Growing One's Own Food; Background Article

Discussion in 'Gardening, Plant Propegation, & Farming' started by Pragmatist, Feb 9, 2020.

0/5, 0 votes

  1. Pragmatist

    Pragmatist Master Survivalist
      485/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
  2. Justin Baker

    Justin Baker Expert Member
      160/173

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Always love growing my own!
     
    TMT Tactical, randyt and Rebecca like this.
  3. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
      515/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    A good article . What concerns me though it seems most prepper minded folks are depending on growing food as their only food source after S.H.T.F. . Note the authors mention of chickens and other livestock and fruit trees . During the U.S. Civil War families sometimes were raided by troops foraging for food , taking their milk cows , beef cattle , chickens and any canned or otherwise stored food . These families were left to starve , usually just made up of women and small children . Even their draft animals were taken , leaving the starving family trying to grow food with just hand tools . Now consider these were hardy people that growing food was as natural as drawing a breath of air . With just some seeds and hand tools even they found it daunting to survive under such conditions . I look at survival food procurement as a three legged stool gardening , livestock , and foraging wild resources . Note looting my neighbor is NOT on my list . Livestock , perhaps the most important leg of the stool is usually missing in most preppers plans . After S.H.T.F. will be too late to get livestock .
     
    TMT Tactical, Rebecca and randyt like this.
  4. Rebecca

    Rebecca Master Survivalist
      315/345

    Blog Posts:
    0
    A good article for encouraging people, he keeps it light, skipping over things like a bad year (weather,pests etc) can cause you to loose the whole garden which is something preppers should always keep in mind.

    While I agree with everything you said, I think part of the problem is that livestock, even just chickens, can be intimidating for people who have never kept or dealt with animals before. So some of the more city oriented/background preppers may be weary of starting. I say this just from people's every day reactions now - "wow you have chickens! Must be difficult and complicated " or some version of that.
     
    TMT Tactical, randyt and poltiregist like this.
  5. randyt

    randyt Master Survivalist
      415/460

    Blog Posts:
    0
    It's important to stock meds for live stock too. My daughter lost her billy and one of the does are sick.
     
    TMT Tactical, poltiregist and Rebecca like this.
  6. Pragmatist

    Pragmatist Master Survivalist
      485/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Good morning Poltiregist,

    A valid point re livestock being overlooked.

    Some do consider it and accept their situation and anticipated environment will not accommodate adding livestock to plans.

    Related to livestock; Had once considered fishing in the Chesapeake Bay post SHTF. My research established it was not feasible. Had once considered 4 beehives... Virginia subsidizes this and USDA calls a bee keeper with 4 hives a farmer. LOL

    Again, the situation and anticipated environment govern the plans. Here, a realistic requirement is to consider a mandatory evacuation.
     
    TMT Tactical and poltiregist like this.
  7. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
      515/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    right on target about many living where livestock is not practical so to me surviving there is also not practical after the stored food is gone . Bugging out to where livestock is practical after S.H.T.F. is almost an futile effort . About the most someone could hope for at that point is someone that is sitting in a survivable location will take you and family in .
     
    TMT Tactical and Rebecca like this.
  8. Justin Baker

    Justin Baker Expert Member
      160/173

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Pets can be trained to join you in an adventure, but most livestock would not be able to bug out. And sitting on a ranch would actually make you a target, unless you could decimate the route in and out to untrained eyes. Forest ranches, tucked into the south sides of hills.....
     
    TMT Tactical and poltiregist like this.
  9. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
      515/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Good point Justin . That is what I hope to counter with a group of hardy and well armed group to guard our resources . We have a mini militia on site . We have even gone so far as to train a bloodhound to trail down and dispatch any looters . Our group sit on a short dead end road so there is only one way in and out unless someone tries to gain excess on foot through mountainous terrain . In a S.H.T.F. scenario plans are in place for guard duty around the clock .
     
    TMT Tactical and Justin Baker like this.
  10. Justin Baker

    Justin Baker Expert Member
      160/173

    Blog Posts:
    0
    well,... Makeesha's days as my guard dog are over, but hey, she went with me on my #miraclemile today! She was so excited to get to walk with daddy again!
    bf3ab26c2c3bca6e1615e44081b791ad.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2020
    1. Duncan
      Beautiful dog, beautiful picture!!
       
      Duncan, Feb 9, 2020
  11. Pragmatist

    Pragmatist Master Survivalist
      485/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Good morning Poltiregist,

    A specific point to clarify;

    My small group has a formal co-op for food acquisitions. Our food supply is ~ 5 years at max consumption rates. Well prior to the end of 5 years' inventory, I'll be relocating to Sheol.

    Must clarify something: "bug-out" and "evac" can be considered the same. Still, all evacuations are not long-haul vehicle moves. My evac is a hike to our inflatable boat (and 2 large life rafts for some supplies). An evac from my BOP I'm in right now ,to an offshore location is relatively safe from forest fires, rabid animals and depending, minimizing the warm weather mosquitoes.

    In practical terms, even well prior to SHTF, the small country roads here are typically closed down ... flooding, wrecked/stranded vehicles, ...
     
  12. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
      515/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Pragmatist I truly am impressed . A five year supply of food is beyond anything I thought anyone had on here . My stored food can be tallied in months not years . I plan to fall onto other sources much sooner than you . I will admit I have badly underestimated your survivability .
     
    Duncan and TMT Tactical like this.
  13. Pragmatist

    Pragmatist Master Survivalist
      485/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Good morning Poltiregist,

    Two of our group members own restaurants.

    Our total group of only a few formed a co-op and our restaurateurs work the food acquisitions for 2 rehabed, climate controlled (trickle electricity) containers,

    The food inventory is still the property of the 2 restaurant owners until we experience SHTF or Governor's declaration. Our arrangement is confirmed legal and within the co-op obligations.
     
  14. Justin Baker

    Justin Baker Expert Member
      160/173

    Blog Posts:
    0
    I have also made close friends with the local co-op owners. It was practical even on a non-SHTF level. I have knowledge and a willingness to roll up my sleeves and help when they need it (and I have!) for free, and I get good deals because of it. And the conversation has gotten around to survival stocks over a couple home brewed ales and ciders... Fore-thought can be an amazing asset!
     
    TMT Tactical and Duncan like this.
  15. Pragmatist

    Pragmatist Master Survivalist
      485/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Good afternoon Justin,

    Real good co-op efforts with the follow-on rewards.

    Yes indeed, a premier asset.
     
    TMT Tactical, Duncan and Justin Baker like this.
  16. Justin Baker

    Justin Baker Expert Member
      160/173

    Blog Posts:
    0
    I tend to lend out my hands, back, and brains... That's my barter-able goods ;)
     
    TMT Tactical likes this.
  17. Duncan

    Duncan Master Survivalist
      315/345

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Perhaps in some cases the low profile farms hidden in the hills might be the answer. However, I live on a mini-farm a mile outside a small (3500 pop.) farming town with all my immediate neighbors either mini-farmers (2-5 acres) themselves or families operating larger farms, hay-fields, and dairy farms run by people who tend to look out for each other. The nearest town with a population of a hundred thousand is about 190 miles away and our nearest "big" town (~50,000 people) isn't even on an interstate highway.

    Almost all my neighbors are members of the Church, and being a prepper is an integral part of their religious beliefs. Plus, near as I can figure, there are no neighbors within a one-mile radius who are unarmed. Are you interested in my garden, generator, chickens, or goats?

    μολὼν λαβέ!
     
  18. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    2
    I think that this is a sort of regional thing. I live in ranching country and so there is all manner of livestock around me. Cattle, horses, goats, pigs chickens are everywhere. Between the livestock, wild game and feral hogs meat isn't a problem. The guy behind me raises goats and there are several people with big flocks of chickens. At the end of the road and to the side are cattle and hogs. For extra protein, there are all sorts of places around me filled with fish. Now I fish every Friday and we often bring home fish that will filet out to over 20 pounds of boneless meat.

    A GREAT percentage of the people here garden to some extent. My kids and I have raised a garden and sold the produce and duck eggs at a farmers market for extra cash several times. I have access to about 5 acres and with even a couple of acres, you can raise a huge amount of food. I especially like the fall and winter gardens when we raise several types of squash, greens, and cabbage. We also have fruit trees and this summer plan to plant blackberries on the fence row. My inner two acres are fenced now with a wire that will keep the rabbits out and the ducks in. Ducks are a gardener's best friend. They eat the bugs and not the veggies. We then have the garden fenced separately and have a net that we can cover it with. We have put chickens in it when the garden isn't going. They will kill all the grass and fertilize it. When it is time to plant we kill and butcher the chickens and till the plot. We now have three big border collies that keep the little critters safe and three cats to chase the rats.

    I live outside of a little country town with a little less than 500 people. We actually have an old-time butcher store and grocery that butchers for us (Calves, pigs, deer) and makes their own sausage, hams, and bacon. The town is tiny but has almost everything that we need available in it.
     
  19. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
      515/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    I am just giving you guys a heads up . Yesterday I searched on the computer for garden seeds for next spring . What stood out is the amount of seeds that carry the inscription " sold out " . It is now mid December , by next spring we needing only small amounts of seeds may find them difficult to find .
     
    TMT Tactical likes this.
  20. Old Geezer

    Old Geezer Legendary Survivalist
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    1
    I think that there are a whole lot more preppers out there. We have visitors to this site all the time and they are not all FBI and deep state Stasi goons -- many are silent preppers. I think that it would be safe to say that here in America, there are tens of millions of us. It's just that they wouldn't call themselves "preppers". Not too long back, I struck-up a conversation with a fellow and turned out that he was more of a prepper than many preppers. At gun shows for the past decades, I've seen people buying ammunition by the case. All manner of companies are selling long-term storage foods by the dozens of buckets per order. We on prepper sites are only the out-of-the-closet preppers. We are only the tip of a huge iceberg.

    I was just at a gun store yesterday. I was looking for a rifle case (they were too expensive). While there, I noted that the ammo shelves were getting re-stocked. It's been now well over a year since the enormous ammo buy-out. Yesterday the place was having trouble keeping up with gun sales and buyer FBI background checks. They had five guys behind the counter. The price of regular small-game shotgun shells came back down to sanity levels, so I bought a box -- $12 for a box of 25 20-ga 7-1/2 shot, small bird load stuff, could use it for skeet.

    Too, what is not getting sold-out? Everybody is fearing the coming high inflation for which the biden regime is setting the ground-work. A West Virginia Democrat congressman says that he'll vote against the mega-pork-barrel Infrastructure (non-infrastructure) Bill that the collectivists are pushing. Just looked-up the guy's name, Joe Manchin. Man, is he ever taking heat from the communists in his party!
    .
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2021
    poltiregist and TMT Tactical like this.
  21. arctic bill

    arctic bill Master Survivalist
      360/460

    Blog Posts:
    0
    yes very much so. I have been saying my seeds for years, also you can fine tune your seeds to match your best crops. Sort of like crop husbandry.
     
    poltiregist and TMT Tactical like this.
  22. DirtDiva

    DirtDiva Master Survivalist
      285/345

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Anything along the farming and gardening lines is selling out quick! Seeds, onion sets, seed potatoes that you order online, fruit trees and scion wood for grafting your own fruit trees. Fertilizers, insecticides and fungicides, straw, all of these items will sell out quick. You can no longer wait until early spring to order or you wll not get any. Too many people competing for those too few resources. Save your own seeds. Look to the crops the old timers in your area grew. Those were grown for a century for a reason. Usually because they grew well in your area, were easy to save seeds from and usually easy to store.

    In the hills and hollers of the Tennessee Cumberland Plateau it would have been white corn. Used for hominy, cornmeal, grits, animal feed and moonshine. Running beans here were a staple and used to dry into "leather britches". Winter squash was another staple along with okra. Potato onions or walking onions were also common. Perennial onions grew like potatoes and did not have to be replanted every year. Sweet potatoes grow well also here and love the moisture and heat of summer and were easily stored. Less likely to succumb to wilts like their Irish cousins.
     
    poltiregist and TMT Tactical like this.
Loading...
Similar Threads Forum Date
Growing One's Own Food; Background Article Gardening, Plant Propegation, & Farming Feb 9, 2020
"afrovivalist"; We Are Growing And Inclusive News, Current Events, and Politics Oct 23, 2020
Growing Food In Balcony Of Apartment Farming and Gardening Jul 18, 2017
Medicinal Vine Growing In The Wildlerness Edible Plants, Berries, and Roots Jun 30, 2017
Growing Your Food In The Wilderness. Wilderness Jun 11, 2017
Growing Our Own Food Other Reference Material Jun 5, 2017
Turmeric Plants --- 1st Time Planting/growing Gardening, Plant Propegation, & Farming May 26, 2017
What Are You Currently Growing? Growing Your Own Food May 15, 2017
Success with regrowing vegetables from kitchen scraps Gardening, Plant Propegation, & Farming Jul 2, 2016
Should You Focus On Growing Only High Calorie Garden Crops? Gardening, Plant Propegation, & Farming Jun 10, 2016

Share This Page