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Squash I grow for my time and labor cost 3 and 4 dollars a POUND in stores.
My wife can make devils food cake with a squash, or chocolate chip cookies that stay moist after cooling.
Thars no bloomin way I will pay that much for a pound of squash.
I grow 2 kinds of corn, one is a old traditional type heirloom seeds from that, and the other is silver queen just because I like it.
I loose some of that to varmints of course but I plan for that.
In SHTF I am not sure I would bother with corn. It's too labor intensive to suit me when I can get better results with squash and they fill the belly better.
We do alot of other veggies too, and this past year got carrots that looked store bought.
Now if I can just get the deer seeds to germinate I'll be all set.
Corn is such a PITA to grow up here, you have to baby it with transplants through clear plastic, and still only get maybe an ear or two per stalk. I'm only growing it for a change of flavor, not for survival calories Squash isn't much easier, being as it likes the soil a little warmer than we normally have, but we'll certainly grow enough of the "easy" plants that like cold temps... we can get broccoli and cauliflower all season without bolting unlike the southern folks. Last time I checked the grocery store, pathetic heads of organic broccoli were running $7/lb... insane.
I was reading an article the other day about focusing on planting only veggies that were more expensive to buy than grow. Which I guess makes sense if 1) there's somewhere to buy it nearby, 2) it's still available for purchase, 3) you still have the means to purchase it, and 4) you trust or accept the quality. Sure, potatoes and onions may be cheaper to buy somewhere, but I like the fact that I know exactly what I'm eating when I eat mine, and that I only have to walk out my door to get them... no added costs of time or transportation
I guess if I had limited garden space, I might be more concerned with costs... but I'd probably consider the "most bang for my buck" as measured in caloric and nutritive yield rather than cash money. I mean baby salad greens are easy to grow and horribly expensive... but they don't exactly provide an abundance of calories (although pretty decent for vits & mins if you have good soil). If you've got the time and space and have/build good soil for cheap, you'd be better off planting something more nutritiously substantial, like potatoes or turnips, regardless of how "cheap" they may be in the supermarket.
In a 60 feet by 100 feet I grow more than we can use and a good deal of that was taken up with strawberries. Last Fall I moved excatly 1/2 of the berries to a new location soil and and all. I wanted to move them all for the reason the garden has changed ....... again.... as I got a older tiller, and the way it was the tiller rode me hard.
I moved 2/3rds of the rest of the straw berries to be a 4 foot wide row 100 feet long against the back of the garden, on the far west run, so they will be a little later in shade.
The new berry patch is central in the field and on mounds. I didn't bother to break the hard pan, but the water will drain ok. The problem is getting any water there in the first place but I will think of something.
A bob cat snow bucket distance away counting some room for error is a row of pallets now to the east holding apx 3 and 1/2 cord of new fire wood.
I did battle today with steel, the steel that broke my blasted finger and mashed the hand knucles bones hard on Dec 31st. I can't wait for my hand to be really better and go after the other pile of log length. If you could see that pile of hard wood it would kill you just for the sight of it I am sure.
Not because it's hard labor, but for the heat hard wood is.
I made that rust hunk of steel machine suffer for what it did to me too, that subborn pile of rusty Bismark is gonna be MINE. My air cutting tool seized up with frost and that stopped me 1 part away for ending one part of the project. The tool was around -60 below from the compressed air passing thru it. Once it thaws next to the wood stove i will deliver the death blow to that section and start in tearing down the last subborn bits.
I consider plants like broccoli and cauliflower to be deer seeds. I won't eat that unless it's by proxy
why are you people in such panic? I don't care that the demand for food globally has went up. Who cares?
United States is one of the few countries that can survive from within its own borders.
We have the most "usable" land in the world. Sure, Russia and Canada have more land than us in absolute terms, but half of their land is permanently frozen - unusable.
We can farm our way to cheap food so I wouldn't panic if a food has temporarily went up. We're not depended on other nations.
On the other hand, if you're Singapore then yeah this affects you way more because Singapore doesn't have any farm land - they must import their food from other countries.
you might want to stick to law. We have a lot of land and so does the rest of the world but like here and especially in third world countries, a lot of the land is being bought up by wealthy people, corporations and such and being left fallow or turned into farming cheap corn used in ethanol. They're also buying up a lot of areas that are a good source of water. They see a world-wide shortage coming and they're buying up resources to consolidate their wealth. This will soon have very catastrophic results. High food prices are just the beginning.
Squash I grow for my time and labor cost 3 and 4 dollars a POUND in stores.
My wife can make devils food cake with a squash, or chocolate chip cookies that stay moist after cooling.
Thars no bloomin way I will pay that much for a pound of squash.
I grow 2 kinds of corn, one is a old traditional type heirloom seeds from that, and the other is silver queen just because I like it.
I loose some of that to varmints of course but I plan for that.
In SHTF I am not sure I would bother with corn. It's too labor intensive to suit me when I can get better results with squash and they fill the belly better.
We do alot of other veggies too, and this past year got carrots that looked store bought.
Now if I can just get the deer seeds to germinate I'll be all set.
Its great if you can have a garden but keep in mind that depending on how you interpret the new food safety bill they just passed so we can be safe from the occational very rare case of botulism or salmanilla(sic) that they regulate what kind of food you grow and make you pay taxes just like you were a regular farm. Its HR S-510 and I think it passed a couple of months ago. There was very little notice about it in the news. Its part of the Codex-Alementarius.
Its great if you can have a garden but keep in mind that depending on how you interpret the new food safety bill they just passed so we can be safe from the occational very rare case of botulism or salmanilla(sic) that they regulate what kind of food you grow and make you pay taxes just like you were a regular farm. Its HR S-510 and I think it passed a couple of months ago. There was very little notice about it in the news. Its part of the Codex-Alementarius.
I had heard of that and other nasty buisiness not any of the Govt bee's wax, so I will do as I please, and since I won't sell any the Govt can't tax it, and if they try they won't like what happens next.
If you happen to do anything in the aggii world at all you need this.
Trust me you will like this, and that lawyer might too LOL
Hunt this PDF file down and print a few copies to have on hand.
Public Law 93-579 Public Servant's Questionaire
I lost the link, but if you have trouble let me know.
That little bit of paper puts the chomp on public servants. It's a good bet they won't fill out the 23 questions in the first place.
When they don't You can say "I'm sorry but I am busy today why don't you come back about this time 5 years from now?"
Thanks for the heads up......
Last so far as I am concernd the Govt is the enemy from with in the one that the Declaration of Independance mentions as the enemy domestic.
It really won't bother me a bit if they are forced to eat neck ties.
In a 60 feet by 100 feet I grow more than we can use and a good deal of that was taken up with strawberries. Last Fall I moved excatly 1/2 of the berries to a new location soil and and all. I wanted to move them all for the reason the garden has changed ....... again.... as I got a older tiller, and the way it was the tiller rode me hard.
I moved 2/3rds of the rest of the straw berries to be a 4 foot wide row 100 feet long against the back of the garden, on the far west run, so they will be a little later in shade.
The new berry patch is central in the field and on mounds. I didn't bother to break the hard pan, but the water will drain ok. The problem is getting any water there in the first place but I will think of something.
A bob cat snow bucket distance away counting some room for error is a row of pallets now to the east holding apx 3 and 1/2 cord of new fire wood.
I did battle today with steel, the steel that broke my blasted finger and mashed the hand knucles bones hard on Dec 31st. I can't wait for my hand to be really better and go after the other pile of log length. If you could see that pile of hard wood it would kill you just for the sight of it I am sure.
Not because it's hard labor, but for the heat hard wood is.
I made that rust hunk of steel machine suffer for what it did to me too, that subborn pile of rusty Bismark is gonna be MINE. My air cutting tool seized up with frost and that stopped me 1 part away for ending one part of the project. The tool was around -60 below from the compressed air passing thru it. Once it thaws next to the wood stove i will deliver the death blow to that section and start in tearing down the last subborn bits.
I consider plants like broccoli and cauliflower to be deer seeds. I won't eat that unless it's by proxy
Yeah maybe, now if i could just spell and not typo so much....
Today I drove by a sugar bush down the road a piece, That guy is plugged IN . By the look of the weather he stands a chance of 1 days run, then rain and cold, and no sap flows then.
By my rekonin' he's 2 maybe 3 weeks early and he is risking dry tap holes.
Maybe he is one of them chemical sugar makers of which I am not, and uses chemicals on the taps that delay a dry tap hole.
If my finger will pick up and run a saw pretty soon I got wood to cut for winter after next waiting here right now. I like the bull work with no thinking very well. The winter's wood for next hear 6.5 cord of which we may need 4 of is already cut and mostly dried now.
I might buy a truck load to cut n' split to sell. It's good to be busy.
I like the wood pile for how simple things are, and no Boss Man whining about useless stuff. The smells of fresh cut wood is nice, and seeing odd parts of wood in variouse states is art like.
But as soon as sugarin' starts I gotta get dead standing down for lack of a shack to store winter dry wood in. Thankfully there is a hell of lot of standing dead here.
Work the wood pile till it's too hot then maybe this year get a shed set up for sugarin and my forge.
I wanted a new knife since Oct, but I got pretty sick, then there was some paid work and then I busted up my hand, so no new knife fer me yet, but I want one.
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Squash isn't much easier, being as it likes the soil a little warmer than we normally have, but we'll certainly grow enough of the "easy" plants that like cold temps... we can get broccoli and cauliflower all season without bolting unlike the southern folks. Last time I checked the grocery store, pathetic heads of organic broccoli were running $7/lb... insane.
. By the look of the weather he stands a chance of 1 days run, then rain and cold, and no sap flows then.
