TIME TO GET YOUR FOOD ON

Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer

I know I sound like a broken record but one day you’ll thank me.

It’s time to start your garden, buy some chickens and start a henhouse, go find a small family farmer who raises beef, pork or poultry, start foraging for wild edibles, educate yourself on food storage, and building soils.

I know that a vast amount of these stories are designed to create fear and anxiety and that most of you will have no real difficulty feeding your families, but how much better will you feel to free yourself from Big Ag and their destructive practices while saving your capital for other uses?

Via DC Clothesline

Food Production Is Going To Be Substantially Lower Than Anticipated All Over The Globe In 2022

I don’t think that people realize how severe this crisis will eventually become.  Never before in modern history have we seen global food production being hit by so many major problems all at once.  It truly is a “perfect storm”, and hundreds of millions of people are going to deeply suffer as a result.  I would very much encourage you to share this article with as many people as you can, because everyone needs this information.  As I discussed yesterday, things may be somewhat bad right now, but conditions will eventually get much worse as the months roll along.

I am going to share a lot of statistics in this article, and each number is important.

But ultimately it is the collective impact of all of these factors together that is really going to hammer us.

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Let me start by talking about rice.  According to Bloomberg, the global fertilizer crisis is going to result in a loss of production worldwide that is the equivalent of enough food to feed “500 million people”…

From India to Vietnam and the Philippines, prices of crop nutrients crucial to boosting food production have doubled or tripled in the past year alone. Lower fertilizer use may mean a smaller crop. The International Rice Research Institute predicts that yields could drop 10% in the next season, translating to a loss of 36 million tons of rice, or the equivalent of feeding 500 million people.

We don’t eat that much rice in the western world, but in Asia it is a core staple of their diets.

How will all of that food be replaced?

Well, they could eat more wheat, but there is going to be a lot less wheat produced in 2022 as well.  In fact, one agricultural commodity expert is warning that the war in Ukraine alone could mean that “between 19 million and 34 million tons of export production could disappear this year”…

Globally, there are six breadbaskets that together supply roughly 60 to 70 percent of global agricultural commodities. The Ukraine–Russia region is responsible for roughly 30 percent of global exports of wheat and 65 percent of sunflower, in a context where those markets are increasingly tight and interconnected—so a slight disruption in supply creates some impact on price.

Of course, we don’t know what the length and scale of this conflict will be. We ran some scenarios, and from our perspective, between 19 million and 34 million tons of export production could disappear this year. If we fast-forward to 2023, the figure could be between ten million and 43 million tons. To translate, that represents caloric intake for 60 million to 150 million people.

I don’t know about you, but I regularly eat a lot of things that contain wheat, and so do hundreds of millions of others.

So this is going to be a huge issue.

And we are already seeing wheat prices go completely insane.  From early March to early April, the price of wheat jumped almost 20 percent

Global food prices rose to their highest-ever level in March, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported April 8, with wheat prices up nearly 20% from a month earlier.

Unfortunately, the outlook for the months ahead is very troubling due to bizarre weather patterns all over the planet.

Here in the United States, much of our winter wheat has been devastated by persistent drought

According to the USDA, 69 percent of total U.S. winter-wheat production is in an area experiencing drought, including hard-red winter, soft-red winter and soft white. That includes 82 percent of the production area in Kansas, 82 percent in Colorado, 99 percent in Texas and 99 percent in Montana.

On the other side of the globe, parts of northern Africa are experiencing their “worst drought in decades”

Morocco’s agriculture minister said the North African country would likely lose 53 percent of its cereals harvest after experiencing the worst drought in decades. Rainfall was 41 percent less than average this season.

So how will all of that food be replaced?

Well, I suppose that we could all eat more corn, but the outlook for corn is not good either.

Russia and Ukraine are normally two of the largest global exporters of corn, but now the war has changed everything, and there have been very serious planting delays here in the United States…

Chicago corn was largely unchanged on Wednesday and near a decade-high scaled in the previous session, as traders fretted over planting delays in the United States and a lack of supplies from war-torn Ukraine.

On top of everything else, there will be a lot less eggs produced this year, there will be a lot less chicken meat produced this year and there will be a lot less turkey meat produced this year because of the nightmarish bird flu pandemic which just keeps getting worse.

According to NPR, the total death toll has now risen to “more than 28 million”

More than 28 million poultry birds, like chickens and turkeys, have been lost in the U.S. because of a new bird flu. The virus either made the birds sick or they were culled to prevent its spread. Unlike previous bird flus, this one is also affecting a lot of wild birds. As NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce explains, that could keep the virus in circulation for a long time.

The vast majority of the time, most of us never even think about where our food comes from.

But that needs to change, because food production systems are collapsing all over the world.

Before I end this article, I wanted to share the tragic news that the headquarters of Azure Standard just burned to the ground

Dear friends, the headquarters of Azure Standard, the nation’s premier independent distributor of organic and healthy food, was destroyed by fire overnight. There were no injuries. The cause of the fire is unknown and under investigation. The loss of the facility and the impact on company-wide operations is being assessed and expected to be limited and temporary. No other Azure Standard facilities were affected.

I personally know people that get food from Azure Standard, and many of my readers regularly shop with them.

Let us hope that authorities can discover how the fire was caused.

Until we know more, I will refrain from saying too much about what happened.

For years, we have been warned that a global food crisis was coming, and now it has officially arrived.

And with each passing day, more things are happening which threaten to make it even worse.

For now we are still eating food that has already been produced.  The real problem will come in the months ahead when total global production of food drops well below total global demand for food.

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Note from Nevada
Note from Nevada

Gardening is a skill but much depends on the weather. I had a great start here in the Southern Nevada weather, three days of a late cold spell with a freeze and high winds. Damaged my potato, tomato and pepper plants. My low lying plants (vines) were covered but it set them back. Other crops undamaged lettuce, spinach and various greens. So I had to replant which will push there growth into the hot season here. So expect frustrations. Many of my plants have rebounded and prospects look much better now. If your really unfamiliar with the agriculture aspects in your area. Watch some of the local classifieds it will give you an idea of what animals small growers produce in your area. No more notes for a couple weeks, going after a Spring bear for the freezer.

Winchester
Winchester

We have same issues in upstate NY. I have three different phases..inside planting, outside green house (heated), and then in the ground. Our rule here for most plants is not put into the ground until Memorial day. All a learning experience for sure.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

My neighbor runs the local farm supply store and one of his favorite sayings is “Gardening is an annual experiment. Each year the variables are different.”

We had a light frost Tuesday 4/19 and our average last frost is 3/29. It has been too wet to get most of the warm season crops in, but the lettuce, green peas, spinach, kale and mustard greens are doing great

Anonymous
Anonymous

I haven’t found average last frost to be useful. Are there statistics on last hard freeze days or anything like that?

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

The good ole farmers almanac is still one of the most reliable predictors.

Horseless Headsman
Horseless Headsman

same here in SE MO

The Duke of New York
The Duke of New York

We had a half inch of hail the other day, halfway through April, luckily I had not put out a lot of the starts I had indoors, and had covers for some of the ones sown directly (broccoli and lettuce), potatoes and peas held up well but would’ve shredded the young beans and zucchini. It literally took the paint off my fence, and that has never happened before. Weather has been nuts all over, either drought or flood or hail ruining crops. Keep an eye on the forecasts and be prepared to protect those young plants if you’re still getting winter like weather like some still are.

Ginger
Ginger

Realize there is a whole lot of doom and gloom out there, and do not want to distract from this article, but did want to add this for reading sometime this week-end. It is about water, and China but pertains to this country also, just look at the West Coast and basically all the Western areas. Much interesting information here to reflect on.
Here in Eastern NC rivers are used as sewers from a city with the town or city downstream taking the water out and ‘treating’ it.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-verge-major-food-crisis-part-2-water

bucknp
bucknp

Interesting the article points to 99% of winter wheat production in Texas being in areas of drought . Don’t know what that equates to on the production scales. This time last year East Texas was flooding. Lots of rain. So far, while I don’t know where we stand on average rainfall for March-April, certainly not the rains of last early spring.

Something tells me we may be looking at rain deficiencies like those around 2011. Weather patterns are cyclical. It was during that time frame cattle ranchers were shipping their herds to Montana and other places. Them cows got to drink. And during the same time period Wichita Falls , Texas developed their system of recycling waste water for human consumption. I assume the city could still put the process into effect if it had to.

m
m

I’m not against the idea –
but can you give us a ratio “food annually harvested”/”planted area”?

I mean if I plant a 1000 sqft garden, successfully defend it from deer, rabbits, etc. and manage to get an average annual harvest, how long can I feed a single person only from that harvest?
Four weeks? Six?

Ghost
Ghost

You will learn a lot from that garden and then you will plant your fall garden from what you learn.

Winchester
Winchester

Yield is a year-to-year experiment. You also need to focus on how you plan to store the crop. When we started doing huge gardens we found a lot of waste, so we improvised on our storage plan. Did more canning, dehydrating, freezing. If I had the extra jingle I would get me a freeze drying machine.

Lurker
Lurker

I looked into those but they are slow to process and use a lot of power, in addition to the initial cost.

Martin
Martin

Number of people isn’t the right question. With 1000 sq. ft. you could hope for a family to be self-sufficient for a few vegetables & fruits – given some luck, skill, sun, and good soil. For a beginning gardener try the easiest plants like tomatoes, beans, potatoes and cukes/melons/pumpkins first. The real test comes when you need to work outside and its 95F with 85% humidity. Will you do the work ? Then – will you save your work ? Can you can or freeze what you grow or will it rot ? For the first year just trying to grow your own salads, potatoes, and pasta sauce would be a big accomplishment.

Oldtoad of Green Acres
Oldtoad of Green Acres

Yes, keep it simple.
On the hot days, gardening comes first.
Compost is magic, garbage is beautiful, chickens are addictive and chicken tractors work great if you don’t need a dozen eggs a day.

SmallerGovNow
SmallerGovNow

Tomatoes are definitely not one of the easiest in my experience. They are my major focus and I have twelve in the green house and 24 in two row gardens that I can cover and protect from the strong South Texas winds. Maybe where you live tomatoes are easier. Here wind and heat make it a difficult endeavor… Chip

ursel doran
ursel doran

A little bit of some proper lumber and a lot of plastic sheets will produce a greenhouse that will be of great assistance with weather issues for a garden.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

Learn to maximize your space by growing vertically on trellises. Cucumbers, peas and beans come in vine varieties. I am going to try and get some of my squash to grow up this year after reading an article on vertical gardening. It is more labor intensive, but I’m retired and have the time.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Vertical seems more appropriate for people with very sheltered places and material and time. I would just go with plain old rows at least at first. I was pretty happy with my squash climbing though.

Anonymous
Anonymous

not to mention unlimited water!
here (southern greece) the soil is sandy/rocky, not a drop of rain from april to october or november, any garden needs to either have a good well/cistern or at least minial water supply and very conservative cultivation and wide spacing. if you saw my garden in the eastern US youd say all that ground is gone to waste. but if you planted tomatoes less than say 4 feet apart theyd be fighting each other for the same moisture, any any blade of grass between them likewise is stealing that. if you were here a few weeks ago youd say the place is a green as ireland. things are yellowing around some edges now, if you came back in june you’d think everything was dying and if you were back in the end of august youd as well think you were on some rocky crag on the edge of the sahara.

Herc
Herc

Where in southern greece?

Anonymous
Anonymous

(hm the site didnt like a reply in greek characters)
akribws sth mesh toy aigaioy panw s’ena boyno 🙂
eisai sthn ellada;

Soup

Look into the “3 sisters”…beans, corn and squash grown in the same footprint.

Anonymous
Anonymous

This is actually a good question considering most people use gardens to grow vitamins and flavor treats, not calories. But if your 1000 sq ft is in a good spot, you could still grow substantial calories. I believe 1000 lbs of sweet potatoes would be a conservative estimate, and at 390 calories per pound, that is over 1000 calories a day spaced throughout the year. Of course, no one probably wants to eat that many sweet potatoes per day, but the estimate is probably similar to regular potatoes and corn should be higher. Legumes have more protein, but take more space. Other grains require more space and more processing.

Your time might be better spent buying rice and beans to prepare. If a famine or real lockdown is engineered in the future, how long does it last?

mark
mark

I’m with you on the Sweet Potatoes buddy…more calories in them than any other veggie.

Stored correctly they will help get you through the winter.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY SWEET POTATOES
Stolen from The Beatles & Billy Shears

What would you think if I planted out of season?
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song
And I’ll try to give you the reasons

Oh, I get by with a little help from my Sweet Potatoes
Mm, I get high with a little help from Sweet Potatoes
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my Sweet Potatoes

What do I do when my belly is empty?
Does it worry you to be craving?
How do I feel by the end of the day?
Are you sad because you’re starving?

No, I get by with a little help from my Sweet Potatoes
Mm, get high with a little help from my Sweet Potatoes
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my Sweet Potatoes
Do you need any taters?
I need some to eat
Could it be any taters?
I want some Sweet Taters to fill me up!

Would you believe in hunger at first sight?
Yes, I’m certain that it happens all the time
What do you see when you turn out the light?
I can’t tell you, but I know their mine!

Oh, I get by with a little help from my Sweet Potatoes
Mm, get high with a little help from my Sweet Potatoes
Oh, I’m gonna try with a little help from my Sweet Potatoes

Do you need any taters?
I just need some in a little hill!
Could it be any taters?
I just want some Sweet taters to my fill!

Oh, I get by with a little help from my Sweet Potatoes
Mm, gonna try with a little help from Sweet Potatoes
Oh, I get high with a little help from my Sweet Potatoes
Yes, I get by with a little help from my Sweet Potatoes
With a little help from my Sweet Potatoes

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Don’t forget purple top turnips for people and cattle forage. In N.C. you could plant them in oct. and have turnips till june most years. Also considered a superfood.

mark
mark

Flea,

I am long time with you on the purple top turnips, have had great success growing them.

However, I was never big on eating them until my wife started using this killer recipe. The woman can cook…and she an’t bad in the kitchen either!

Roasted Turnips

ROASTED TURNIPS

Poppy seeds and paprika add an unexpected touch to this easy roasted dish from Chef Mario Batali. (This is the delicious touch – I have laid in a huge supply of Turnip seed and these ingredients).

Ingredients:
2 pounds turnips
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 tablespoon paprika
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Method:
1. Season turnips with salt and pepper.

2. In a large ovenproof pan, heat butter until starting to brown. Add turnips and toss to coat well. Add poppy seeds and sauté until light golden brown, about 8 to 9 minutes. Add paprika and toss to coat. Add vinegar and cook until evaporated, 4 to 5 minutes, remove from heat and serve.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Off topic but I would give anything for a good eastern potato. Can’t buy anything but commercial reds with crummy texture, same for yukon gold and Idahos are the worst thing to ever happen to culinary excellence. Crummy taste, crummier texture. They all make lousy potato salads and soups and stews. Nothing like a good old Maine, Jersey or Delaware spud.

Ginger
Ginger

Let administration give you my email, have some organic, nice red and white ones coming along and will be about ready early June and will mail you some. Some elephant garlic if you want it.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Thanks. email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you my address.

Idaho’s are what I call a Bankers potato. Nice even shape for processors to cut into fries etc. with little waste and so tasteless you have to douse it with bottled seasoning also sold by them. You get the picture..

Anonymous
Anonymous

youre not going to fill the requirement of calories for even one person on a thousand square feet but you might go a long way for one person’s vegetables. even in a rich fertile area youll need an acre or two per person for growing the basic calories , most likely in sown crops. but if all you eat is beans and corn or wheat then youll probably have some nutrient deficiencies. so those veggies etc are important , and they tend to be the most labor-intensive and time-intensive item.
i just put in about 600 square feet (this is not a very good metric but to keep with your example) of onions, which will maybe be enough for the two households that will eat them, for the year, but my father in law is putting in about the same amount in a different field about a mile away as extra or backup. digging the trenches etc etc by hand is a decent amount of work, especially for someone who sat at a desk for a living for a couple decades and is only the past few years finally gotten a scrap of land and started trying to do something with it..
i got in about a third of an acre of winter wheat which is about as big as the space i have to plant it in, which really yields barely enough for one person – planted, harvested, threshed, by hand, this will yield (this is a dry field so it’s only whatever rain we get in winter) maybe 100 pounds of clean grain max. in a crappy year water-wise, it might not yield even as much as you planted. this past winter i’d call average. i might get 80 pounds of grain. and ill need 20-30 pounds of that to replant. say 50 free and clear. If thats all i had to eat even one person would starve on that in not too long, but it’s better than nothing, and the seed is an old clean variety that’s tolerant to the lousy climate here and hasnt been fucked with by monsanto and pals.

when i run the numbers the only way i expect we will feed ourselves in the future will be by supplementing our diet with acorns, which are feasibly gathered here (though when those times hit there will be competition for them!). When shit gets that bad, on the one hand the overgrazing of herd animals will stop (because those herds will be poached one by one by hungry people who will have nothing better to do than hide in the brush until the shepherds go home, or when they stop going home, will get more bold about it) and on the other hand nobody will be plowing or cultivating fields anymore… net result will be an increase in the total ground cover of acorn-bearing trees which are plentiful here.

Horseless Headsman
Horseless Headsman

In a food shortage, one thing I will eat at the start is squirrels. Those bastards have been living off of my pecan trees for years, and the city prohibits shooting them. In a shortage situation, they are history.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I have found a little joy in feeding the squirrels peanuts every morning. Sometimes I have as many as 15 in the yard eating. So 15 squirrels in 6 house radius. So if we ate those squirrels they would be about 1 squirrel per person. 1 day of food and then all the squirrels would be gone.

Anonymous
Anonymous

bon apetit on the squirrels. around here there is precious little wildlife aside from birds and those are almost all very small. it is very rare to see a partirdge or quail and ive only seen pheasant twice in the past decade or so. Too much disruption/destruction of habitat in recent years for a lot of them, especially with tourist overdevelopment and these frigging wind turbine subsidy-catcher machines (theyre not good for generating useful electricity but they sure generate corrupt cash for their owners!) all over the frigging place.
dont know where youre located but the appalachian forests have been for a long time in my mind one of the richest environments for all kinds of life.
Much of western europe would have likewise been if it werent grotesquely overdelevoped and overpopulated.. like how it must have been in, say, the so-called dark ages and before.
here in the mediterranean the land is much more fragile to abuse and takes centuries to recover. deforestation leads to both rapid erosion and reduced water retention and then springs and wells and streams dry up and the rest of the land goes to desert as well. overgrazing makes it all even worse. going by historical examples (late bronze age due to civilization collapse, late antiquity/early medieval period due to war/piracy confining the inhabitants and activity of the region to defensible niches and crags) the land here takes around 2-3 centuries to recover. In appalachia, it is very hard to imagine that a hundred years ago, in those roaring 20s, enormous regions were clearcut where today you see nothing but forest. a keen eye might notice that no trees were more than, say, two feet thick, but a lot of that forest also got to grow back randomly (i.e. naturally) before the modern tree-farming monoculture mentality got in. if youre in that region thank your lucky stars and take care of your landbase!

Horseless Headsman
Horseless Headsman

I’m in Southeast Missouri, Cape Girardeau to be exact.
The deer here in town are such a nuisance that most people won’t plant things they’ll eat. The city started allowing bow hunters to take them in several parts of the city, but that hasn’t altered their behavior yet. They are on the menu too, but I figure they’ll shuck out of town when people start shooting at them.
SE MO has an interesting geological history. There was a vast swamp south of Cape until about 100 years ago when it was drained and turned into some of the best farmland in the country. I expect that when all the maintenance that requires becomes too onerous, Mama Nature will begin the reclamation process.

Anonymous
Anonymous

swamps are some of the most unpleasant environs for humans but are also some of the most productive ecosystems. theyll be full of fat juicy fish and birds at the very least!

bucknp
bucknp

Preserving swamps and wet lands , are essential to environments. Wet lands are like breathing apparatus for the natural environment.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Potatoes would come close to feeding one person on 1000 square feet, depending on water availability and climate. Some places two crops might be possible.

BL
BL

You can grow 40 pounds of potatoes in a barrel Llpoh.

will chop firewood for food
will chop firewood for food

if you have the space, go for shelly beans (red kidney, northern, navy, pinto), cabbage, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, squashes and pumpkins and peas. You want dense filling type foods. There are new “windowsill” micro miniature tomato plants and miniature bok choy (chinese cabbage) and onion chives, all of which can be grown indoors on a sunny windowsill. What most folks don’t realize is that unless you have 3 times the amount of seed you need, you could lose your beginning garden twice in one year due to weather and predators (birds, mice, rabbits, deer, bug infestations, plant viruses) and be too late to harvest anything. Don’t start your garden until you have a full years worth of canned and dry food stored. Concentrate on that.

mark
mark

Good points…add plenty of sprouts to those sunny window sills…stocl up on various packaged dressings and everyone get an easily grown nurtious salad.

comment image

Grow Sprouts on Your Window? Here’s How…

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comment image

Short on sunny window space?

David

We’ve been at it for 14 years in our current location, and are able to feed our family of 3 from a 5,000sqft garden in SW Michigan, along with hunting and livestock for meat & dairy. With foods like potatoes (sweet potatoes are fantastic if you’re in an area with enough heat), you’d be amazed at how much very little land can produce. We also have a 40 tree orchard and small (16×28) unheated hoophouse which mostly provides greens in the off seasons (year round if we get the fall planting timed right.)

We still buy things we don’t produce (flour), and some things which are labor intensive (like ketchup), but I’ve got little doubt that we’d be able to feed ourselves alright year round in a pinch. The clincher is always time. If everyone’s working a full time job, there are definitely things that are not worth the effort. If the economy takes a serious nosedive, there will be more time to devote to the more labor intensive tasks. Good to at least try and get your own impression of what’s involved, what works and what doesn’t in your area.

You can really go down a deep rabbithole if your goal is completely self sufficient production. I’ve been down a deep one myself. Didn’t want to rely on fossil fuels, so we learned to farm with horses. Horses aren’t really self sustaining unless they can put up their own hay, which we’ve done with our horses. Then you realize that the equipment used regularly needs parts replaced. So learn to blacksmith… but that doesn’t really give the ability to manufacture a lot of things. You’ll never be fully self sufficient in everything, but it’s good to get as close as you can. If you want to spend the time that is. I gave up my past passions (sailing, climbing, skiing, etc) to do this, and am by no means convinced it was worthwhile, looking back at the last 14 years. Looking forward, though… makes me think maybe it was a good idea afterall.

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

We’re at the same experience level and you are right about the difficulty of being 100% self-sufficient, it simply isn’t possible above a primitive level of existence. The key is community and building relationships with people who do the kinds of things you don’t or can’t and forging trade partnerships with them for the things you excel at.

Worth it? I only speak for myself, but hell yes it was worth it, on so many different levels and on such a wide variety of disciplines I don’t think I will ever be able to realize them all. Primarily what it does for personal health and well-being and the family experience.

I quit sailing too, probably the only thing from the old life I still miss- okay, a really good pizza might make the list, but I can fake it close enough that I don’t despair.

David

By saying I’m not convinced it was worthwhile, I’m not saying it was a waste of time either. Like most everything in life, it’s a trade. We moved from expensive NW Washington and timed our exit perfectly with the housing crash, trading a nice old house in a neat town (on a lot the size of our current veg garden) for a crappy fixer with a barn and chicken coop on 60 acres, going from a big mortgage to being debt free (big plus there!).
The skills I’ve picked up (gardening, farming, logging, leather tanning, blacksmithing, hand woodworking, welding, etc) are all great to have. Health is better on home grown food, and I know it made my son much healthier than many of his peers as well.

On the down-side, the farm was little more than extra chores for my son, which didn’t seem to capture his interest for some strange reason 8^). I see my friends in Washington taking their kids backpacking or climbing now, both of which are decidedly difficult to do 15oo miles away from the nearest mountains. Others are sailing up to Alaska as I wanted to do. I’m hoping to make up for the backpacking discrepancy this year if TSHTF doesn’t prevent it beforehand, but it’s likely a last chance to show my son some of the wonders of the world that simply don’t exist in the midwest. For me, growing up in the mountains was life altering, and I worry that he won’t have the same appreciation for the natural world without that exposure.

So farming wasn’t the wrong choice, but I’m keenly aware of the costs in so doing. If things go south as they now appear to be (I’ve been thinking that was imminent for the last 15 years!), it will undoubtedly be the right choice, even if the costs have been significant.

mark
mark

Interesting conversation.

We are in our 10th year building as much self-sufficiency as possible…fulfillment of a dream I have had since the 80’s…but also I have had a deep check in my spirit to be prepared for 7 lean years.

I never, ever thought the Death Cult ORCs currently running the world ‘would’ or ‘could’ keep the Ponzi scam running this long…after the middle manager Petulant One was re-elected in 2012 I went rural/modest working full bore farm/compound building…never expecting to still have some time still left to prepare in 2022!

Every day is a gift…to build, prep, and learn.

I have zero regrets going FULL RETARD (or as close as I could get so far) on self-sufficiency.

I realize I will never get to complete self-sufficancy but I am at reasonable long term basic survival capability and we are part of a small tribe…that has come about in time being open with a few ‘likeminded’ neighbors/friends and a some older (25 year) friends. I feel good about those around me I am close to and know/trust. We will help one another in all ways and they are all prepping as well. I was told recently by a friend many thought I was ‘OUT THERE’ for a long time…but now it appears I was right all along.

Like us all I have advantages and disadvantages.

I love living as close to the land as I can while constantly learning by doing and making mistakes, researching, experimenting, and enjoy taking care of many animals (34 currently) but I am not mechanical, a terrible carpenter, me fooling with electricity will make my wife a widow, outside of simple plumbing I am lost…so it has been open your wallet time with those.

However, I’m in good physical shape, and have always been, and still remain high energy, still love physical labor…and I’m sneaking up on 73. Give me a pick and shovel, fencing, planting etc., pond care, orchard care, all the grunt military and strong back skills…I’m good to go…so I have that in spite of owning 10 thumbs.

This is an excellent thread Marc…picking up all types of tips and insights.

Paddy
Paddy

I don’t remember who said it, but I’ve heard tell that it takes 5,000 sq/ft of garden to feed one person exclusively. That’s four season gardening. I reckon you could do better if gardened more intensively.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

The Irish had to feed their whole family and raise a feeder pig fr the landlord on 1/8 acre. Eating the entire potato made for a perfect protein. Only 2% but made up with volume. It’s the reason the potato famine was so devastating. There was plenty of food in Ireland but it belonged to the British not the poorest Irishmen.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Not sure why anyone would downvote that. It is entirely true. Also, depending on their jobs, those Irish required a hell of a lot of calories to survive. For instance, a scrawny 5’2” miner needed more than 4,000 calories a day to keep from starving to death, such was the physicality of the job. Of course, they died at 25 or somesuch.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

They were the Expendables of the day. They were also routinely sold as slave to the Colonies where they could be bought for 5 pence and worked to death and just thrown in a ditch. Nothing new under the sun.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Not just the irish, but scotch, welsh, english, german… everyone was brought over as slaves.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

I’m not talking about indentured servants. I’m talking about Irish Catholics who were worked to death as a matter of routine. Read about the Irish/Black slave breeding program in Barbados.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Slavery and servitude meant the same thing back then. Whether you could become free or not doesn’t seem to have much to do with race either (africans freed after a certain number of years as well), and what does it matter if it is involuntary and you can be equally worked to death?

‘Indentured servitude’ is just a pretence; for a while “Irish” was somewhat acceptable, now it’s not anymore. Which means those Irish slaves have also been rewritten as ‘indentured servants.’

No Whites need apply at the Victim Olympics. And that’s a good thing.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

You’re arguing about something you obviously haven’t looked into beyond the mush taught in school.
You’re determined to be right so go ahead and be right. I’m done here.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Yeah, because schools really teach out how many whites were slaves or what slavery and/or servitude has meant throughout history outside. I was merely pointing out that the irish are not special snowflakes. The trends do make it look like catholics make better slaves though.

I’m sure the Servile Wars were just a bunch of butlers and barmaids who wanted more free time.

Anonymous
Anonymous

*outside of niggers

TXRancher
TXRancher

Yes I was going to comment on the same that I remembered that a 1/4 acre can feed one person for a year and a family of four would need 1 acre. Been gardening every year for 53 years and God has never disappointed. Yes some years better than others but always provided enough to eat and give away. And you can always learn to fish because if people knew what was really important there would be a shortage of fishing poles.

Llpoh
Llpoh

World- wide, it is generally thought 1/4 acre per person is required. Crop and location dependent.

Anonymous
Anonymous

highly dependent. Maybe in holland or the nile delta 1/4 acre is enough. Historically in the aegean, a family that had less than ten acres sooner or later fell into poverty and lost their property to become laborers or even starve (this is on my mind a lot as we have all of maybe 4 acres). that was bare subsistence. for anything approaching a respectable standard of living, double that.
The shift to a money economy from the late 19th cent and the rise of imported grains distorted the balance. you can see just by looking at land ownership that three generations ago the same families (before a 3-5x blowup in population) owned whole distinct areas which put them in the respectable category – but now you see all the land in that area owned by diverse cousins, descendants of the one family who held it 150 years ago. The ownership entanglement and fragmentation is a clusterfuck which will only be resolved by a total collapse and what amounts to total reorganization by whoever’s actually here post-collapse, and as well only after the population falls again within the carrying capacity of the land. In the meantime it will increasingly be addressed by people ‘holding’ plots for absentee relatives who moved to or grew up in the Big City and seldom come around anymore, which will drift more and more into eventual outright squatting on vacant plots as time goes on, and probably plenty of feuds. be glad you have relatively sane land ownership in the states, and that ownership is still a local (county level as i recall in most places) institution instead of having been usurped by centralized registries etc.

Soup

I’m in the DFW area, and all this winter I was raising 7 to 9 lbs of greens and salad greens on 350 Sq. Ft of outdoor garden per week. It can be done, and not all that much work.

Dean Frazier
Dean Frazier

A greenhouse would protect from crazy weather. Where I live we only have 4 months of guaranteed spring/summer. Winter lasts 7-8 months. The wind is brutal on seedlings. The sun is like a magnifying glass in the summer at this altitude. I need one more year before I can do the whole greenhouse thing. I still need to figure out how I want to heat it in winter if I want to grow cool weather vegetables year round. This is no easy task and I admit I don’t know what the hell I’m doing yet, lol. But I can’t live without fresh vegetables, that’s my biggest concern. I’m not really a ‘canned goods’ and ‘processed food that comes in a box’ type of guy.

Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams

Not sure why you got a downvote. I would need a greenhouse too, but it is quite expensive (the one I would want). Not sure if it’s worth it as I do have access to farmers.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Abby…These are cheap and easy to put up as a greenhouse or chicken coop. For a greenhouse just cover with 1mil clear visquene. Or uses it just to extend the season. Make them as fancy as you please or cheap as dirt.

https://www.google.com/search?q=pcv+greenhouses&rlz=1CAZUKV_enUS987&sxsrf=APq-WBtQDtondlp_q2WHb8nXfj-qs6DFvw:1650768662152&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiP2dq92Kv3AhXoKEQIHTq0DiAQ_AUoAnoECAIQBA&biw=1559&bih=722&dpr=1.2

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Anonymous
Anonymous

if i used that coop here the chickens would be stolen within a week. chicken coops here look like supermax prisons and are always locked!

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Just tack some 4×2 inch welded wire fencing under the bottom. The chickens can still scratch for grub but fox and coyote etc. can’t dig under.

https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/farm-and-ranch-supplies/fencing/7801376?store=05996&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6pOTBhCTARIsAHF23fJia4CsqVAOT2fhRkju_P5zaVDJ7H6Gs4vgEtYIoUn-j58ZdG9UXrQaAlthEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Anonymous
Anonymous

it’s not coyotes that steal ’em here.. though occasionally a cat or a weasel/mink like creature (called atsida in greek but i dont know what youd call it in english, i think the closest creature i can think of is a weasel) will get a hen.. even more rarely a hawk here in the uplands. but the danger of theft is of the two-legged variety. so a proper coop is a concrete pillar bunker with welded steel frames (including the top) and heavy steel mesh secured to it to make a total cage, and a gate with a lock. Here in upside-down europe, the concept of defending even one’s own life from malefactors is frowned upon or outright persecuted by the state, not to even think of defending your property!

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

I guess that eggs are on par with silver then, and hurt not the chicken hot wings.

Anonymous
Anonymous

eggs are indeed getting there! local price for real eggs is 40-50 eurobuck cents each.

AKJohn
AKJohn

I made excellent greenhouses in Alaska with the abundant Alder that bend easily, and dump plastic. This was in my youth in the early 1980’s. We learned to use seaweed and fish for fertilizer. We ended up growing about 20 different vegetables including cucumbers and tomatoes in a place, Seward, where it may hit 70 degrees only a few times a year.

Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams

Just saw this, Flea. I’ll look into this. Thanks!!

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Just click the google link and see a hundred great ideas you or a friend could erect in maybe 8 leisurely hours.

Winchester
Winchester

I run the green house starting in April. I started heating with wood then propane. Found it worked, but we still got cold nights and it ended up biting us. Our green house is a 10×10, but it can hold a lot of plants. We do everything in potters and they are on shelving down each side and along back. You will laugh but we ended up using heated blankets under the plants and then cover with a lighter blanket. We put props up so things don’t get squished. Hasn’t failed us yet. It does require power, so post SHTF we would have to go back to wood.

Brewer55
Brewer55

3 years ago, when cold/cool springs are now lasting approximately one month longer than they used to (I used to plant my garden after mid-April; now it is almost mid-May because of late spring frosts or cold weather) I started using a grow light and heating pads in my small barn.

You do not need to set up a full-blown green house to start seedlings. If you have a basement, or any other room that you could hang a grow light from and some counter space for the heating pads.

Grow Light

Heating Mat

Anonymous
Anonymous

Grow light and seed starting.

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Mountainrat
Mountainrat

Yea, I live at 9500ft and growing here is a challenge to say the least.

Rock Creeker
Rock Creeker

DO you have lots of water?

Jaycee
Jaycee

Check this out if you have some extra cash laying around. Very cool. Also, if your space is limited try square foot gardening. You can get a lot of food going in a small space. I’ve been doing this for years in 4 foot square boxes and it work great!

https://greenhouseinthesnow.com/

wildhorses
wildhorses

Yes. He is a creator! I gave him an honorable mention years ago by sharing his link here specifically to HSF, asking if he had heard of him.

I have seen a bit of different types of people. A portion of ppl who have financial resources to construct this greenhouse would fail. They would fail first bc they cannot see the Overall purpose.

mark
mark

Here is a book worth the money:

David

No need to heat the greenhouse. Get Elliot Coleman’s book (4 season gardening or something to that effect). He ran (maybe still runs, but I know he’s getting up there now) a small organic commercial operation in Maine, not using any heat in his greenhouses. If my memory serves, they can reach -50f there, and the season is quite short.

The trick is to plant in early fall so that your winter stuff (greens in our case) is mostly grown by the time things shut down. The hoop house will keep most plants alive and well even when it’s freezing (we regularly reach -20F here in Michigan). It’s the wind and disturbance that breaks the cell walls and kills frozen plants outside in the winter. Remove the wind factor and any cold hardy plant does great.

Plants won’t be gaining size in the winter, but they won’t die either. Spinach and carrots do very well for us — and the high sugar content from the freezing make them better than any you’ve ever had. You’re not going to get tomatoes or melons in the winter without heat, but I don’t see that as a worthwhile endeavor anyway.

Anonymous
Anonymous

“It’s the wind and disturbance that breaks the cell walls and kills frozen plants outside in the winter.”

That never occurred to me. It makes perfect sense in retrospect.

Paddy
Paddy

My greenhouse is 2/3 underground. We live at 3,300 feet in the Sierras and I can harvest tomatoes and peppers all winter long without heat. Took a lot of work to build, but I’m also the only guy growing citrus at my elevation. 7 varieties of dwarf around the edges of the greenhouse.

wildhorses
wildhorses

https://greenhouseinthesnow.com/

A few years ago, I gave this creator honorable mention by asking HSF if he had heard of him.

The story is grand. The application has worked for this creator and he follows thru for passing his passion on.

May I push, his work is solid.

Grow pure produce in the snow!

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

That video was instrumental in our decision to put i a greenhouse. I was far more struck by the possibility if keeping citrus alive with so little sunlight annually rather than the temperature controls.
I don’t think we’ll ever get to his level but it has been a great advantage over strict seasonal planting.

Anonymous
Anonymous

until 19th century transport made it practical to ship oranges north in the winter, in europe it was almost standard for any well-to-do house to have an orangerie in the gardens. This is basically a south-facing gallery dug into a slope so the north facing back is banked into the ground maybe even all the way up, and greenhouse on the top and the south wall. citrus was kept in huge box planters and kept alive through the winters in the orangerie, often hauled outside in summertime for better sun.

Winchester
Winchester

Well we definitely have the growing our own food down. I have been a green thumb for years and learned a lot along the way. Never got much into livestock though. There is a farm across the road where I have raised pigs. They also have chickens, turkeys, etc. I figure let them do the animals and I will grow shit. Good barter opportunities.

Steve Z.
Steve Z.

Hmmmm…..they heavily “geo-engineer” the west coast (see all the lovely chem-trails). The prevailing winds are from the west and there is a drought throughout the midwest? Hmmmm…?

Anonymous
Anonymous

The midwest does not get moisture from the west coast.

onepatriotstanding
onepatriotstanding
Fiatman65
Fiatman65

Tend to agree with HF… It’s going to get a lot worse in the coming months. Most grocery stores all source from the same meat packing plants, as well as vegetable wholesalers. While there are independent meat producers here on the wet coast, demand for their product from the local population will skyrocket—-> means we pay a lot more for what little is available. No getting around that. Big AG faces the prospect that the feed for their livestock coupled with the high price of energy to manufacture and ship said product will also rise exponentially. Hold on!! it’s going to be one helleva ride!!

Warren
Warren

The winter wheat crop started to erupt from the ground, then there was a freeze that killed much of the crop.

Guest
Guest

I would also think about storing wheat kernels. You can grind and make breads, tortillas etc. you can sprout for greens, you can eat as hot cereal, you can roast like popcorn.
If food is low you need carbs.

It stores well (see diatomaceous earth). For now it’s still somewhat cheap. See Wheat Montana.

It’s gotten a bad rap lately but for survival, palatabIlity, etc. it’s great.

bob in apopka
bob in apopka

I started working on a 1/3 acre garden 15 months ago, and had my first bite out of my garden Sunday. (Collards.) I have been putting 30 hours a week into building it, but I don’t expect it to begin to fully produce for about 4 years. I have never really grown anything ever. I found a great resource on you tube, a guy by the name of ” David the Good ” survival gardening. What he’s teaching works. Not sure what percentage of our food I can off set, no chance for 100%. I always assumed .gov would never be crazy enough to fuck with the food. Wrong ! A six to eight month supply no longer works for me. Better to start the garden now than to wait until its too late. Besides I like picking up the new skill set.

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

Skill sets.

You’re going to learn about a lot more than the gardening part.

Awesome start, be proud.

Warren
Warren

The problem with gardening in a food crises is that there’s people w h or can’t or won’t do so but will steal from yours.

Guerilla gardening, root crops, moringa trees can supply a lot of calories, as can Sunchokes; and they won’t likely be pilfered. And one moringa seed can purify a gallon of wate.

mark
mark

Will be putting a lot of Sweet Potatoes in full sun tree lines on a couple of pastures…almost invisible as they grow and blend into the woods.

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After harvest and a few days in the green house to cure, I wrap them in newspaper, put them in a box with an apple in each box in my root cellar basement. As the apple decomposes the gas from it keeps the sweet potatoes from budding.

Last year put away 75, and we still are eating them. They can last up to 8 months with this tried and true method.

As far as garden pirates…I also have over 50 2’ X 6’ nail punji boards of all different lengths and some big pieces of plywood nail punji boards no one is stepping or jumping over.

Easy to make with a nail gun. Easy to make invisible (especially at night) with pine straw.

4am garden chicken/duck coop raids could end in screaming impalements as well as around porches, doors, and under windows.

I learned many interesting lessons from ole Luke the Gook back in the day.

(Also have hundreds of ball bearings for porches…would be impossible for anyone to stay on their feet walking on them…especially if you are HOME ALONE!)

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Depending…best to wear steel plated boots if you are moving around outside at night among your punji surprises.

Our house is in woods…these will come in handy marking punji boards and/or safe trails through them at night.

• Luminous and highly reflective
• Visible from up to 200 yards
• Great for marking trails, blood trails, or other important places
• Can be used in daylight or at night
• Pack of 50 tacks

Allen Reflective Trail Marking Tacks (Pack of 50) White, 1/2″

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

As the apple decomposes the gas from it keeps the sweet potatoes from budding.

I’m trying that trick, thanks.

mark
mark

It has worked for me Marc!

Anonymous
Anonymous

Has anyone tried doing nothing to keep sweet potatoes? Because I bring them indoors and put them in the dark, and that’s it. No cleaning, no curing, no nothing. If you find dry fleshed varieties they will keep a year, easy. In fact, they don’t sprout for a year and a half unless you force them.

mark
mark

That is interesting No Name…I have not tried doing nothing…but will this next crop with some…always looking for an easy way out.

Thanks.

mr mittenz
mr mittenz

I already thought of that and laid in a supply of black honey locust thorns, plausible deniability because I did have the tree chopped down a couple years ago..the thorns are wicked big, will go right thru a tire or boot sole-you can order them online–just don’t forget where YOU scattered them. Ricin coating not included—

mark
mark

Ha! I like they way your mind works.

I have many surpises stored away. If nothing else I want my place to be super expensive…at the vesy least.

will chop firewood for food
will chop firewood for food

yes, because if you think folks will be nice and ask politely you are a fool, be suspicious and skeptical and assume the worst. On my xmas list is a nice leather holster and night vision scope..

mark
mark

Are you trolling me Nicky New Guy?

brian
brian

There are a few different fruit/veg combinations that help preserve product. Basically replacing the O2 with another gas is whats happening. When I worked in a fruit packing house they would fill the cold storage with nitrogen, displacing all the O2. When a cold storage is opened the doors have to be open for about an hour before anyone is allowed in.

When mixing fruits/vegs together for long term storage, some don’t get along. Like pumpkins/squash and potatoes don’t do well with each other and tend to accelerate spoilages. Obviously temp is a factor as well… Having a root cellar is invaluable.

Just finished a few days ago, drying a bunch of onions. All bagged ready for sealing. It always surprises me how sweet cooking onions are after being dried. Going to get hold of the farmers that used to supply me with culls when we grew hogs… Nothing wrong with the market culls, usually small blemishes, going to dry a lot of veggies this summer…

FOKA
FOKA

Thanks for the apples notion….what temp is your root cellar?

Anonymous
Anonymous

I have had no luck guerilla gardening. Everything I’ve done has been sprayed, chopped, or burnt.

Norman Franklin
Norman Franklin

Hardscrable, you have been instrumental in my journey toward self sufficiency. I thank you for that.

We set some strawberries and asparagus in raised beds. Other than that I might just focus on melons and tomatoes.

This last year of legal Mari-jane growing has taught me more about growing plants than I learned in the previous ten years. I think between the herbs and the home made red eye we should be able to barter for what we don’t grow.

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

You made my day.

And barter has- for us at least- removed about 35% of our out of pocket expenses in the past ten or more years. If you make the suggestion at the opening of any commercial interaction- aside from chain/corporate businesses- about 1 in 3 will bite. Most of them will become not only repeat customers, but will give you far better deals moving forward.

I always open the conversation with the question, do you eat food? I haven’t met anyone who answered no.

Norman Franklin
Norman Franklin

Excellent opening, Do you eat food? Other than the herb, shine, and eggs we have little to barter from current production as opposed to stored wealth. Everything else we grow, we eat. Occasionally I find another contractor that we trade services.

I have a neighbor who has his own walk in, he’s a licensed butcher who’s son raises 20 or so head of cattle in the eastern part of the state. The last few times he’s butchered one I got to watch. It might be a long time until I’m up to that. Huge difference as you know between processing Chickens, rabbits, fish, (which I’ve done) as opposed to deer, elk, and cows.

Learning as many skills now, while the light shines is the ticket. As you wrote, one day we’ll thank you.

subwo
subwo

The universal greeting involves food and have you eaten yet. At least in Asia.

Which language communities use ‘have you eaten yet?’ as a standard phrase of greetings and why? from linguistics

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

My Grandmothers- both of them- were always asking if they could get you something to eat as a substitute for a greeting. Coming up in a rural area during the Great Depression obviously had a huge impact on their psyche and the ability to be able to put something to eat in front of you satisfied something much deeper than the garden variety hospitality.

Neither of them were Chinese. That I know of.

AKJohn
AKJohn

In Taiwan people use ni chr baule ma? are you hungry, as a greeting. In Hong Kong its bau meiyou. I don’t know if the youngsters still do it though.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Temps were a problem starting seeds early this year and last year . Retired a few years ago and turned my daughters swing set I built for her 22 years ago into a frame work for hydroponics . Doubled down last year and it worked better so doubling down again plus this year .
My critics that criticized my efforts comically aren’t laughing now .
Grand Solar Minimum is absolutely an issue colder and a bit wetter spring in the north east Maryland area slows seed germination so built an indoor starter pan and a plexi cover to move in and out to keep it growing . The mini green house is a good starter option
I live close to a National Forest and two trout streams !
Best of Luck to all !
Keep your powder dry

Aunt Acid
Aunt Acid

Wait a minute….

You mean that McDonals won’t be open and DooorDash won’t be delivering when SHTF?

Thunderbird
Thunderbird

Hardscrabble Farmer, I like your reasoning and your commonsense but I can tell you the average person does not care and will not do it.

It is like the time before Noah and what will happen cannot be averted. You see insanity has taken over the majority of the people of our country and the insanity has to play out to preserve the homo sapien sapien genes.

Another important mental perspective in the minds of people that has been lost and that is the practice of remembering oneself and our self’s relationship to God. And this is important because God is creative while the human brain is not creative. The human brain is like a computer and the software that runs this organic computer is personality which is taught us through our culture and parents. Right now for many people it is our I phones that is programming our software to run our brain.

God that is not a personality because God is not human is creative and transfers this creativity to our brain via intuition and insight. But one has to listen to receive. And as one looks over the human landscape one can see hardly anyone is listening.

So as in the days of Noah many will be lost. Noah took the spiritual insights with him in the Ark and left the people with nothing creative and that is what happens when a generation of people turn away from God.

So while you are talking to the choir here on TBP remember the people you want to reach do not come here.

God is no respecter of persons and neither am I. Personality is not welcome in heaven. What is welcome in heaven is the one who practices love; not by talking love, but by producing the vibration of love.

bucknp
bucknp

building soils

Composting for several years has paid off. Looking at the benefits of hugelkultur as well. All those tree leaves that are raked, bagged and picked up as trash for the landfills, not the way to “dispose” of them. Some tree leaves are not advisable for composting but most are.

Liberty Writer
Liberty Writer

Another civic action. If you are a conservative, please join the ranks of conservatives taking over your state’s Republican Party. With a modest influx of conservatives, we can take control of the Republican Party from RINOs and restore freedom. Going to Party County meetings and voting conservative will be a satisfying civic contribution.
Visit: precinctstrategy.com for more info.

A cruel accountant
A cruel accountant

The farmers know what they are doing. They will adjust. Grow more soybeans less corn.

There will be more food available in the US than ever before.

Other countries who knows.

Doomberg = collapse porn!

A cruel accountant
A cruel accountant

I have a vegetable garden and enjoy it very much. However vegetables will still be much cheaper from the store.

Svarga Loka
Svarga Loka

As I am sure you will realize soon enough, price will be the least of your concerns.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Farmers on the whole are normie sheep. Hooray for soy. Murka.

Arizona Bay
Arizona Bay

Just came in from waking up the strawberry beds. I don’t do gardening because I’m worried about food shortages or supply chains. I do it because I’m happiest when my hands are dirty and my back is tired. Today spending quality time with my wife removing straw and pulling weeds was a bonus.

Pear trees are blooming and apples are thinking about it. Blueberries are coming out of slumber and the nanking cherries already bloomed which kicked my bees into overdrive. Our chickens are also back into full production making more eggs than we can use. We’re gonna be just fine.

Ghost
Ghost

Am giving this a try…

SmallerGovNow
SmallerGovNow

WOW! How cool! We don’t have a basement/cellar. No way to really keep the temp much below 78. Would it still work? Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks in advance… Chip

bucknp
bucknp

It’s still “legal” to collect rain water here as far as I know. Other than implementations of Regional Councils of Governance, it does not appear Agenda 21, Agenda 30, whatever agenda, has caught on, yet.

flash
flash

Never thought of pigeons as a meat crop…Just saw this yesterday. Worth a watch.

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

Squab was fairly common when I was growing up and almost every older book on farming includes a dovecote somewhere on the property. They taste great.

flash

I’ve eaten plenty of delicious dove, which according to this video is just English for pigeon and now I’m pissed at myself for not knowing this sooner or I would have built a dovecot decades ago instead of being aggravated by damn chickens, that if allowed to free range will destroy everything in your garden. We live and learn.

Ghost
Ghost

and don’t forget about the quail… YUM.

ran t 7
ran t 7

good use for an air rifle.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Do people buy the bird flu schtick or is this planned culling of food sources ?

Svarga Loka
Svarga Loka

Consequences are all the same.

Carter Carrington
Carter Carrington

The fires and other sabotage is government sponsored and funded. Stop reading npr

Anonymous
Anonymous

Yeah. Just got the email from azure including the press release about their fire.

Investigation concluded in one day. Arson ruled out Fire chief says a bag of rolled corn in a cooler spontaneously combusted because of it’s high moisture content.

The wet thing in the cooler caught fire, nothing to see here.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Without knowing the quality of their products, that actually sounds plausible.

John L.
John L.

Solar Minimum is happening. Meridional Jet Stream flows bring weather in a North South pattern instead of just West to East. Very erratic weather is the result. Many other issues are involved. See: Dalton Minimum and Maunder Minimum for more details.

falconflight
falconflight

One of my three pullets that I just put into the coop/kennel yesterday had a rat snake strangling her to death today. I lost my temper and axed that MFker.

mark
mark

Had a well over 6 foot Black snake strangle a layer last summer (this was the 3rd black snake I shot in the coop over 10 years).

But the worse was a weasel who tunneled in…he killed three full grown layers in a week before I found the tunnel (it was hidden and ingenious) trapped him soon after I found it…they love marshmallows…best bait ever.

I have read after the large black snakes wrap themselves around the chicken they put their mouth over the chicken’s head and suffocate it.

Currently I have 14 mature layers, 10 chicks, and 8 ducks…and dozens of predators I am keeping at bay!

falconflight
falconflight

I kinda damaged one of the coops swingin the ax ;0

mark
mark

Any predator threatening my animals brings out the Berserker in me too!

I shot one black snake (a snake I leave alone outside the coop as they eat the Copperheads) in one of my coops with a .45 who was curled around the eggs in a corner just starting dinner…but now all the layers have PTPOOD (Post Traumatic Pissed Off Owner Disorder).

Ghost
Ghost

We lost our setting hen TODAY. I locked them all in (she had her own house) and my husband opened them up this morning. He checked her yesterday and I gave her water last night but did not check the house.

Whatever killed and ate her left the house when I went to check on her at noon. I did not save the eggs but crushed them to find little unborn chicks, which, surprisingly, the other hens would not touch.

It was a strange day because the rooster is cowering on top of the rabbit hutch. Afraid.

I think I will put the 22 rifle back in the barn.

mark
mark
Pilgrim
Pilgrim

Revelation 6:5-6
And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

A days wage for a measure of wheat, or 3 measures of barley?

Oldtoad of Green Acres
Oldtoad of Green Acres

Just bought 3 more cement well tiles, 2′ x 4′ for use as raised beds. They have doubled in price but they are tougher than snot and work great for me. If you cannot bend over, raised beds are sweet.
A greenhouse is necessary here, hoping to get ‘er done this year.
Fruit trees are a PIA but have had a huge response from neighbors to take some ripe fruit home.
A prayer to God for his blessings is appropriate.
Oh, and a good dog, keeps the riff raff at bay.

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

UPDATE:

We’ve been buying and selling livestock livestock via Craigslist for the last decade or so.

I started looking this morning just to check out the pricing this season and was stunned. Livestock in New England is usually cheaper than in the Midwest by 30%-50%, obviously because there is less demand.

This year the price for beef cattle is twice the cost of last year. A 100% increase. 100%. In one year.

Prices on hogs are about 50% higher and between 25% and 30% higher for poultry, lambs, and goats.

I am fairly certain that if this is what’s going on here, it can only be higher in more densely populated states and if the kinds of folks who post on Cragislist are hip to these price increases, you can bet your bippy that the commercial prices are going to be hit even harder.

Prepare, ye.

AmazingAZ

Just received a text yesterday from our local rancher & committed to buying a whole steer. I’ll feel a lot better when the freezer is full.

We’re on solar power, and have an entire solar system stashed as a backup. A good well too.

The garden has been rather lame this year so far, but I have asparagus & elephant garlic in, and lettuce started. We are upping our preps for longer term, and also buying some more seeds. We’re prepared, but I worry about the others. I feel that it’s prudent to have more in case. You never know who might show up…

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

If you don’t mind, what price is he asking for a whole steer?

AmazingAZ

$7.50/lb, had to swallow hard, but I know it’s good beef.

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

I think that’s atually a good price for a steer cut up, packaged, and ready for the freezer.

DRUD
DRUD

Depends. Is that on the hoof, hanging or out the door?

If either of the first two it quite high, if it’s out-the-door its great.

I’m shopping around right now (even though we still have a fair amount of last year’s quarter) and I find the finished price to be about $9-10/lb at best. Say $1800-$2200 per side.

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

That’s a finished package price for most farmers, plus or minus a buck a pound.

Price on live animals more than doubled in one year in our region, from $1,200 to $2,500

Arizona Bay
Arizona Bay

I’ve been thinking about this in terms of storage. What is the best and most portable form of food energy storage? Fat. A gram of fat has 9 calories. Running out the math on that, a 2000 calorie day would require 8 ounces of fat. Being 10lb overweight would be roughly 20 days of food storage, more if you burn less than 2000 calories in a day.

Maybe packing it on like a bear before winter is a good idea?

Anonymous
Anonymous

I’ll let you know lol

BL
BL

Two words, mushroom compost.

Will grow anything in abundance, also try ROOT BLAST.

Anonymous
Anonymous

“Rootblast is a 2-1-2 fertilizer. It contains limestone, calcium nitrate, and monoammonium phosphate. ”

Don’t do this until you learn what 2-1-2 means.

BL
BL

Anon- One could argue that anything past compost and manure is not kosher. If you are looking at TEOTWAWKI and starvation, one does not quibble over micronutrients , you just GIT ER DONE as quickly as possible and with maximum production as to insure you and yours don’t die. Would you have required Noah had life jackets and lifeboats before you boarded??

Anonymous
Anonymous

It is overpriced limestone. It’s not only the lack of micronutrients, but a lack of almost all nutrients. I’m not even sure what the potassium is coming from. If you have a bag and there are more ingredients, let us know.

If a jew built a ship himself, herded all the species of animals on to it, then I wouldn’t care because pigs could fly.

BL
BL

I have seen miracles from that product. I have used that to bring 80% dead fruit trees back to life and start producing. Bring spindely old 40 y/o ratty ass mature schrubs back to thick filled out perfect specimens again. Any flowering plant twice the size or more with double the blooms.

ran t 7
ran t 7

load up on vitamins. you’ll probably be able to get SOMEthing in the stores, but it’ll be low quality.

Meg
Meg

We live in the suburbs of VA. Acquired rural acreage last year for future homestead. Building a shed now. (The shed will have windows so the tools can look out the window when they are curious. There will also be a wood stove in case they get cold. 😉)

We cleared a lot of prickly brush down by the stream last year. It appears now there are a lot of mayapple plants growing in their place. We don’t have immediate plans to do anything down there. I need to do research but quick question, are mayapples good, bad, or it depends?

I’m usually late to the latest posts. Thanks for any input.

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