I have been thinking a lot about food security lately. I am anticipating a tough fall on the economic front and expect the cost of food to rise sharply and the availability to be reduced. It is making me look at my gardening from the standpoint of providing the most bang for my preparedness buck.
We are in full swing on the harvesting front. I put up 2 weeks worth of veges yesterday. I got a great haul of string beans, the last of peas up and I froze the most beautiful broccoli I have ever grown. I had a real treat when I weeded. We rotate entire beds so the garden that help our spuds last year is this years main vegetable bed and the potatoes moved over a bed. I put the tomatoes in a new bed hoping to avoid blight. Corn has it’s own place as do the wanderers like squash and pumpkins. Herbs are scattered around. Only the perennial beds for asparagus and rhubarb are fixed. Anyway, I had a number of volunteer potatoes that sprung from some I missed last year. They had shot up these spindly little tops and didn’t look like much of anything so I pulled them out yesterday and was thrilled to dig 18 pounds of potatoes. My stored potatoes had long ago gone bad so this was a real find for me.
Now I need to think about what to plant in the place of things I am pulling up like cabbage and peas. I am thinking of plants that will tolerate the cold like more cauliflower and broccoli. I am also going to start some beets and carrots in toilet paper rolls and get them ready to transplant into the greenhouse when the cantelope comes out. I have not had luck with spinach as it always bolts on me but I am thinking I will make a cold frame and try for a cold weather crop.
If I do it right, I think I can have some fresh food year round. That means growing herbs and some greens in the house, making good use of row covers and cold frames and finally understanding the limitations and intricacies of my greenhouse. In our climate, it is a real boon but it has a learning curve. Now that I am getting it, I would consider a second one. The next thing I need to consider is my cold storage. I am going to offer my sons a good meal and childcare if they will spend a day helping their dad build a cold cellar. They would get the meal in any case and child care means the grandkids spending the day in the pool which they would also do so it’s not much of a deal for them but it will mean a dedicated day as opposed to a possible day.
July 26, 2009 at 8:15 am
We’re working on the same projects right now, Kathy. The peas are long gone, the beans are in full swing and the tomatoes are starting to ripen.
You mentioned finding potatoes as a bonus…I have bonus beans! When we were cleaning out the garden shed this spring, an old bag of half-runner beans split open and fell through the cracks of the floor and into the landscaping. I’ll be doggoned if they’re not growing better than the ones I planted. So, plenty of beans this year.
The other bonus for us this year…sunflowers grown from seeds that I threw down in some fresh chicken manure along the fence-line. I didn’t think they’d grow in such acidic poo, but they’re twice as tall as the others. If nothing else, we’ll be eating sunflower seeds this fall. We’re also experimenting with amaranth this year. It’s supposed to get 6 feet tall, but mine are fairly short and stubby. Should’ve planted them in the chicken poo apparently.
Can you elaborate on your cold cellar a bit??
July 26, 2009 at 8:59 am
Here’s what we have in mind. We have a set of stairs that leads to the cellar from the outside. It has a doo at either end so it is insulated from the warmth of the cellar and is generally barely above and sometimes below freezing in that spot. We need new stairs anyway so Bruce is planning to build the steps with hinged tops. He will then drop insulated boxes into each step to make a very cold spot for apples, beets, carrots cabbage and turnips. It will be rodent proof, secure and protected from temperature swings. It will also be accesible from the inside, a real boon for me as it gets really cold and snowy here. The steps are extra wide and we should get a lot of produce beneath each one.
July 26, 2009 at 9:31 am
Oh, that’s interesting! We’ve been trying to figure out some way of using our crawlspace here…but I’m afraid there would be temp. fluctuations that would ruin our goodies. Plus there are spiders. Blech.
We’ll most likely end up buying a newer fridge to put in the basement for the sole purpose of apples, onions, etc. Not an ideal solution, but the best we can come up with for now.
Have you ever heard of folks burying broken refrigerators (on their backs) in the ground to use as cold cellars? I’ve heard a couple of people mention it, but it just sounds odd. Do you think that could work?…not that I have an old broken fridge laying around and a hankering to dig a big hole. Just curious.
July 26, 2009 at 9:52 am
I have hear of that along with old chest freezers. Rodent proof for sure. I am not sure if anything toxic could leach into the ground but it would be a good solution otherwise.
July 26, 2009 at 12:34 pm
I think I’ve also seen suggestions to bury 55 gallon steel drums. That may be the only way we can come up with cold storage in the desert, although the chest freezer’s an interesting idea. With the drum, we’d have to make sure not to mix it up with a buried large plastic garbage can set up for a doggie waste composter.
July 26, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Mother Earth News had a great set of plans for an earth bag cold storage shed they may work well in some climates.
July 27, 2009 at 10:32 am
I’m weighing in on the surprises in the garden as well as the economy here…
I’ve found volunteer tomato plants that sprung up early this spring from last year where a few of my heirloom tomatoes dropped a missed tomato – how’d that happen? – and now I’m going to have extra tomatoes. Since I didn’t replant this variety I am especially happy because I plan to actually save some seeds from it this year.
This past week I took my daughter to UCLA for some medical tests. We arrived early and walked around a few blocks of shopping and restaurants near the campus as we usually do while waiting. I was shocked at the number of businesses closed, emptied, and cleared out. More than half were GONE. It was like a ghost town. Later in the week, back in my own small town, we visited a local mexican food restaurant that is usually standing room only, but this time there were only 4 booths with customers the entire time we were there! State employees have already been cut 15% of their pay with another 5-10% coming this week I believe. New comers are being let go. It’s going to be really tough out there for a lot of people! And I think this is just the beginning of it. I would be totally unnerved by it all if I didn’t believe that the Lord will provide, whether it be through gardens or His people directly. (Only some people think that includes their wants, not just needs.) I am finding that more and more people are putting in gardens, chickens, and such.
Andrea, thanks for reminding me of the refrig/freezer in the ground for a root cellar. I am still hoping to replace my deep freeze in the near future and now I have a plan for my old one!!
July 27, 2009 at 10:41 am
I had the same experience this morning. I went to a kind of strip mall to pick up a couple of large glass cannisters to use for making pickles and kraut. There were 4 empty store fronts in a strip with only a dozen stores. Some of those places have been empty for years.
July 28, 2009 at 11:50 am
Ok, I’m blushing now. Really, you give me too much credit. I do about one thing really exciting every day that I write about here or my blog. The rest of the day is regular life keeping up with the kids, cooking, etc. My house is a wreck right now. I fed my 2 year old cream cheese off of my finger for a few minutes to take an important phone call today. Hardly supermom, but I have to say I love my life.
We’re trying to work a deal today to get an antique icebox (finish is bad, so the price is low). Really it doesn’t seem like a lot of work to me, just swap out a few frozen jugs in the morning. Plus, I’m not getting rid of my electric fridge, this is just for more space.