Currently living in the post apocalypse?

[12540dumont]

This is such a depressing thread. I'm going to the kitchen to make a German Chocolate cake with my own sauerkraut.

Then I'm going to sit down and eat a slice with a cuppa tea. If I feel ambitious after that, I'm going to squeeze all the Rangpur Limes and put them in the freezer, in ice-cubes to use later.

That brings the question of dinner to mind. I had the worst tomato year I ever had last year. Late rain, early heat, heat again...sheesh the blossoms dropped off so regularly that it was ridiculous. So do I use the tomatoes for lamb pasanda or should I make them in my quince pepper jelly? (Yeah Steev's quinces finally came through).

There is abundance out there. Grab it with both hands and make something. I can't fix most of the world problems, so instead I have to fix what I can, (like dinner). So, I'll make my own clothes, my own food stuffs, grow what will grow when it will grow---barring PG&E and the Water District, Federal, State and County Ordinances, and try to be happy. I understand finally why Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

Happy New Year you all. (Dar I'm back to Lieven's and Vesuvius this year...my no fail ever tomatoes). Joseph, only your squash did well last year. On the farm I'm going to more perennials and less tilling, as well as replanting rows more often. Only 2 more years left of my farming career. Then I just become an ordinary gardener. This year's new crop? CBD. One more thing I can do for myself.

Well, there's cakes to bake, aprons to embroider, shawls to knit, cats to herd...be well you all, and someone please start a cheerful thread.

[steev]

The cheerful part is that this is the post-apocalypse; So we're past the worst and can now build for regeneration; it can only get better. Build optimistically.

[flowerbug]

i've used saurkraut in making breads.

that's not depressing...

in the post apocolypse i'll still be doing as much as i can as long as i can to do pretty much what i'm doing now - that too is not depressing...

[flowerbug]

anytime i'm talking beans or peas i'm usually pretty cheerful. i only garden. not enough land to qualify as a farm. i'd have loved to have gotten some land when i had a chance but it didn't work out.

as for gardens last year was a fun one for sure but on the whole it was ok. we did get tomatoes, beans, onions, peppers, cucumbers, peas, strawberries and some other things i forget.

diversity has always been of benefit to my plantings. the only thing that we didn't do all the great with were the squash which we didn't plant much of and it was also planted later than usual so any fruits that formed were not always really done.

this year they will get planted on time.

[steev]

Yes. Living through a several-year drought and a cardio condition, I have a lot of catching up to do, so regaining my planting areas is a chore; don't have a tractor, like the first go-round; it's more laborious with a BCS tiller. I'm optimistic, though not as young as I once was (didn't see that coming); I do think my work is keeping me lots "younger" than many of my contemporaries; stop moving and people will start kicking dirt on you, fearing you'll start to stink. I'm not into commercial production, just private and surplus for my neighbors and the community food bank. Melons do well OTF, so maybe on down the road I'll deal with a local farmer's market, flogging melons that actually smell like melons, instead of stones.

[reed]

I never had a tractor and I'm pretty much done with tillers, stinking roaring pieces of shit. Hoes, shovels and rakes are where it's at for me and I'm growing plenty for us with some surplus.

Last week in the middle of January I went out and raked the composting debris from last year off a 4 x 50 bed, took a sharp hoe and scraped off the weeds and fall planted turnips. Took maybe twenty minutes to have a beautiful planting bed, tossed on some lettuce, carrot and onion seeds. Back when I was stupid and thought a spot needed tilled and before I had lots of my own seeds I would never have done such a thing. Actually could not have done it with a tiler, it was plenty dry for what I did but not enough so for a tiller.

Then I dug up and transplanted into pots all my favorite mustard, turnip, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards and put them together where I can easily cover them if it gets cold. Also harvested all the carrots, they are amazingly good right now, I replanted about fifty tops to go to seed, put them in pots too so they won't take up garden space.

Past the worst? I doubt that but I don't see a need to roll over and quit.

[flowerbug]

having pulled tendons the previous year it has taken me this season to get back to more useful gardens in some areas again. the exercise in the gardens is a good reason why i do it. i hate exercise just for the sake of exercise.

a stirrup/strap hoe can do a lot quickly. between the two of us we keep most of the gardens here fairly well cleared of weeds. cardboard layers and mulch takes care of some problem areas that scraping doesn't.

i haven't used a tiller in years and that time i only used it to level a top few inches of an area that was starting to form a gully. that change really helped improve that area a lot since the nutrients and organic materials aren't getting washed away any more, but also i planted alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil and let those feed the worms for years. it's prime garden soil now, with a lot of clay, but it will be very productive when i can get back to clearing it.  there's a lot of garlic in there i'm gradually removing.  i don't need it.

i use a shovel to bury things in the gardens, but rarely turn an entire garden to do that. even with fairly bare soils too often and not cover crops through the winter the garden soils do keep improving from the applications of the worms/worm compost and burying whatever i can scrape up and some things that people will bring me in trade (chunks of rotting wood, leaves they've raked up, pieces of bark, etc). all that gives the worms something to work on and hide in.

we keep about an acre of gardens. that's plenty for two people plus extras to give away. cucumbers were a huge crop last year. i hope we don't plant as many this year.

[prairiegardens]

Just learned that it isn't only seeds and plants that are being hijacked, apparently almost all commercial hatcheries in North America (i.e commercially bred birds) are now owned by a company called Aviagen or its subsidiaries. amazing that governments are so incredibly blind to the possible consequences of allowing control of food into the hands of a very very few huge corporations. So not only seeds, but find yourself some heritage chickens too

[steev]

I think I'll get Black Jersey Giants; more meat for less killing.

[mskrieger]

I'm all about the dual purpose ducks, myself.

[jocelyn]

Umm, YUM, crispy roast duck and mile high duck egg cakes, heaven:)

[steev]

Well, I also want ducks, geese, and turkeys.

[reed]

We have lot of wild geese and turkeys, hope that continues as both are delicious.

[blueadzuki]

Feb 21, 2020 2:21:21 GMT -5 reed said:

We have lot of wild geese and turkeys, hope that continues as both are delicious.

That would seem to depend on how orderly the future degradation is. If it gets bad enough there is a breakdown in the chain of authority (i.e. governmental collapse) or a change in attitudes toward conservation (which could happen with a government struggling to feed people). I could imagine a severe loosening of game hunting control. And if THAT happens I can easily see a lot of panicky hunters deciding that the most effective way to make use of their remaining resources of ammunition, gasoline (presumably a lot of the "survivalist" mentality people know it only has a few years shelf life) and freezing technology is to shoot everything they can when they can, and screw good game management.

There are some people who think that the efforts of early humans during the Ice age led to the extinction of much of the worlds mega-fauna. I can easily see a total collapse resulting in another one.


That being said, while I am no hunter, I do take note of the species of duck around here vis a vis their supposed table quality versus how hard it would be to catch them (most of the good ones only show up in the dead of winter so it'd be ice breaking and a kayak.)

[prairiegardens]

Feb 21, 2020 10:37:19 GMT -5 William said:

www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/climate-change-is-affecting-crop-yields-and-reducing-global-food-supplies-118897

Annual yield reductions

well    WHO released a study  maybe 4 years back? that said the consensus from the nearly 400 scientists was that small farms organically managed are basically not only the best but possibly the only hope humanity has for feeding itself.  The implication in my mind at least, is that diversity needs to be restored rather than constantly diminished, and landrace crops encouraged. What a concept for governments to wrap their heads around, I fear it's too much to expect with the huge chemical, seed and commodity companies shrieking in their ears that they are the only hope for mankind. Turns out there is a problem having people making decisions about things they have neither any knowlege nor interest in.

This reduction is a double whammy as  I noted before, now researchers are seeing that the plants themselves are reacting to climate change by reducing the components which nourish us and altering them to more sugars and such.  This has been bred into a whole lot of foodstuffs anyway, as sweetness is the main criteria for flavour in many crops now.

This has fueled my interest in both alternate crops, stealth crops and grex crops, although I doubt I will be around to have to deal with the issues of hunger which are looming over us all.  Who knows if anyone will benefit from my admittedly somewhat feeble efforts but at least it's interesting and may some day be of use to someone.

People I know are quite eager to agree that "someone" is going to be struggling with hunger issues soon, but appear oblivious to the idea that such issues may end up affecting them.  As the price of anything related to oil edges toward the stratosphere  it may come home to roost.  A nephew who is involved with market gardening..not organic..I think hasn't really considered what having a tidy patch of land covered with food may mean to hungry city folk, and he doesn't even eat  very much at all of what they grow, so NO emergency supplies at all other than cash to deal with whatever comes up. Cash won't mean much to people who have no food. But then, perhaps I am being an alarmist.