I've been thinking about sharing our fall/winter growing plans for a while and the thoughts from Ol' Remus decided for me that today, I had better get with it. We are working on putting most of the garden to bed for the winter. We're in the process of taking down the tomato/pepper/green bean trellises. After they are out of the way Frank will brush hog all of
This is the plan for most of the garden anyway. The two ends, east and west are planted with a few more food crops. Not to mention these volunteer squash plants that came up in the yard close to the compost pile. We're enjoying a few last meals of squash. The first frost we had, we covered these plants with a frost cloth which prevented death, but did not keep the plants damage free. We'll be covering them again this weekend to see if we can get a few more meals before winter takes it's toll.
We have a small patch of turnips planted for greens. These are seeds we saved this spring from the turnips we planted last fall. It seems to be a good cycle to get into. We were also able eat fresh greens well into winter, again in the spring and even canned a few jars in June. Our permanent turnip bed idea didn't work out, so maybe this cycle is a better alternative.
On the other end of the garden we have planted some beets for canning, if they make it that far.
Some carrots for winter eating.
This small bed on the east side of the house is the only place I have successfully grown spinach. We have had our first salad with miniature spinach and lettuce leaves. I was too impatient to let them grow any bigger before we had our first taste.
In the greenhouse we have started our winter salad collection.
We have two kinds of lettuce. Romaine
Black Seeded Simpson
Russian Kale
Pak Choy from seeds we saved this spring.
Cress
I have also planted a tub of amaranth since it is supposed to be good in salads and we know it's packed with nutrition.
Even though I don't expect success, I planted some of the tomato seeds we saved this summer. I wanted to make sure they were viable and wanted to try one more time for winter greenhouse tomatoes.
On a whim back in the spring I bought a six pack of sweet potato plants, put them in some rather rocky ground under a trellis, and pretty much ignored them. They made a few potatoes, more than I expected. We'll try one for supper tonight with some of those turnip greens we canned in June.
I tried keeping the vines when we dug the potatoes and planted them in a pot in the greenhouse to see if we can use this for our plants in the spring. I don't know if they will make it when the weather gets cold. We'll find out.
This is the first year we have had anything close to an apple harvest from the two trees we planted about eight years ago. The apples are good, not too sweet, but homegrown which means a lot to us. We have one with lunch almost everyday.
So, food. What do you have? Is it enough for everyone you need to feed? For a while? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? Can you replenish the supply on your own without any outside assistance? Food has always been used to control people. Always. Think of Joseph in Egypt. His father and brothers had to come and beg for food. They had the money to pay for it, but that didn't mean they would receive any. It's no different today. Look around the world. Look at how interdependent everyone is. Some countries have oil. Some have water. Some have the type of land and soil that will grow food, some don't. If any one thing goes wrong, one spoke of the wheel breaks, all systems fail. No water, no food. No oil, no fertilizer, no commercial farming apparatus, no food. No transportation, food rots in the field. No workers, no food.
Food can and will be used against you as a means of enforcing your compliance to any and all demands. Moral, immoral, just and unjust. Be ready. Provide for yourself and those you love. Otherwise.......
Without food, you, and everyone you love, are dead.
Until next time - Fern
Those of us who have to get our food from outside sources need to be diligent. It is easy to slack off as winter approaches. But to do so is a huge mistake. Each grocery order includes items for food storage. This week it is frozen peas to can and more flour. In two weeks it will be the ingredients to go with the dry beans I have in order to can ham and bean soup. My kids likely won't be pleased to haul more cases of jars up the stairs to my apartment and I am trying to figure out where I can fit in another set of shelves. But those jars filled with food and sitting on those shelves might just be what keeps them alive when things get really bad. And I have no doubt that day is coming.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could live with myself if I had to look into the eyes of one of my grands and tell them I had nothing for them to eat. Slowing down on the preps is not an option.
Hi, Vicki. After I published this article I realized you had written one that was very similar. We are on the same page. Don't ever stop. You never know when that food may make all the difference in the world.
DeleteVicki, your consistent canning activities put us all to shame. You are truly an inspiration.
Blessings, Fern
Fern~ I agree with Ol' Remus. Control the Food Supply and take away the ability to protect oneself and family,is the recipe for a nation of slaves and millions dead. My Dad told me of how during the depression they kept their grain for planting and eating hidden away from the Federal Gov't. They kept 2 cows in the house barn and the other 4 hidden away. Grandma had the majority of her canned and smoked foods in the sod house built into a deep rock walled berm. With 12 kids at the time the boys would rotate shifts to guard the food. Strange Days are here. Trust in God and keep an eye on everyone else. Red
ReplyDeleteHi, Red. Thank you for sharing the history lesson. My father wasn't a big talker, but on occasion he would talk about home life in the Depression. They didn't know there was a depression. Remember, this is from my perspective, one generation removed. He was born and raised in rural Oklahoma, not where I currently am. They did not have electricity, running water, and he went year round without shoes. That's the way everybody in their little town lived. That was just the way it was. If you didn't can food, you didn't eat.
DeleteImagine. Just imagine, everything associated with electricity that we have today. Picture again, everything associated with water coming out of the faucet. Sit back and ponder that for a minute, what electricity and pressurized water provide us with. One is indoor plumbing. I can remember my grandparents house without indoor plumbing. All this is just one generation away.
We are in for the biggest shock of the world. Thank you for sharing.
Frank
P.S. Did I mention few people in their community had cars? And did I mention that my grandmother was born in a covered wagon in southern Oklahoma right around 1900? My father was born in 1926. I was born in 1950. Now we have babies born, and if they don't ram a tube up the back of their head and call it partial birth abortion, they're allowed to die laying on a stainless steel table. We are in deep, deep trouble.
Frank
Frank~ Grandpa had a windmill to pump water and then there was the creek and pond. My Grandpa was born in 1881.One night some Kin of his Mother's came knocking at the door needing shelter from the weather. When he left the next day, he gave my Great-Grandfather a new 1881 silver dollar as a gift for Grandpa. Grandpa gave it to Dad and he used it as a key fob. Turns out the Kin was Frank James. On my Grandparents farm there was an out house for the men and one for the women. They didn't get a flush toilet until they moved into town. There was a pot of forever soup on the back of the stove. 95% of what they ate they raised and grew. Red
DeleteOur practice for quite a while has been to can the garden at harvest, and can what we refer to as "stretcher" meals during winter. By "stretcher" meals, I'm referring to things like spaghetti meat sauce, casseroles, soup concentrates, etc. that can be stretched with the addition of pasta, rice, beans to make a quart feed 4-6 people.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, we just put our old layer flock, 15 birds, in the freezer a couple weeks ago. We'll make chicken stew in another couple weeks, add pasta and water for chicken noodle soup.
Luckily, there are several Mennonite stores just East of us serving the Amish communities that sell 50# bags of all types of beans, wheat, corn, etc. Visiting friends who live that direction makes it a two-fer trip. Always coming home with more dry storage.
Hi, Tom. We have started butchering our last years flock. Pun intended here, but tough old birds. We bake them, bone the meat, freeze it and when we have enough meat accumulated, we can it. We tried making various combinations of foods and went back to just solitary items canned. When it's time for soup, we just open up several jars at one time. Straight beans, cowpeas, etc.
DeleteI wish we had access to buying bulk feed locally, but it's just not available in our area. Unless you consider FedEx and UPS local.
Your ideas for food preservation appear to be good and solid. Thank you for sharing. And by the way, we got 3.5" of rain yesterday. Needless to say, it's wet.
Thanks for your comment, Frank
As I've said before, we had a terrible gardening year but (I kind of laugh when I say this) I decided I would take what I could and do what they would have done years ago when their crops failed and quite to my surprise I ended up canning nearly as much as I have every other year. I had to clean and freeze tomatoes for instance until I had a gallon or two but it worked. I also bought some items and canned them as well. While it's available I will use it. Today I took my last gallon of tomatoes, had some leftover celery in the drawer along with a couple onions and made tomato soup. It was only 5 pints but hey, it was 5 pints! I also bought some cranberries and made cranberry juice and used the leftovers for cranberry sauce, and no one will ever know. I've discovered it's amazing what you can do if you have to. I hope we never really have to!!
ReplyDeleteHi, Nina. Great example of how things can turn out better than you expect in the end. I agree with you 100%, I truly hope we never have to totally depend upon what we can produce or what we have stored. I find it comforting to see what is on the shelf and in buckets, but I know it will all disappear quickly if it was all there was. I have no illusions about the reality of that situation.
DeleteI am grateful we have been given this time to practice and prepare, not only food, but our hearts and minds. Congratulations on your 5 pints, every bit counts.
Fern
By the way, I'd like to compliment you on your greenhouse. Looking at the framing/lighting/ventilation it looks very professional. Good work!
ReplyDeleteTom, thank you, but looks can be very deceiving. The structure and the TufTex are solid. My exhaust system, I just can't quite master. No matter what the outside temperature, if it's a sunny day, inside the greenhouse is from 90* to 120*. I know there are screens I can put over the top, but I haven't quite gotten to that yet.
DeleteYet is one of those big words in our house. Yet seems to run a tight race with age, motivation and desire. In other words, it hasn't gotten done yet. But, Fern is happy with it and most days it works well, the greenhouse that is, not me.
Take care, Frank
My husband's former father in law was a german. He told my husband that they hid food under the floor of the basement during WWII. If the tax collector caught someone hoarding food, then the government would take them away. Those individuals were never heard from again.
ReplyDeleteI have made every mistake gardening. I am a retired army sergeant, plus a former army brat. My family never garden. I read books, but most don't cover the trails and tribulations of growing on the edge of the sonaran desert. I try and buy a heifer or steer every other year for butchering, but this year I am going to invest in just stew meat for canning.
Thank you for reading and thank you for the comment. And thank you for serving your country.
DeleteYou're not the first to make every gardening mistake. Every year for us is something new. Some things work, many things don't. Find the stuff you like, check with folks around you that do have successful gardens, then grow what you like.
Did you know that in some parts of the country rain catchment is illegal? Some folks are taxed for catching rainwater. In many countries it's against the law to stock extra food for over so many days use. Will that come to this country? I don't know. But it could, and if it can, it will.
We've gardened for a number of years. We've tried what some people called weird stuff, and it wouldn't grow. Some years we will have great tomatoes and our neighbor has terrible tomatoes. Who knows why.
Hang in there, Frank
Frank, many years ago I had a greenhouse on south of house which had clear plastic sheets, continually overheated even tho they were angled 52*. Had to rig large lightweight tarp w/ system to raise,, lower. Finally removed that experimental construction. ha! But I did lots of gardening. :)
ReplyDeleteHello, Tattered. So, do you still have a greenhouse of some type? We bought a tarp fit just for the top, but it hasn't made it up there yet. Here in a couple of weeks I am going to put some solar panels on top of it though. Then I might cover some of the parts of the roof that are left exposed with the tarp. We'll see how it works.
DeleteI'm installing the solar panels to charge batteries that will run my well pump which is a 12 volt system. We'll see how that goes.
Please comment anytime you feel the urge or need. It's a strange feeling to know you're being lurked.
Take care, Frank
BTW Frank - glad you started up again. I never commented in the past, but lurked. ;)
ReplyDeleteFrank and Fern,
ReplyDeleteI would just like to say how inspiring your articles are to my girlfriend and I. We are trying our hand at gardening and have had good luck with tomatoes, cucumbers and even potatoes. Here in Florida, though, Mother Nature is ruthless and the heat/rain/drought/ critters are a monster. We're looking for a nice few acres to call our own little slice of homestead, so these small victories are giving us valuable insight into what it takes. Thank you so much for your information and inspiration!
Robert
Robert, thank you for your kind words.
DeleteWell, northern Florida or southern Florida? Big difference between the two. But either way, keep growing what you need, grow what you like and experiment. If you can, learn to save seeds, which means your plants will need to be non-hybrid. Learn to can. If you've never done it, it can be a tad bit intimidating. Just follow the directions.
We are experimenting now with saving sweet potato cuttings. It might work, but there's a pretty good chance it won't. But I'm going to try.
Homesteads can be a lot of work. Sometimes neighbors can be problems, I know some of mine would certainly testify to that. Just kidding. A little humor there. Fern and I have done this for years and this is the only life I now choose to live. We seldom ever go to the grocery store.
Please read some of the other articles and you'll find that we make our own lotion, lip gloss, and have found other ways for shampoo, conditioner and toothpaste. There are a lot of things we could do that we don't.
Again, best of luck. Stay in touch, Frank
Rather than save the cuttings, save a large potato or several smaller ones and then grow new slips from it in the spring. Much easier.
DeleteWe've talked about it and will give it a try, unless of course we eat them all. It was a very small harvest. Thank you for the idea.
DeleteFrank
I have been saving at least 3-5 sweet potatoes back each year and stick them in water early Spring. By the time June is here, which would be when our ground is warm enough to plant, I will have around 25-30 slips ready to go. This is our 9th generation from the same sweet potato batch. Obviously, they were so tasty the first year we bought them, we simply decided to try our hand at slips and have been at it ever since. They are awesome and so very easy!! Try it - you can't go wrong!
Deletea good read or listen is Luara Ingalls Wilder's book The long Winter. A reason why her books are removed from Marxist education indoctroination centers. Dependant on the trian for supplies, what if the train comes 6 months late?
ReplyDeleteA number of years back we bought the Laura Ingalls Wilder book collection, took our time, and read from cover to cover. A great read. We have recommended this series many times. A year or two back we read the entire series again.
DeleteSome day the train will quit coming and some day the trucks will quit rolling. That will be the end of civilization as we know it.
Thank you for the recommendation, and be prepared. Frank
I read a few of the Little House books with my students. The Long Winter was a favorite with my students with learning disabilities.
DeleteI used to read Where the Red Fern Grows to my special education students every year. I had enough books for them to follow along if they wanted to. If not, they could just listen.
DeleteFrank
I did the same thing! When I retired in May, I gave my copies of the book to the fourth grade teacher. She reads it with her class, but doesn’t have enough copies for everyone.
DeleteThank you,thank you. All of you are an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteJohnnyreb, thank you for reading, thank you for the comment. Please come back anytime.
DeleteWe all need inspiration, Frank
Peace to you both .
ReplyDeleteIn Hard times we hope to double up with #1 I can pull a guard shift plus any light chores we can do in our late 80's. We have some storage with them.
Hi Rosco, good to hear from you. If #1 has space and you have the means, more storage is always helpful. An extra guard shift always comes in handy. Sure hope it never gets to that, though. But obviously, it's never too late to prepare.
DeleteTake care and peace be with you also, Frank & Fern
For thousands of years we stored food to make sure we we could make it through one or two years of drought and war. In the last 75 years western civilization started saying hoarding was unnecessary and and now it is mocked. It's like they are promoting famine readiness instead of survival readiness.
ReplyDeleteInteresting concept "promoting famine readiness", never thought of it that way. I think the word hoarding is used inappropriately on a regular basis. When things are plentiful, one can't really hoard. We are not in a time of shortage, we are actually in a time of plenty.
DeletePrudent people have been mocked forever. Consider it a badge of honor when you're mocked for being intelligent.
The time for arguing and disagreeing is over. It's past time. I would recommend you just smile and nod.
I like that quote "promoting famine readiness". Thank you. Frank
Thanks for your garden update, it is inspiring and educational as well. Every year in the garden and orchard is a new educational experience for us . We make mistakes and we try and learn from them to make improvements and fewer mistakes for next year. We try to use as many heirloom seeds as we can in case we cannot purchase seeds from the store at some point in time .
ReplyDeleteEach year there seems to be an abundance in some area and a decline in others. This year we had an over abundance in tomatoes ,peppers and carrots but a total decline in peaches and zucchini . We can the extra crops and give away to those who need . One of our squash varieties did nothing this year and the other did great . We now have fresh squash for a few months and we can the balance as it declines in freshness. Next year we will plant fewer tomatoes and green beans as we are well stocked in those areas.
The Woodpile article is an eye opener and plainly shows the importance of growing as much of your own food as you can . We can learn from history if we educate ourselves a little bit. Even if you live in an apartment you can grow sprouts in a windowsill jar or veggies in a planter pot on the deck or patio.
One thing I remember my mother saying is "waste not want not", how true it is . We try to encourage young people to grow, can , save stuff, learn some kind of useful skills and please learn to think outside of the box and ahead of the curve . Knowledge cannot be taken away from you.
Thanks again for your update and that is a great looking green house . You will figure out the overheat issue , just keep at it .
Blessings to you,
Bluesman
Hi, Bluesman. The last three days we've had just shy of five inches of relatively slow rain. It seems to have passed on now for a couple of days. The trees got a good drink. I don't think the garden can get any wetter than it is right now, so that's good.
DeleteThere are few crops that we cannot find heirloom seeds for, but they are getting harder to find. This year we didn't can any green beans at all, and if we did it was only a couple of pints. We have an abundance from last year.
I also like the Woodpile opener. He, whoever he is, clearly has a different take on life. Sober and somber. I look forward to his writings every week.
I remember learning how to can. I was scared to death the first time I took the lid off of a pressure cooker. Read the manual a hundred times. I am still very respectful when taking the lid off of the canner. I check the manual every time for times and pressure. I also wear my glasses every time, bar none, just in case I have a jar explode. I may not see as well as I used to, but I do like being able to see.
About the greenhouse, when it's way too hot in there, we dry items that we've picked out of the garden. Sometimes they dry a little too fast, in fact, sometimes they cook.
It's always nice to read your comments. Thank you for the blessing. You know that what goes around comes around.
Frank
I really enjoy your blog and had a question. I see you have a greenhouse and wondered if you had any plans on how you built it. I have been wrestling with what I am going to build and yours looks like something I could mimic with some changes.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog and spot on. Thanks, Bob
Hi, Bob.
DeleteThank you for your interest, but no, there are no plans. It's regular stick frame construction, a treated sole plate and the rest is structural 2x4s in most cases. The veneer is TufTex that I purchased from Lowe's. The exhaust fans, which are marginal to say the least, are motorhome ceiling replacement fans which are 12 volt. The storm door opens from the top to also allow ventilation. Nothing on the building is special order.
Thank you for your interest, Frank
Frank, thanks for responding so quickly. I will modify because I have a farm in the eastern plains of Colorado and we have some very windy conditions at times. I like the way you did the basic structure and it looks great. Having a greenhouse makes it so much easier to get a head start and an extended season.
DeleteBest wishes, Bob
Hi, Bob. Others have shown an interest in the greenhouse. In a short period of time, I will dedicate an article to it's building materials, the techniques I used, and how it works on cold days and hot days. We use our greenhouse pretty much year round. Again, thank you for the interest and I will do a full review here soon.
DeleteFrank
if your interested in greenhouses, I have been watching the videos on building a passive solar greenhouse. https://www.youtube.com/user/VergePermaculture/featured if you're located in an area with short seasons getting one- two months early and one- two months later is a world of difference. a south facing, twin wall lean too, gets me to about 20f. I am going to build one of these passive solar greenhouses as it seems like the only way to grow in northern climates.
DeleteHello. Thank you for sharing the information. We have many readers that live in northern climates. Are you referring to any specific video or just the general site?
DeleteThank you for sharing. We're all in this together, Frank
the site has a series on passive solar greenhouse. basic idea is to have some sort of underground barrier to the frost line (foundation, insulation). above/underground tubing that can pull hot greenhouse air into the greenhouse soil (heat sink). North, west and possible east wall built with 2x6 frame/insulation. with light defusing twin wall glazing, angles and light are not as important. growing food in zone 4A for 6 years. limited harvest so you have to plant 3 times the amount of crops/land. nothing like growing starts for 2 months only to plant and be frost killed the next week. north climate, I think large green house is the only way to grow with the mindset of A. I will not stand in breadlines B. what if the shelves run dry. C. the store bought food becomes so polluted with GMOs and Chemicals that I do not want to eat it..(like now)
DeleteI think I have enough food to feed my family of fourteen for close to a year. This is with only what I have stocked. My three adult kids also have food stocked. I garden, can and freeze fruits and vegetables, have a freezer full of meat, and I’m now growing food in my greenhouse. I have dehydrated food, but didn’t do that this year. My chickens and dairy goats provide for us also.
ReplyDeleteYou were my motivation and inspiration for adding the greenhouse. I’m already amazed at how well most things are growing. (Spinach was unsuccessful on the first try. I may try again, if I can figure out what I did wrong.) I had my first harvest from the greenhouse last week. I was like a little child enjoying the lettuce I grew. Thank you for inspiring and informing us.
It sounds like your family is working toward a level of self-sufficiency that could make a big difference, Grammy. I can only pray that you will never have to sustain yourself and your loved ones on what you can produce.
DeleteIt's really fun to "hear" the excitement in your writing about your greenhouse. I know exactly what you mean about that first lettuce. Guess what? I feel that way every year! It never goes away. Isn't that neat? (-:
I have never been successful with spinach in the greenhouse, though. I tried and tried, contacted the seed company about lack of seed germination, all to no avail. The conclusion I have come to is that it is just too hot in there. Spinach appears to be very particular about it's germination and growing temperatures and for me, it's more on the side of the colder the better. I don't expect a lot of growth from the tiny plants out in the bed by the back porch over the winter, but if they produce like last year, come spring, they will grow quickly and produce more than we can eat. Even just that small amount. I don't know if this will apply to your growing area or not. You might be able to start them outside and bring them in if it gets cold, but even the plants I got to grow in the greenhouse stayed very small. They didn't produce anything like the lettuce, kale or pak choy.
By the way, the amaranth I planted in there a few days ago is coming up. I'll be planting turnips in dishpans this afternoon. We have had about five inches of rain the last few days and only one row of turnips is coming up in the garden. Since there is more rain forecast off and on for the next week or so, I'm going to see if I can get some started in the greenhouse to move to the garden when and if it dries up.
Good to hear from you. Keep us posted on your greenhouse adventures. I really like comparing notes.
Fern
I've been reading about the grand solar minimum. I live in the South but I'm thinking about ordering some seeds from a northern state since they have shorter growing days. I'm curious to see how these seeds will grow compared to local seeds. If temps drop going forward I want to have both types of seeds available.
ReplyDeleteAnd darn it my cherry trees just started blooming. Didn't get a single thing off them this summer. Don't think growing fruit is my strong suit.
Thank you for the comment.
DeleteFirst, the fruit. We have tried several fruit trees, grapes, ground fruit like cantaloupe and we have never been successful. This year was our first successful apple crop. Ever.
In relation to seeds, Fern and I have had this same discussion. We live in the bottom of zone 7. Most of our seeds and plants are already geared toward zones 6, 7 & 8. Therefore, we will not be looking for different seeds. We will start plants earlier in the greenhouse and hope, which is a poor strategy I know, for a successful early harvest. We are looking into the situation.
Our okra suffered this year, it just didn't do well, it was late producing. On occasion we will grow a little corn, but we seldom ever eat it, we feed it to our livestock.
Ground covers, like a frost cloth, will help when you have a very late or early frost when you have unseasonably cold weather. We have used this with partial success.
We just grow varieties that will do well with a slightly colder climate. If you can, look into a small greenhouse.
Take care, and thanks, Frank
I have tomatoes, peppers, squash and daikon radish producing right now. Starting various carrots this week. The cats are still catching the lizards and turning them loose in my kitchen. At least they stopped with bringing the mice from the neighbors yard. Ten pounds of carrots and celery will be going into the dehydrator tomorrow. Then the onions once they are done. In God's Safekeeping Red.
ReplyDeleteHi, Red, to each their own. I have never understood why a willing human being would stick a radish in their mouth. But that's just me. I think I would even eat cauliflower before I would eat a radish, and I don't eat cauliflower. I think if man would try on an industrial scale, we could use ground radish as an all purpose pesticide, natural of course. It would certainly keep me out of the garden and I am the alpha pest.
DeleteOn a serious note, kind of. It's good your garden is still producing, even if you do still have radishes. Thank you for the encouragement, and genuinely, thank you for sharing.
Frank
P.S. Humor is the essence of survival.
Frank~ After my breast cancer treatment I started eating cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts and daikon. Daikon radish can be used as a potato substitute. It can be tossed into soups and stews absorbing the flavor. It can be riced for cooking. Grated for a Slaw addition. What ever it takes to stay healthy when things really start going off the rails. Red
DeleteI feel as though I am a person born out of my time period. I am not yet sixty but my childhood experiences include using an outhouse, drawing water from a well, and taking baths in a tin bathtub after heating water on a wood cook stove. My parents grew corn, peanuts, and other vegetables in a five acre field. I grew up helping to harvest and can what we grew. We milked cows and my mom made butter from the cream. I was the last born of my siblings, and born late in my parents' lives. They grew up in the Depression and married at the beginning of WW2, so I am a tail end of the Baby Boomers. My experiences were embarrassing as a child but came back to help me cope many years later in the aftermath of a hurricane that plowed through our area. We lost power for about four weeks. I tried to do what my momma did and found that I was not the woman she was. But I did learn some very important lessons. I relied too heavily upon electricity and on my freezer for food storage. I had a pressure canner and had canned some vegetables, but I still had a lot of vegetables and meat in the freezer. Now I try to keep plenty of jars empty for emergency canning of meat and most of my vegetables go in jars. I was given a dehydrator several years ago and found that drying vegetables and sealing them with a food sealing system in jars takes up less space that fresh. Since I did and do most of my cooking on an electric stove, the lack of that power has stirred me into looking into other ways of cooking without power. I have since discovered an interest and love for cast iron, especially Dutch ovens. My first experiment with one was in the coals of a burned brush pile from a tree blown down by a hurricane wind. Food burned on the bottom and was raw in the middle. But my daughters have taken up my pursuit and they cooked much of our Thanksgiving dinner last year in Dutch ovens outside over a wood fire. I liked your article because it fits my lifestyle of gardening, canning and enjoying the fruits of my labor. I live in a climate that allows me to grow food almost all year round, but for the past several years, I have had an urge to save seeds from the vegetables we grow and to try to save extra possibly for neighbors in the future since I can't feed them all and they may need to have something to plant. Most of us "country folk" live like city folk now because we buy fresh seed from the feed and seed stores each year and there are fewer and fewer of us gardening and growing our own food, because it is quicker and easier to run by the grocery store and get what we need or want. It is a lot of work to grow and process your own food. I have heard comments to that effect. After reading the Woodpile Report, I found someone giving voice to some concerns that have been in my heart for a couple of years...namely, what would happen if we could not grow food for a year or so because of outside circumstances. And what would happen if the stores that sell seeds are no longer open or stocked? About three years ago, I saw a clearance sale of end of summer goods at a dollar store. Included in those goods, were packets of flower and vegetable seeds. I bought quite a few for pennies a packet and so I have been collecting these seed packets and storing them in my freezer for my own use and for future giveaway seed. To my surprise I even found a few heirloom seeds among them. I have other seed that I have saved in glass jars using the food sealer system and jar attachment. I opened a few jars of seeds this spring and was amazed that most of the seeds were viable. Only one of the jars of seeds failed to germinate. Anyway, my next canning experiments are going to include oranges, lemons, and butternut squash. By the way, have you heard of okra seed being roasted and ground to be used to stretch coffee grounds? I have heard that such a thing was done in the Great Depression, but I would like to know if anyone else has knowledge of this. Thanks for sharing your experiences with others. Southern Gal
DeleteThanks for your article. I always enjoy seeing how and what others are growing. The sweet potatoes you grew are a great staple crop, as they are full of nutrition and calories. You can even eat their greens during the growing season. They are easy to propagate as well. If you save some potatoes, you can create numerous "slips" (sprouts) for planting next spring. You can also take vine cuttings, root them in water, and plant them as you would the slips. The vine cuttings root very readily, and it doesn't take much to quickly multiply your available seed stock. By making cuttings from your cuttings, you can easily and rapidly increase your food production capability. If you can just keep your potted sweet potato vine alive (either inside your home or in your greenhouse), you can make new "plantable" cuttings. The vines are tough and want to survive. Play around with it and see for yourselves. Like you, I've made plenty of mistakes in the garden. I see them as good learning opportunities. Better to make mistakes and learn from them now in times of relative plenty than when gardening becomes do-or-die. Take care!
ReplyDeleteDo you put holes in the bins or not? Thanks
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