like raisins, oatmeal, and olive oil but could live without them if necessary. The challenge for growing your own food is to produce enough calories with a diversity of nutrients to stay healthy, and then eat what you grow. Look at what will grow in your area, the wild plants (native and escaped), what the indigenous people utilized, and the food ways of other cultures. The "Resilient Gardener" by Carol Deppe is a thought provoking starting point to get into the subsistence mindset. To see more about what we've been up to, you can look at our web site at www.geopathfinder.com/ |
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Post by davida on Nov 8, 2011 12:55:49 GMT -5
For our health and happiness, organic food that we raise ourselves or trade amongst ourselves is a must. The present grocery store and restaurant foods are not what I want my grandbabies eating. And the satisfaction of working hard and reaping your own harvest (especially with your family involved) is one of life's greatest pleasures.
One of my biggest concerns today are the extreme weather conditions and the increase of insects and diseases that commonly grown plant varieties are experciencing. As a new member, I am excited to learn as mich as possible about different varieties.
Regarding the question of preparing for 3 or 4 months, I think 6 months is a minimum to be able to help family and friends. If someone came to my house with a sick child, I would certainly want some extra food to help.
Thanks for the challenge.
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Post by bunkie on Nov 8, 2011 13:30:13 GMT -5
welcome to the forum davidafarmer!
great thread johno, and great thoughts all. we're experimenting with grains also, and different varieties of corn and beans and squashes, etc...saving enough to eat and enough for seed for the next year.
love 'the resilient gardener' also.
as for the pantry, i read about having enough of something canned for using one jar a week, ie, canning 52 jars of green beans and 52 jars of carrots, etc... at least to get one through a year. it's working as a good base for us, and we always try and have extra for bartering, people visiting in need, etc... this can be used for dehydrating also.
we have a solar panel and solar pump for our well. just discovered that we can also use the pump on a car battery if need be. it's so wonderful to have water pumped by the sun! we'd like to have solar for the house too, eventually.
keep the good thoughts coming!
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Post by atash on Nov 8, 2011 13:39:53 GMT -5
>>Why a year?
Because that's the maximum time frame between harvests in a temperate climate.
If the problem is climate disaster--say a "Maunder Minimum" event (mini ice age--they hit surprisingly fast by the way and the effect is "cumulative"--the worst years are the ones close to the end of the phase) or an 1816 type event related to volcanic discharge, then your best bet is to switch suddenly to crops that are significantly more cold-tolerant than the ones you've been growing. You need to switch from corn and soy to rye and rutabagas. As mentioned earlier, spring-planted rye and wheat were near bumper crops in 1816 in New England when corn and potatoes failed catastrophically. The freezes were not hard enough to kill the hardy cereals, but they did kill the Hessian fly and stripe rust.
Some of us have that scenario covered...motivated by precisely the fact that solar activity--in direct contradiction to NASA predictions of a super maximum in 2012 (which they've finally withdrawn)--has been unusually weak, with a total cessation of sunspots for quite a while not to long ago.
Anyway, storing food is not that hard; what is hard is trying to preserve "normalcy". It's the expectation of being able to preserve the status quo that gets people killed during a crisis.
Consider a typical short-term disaster, such as a fire. Consider the Beverly Hills Nightclub disaster in Ohio, or the attack on the World Trade Center.
In the case f the Beverly Hills Nightclub fire, fire crews found, ah, what was left of the victims still sitting around their tables with their drinks. They made no attempt to run for it.
A busboy who worked there reported that the staff were walking up and down the halls looking for someone high-ranking to take responsibility and tell them what to do. They did nothing useful. He recalled thinking to himself "Well, I'm probably going to get fired for this, but someone had better do something...", as he began herding customers out the doors.
He was the only one who proactively did anything.
In the world trade center, people felt the shockwave from the impact--and waited an average of 9 minutes before deciding to take action. Instead, they looked at each other, asked each other what they thought happened, but did nothing.
When action was finally taken, as evidence of a life-threatening situation continued accumulating, one thing that happened was that busybodies went from floor to floor and hall to hall telling people to stay put and wait for instructions.
People in wheelchairs were abandoned, and worse, those were the instructions. That is typical--they tell you to leave the folks in wheelchairs near the stairs to "wait". Instead of, say, a couple husky guys picking them up and hauling them out.
Kitty Genovese was murdered in the vicinity of over 30 witnesses. Contrary to the New York Times editorial about it, they were not all "reluctant to get involved". People aren't all that cowardly--some are, but most will get angry and go after the attacker--he only had a knife--however, what some of them did do was not effective. One told the killer, Moser, to "leave that girl alone". But he didn't follow them to behind the apartment building where Moser finished her off. Genovese contributed to her own demise by running out of sight of help. What you do in that situation is look for a specific helpers and say "You there in the blue shirt, I need your help. You, in the red dress, call for help!" Otherwise, a crowd will freeze up waiting for "someone" to do something.
It's the same thing in weather disasters and even financial disasters. People freeze up because the situation is outside of their "conceptual space". They simply refuse to believe their eyes, and rationalize away the situation until it is too late.
Imagine a situation like the famous Stanley Millgram experiment, except instead of telling the subjects to apply an electric shock to SOMEONE ELSE, you tell them to stay in their cubicles and await further instructions while the office is burning down.
Failing to do anything, hoping that non-reaction will make the situation return to "normalcy"--is what kills people.
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greltam
grub
Everything IS a conspiracy :]
Posts: 59
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Post by greltam on Nov 8, 2011 13:48:19 GMT -5
I think the duration of food storage needed has to do with weaning oneself off of the grocery store if SHTF, while giving enough time to get a large and productive garden growing.
If you didn't have a years worth of food, you may be caught off guard if SHTF around early autumn time, barring production before the frost arrives. For me, it would then be something like 6+ months before the last frost occurs and I could plant anything, but then there's atleast another month or two before anything would be ready to eat. People closer to the equator wouldn't have to wait as long, and probably could do less in terms of food stored and still do fine.
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Post by caledonian on Nov 8, 2011 16:02:02 GMT -5
Winter squash, carrots, and sunroots work best for me to store. Neat. Have you figured out a method of rendering sunroots calorically exploitable? Their starch normally can't be digested by humans. |
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Post by spacecase0 on Nov 8, 2011 16:58:28 GMT -5
Winter squash, carrots, and sunroots work best for me to store. Neat. Have you figured out a method of rendering sunroots calorically exploitable? Their starch normally can't be digested by humans. I thought cooking did that am I wrong ? |
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Post by davey on Nov 8, 2011 17:28:35 GMT -5
As atash said, a financial meltdown and hyperinflation are more likely and more regular. Many folks think we're in the beginning of both. Seems like fast growing plants and perennials make sense. The second group taking a more time to produce perhaps. A lot of permaculture and food diversity make sense so does forest gardening, if you're in that climate, given the greater output for the vertical space. Production from trees, and bushes make sense too. Quinoa makes sense since most of it is edible and it handles most of the amino acids. LOt of various root crops make sense too. Don;t have much experience with corn, but it seems to take a lot of energy and water for its output. Just learned that we now produce more corn ofr ethanol than food. Crazy.
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Post by 12540dumont on Nov 8, 2011 18:38:51 GMT -5
Girasols, sunchokes, Jerusalem Artichokes
The carbohydrates give the tubers a tendency to become soft and mushy if boiled, but they retain their texture better when steamed. The inulin cannot be broken down by the human digestive system, which can cause flatulence and, in some cases, gastric pain.
We do not possess any enzymes that are capable of breaking down larger sugars, such as raffinose etc. These 3, 4 and 5 ring sugars are made by plants especially as part of the energy storage system in seeds and beans. If we ingest these sugars we can't break them down in the intestines, rather they travel down into the colon where various bacteria digest them - and in the process produce copious amounts of carbon dioxide gas.
So, that's why they are considered a famine food. However, if you grow them, eat them the same day you dig them. Sort of like corn, the starches start changing right away. So the sooner you eat them, the less flatulence you get.
Makes a mean liquor - Topinambur feinbitter. Which of course does not give you gas. They make it from a recipe from Hildegard von Bingen. It's a pre-biotic. Now there's a recipe I'd love to have. Anyone who has it, please post it. I've got lots of these sunchokes, just waiting to be made in into an appertif. I have only seen this stuff in the airport in Germany. I have never tasted it. I have hard that the nano distillery (Braeside Farms) of Oregon is going to make it.
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Post by templeton on Nov 8, 2011 20:01:13 GMT -5
One of the things I see as needful for me to be really self-sufficient is pigs,... but part of my long game, long pigs. Did I hear right, "...long Pig"? A bit extreme, isn't it Steev? One doomsday scenario I don't think anyone has mentioned is the magnetic reversal events. I don't think anyone is sure what would happen, but they are well documented throughout geologic time. Probably shut down the earth's magnetic field, which I imagine would have dire consequences for all sorts of electronica for starters... T |
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Post by steev on Nov 8, 2011 20:27:02 GMT -5
Most of the European landrace swine are fairly lean and rangey, not so much lard pigs, so "long" pigs; whatever were you thinking, templeton?
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Post by steev on Nov 8, 2011 20:43:20 GMT -5
Hildegard Von Bingen is reputed to have been a visionary; if she left a recipe for Suntoot liquor, she really must have been, given that she died ~1178, and Suntoots are native to North America. Perhaps she got some from Irish monks who'd been here BC ( Before Columbus ).
By the way, Holly, maybe you can settle a matter of curiosity for me. Since you say your son was born in a barn, did you have a hard time teaching him to close the door?
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Post by 12540dumont on Nov 8, 2011 20:44:16 GMT -5
Templeton was probably thinking about favas, guests and chianti...no one wants to be on the menu at your farm.
My son has never closed a door in his life. Not a cupboard door, not the house door and certainly never the barn door (when it had one). He often leaves the truck door open. He feels that since he was born in a barn he has carte blanche to never close anything.
Now you know why I want the recipe. I don't believe a word of it.
Oxbow, tell us about your milch cow please.
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Post by templeton on Nov 8, 2011 21:14:12 GMT -5
Most of the European landrace swine are fairly lean and rangey, not so much lard pigs, so "long" pigs; whatever were you thinking, templeton? I'm only familiar with the aboriginal expression from Northern Australia, who were said (perhaps incorrectly) to refer to the gold miners they ate as 'long pig '. Apparently they preferred the chinese miners - reputed to have a better taste. This might just be white fella talk... A quick search shows the term to have been in use around the pacific... T |
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