If you are reading Homesteader's Connection, you are probably doing or thinking about doing many self-reliant skills. Perhaps you raise goats for milk, meat and manure, chickens, a cow, pig or whatever. We do this for many reasons: flavor, control of own food supply, saving money and being as self-sufficient as possible. This is simply what many of us feel is the best way to live.
Along comes an ice storm, unexpected power outage, a time of job loss, under-employment or y2k. Instead of being life threatening, these bumps in the road are just one more challenge. We are already living a life of our own choosing, in a way that honors ourselves, our families, the land and the critters in our care.
Now, we are as self-sufficient as we are willing to be and we have the option of falling back on the market place to purchase what we do not have the time or energy to do. With y2k we might need to be more dependent on what we can grow or store for ourselves. None of us knows what the future will bring, so it's prudent to be on the side of caution. When it comes to possible y2k disruptions, I'm going to prepare as much as I can, yet hope for the best. When it comes to gardening, I'm going to do it as if my life really depends on it.
Gardening As If It Really Matters:
· Buy/swap more then a year's worth of seeds
· Grow open-pollinated varieties and save your own seeds
· Add lots of organic matter - manures, compost, rock powders, leaves
· Set up a composting bin - add old hay, spent plants, tree trimmings, household organic waste, lawn clippings
· Start composting inside with worms
· Think about how much you depend on gas and electric machines - lawnmower, rototiller, weed whacker - what would you do without them? Have hand tools on hand
· Regularly visit the garden to check for critter damage, insects, and plant diseases. Stop a problem before it gets bad.
· Plant carefully. Thin and weed. Fertilize. Harvest at the optimum stage of development. Make succession plantings.
· Preserve the bounty in many ways. It's best not to rely on only one method - an earthquake could break all your jars or a power outage could melt everything in your freezer.
Some Good Books:
Self Sufficiency Gardening by Martin P. Waterman
ISBN# 1-55950-135-9 Chapters on growing all kinds of foodcrops, edible landscaping, greenhouse, hydroponics, the internet, seed saving, saving and preserving crops, earning income.
Survival Gardening by John Freeman
ISBN# 0-9607730-5-3 Chapters include: a 100sq ft garden to live on, site selection, tools, what to grow, soil build up, planting, nurturing, diseases and pests, harvesting, adapting seed stock, climates and soils, herbs, economics of gardening, and how a home gardener may adapt in a food emergency.
Saving Seeds---The Gardener's Guide to Growing and Storing Vegetable and Flower Seeds by Marc Rogers ISBN# 0-88266-634-7 There are chapters on: why raise seeds?, what is a seed?, how seeds are formed, annuals, biennials and perennials, pollination, selecting seed parents, collecting seeds, extracting and drying seeds, storing seeds and testing seeds
The Worm Book---The Complete Guide to Gardening and Composting with Worms by Loren Nancarrow and Janet Hogan Taylor ISBN# 0-89815-994-6 Chapters include: why do we need worms?, what is a worm?..basic worm biology, how do you get started?, maintaining a worm bin, problems in the worm bin, other animals found in a worm bin, using worms, castings and vermicompost in the garden, earthworms in agriculture, commercial worm growing---can you do it?, the whole worm and nothing but the worm,and my favorite.NOT!cooking with eathworms.
Stocking Up by Carol Hupping
ISBN# 0-671=69395-6 Chapters about: harvesting vegetables and fruits, freezing, canning, drying, underground storage, pickles and relishes, jams, jellies and fruit butters, juicing, storing milk, cream and eggs, homemade butter, cheeses, yogurt, ice creams, preparing meats and poultry for storage, freezing and drying meats and poultry, preparing and storing fish, nuts and seeds, grains, sprouts and recipes.
Root CellaringThe Simple No Processing Way to Store Fruits and Vegetables by Mike and Nancy Bubel
ISBN# 0-87857-277-5 This book is full of good information on: planting crops for fall storage, good keepers, how to raise top-quality storage vegetables, how to harvest and prepare vegetables for storage, life after picking, spoilage, food value in winter keepers, how to treat vegetables, fruits, the underground garden and other good foods to keep in natural food storage. Then there are: trenches, keeping closets, planning your root cellar, keeping things humming in the root cellar, the basement root cellar and the excavated root cellar. The back of the book has a section on recipes and cooking.
How to Develop a Low-Cost Family Food-Storage System by Anita Evangelista
Chapters include: why store food?, how to determine your food storage needs, low-cost sources for your foods, how to preserve and store foods, where do I put it?, bartering, a good bibliography and recipes.
Don't Get Caught with Your Pantry Down by James Talmadge Stevens
ISBN# 1-881825-19-1 This is a fat book with chapters on: preparing for the unexpected, impending y2kaos, in-home pantry-your convenience store, your personal emergency panic avoidance kit, putting your household in order, acquiring gold and silver, public information resources, a preparedness library and preparedness marketplace of providers and suppliers.
Making the Best of Basics---Family Preparedness Handbook by James Talmadge Stevens
ISBN# 1-882723-25-2 Chapters include: what is family preparedness?, basic in-home storage/problems and solutions, water---the absolute basic, wheat, whole wheat/bulgur, whole wheat flour, wheat meat, sourdough, basic white flour and triticale cookery, basic dairy products from powdered milk, basic honey use, self-health with supplementation, basic sprouting and kitchen gardening, basic in-home drying of fruits and vegetables and energy and fuels storage.
The Y2K Survival Guide and Cookbook by Dorothy R. Bates and Albert K. Bates
ISBN# 0-96669317-0-X This book is good for anyone, but emphasizes vegetarian foods. Chapters include: coping with catastrophe, what to do in an Emergency, water, waste disposal, heat and light, equipment and tools, storing food and enjoying yourself.
If you read some or all of these books you will be prepared for just about anything! These are the favorites in my personal collection. I highly recommend a good core group of how-to books in every home. The internet is also a wealth of information. I have downloaded 3 survival books and countless pages of info on just about every imaginable subject. Write to me at wsm311@aol.com or Wendy S. Martin, PO Box 69, Calais, VT 05648
