Food Growing and Storage
Click the picture to go find seeds - you might want to read on first.
As the world prepares for unprecedented famine, self reliance in feeding yourself and your family during an immediate crisis and beyond is more imperative than ever before.
I am registering a lot of people searching for info on what types of foods to garden for famine relief so I thought I would cover the subject a bit. Here I will give you info about which seeds are important to get and a link where you can buy seeds which have not been tampered with, meaning that you can plant them, harvest the seed and plant it again. You can’t always do that now because major companies (such as MONSANTO) have a method that makes plants sterile so you are obligated to buy new seeds every year - from them of course.
Other seeds may be genetically altered and there is no way as of yet to know the full consequences of eating genetically altered foods, but there are reports of livestock and wildlife dying from eating genetically altered corn and beans, so it’s best to stay as far away from these seeds as possible. Be as sure as possible when buying seeds that they are organic. You might be totally dependent on what you can grow yourself someday and I’m sure you will want to know that the food you grow is safe and renewable.
With that said - make sure you get as full a variety of foods growing as possible. I have found a company that stocks a good mix of seeds that could be vital to your survival.
Here are my suggestions for food producing seeds that you will need to supply your own food independently if need be. Do note that some plants will grow better than others in your location, so if you live where certain plants don’t do well, you might want to set up a chain of trade with others who can produce them, or build a hydroponic greenhouse in which you can grow them. Remember that travel for the purpose of trade may not always be possible so set up accordingly to do what you can on your own first before you rely on trade solutions, especially if you have to go outside of your own community to trade. Find other people in your own community who use hydroponics or greenhouses and combine efforts to grow a wide variety of foods that you can use for immediate use, canning, and to make flour.
I can’t repeat enough the necessity of hydroponics in the coming famine years. You can grow any type of seed you want or need via hydroponics without need of a lot of water, soil, fertilizer, or other gardening supplies - and without a lot of land required so you can replant land in fruit and nut trees or bamboo which can be used for food and utility. Of course, there is always a possibility that the land around you might not be safe or arable in an emergency, so hydroponic methods of growth may be the only ones which will be available.
If you live where the climate is not conducive to growing, or the summers are short, you are very limited in what you can grow without hydroponics. You are also assured of fresh foods as well as processed with hydroponics.
These are just a few reasons that you should consider learning this method of growing food. There is a free report available to you on the site if you would like to learn more about hydroponics so you can make the right choices for your family.
Learn About Hydroponics
buckwheat is used as a grain, yet it is technically a fruit seed. Its seeds produce some of the most wonderfully flavorful and nutritious flour you will find anywhere. There are health benefits for cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, asthma, etc in this grain that you will not find in wheat. When looking for grains to get you through times when flours are not available this is a plant you want. The flowers of the plant also are attractive to bees and the honey produced is dark and rich. You can also grow this ahead of the famine so you can have buckwheat flour already on hand when crisis hits.
While you are in the “Grasses” > “Various” section you will see another seed that you should definitely have a large stock of.
Also in the “Grasses” > “Various” section”
In “Grasses” > “Clover” section.
You will find all sorts of vegetables here.
OTHER - Of course, no one can tell you what foods you like best, but when planning for gardens with little space available you will want to plant what you can store the longest, use in the most ways, and will provide you the most needed nutrients.
Don’t forget that you can, and should, plant fruit and nut trees, too. Bamboo is an excellent choice to plant in farmlands, but is an invasive plant so care must be taken to learn what you are doing before planting bamboo. While it is true that bamboo might be a life saving plant in the future, it would not do us any good to have indigenous forests over run with this plant. We need natural diversity of plants on our lands. If you are growing via hydroponics, bamboo grows extremely fast (from about an inch to 3 meters a day depending on the species) and can be used for utility or food.
Grain seeds should be considered by anyone who has room to grow these items. Flax seed is an important source of oils that may be missing from diets during famines. Millet is another overlooked seed that is excellent nutritionally. Oats are another. While many of these seeds can be bought as bird feed, it is a bit more difficult to find the seeds available for growing as they are used mainly only by large farms. For those of you with adequate space, consider grains as important addition to your gardening. For those of you with no adequate space for such grains, find a good barter situation as soon as you can.
The important thing to remember when planning which foods you are going to grow for your family is that the body needs a certain amount of fats and carbohydrates as well as vitamins and minerals. Make sure you can supply foods that will provide these fats whether you stock animals or grow plant foods.
Do you have a pond or room for a pond? This is the perfect time to stock it with edibles such as clams, crayfish, fish and edible seaweeds and plants. Don’t forget that you can plant wild foods like cat tails and water chestnuts and learn to prepare those foods, too.
You may have room for livestock. Do remember that livestock needs food, too - a large animal can eat enormous amounts of food. Chickens and other fowl need less room and need relatively small amounts of food. You may be able to grow enough food yourself, or keep fallow lands vegetated for larger foraging animals. While milk and eggs are great to have, do make sure you can provide food and water for whatever animals you are going to raise. Perhaps you have neighbors who would be interested in collaborating with setting up a co-op for raising livestock. You will want to keep your efforts local and small enough to escape notice in case of government seizure or regulation of your efforts.
Some foods will be easy to store for long periods without processing. Seeds, grains, beans, legumes, and nuts have a pretty good shelf life on their own. Other foods, such as tomatoes, are important foods to have but don’t keep so well. Meats can start to go bad in a matter of hours. Fortunately there are many methods that help preserve foods so we can have them any time of the year.
Dehydrating is a means of preservation of fruits and meats. In the last decade tomatoes are often dehydrated using a method called “sun dried”. Dehydration preserves more of the nutrients than canning and is easily accomplished.
Canning is a method most are familiar with even if they have not done so. This method will preserve food for long periods, but it does deplete more nutrients than other methods of food preservation.
Freezing is the method of food preservation that retains most of a food’s nutrients, but if it is summer and your energy is cut off, you may be in trouble with this method unless you have your own energy sources, such as solar units.
Pickling also retains nutrients well, but changes the taste of foods. Cabbage that has been pickled (sourkraut) actually has more nutritional value than regular cabbage. If you have favorite recipes for pickling foods, this is a great resource of food preservation to use.
These are the most widely used methods of preserving. There are others, for example freeze drying. New methods are developed all the time, but some have been around as long as humans. You need to decide which are best and most realistic for your own circumstances and learn to use them. Some require special equipment that you will need to invest in. Books on food preservation are widely available. Once you choose which foods you are going to grow or stock to preserve you will want to learn the best preservation methods for those particular foods. The more you are going toward traditional methods of growing, the more prepared you will need to be to store your foods long-term as apposed to using hydroponics so you can eat fresh foods any time of the year.
Do what is most realistic for your own family’s situation but do start to get organized now. The onset of worldwide famine has been already announced as an oncoming threat even though original estimates had given us 12 more years to prepare.