Food glorious food.. If times get tough are you prepared?

[Amazon D]

Food glorious food

I have so much food its sickening. I have over 1000 stalks of sweet corn developing with 2 ears a stalk and i could probably pick 25lbs of string beans every 3 days until middle september and i have probably over a ton of red potato's growing and then there are the peppers which i can't can fast enough and tomato's coming in in buckets. Then there is my root cellar with over a yrs worth of every kind of canned food possible. Then there are 5 gallon plastic buckets of chocolate and grains and beans etc etc. My hoosier cabinets are over flowing with noodles and spices.

It's amazing how people around here stock up with food for the following year. Then there are freezers people can get and if i knew how to can other things i could fill cases and cases of fresh veggies from my garden. Then there are deer all over and rabbits and the turkeys are coming thru eating grasshoppers and wow they come in flocks of 20 or more. Big fat turkeys. All over my county are cows and goats and pigs and chickens. We probably have 30 cows for every person here. Fields and field of corn overflowing with ears and soybeans are everywhere.

its like in farmer country people are doing food and in such large quantities it just amazes me and makes me feel like i have so little. Many farmers have giant freezer trucks on their farms with tons of homemade ice cream and frozen foods and meats.

Oh then there are the stacks of logs coming from the mountains going to amsih sawmills and cheap lumber under 60c a bdft. and i am talking any kind of lumber soft and hardwoods. The mountains also have tons of pretty rock and stone for building etc etc.

No we don't produce TV's or computers or steel but we have everything else a person could ever want for a wonderful survival. We have amish furniture makers and canners and buggymakers and horse trainers and they even have factories here making sheds and melting down old plastic to make many plastic things such as signs or fence or gates or trellises etc etc etc. We have amish solar installers and mennonite truckers and so many other producers here i have just begin to see what is produced here.

If times get tough what are you prepared to do?

PS: I also have about 20 heritage pear trees and too many black walnut and hickory nut trees to count

[Pinkfluff]

Yeah I would love to be able to grow much of my own food, but I don't see that being possible any time soon. Hopefully one day.

Times are already tough for many of us. Just gotta do what ya gotta do to survive.

[tekla]

You do realize don't you that in terms of tons of food produced, and in terms of money made on crops that California is the number one agricultural state in the US don't you?

[justmeinoz]

That's what happens when you measure your top soil in yards, not inches. And you get reliable rain, you lucky lot.

Karen.

[Amazon D]

You do realize don't you that in terms of tons of food produced, and in terms of money made on crops that California is the number one agricultural state in the US don't you?

Yes i know all about Calif. I have lived there off and on since 1970. I do know we should be producing our own food locally. Its sick to ship food across the country or have strawberries in winter time. I live where we grow what we eat and eat what we grow.

[justmeinoz]

Once I get myself resettled, a veggie garden will be one of the first things I do.  I like to concentrate on the things that are a little dearer, cherry tomatoes, capsicum, chillies, lettuce, maybe even asparagus. I will be in a prime potato and berry growing area, so will be able to get those cheap.
Same with onions, cabbage etc.
I tend to buy rice by the 15 kg bag and store it where the mice can't get at it.   
I will be baking my own bread, something I learned to do when I was off work for months bored out of my brain, with a back injury.
Hopefully the fishing will be as good as it is supposed to be, so that takes care of the protein.
It will be interesting to see what I have actually achieved in a year's time.

Karen

[tekla]

I live where we grow what we eat and eat what we grow.

In Pennsylvania right?  Boy I sure missed where 3 to 4 MILLION people who are living in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are doing this. And of course you do this with complete self-sufficiency and in a 100% sustainable manner?  You use absolutely nothing manufactured in a factory anywhere?  You mine, refine and cast all your own metal for the tools and such right?  The bread you eat, you grow the grain, harvest it, mill it, refine it and bake it in ovens you built?  You use no power, nothing that was made from oil-based chemicals or products?

[Amazon D]

I live where we grow what we eat and eat what we grow.

In Pennsylvania right?  Boy I sure missed where 3 to 4 MILLION people who are living in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are doing this. And of course you do this with complete self-sufficiency and in a 100% sustainable manner?  You use absolutely nothing manufactured in a factory anywhere?  You mine, refine and cast all your own metal for the tools and such right?  The bread you eat, you grow the grain, harvest it, mill it, refine it and bake it in ovens you built?  You use no power, nothing that was made from oil-based chemicals or products?

I eat local foods grown here.. your reply is excentric

I also never mentioned to represent everyone from my state but we here in Pa do grow much of the corn needed for feeding animals

[tekla]

What you are advocating is about as realistic as Disneyland.  You can't do it.  It can't be done.

[Amazon D]

No i do not eat everything i grow or grow everything i eat but i try to go local when buying and consuming food.

sheesh tekla your a stickler when it comes to what a person writes.

Can't you see that buying and consuming locally is the best way to help our enviroment by using less fuel for shipping etc etc

[myles]

I am trying to do a better job of only growing what I can eat or share. I have actually taken up a small planting area and put in a few flowers. I have a little over a standard lot and grow tomatoes, lettuce, garlic , zucchini, cucumbers, potatoes, tons of apples and so on. I still have times when I wonder what I am going to do with all the apples and give them to friends but think I am figuring out what I can manage. I am learning more about canning, this year I am going for pickles but will get the cucumbers form a local farm as I want to do gherkins. I definitely like to buy local and am lucky I live in Oregon I can go to hood river and U Pick pears and peaches at a very reasonable price as well as blueberries, strawberries and raspberries closer to town. I am also adding a small root cellar area this year. I think between my freezer and what I have on shelves and what I have growing now i keep at least 6 months worth of food around for a family of 4.  This year I also plan to get better at gardening year round with some winter cloth on a few beds or even a semi green house. I think it is great that you can grow so much!
Cheers Myles

[tekla]

There simply is not enough arable land to afford to give everyone a garden.  Who gets the good land, who gets the crap land, who pays for irrigation if there isn't enough water?.  The water bill alone in Texas this year for gardens would be astronomical. 

[Hikari]

There simply is not enough arable land to afford to give everyone a garden.  Who gets the good land, who gets the crap land, who pays for irrigation if there isn't enough water?.  The water bill alone in Texas this year for gardens would be astronomical.

Maybe, but I remember some in the Cuban government who said the same sorts of things with the USSR stopped sending grains, oil, etc. It was very hard and lots of learning by failing I am sure more than a few people starved, but if you look at what they have done to help solve their food crisis you will see that, while 100% sustainability hasn't been attained, they have came far further than most of our analysts said they could, due to their "lack of arable land". Many of our "experts" still dismiss their accomplishments in small scale agriculture since they are clearly savage communists who can't be trusted (note the sarcasm).

But, to the point of the OP, I am not really prepared for a disaster that would require me to grow my own food, as such an event I deem as rather unlikely to me, and I live in the city.

I do want to grow some veggies on my balcony, but my old plants died in the heat wave, and some bikes now inhabit my balcony, but i will get to it eventually.

[Joelene9]

  I'm lucky that I have a small house footprint on a typical less than 1/3 acre city lot with the alignment of the property is good for the maximum morning sun on the 20' x 60' garden plot with minimal trees.  I haven't bought any tomato products from the store in the past 4 years, since the last drought.  I can my garden produce and give away the extras to my family and friends.  I am already through with the sliced cucumber pickles, the rest of the cukes will go into relishes.  My tomatoes are now in the canning stage, just past the single tom a day for fresh BLTs.  My delayed first harvest of sweet corn will be destined for the freezer within a few days.  The peppers are beginning to produce and they will be pickled, dried, relished, and stuffed.  6 different varieties here.  This done on poor, sandy soil that has been amended over the past 27 years I lived here.
  I seen a lot of folks around here with the large lots like M2MtF2FtM has doing the same things.  It is possible!
  Joelene

[Jennifer]

M2,

I also try to be self reliant. I like your ideas and practices. I have a large garden which I help fertilize with my laying chickens. I also have a fish pond fed by springs which never freezes. A small turbine generator on my stream and some solar cells help with electricity. Whitetail deer, turkey, pheasants and rabbits are also abundant. Trying to live off the grid and being self sufficient and natural and organic is very satisfying and rewarding to me also. But I also can't resist the allure of the big city and modern advances in science and technology. I have truly found a satisfying middle ground, I think, maybe, for now. But yes, I am prepared if times get tough.

Jennifer