Why Are Egg Prices So High?“We are watching very closely to see how the disease associated with bird flu, when it hits humans, is evolving” – Sir David Nunes Nabarro. If you’ve gone to the store lately, you’ve noticed that the price of eggs has either gone up or you may simply not be able to find eggs at all. We were recently at Costco and they only had pre-packaged egg white cartons. Our local grocery store had a dozen eggs for $8.50. They’re getting more expensive, so what’s going on? In this blog, we will explore what’s causing this problem, discuss if or when the price will get better, and the steps you can take right now to secure this food source. Let’s talk about it…EGG COSTSEgg prices have jumped an average of 49% in the past year, and are currently on a rather steep upward trajectory. Eighty cents per egg, maybe even higher, is possible before this gets any better. Last year, they were at about twenty-one cents per egg. Bird flu typically arrives during the spring migration and disappears by the summer, experts said. But this year was different; the virus reemerged in September. These elevating egg and poultry prices will last well into the second quarter of this year before there is a glimmer of hope that the outbreak is subsiding.You might be asking, “why now?” Avian flu has been around for a while, and this particular strain was first reported in 1996. First, there is a particularly virulent strain of avian flu circling the world. In the US, bird flu viruses have been found in commercial and backyard poultry in at least 44 states and wild birds in 46 states that we know for sure. It’s everywhere. The world is going through its worst-ever outbreak of H5N1 bird flu. Depending upon where you live will depend on how extreme this current food supply disruption will be for you, but all will be affected. Modern agricultural practices, lack of genetic variation in poultry flocks, and even warmer weather affecting migratory birds’ time, distance traveled, and patterns have all contributed to this recent but steady building surge. Poultry birds are particularly susceptible to H5N1 bird flu with a near-certain fatality rate. It kills 90-100% of chickens within 48 hours. Ducks and other wild fouls may recover but will continue to spread the virus through contact and manure. Fortunately for humans, there is very little chance of it jumping to humans. It can, mainly if you handle infected birds or their waste materials, but for us, it’s just a bad case of the flu and not a death sentence like it is for our feathered friends. One hundred forty million birds were culled last year in North America, Europe, and the UK, and the reported cases are currently surging to record numbers. If an industry can only remain by culling millions of animals, it will not survive at peak levels.When an egg-laying flock is culled, some farmers lose their livelihood altogether, processors and distributors lose product and profits, supply decreases, and demand from panic buying increases and puts more pressure on the demand side of the supply and demand equation. Farmers are more reluctant to resume operations, having already absorbed massive losses, so supply struggles to recover to pre-H5N1 bird flu levels. All of that combines with the second part of the reason for the current shortage and high prices. The supply chain is out of whack. This creates buying limits, a doubling or more of cost, and product scarcity.The third reason is that conditions were already ripe for an increase, partly from inflationary pressures and partly from rising production costs. The war between Russia and Ukraine has lowered and tightened feed grain production numbers, decreased supplies of fertilizer, grain hoarding, and low agricultural yields have all sent the costs of feed grain soaring. So, even as inflation was driving prices up, consumer demand was rising, production costs were rising, feed supply was tightening, and the sickness was spreading like it never had before. All the ingredients for an explosive rise in price were in place, as we alluded to in our video last year.WHAT’S NEXT?Beyond the price or scarcity of poultry or eggs, there’s a serious environmental challenge posed by H5N1. It is a very serious pandemic for all wild birds of all types. Wild birds, which we don’t monitor as closely as the birds in agricultural operations have been hit harder than ever. The current virus has affected at least 80 different bird species. In some cases, estimates of deaths amongst species populations are as high as 40%. The die-offs of wild birds are further increased by some of the dramatic shifts in weather we have seen in recent years. Warmer or colder weather encourages migratory birds to move, then a sudden storm front or cold snap can leave birds starving, emaciated, or dead from hypothermia. Significant multi-decade droughts also reduce water resources and fish and insect food sources. The wild bird die-off is the definition of what we call on this channel a polycrisis. Several storms combine to create a perfect storm of a problem.For the implications of such a die-off in our recent world history, one needn’t look further than the Great Chinese Famine from 1959-1961. The Communist government implemented what it called the “Four Pests Campaign.” Citizens were called upon to destroy mosquitoes, rats, flies, and sparrows. I don’t know if they made any headway with mosquitos, rats, or flies, or even if they could, but the campaign did result in a documented mass eradication of the sparrows. Their reduced population increased the population of crop-eating insects, which had no significant predators without the sparrows. Crops were decimated, and tens of millions of people died of hunger.Birds are pollinators and voracious consumers of pests, insects, and even rodents. Any significant decline in their population has an immediate reciprocal decrease in agricultural production. The rise of insects substantially damages crops, trees, and wild plants. If predatory birds are significantly impacted by H5N1, then we will also experience an explosion in the rodent population. More insects and rodents force farmers to use more potent pesticides and encourage everyday people to use stronger poisons that can travel up and down the ecological food chain. Birds are also significant wildflower and fruit pollinators and seed spreaders. Birds, especially seabirds, play a crucial role in cycling nutrients and helping to fertilize marine ecosystems such as coral reefs. From seed spreaders, pollinators, fertilizers, exterminators, and even sanitation workers processing dead animals, the overall importance of birds in the ecological system cannot be understated.If H5N1 continues to spread in the wild population, we will be in store for more problems than the rising price of the per pound broiler or a dozen eggs. Large areas of the Earth will teeter on the edge of ecological collapse. We don’t want to alarm you, but even a 20% decline in the wild bird population will dramatically affect the environment. It has to get far worse than it is right now or even at this rising moment of H5N1 surge before we get to that point. There are an estimated 50 billion birds on the planet, so we will likely have thousands of more warning signs before 20% of them– 10 billion birds die off.WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?The average American eats 288 eggs or 24 dozen eggs per year. Americans consume 160 million servings of cheap, convenient chicken daily. Backyard farms can never keep pace with that level of consumption, but they also aren’t meant to. The backyard flock is a personal means of freeing oneself from dependence on commercial production sources. It may not be the total solution, but it is undoubtedly part of the more comprehensive solution. The CDC would suggest you stay safe from bird flu viruses by avoiding contact with birds. We will tell you the opposite of that. Raising your own chickens and pulling eggs every morning are fantastic ways to maintain a protein supply and further free yourself from the global supply chain. Some folks raise ducks, turkeys, geese, guinea fowl, quail, and pigeons are all raised for meat and eggs by many homesteaders and farmers. You are limited only by your level of commitment to your flock, space, and the local and state ordinances. Laws about keeping chickens vary by state, county, and town. Zoning regulations, building codes, lease restrictions, and Home Owner Associations further enhance the laws and bylaws of each area. Large entities like Sanderson Farm, the National Chicken Council, United Egg Producers, the National Turkey Federation, and others spend over 1.2 million annually partly to maintain their interests in corporate-produced poultry and eggs over your backyard flock.Whether it’s chickens in a small coop in your backyard or quail, you can easily have eggs for breakfast any day of the week. To keep your home flock safe, keep them isolated from other animals. Don’t let them come into contact with wild birds or other animals that may have been in contact with wild birds. Keep their area well-cleaned. Have dedicated shoes or boots for your coop area to avoid spreading any viruses. Keep a clean, isolated coop and yard to prevent creating an inviting spot for rodents or wild birds to visit. At least right now, consider your home flock on a pandemic lockdown until conditions in the world improve.For your part, to protect yourself from this recent outbreak, avoid contact with wild birds. Avoid petting zoos or even feeding the ducks at the lake for a while. The less they flock together, the better chance they have. If you have a bird feeder out and want to help the birds, regularly clean their area. The National Wildlife Health Center recommends cleaning bird baths and feeders with a solution of nine parts water to one part bleach. If there is visible debris, scrub it off. Consider planting sorghum, black seed sunflowers, berries, or wildflowers this spring in a wild patch of your yard. The birds will have greater access to food resources, with less need to congregate. Make sure these wild plants are away from your home a bit, as they will also attract rodents. If they do, don’t use poisons. These rodents will feed the birds of prey and snake population in your area.When it comes to fighting higher prices, that window has closed for now. We expect poultry and egg prices to go up for the foreseeable future until we get ahead of the current H5N1 outbreak. You might stock up on packaged, liquid egg whites right now, as these have a long shelf life, and what you see in the stores now was packaged before this recent outbreak really took off. The packaged egg whites we bought yesterday are good if refrigerated for up to 6 months. If frozen, they are good for a year. Another option is freeze-dried eggs. Again, these were probably produced well before avian flu was even a thing because when appropriately stored and unopened, they have a shelf-life between one and two decades. A $10 can of freeze-dried eggs has gone up in price like everything else this last year, and it will go up even further, but it equates to a long shelf life for about 108 eggs worth per 48 ounces. One egg blend option, the price breaks down to about .53 cents per egg price. That already puts it as a cheaper option than fresh eggs, at least for the moment. When it comes to chicken meat, we just paid $3.49 per pound for breast meat, and that was up to .30 cents a pound from what we paid just last week. Putting some canned meat options in your inventory would be a prudent choice. Canned chicken meat has a shelf-life of between 2 and 5 years. The price for canned chicken is also at the early stages of a dramatic price increase in the future, as the current outbreak impacts the existing supply. You can expect that people will start stocking up where they haven’t before, just like you might be planning to do after watching this video. This will increase demand and price and further erode inventory.The final thing you can do is give up on poultry and eggs altogether. Many will have to do this because they are priced out of the market. Other binders can be used in cooking, and there are other protein sources and alternatives. If you feel that the high prices or shortages may impact you significantly now or in the future, research and explore these different options and alternatives.ConclusionWe’ve got 2 blogs in our library: How to Raise Chickens in your Backyard and How to Build a Year’s Food Storage. These are both critical blogs for you to watch right now as we continue to assess this threat. What we see with H5N1 bird flu could just be the beginning of a much larger crisis. Various factors, including the outbreak of avian flu, supply issues, the cost of production, and food inflation, are causing the global egg shortage. Some farmers have also blamed retailers for not paying a fair price for eggs as production costs have increased. This current crisis is centered around the egg layers, but it could get larger in scope from here. The war in Ukraine and the resulting disruption to wheat production, a key ingredient in chicken feed, may also contribute to the shortage. Retailers worldwide will continue to impose restrictions on the number of eggs that customers can purchase, and the price of eggs and poultry will continue to rise.By next year at this time, we might look back on the shortages, buying limits, and high prices as something we prefer over the circumstances we will find ourselves. We are still determining how bad this will get, but we know this may be one of your last opportunities to prepare for it. The best-case scenario is it passes, and supply chains and inventories are restored within a year. The worst-case scenario, well, let’s simply say that’s not an egg we want to crack here. What do you think? Is this current crisis affecting you, and what are you doing about it? For now, heed our advice and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. If you find yourself sitting on a heap of eggs and canned chicken this time next year and prices have dropped by then, you’ll have a critical protein source in your prepping supplies for future disasters. If you take that a step further and establish your own egg-laying backyard flock, you’ll save hundreds of dollars annually, at the very least. If this outbreak gets far worse from here, you will have eggs and protein, while many others will not. Whatever you choose, make your decisions and take your actions now.As always, stay safe out there.
* If you have used oxygen absorbers before, you know they are NOT all the same. Print this and keep it in a binder, or find a safe place on your computer so you will have this information. Locally, we can get oxygen absorbers at Winco.
Of course, they are easily available online. I DO use them when I package things in mylar bags. But I do NOT use them in jars because I have a vacuum sealer (BEST investment EVER!!)
* My daughter gave me the gift of “StoryWorth.” I think that’s what it’s called. They would send me a topic each week, and I would write about my memories. These stories were then accessible to all my kids or whoever wanted to read them. But today, I found this:
* Butter Powder
I am putting together some “Cookies In a Jar,” and one of the recipes includes butter powder. You can get it on sale at more than 50% off here: Augason Farms Butter Powder 2 lbs 4 oz No. 10 Can : Grocery & Gourmet Food. I don’t know how long the sale will last. Coincidentally, this article came up on my Pinterest feed: How to Use Butter Powder. She explains how butter powder is made and that it does not taste and act exactly like butter. It doesn’t melt like regular butter, and you would NOT want to put it on toast. But it works perfectly in baking. Just check the brand for mixing rates, add the powder to the dry ingredients and water to the liquid ingredients, and bake as directed. There is a recipe below for a “just add water” pancake mix that includes powdered milk and powdered butter. (Frankly, I just buy Krusteaz and call it good, but homemade gets rid of all the chemical preservatives, etc.)
* I’ve also included a recipe for Apple Crumb Cake using all stored ingredients.
* I have “canned” butter before. Some of the jars are still on my shelf. It turns out just like softened butter. It tastes and acts just like real butter because none of the oils or fats or solids are removed. It’s pretty amazing. With the price of butter, I am constantly watching for a “really good deal” so I can replenish my stock.
GARDEN HAPPENINGS
* I finally got my seeds planted: tomatoes, celery, and bell peppers. This will give them a good 8-10 weeks to grow before the last frost.
I have been planting them in deep, 10-15 gallon grow bags. I get green foliage, tend it lovingly all summer, and when I dig them up in the fall, if I’m lucky, I’ll get 5-6 small potatoes and maybe one big one. Such a disappointment. Maybe if I ask nicely, Craig will make me one of these for next year’s garden. My friend, Linda, told me I was not planting enough seed potatoes and not planting them close enough.
I remember my dad, living in southern Utah, used old tires. He put dirt and potato starts in one tire, and as they grew, he would add another tire and more dirt. Same principle, but maybe slightly less aesthetic.
* I have never used “row covers” because most of my vegetables are in grow bags, not in rows in a garden. But this article had a lot of good reasons to use them – especially in helping ward off insect damage (a problem I have!!!)
OR, you can buy in bulk here and store in 2-liter bottles or any other recycled container. At our local Winco, I think 1-pound bags of lentils are about $1.25. So, 5 pounds would be $6.25. Quite a difference! Our Winco also has red and green lentils.
When you make lentil soup, you get a thick, hearty meal. A little bit will fill you up and last for a long time. And while you’re at it, it’s a good idea to back up your computer. This should probably be done at least once or twice a month, if not more often.
MISC:
Time to update photos of your family. Tomorrow, after everyone is dressed, just snap a photo of everyone.
2 c. flour 1/2 c. milk powder 1/3 c. malted milk powder (sounds good already) 1/3 c. powdered buttermilk 1/4 c. whole egg powder 2 TB sugar 1 TB baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt To use: mix 1 c. of pancake mix with 1/2 c. water
Apple Crumb Cake Also from practicalselfreliance.com
3 c. flour 2 TB baking powder 1/3 c. whole egg powder 1 3/4 c. water 1 1/2 c. sugar 1/2 c. shortening 1 1/2 tsp salt 1 c. dehydrated apple slices chopped and rehydrated (could use fresh apples) Blend all ingredients and pour into a greased 9 X 13 baking dish
Crumb topping 2/3 c. brown sugar 3/4 c. butter powder 2 TB water 1/2 c. flour 1 tsp cinnamon Mix all the topping ingredients with fork until crumbly. Sprinkle over the cake. Bake 375 for 25-30 min.
Country Soup Mix 1/2 c. barley 1/2 c. split peas 1/2 c. white rice 1/2 c. lentils 2 TB dried minced onion 2 TB dried parsley 2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp lemon pepper 2 TB beef bouillon 1/2 c. alphabet pasta 1 c. twist macaroni Add 3 quarts water 2 stalks celery diced 2 sliced carrots 1 c. shredded cabbage – optional 2 c. diced tomatoes (1 can) Simmer 1 hour until all the grains and vegetables are done.
Prep For & Conquer the Challenges We Face“We must concern ourselves absolutely with the things that are under our control and entrust the things not in our control to the universe” – Musonius Rufus.In a recent blog, we discussed the 10 challenges we’ll face in the coming year. As preppers, we understand that it’s crucial to not allow these issues to define us, but rather it’s our responsibility to take practical steps toward being ready. These actionable items we’re about to cover take prepping a step further than merely fixating on the doom and gloom of extreme threats which often take center stage in our community. By merely focusing on the extreme possibilities, it only serves to deter us from focusing on the practical prepping for the real world … the everyday threats that will very likely impact us. For some, these action items we’re about to outline may seem trivial. Others may already be doing them to some degree and will see this as an opportunity to double down on their efforts and fortify themselves further. While we’re always careful with this channel of speaking in extreme terms, every indicator points toward, how should we say it, difficult times ahead. But, to balance that, we’re not victims here, nor will we be. That’s why we do what we do: we prepare. We hope you’ll listen to what we’re about to outline and form a plan that works for you and your family. These points are very practical and will put you in a position to be ready. So let’s jump in…Prioritize Your FinancesAs we covered in the previous video, we’re in what many economists consider the early stages of a recession. It’s increasingly likely that things will get worse financially in the coming year. There are multiple factors putting downward pressure on the markets. The way to endure and emerge stronger from a downward market is by prioritizing your financial situation as one of your preps.Financially positioning yourself to survive can be challenging during a global recession when your hard-earned dollars buy less, inflation and interest rates increase, and you don’t have much to begin with. If you stockpile food, water, general household supplies, silver, or anything else and don’t have a 3-6 month emergency fund of cash, you are really not thinking for the long-term. Also, if we are lucky, we will one day be old. How is your retirement fund looking? We are always baffled by the number of people with very few plans for when they are 50 or 60 or more years of age. So, many people are so caught up in the day-to-day that they don’t take time to consider what they will do when a disaster robs them of their possessions, an injury forces them out of work, or some unforeseen circumstance destroys their earning potential. When was the last time you rearranged your 401k plan? Have you set it and forgotten about it? Are you taking advantage of total employer matching contributions? Do you have a tax-free college savings plan for the kids or grandkids? Do you have a living will, or will you pass your debt burdens and a financial mess to your kids to sort out? Are you prepared for when your car breaks down, or your employer suddenly lays you off work?We are not a financial planner or advisor, but here are six things you can do right now to build a strong foundation for the future. 1) insure your home and possessions against disasters. Review your policies and coverage. If you live in a disaster zone, you absolutely have to figure out a way to ensure your home and possessions. 2) insure yourself with a life insurance and long-term care policy. If something happens to you, you will have peace of mind that your inheritors will have the resources they need to sort it out. 3) trim unused subscriptions and memberships. Plenty of people have entertainment services, other subscriptions, and gym memberships that they haven’t used or have barely used in months. Look at those and eliminate the ones you don’t use enough. If you are going to a gym you pay 19.95 a month just twice per month, you are paying about $10 a visit. 4) buy in bulk and cook for yourself. Have you looked at the price of one meal out these days? Restaurant prices increased by 12% last year, and they will go up from there this next year. 5) save 10%. Whether building an emergency fund by putting money in a coffee can or a savings account, you must try to set aside 10% of your income and not touch it. When you have 3-months or more living expenses set aside, you will be well-positioned to survive most disasters. Shockingly, just $500 as an emergency fund puts you better than 47% of the people in America. 6) Know where it goes. Start by understanding where every dollar goes. Then, build a plan that allows you to save and cut costs where you can even as the economy tanks further. There’s so much more here, but we encourage you to start with just these 6 for the new year. Implement each in some small way this next year. You can download our FREE Recession-proof Guide for even more information. If you do a little of each, you will face disasters with greater resiliency. I’m not saying that money will be the solution to everything that can happen, but it sure does fix many things. Get your finances in order before you worry about prepping for more remote possibilities.
Grow your own food
We have covered the challenges facing agricultural production in several videos this year. The supply chain remains frazzled. A big war and lockdowns are already straining low agricultural output, and crops suffer from extreme weather and expensive fertilizer worldwide. We cannot stress enough how this will impact our food supply. It will only result in higher prices and diminished variety if you’re lucky. Some countries will face shortages and even famine. It will get far worse this next year.Your food preps are like a tank of gas. When they are all used up, you can’t go any further. This next year you must start to grow something, anything, to supplement your food supply. A hermetically sealed canister of seeds might help you rebuild after a societal collapse, but increasing your current food supply is more practical. Gardening isn’t something you can just pick up overnight, and many of us aren’t blessed with large yards or green spaces where we can grow enough food to sustain ourselves solely.Recognizing this, we started a series on the channel specific to growing your own food in small areas that we’ll be focusing on over the next few months. We are taking a ground-up approach, beginning with the basics, building what we need over the next few winter months, and planning a full deployment in spring. You should check that out with the first video in the series and grow with us this next year. It will enhance your food security in the present, future, and especially after any disaster. We always recommend starting with a solid food supply, but learning to grow your own food is a critical and necessary step. Even if it is a small garden, the key is to develop this skill, as it will be a crucial skill for you in the future.
Physical Health
If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything. When your car won’t run or there’s no gas coming to your area, will you be able to walk the 5, 10, or 20 or more miles home from work? Could you lift yourself over a 6-foot wall? Will you be successful in the high-stress and strained environment of the aftermath of a disaster?Time will tell, but you should be doing what you can to prioritize your physical health. Even job loss or separation stress can raise our cortisol levels and throw our biological systems into craziness—the risk of stroke and sleep deprivation skyrocket in the wake of these. The solution is to build your physical health almost every day. You need to find “a” plan that works for you. For some, that may be as simple as passing on a night of Netflix and walking Fido after work. For others, it might mean a commitment to hiking, bicycling, or gardening. Find a plan that can work for you, and then make it work for you.It’s easy to say, “I want to get in shape,” or “I want to lose weight.” When we did our marathon last year, we found a plan online. It gave us a clear path to prepare for our marathon. If you’re interested in weight lifting, we enjoy the work plans at Bodybuilding.com: BodyFit: The Ultimate Fitness Solution | Bodybuilding.com. We have no affiliation with them. We are only recommending it as it’s a solution we use. We like their app, which we can use at the gym to track my lifting. For cardio, we enjoy the Apple fitness app. While you can exercise with plenty of videos on YouTube (yoga, TaiChi, treadmills, and more), we like the feeling of having a trainer pushing me in the app and being able to keep track of the calories burned and heart rate through the watch. While these have a cost, we view them from the perspective of prioritizing my health and the value there.Our video How to Physically Prepare for SHTF: Functional Fitness and Nutrition is a good starting point for further exploration of this. There’s plenty in there for you to build off of, but you have to be more physically ready to face the challenges this next year because the challenges will be more significant.
Mental Health
This is probably the best point to segue into addressing your mental health, as your physical health enhances it. So far, this decade has been nothing short of a crazy-making stress bomb, and many out there are pushing the craziness further. Politics are divisive and leave neighbors turning on neighbors. Algorithms on social media try to get our juices flowing and feed us a one-sided narrative designed to excite, anger, and get a rise out of us. The power goes out, our gas station runs out of gas, or our stores no longer have the food we need. The modern world seems designed to make us frantic and crazy and then sell us a calming solution. The disasters we will face next year, the rising cost of everything, and the long hours put in with our currency buying less and less, will all be a crazy-making recipe. The very act of prepping also acknowledges that things may get far worse tomorrow than they are today. There’s anxiety and stress in knowing that you are readying yourself for darker days tomorrow. That’s why you will hear on this channel that you must take continual steps to secure your mental health and stability. You must avoid the high-cortisol-releasing confrontations when you need to and focus on your inner calmness. We released a video about this called 6 Things You Must Do NOW to Mentally Prepare For What’s Coming Next, which is an excellent foundation for you to build upon. There are many challenges on the horizon. We’ve read recently about the explosion of depression and other mental health issues that have come from the events of the last several years. If you feel overwhelmed right now, you need to do something about that. Find helping resources, build your community, and network. Strengthen your connections to the things that keep you grounded and stable.At the bare minimum, confide your anxiety-laden concerns with someone you trust. It’s ok if you have to take time off from social media, the news, or preparedness videos. If you feel overwhelmed, take a step back from it all. Trust me, it will all be here when you return to it.Actionable GoalsFinally, we encourage you to set realistic, attainable goals. Go ahead and make them ambitious but not outlandish. You may want to grow 10 pounds of your own food, or a 100. Maybe you’d like to be able to walk 1,5 or 10 miles. Perhaps you’d like just to be able to save 10% of your income for emergency use. Personally, we dream big, and we constantly have to pull ourselves back to today. We have to force ourselves to understand that tomorrow’s possibilities are seeded with today’s actions.Ask yourself how you want to be positioned in the future and then go, “yeah, okay, but how do we start working towards that today?” If there’s a skill or goal you want to achieve, find a plan that clearly lays it out. For example, don’t just say you want a year’s food supply, but find a plan explaining how to achieve this. We outlined how you can do just that for pennies per day in an earlier video called How to Build 1 Year of Food Storage – Ultimate Guide. With how much greater confidence and peace of mind will you face the challenges of this next year if you know you have food to eat despite what the world throws at you?Convert your prepping goals into actionable plans. Instead of saying, “I want to have enough water stored for three weeks for my family,” say, “In order to have enough water for three weeks for my family of 4, I will need a minimum of 4 gallons per day for 21 days which means I need 84 gallons of water. How will I store 84 gallons of water? I can buy a 55-gallon barrel which I can stick in my garage and then get six 5-gallon water containers. I will sit down and calculate these costs and then set aside an amount of money each month to save up and purchase these.” Instead of defining a lofty goal, determine the steps it will take to achieve that goal. It’s that simple. I’ll link to a great introduction water storage guide you can reference here: 8 Best Water Storage Options for Emergencies.If you just turn your food and water requirements into actionable goals this next year, you will conquer most disasters that can occur and will emerge stronger.ConclusionThese five items you can act upon today may seem simple to some and impossible to others. We are all at different stages of readiness. We face different threats and disasters depending upon our situation in life and our geography. And some threats are global and will impact all of us in some way. You can do something today to fortify your tomorrow.Whether that is prepping your finances, food, water, mental and physical health, or growing your own food to free yourself from dependence on supply chains that will fail us all, commit to doing something today. Storms will come. Political unrest will continue. Wars will continue. Inflation will continue. The list goes on and on without end. Accepting this can ratchet up our stress and affect our health and well-being, but you maintain control through prepping. Remember the words of the Roman philosopher Musonius Rufus, “We must concern ourselves absolutely with the things that are under our control and entrust the things not in our control to the universe.” I have to agree. Make a plan and work a plan to make the problems of next year less consequential to you.As always, stay safe out there.
With the recent grid issues in the United States, individuals are increasingly looking for whole home backup battery options. In this blog, we’ll discuss a system that allows you to build it out over time as your budget permits. At the core of this whole home integration is Ecoflow’s Smart Home Panel. This is a setup that allows you to power lines in your house instantly if the grid goes down and can provide an unlimited power source when coupled with solar panels. It’s a very fascinating system that’s modular, transportable, expandable, and programmable. So let’s jump in.
Whole Home Power Backup
Let me start off with a high-level overview of this specific setup and the heart of it, the Smart Home Panel, or SHP. The SHP is Ecoflow’s newest addition that allows you to tie their Delta Pro into your home’s existing electrical panel. If the grid goes down, the Delta Pros will instantly provide power to select lines that you tied in with the Smart Home Panel. 2 Delta Pros can be combined with up to 3200 Watts of solar panels and can be also connected to Ecoflow’s dual-fuel generators. These dual fuel generators can be programmed to automatically kick on when the Delta Pro batteries drop to a specified amount, programmable in the app.
Installing the SHP
For the SHP’s installation, we highly recommend going with a professional. We set this system up on one of our team member’s house using a local electrician. While Ecoflow does provide instructions to do this, and we’ll provide a link to their video documentation, when it comes to altering anything with our house’s electrical wiring, we always use a professional. The professional used the information provided by Ecoflow and had no issues completing the project. The electrician installed a 30 amp circuit breaker that powers the 2 Ecoflow Delta Pros if you want to charge them from the grid.
Use Cases
As mentioned earlier, the Delta Pros connect to the Smart Home Panel providing the power for either an emergency or for power arbitrage purposes to save money on your monthly electricity bill.If the grid goes down, Ecoflow’s Emergency Power Source (or EPS) provides power nearly instantly in just 30 milliseconds. As shown here, the light in the background is plugged into a wall socket and after shutting off the main breaker, it does not flicker. Most household devices will do fine with the EPS, but that’s something you need to be aware of in case you have sensitive equipment like computer servers.You can expand the battery capacity of the Delta Pros to a total of 25 kWh by adding their smart batteries. Shown here, we have 1 add-on smart battery connected to one Delta Pro. Each Delta Pro and smart battery has a capacity of 3.6 kWh each. If the grid were to go down, you can connect up to a total of 3200 watts of solar panels to charge these. Additionally, if you connect these with their Dual Fuel Smart Generators, the Delta Pros can automatically start up the generator to have it charge the batteries and then turn it off when the batteries charge to a level you define with the app. Overall, it’s a well-thought-out setup for emergency power backup.Additionally, for those that live in areas where the time of use or power arbitrage is an option through your local power company, you can program the smart home panel to provide power to the 10 lines, thus reducing your power load during hours when your power company may charge a higher rate for power usage which is typically in the evening, thus saving you money. This is commonly referred to as power arbitrage. Just to be clear on this point, this setup does not send power directly to the grid, but rather to the 10 lines that you connect to in your house.
Controlling SHP with App
While we mentioned the app a few times in the video, we think it’s worth showing a little bit more information to highlight the power of the smart home panel and how you can utilize it both for emergency power outages and lowering your monthly electrical bill. The app can be connected to the internet to allow you monitor all of this remotely.As shown here, we can set up 10 lines in our house. We can see their daily usage which is a powerful tool to allow you to monitor usage in your home. We can see the status of battery, charging input and percentage charged. You can define the depth of discharge on the battery and you can program it to automatically start up the dual fuel generators when the batteries are too low. You can schedule automations instructing it when to charge the batteries and when to discharge them (and from what source – solar, generators, or the grid) to power devices on the 10 lines. You can define the priority of the lines to be powered. We received this whole setup several months ago and never released a video on it as the app was a bit glitchy. We provided them a lot of feedback and to their credit, they listened to our feedback (and we’re sure others) and they have made several large changes to the app resulting in a solid app and system.
Final Thoughts
So, here’s our takeaway with a setup like this. Ecoflow is targeting the whole home power backup market with a system that is expandable, modular, and mobile. We did a blog awhile back detailing my whole home battery backup system, and we think it’s worth comparing this system to a fully integrated install if you’re in the market for a system like this. First, my whole home inverter battery backup system, named the Soluna S12, retails for about $13,000. We was able to qualify for tax rebates for that setup to further reduce the cost. With that system, when it comes to power arbitrage, we can push power back to the grid during the peak hours between 4 and 9 pm PST when the electric company charges double the rates per kWh. With the Ecoflow, you can’t push back to the grid, but rather only power lines. Second, my whole home battery system can accept 8000W from the solar panels, whereas 2 Ecoflow Delta Pros can only accept 3200W of solar combined. Third, my battery backup system has a capacity of 11.5 kWh at the price of $13,000. In comparison, 2 Ecoflow Delta Pros with 1 smart battery as shown here will give you 10.8 kWh (which is close to my integrated system) will cost you $9200 and the SHP will cost you $1500, so at this point, we’re at roughly $11,000. Lastly, the Soluna can output 150 Amps and the SHP can output 30 Amps maximum. The biggest advantage of the Ecoflow setup is the modularity and mobility. We can’t really move the Soluna weighing in at 660 pounds. So we ran through my whole home setup and maybe you’re shopping a different system, but we gave you the numbers to consider when comparing. Maybe you’re in the market for a whole home battery backup system but don’t want to spend a lot up front, but rather build it out as your budget permits. If that’s the case, this might be something for you to consider.One last thing to bring up. When Ecoflow sent us the SHP, we did spent quite a lot of time trying to get it to work with 2 older Delta Pros we had. We programmed various automation into the app and the system just would not work, which is why this video was not released back in the summer. Ecoflow ended up sending us 2 new Delta Pros and when we connected them, they immediately worked right away with the SHP and app. We only bring this up because if you have older Delta Pros and you’re considering this setup, you may want to talk with their team first to ensure you won’t have this issue.Overall, we like the setup a lot, especially the backup dual-fuel generators. If we had 1 piece of feedback for Ecoflow, it would be to roll out new Delta Pros upgrading the solar input capability. With each Delta Pro only being able to handle 1600 watts, they’re on the low end of solar input. We will say in their defense that these models are about a year and a half old and they were really the first to pioneer this level of ability in portable devices. We know they’re going to be presenting updated products in Vegas next month at CES, so you will probably want to watch for that to see what they come out with.If you have any questions, please post those in the comment section below. As always, stay safe out there.
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need” Marcus Tullius Cicero.
In this 3rd blog of the series on small-space, high-yield gardening, we turn our attention to growing survival plants. When we think of the typical garden, we tend to think of traditional garden plants like rows of tomatoes, corn, carrots, beets, peppers, peas, lettuce, squash, and similar vegetables. As any seasoned gardener will tell you, what you plant will depend significantly on your growing zone and the amount of sunlight you get daily. We have seen many gardeners boast about their tomatoes that, when everything was said and done, cost 10s if not 100s of dollars more per pound than what they could have just bought at the store. One plant that requires a ton of attention and loads of money for minimal yield hardly qualifies as survival food, nor does it have a place in a garden you are trying to set up for food independence. In this blog, we’ll discuss the most important considerations for plants you plan on putting into your small space garden.
HIGH-CALORIE
The more calories you can produce in your small space, the better off you will be if there are severe shortages and you need to supplement your stored food supplies. There are just a few that truly fit into this category, and even fewer can qualify as small-space high-yield food sources. The high-yield calorically dense foods are beans, corn, rice, lentils, amaranth, quinoa, sorghum, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, and sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes. It’s not likely that most people can turn their patio into a rice patty or grow rows and rows of corn, so we need to remove them from our list here. Let’s examine some of the remaining high-calorie foods and nutritionally dense foods. There are a dozen, or so we will cover here, but there are many:
BEANS
While beans are excellent for a small space survival garden, you must consider the yield and total calories you can produce from a healthy plant. Beans can be trellised up walls and railings and will yield about 1/2 to 1 pound of beans per plant. Pole beans, like your common green bean, would only net you around 140 calories from that. Pinto beans would provide you with ten times that amount. Fortunately, well over 400 different types or varieties of dry beans are grown worldwide. As you consider what beans you will plant, find some images of mature plants and learn how many calories are in a cup of beans. Those two factors should determine whether you grow pole beans, Anasazi, adzuki, garbanzo, lima, or soybeans. You need to know the space the plant needs, the yield, and the caloric density.
LENTILS/AMARANTH/QUINOA/SORGHUM
While these are staples in many parts of the world, you won’t commonly find these growing in gardens of the western world. They are pseudo cereals, legumes, and whole grains, vastly different from each other. They are similar in that they grow densely in controlled plants and can yield copious amounts of calories. Here are just the heads of some amaranth I recently harvested. The amaranth plant is also called Chinese Spinach; the leaves, shoots, and sprouts can all be consumed. One cup of cooked amaranth has 251 calories, 9.4 grams of protein, 3.9 grams of fat, 46 grams of carbohydrates, and 5.2 grams of fiber. Amaranth is an excellent source of manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron and a good source of zinc, vitamin B6, vitamin B5, and folate.
We will probably be doing a video just on this plant because most people are unaware of it, and it is such a powerhouse of nutrition. I often throw a 1/4 cup in my sourdough baguettes to provide a nutritional boost to my bread. It gives a nutty crunch to the bread. It definitely fits the bill as survival food. As a bonus, it’s one of those plant-it-and-forget-about-it crops which require almost no attention but provide a high yield. The red and gold varieties are stunning in a garden. Sorghum doesn’t contain gluten and can be forced to grow in a compacted plant by limiting the container size or selecting smaller varieties. The plant looks similar to corn when it is growing. One cup provides a whopping 660 calories, 143 grams of carbohydrates, 21 grams of protein, and 12 grams of fiber. Historians place sorghum as an early staple food in diets across North Africa and the Indian subcontinent, where its edible grains and leaves are used in savory and sweet dishes.
Most of these grains can be cooked like oatmeal or rice, mixed into soups, or even popped like popcorn, so they can also be consumed in a variety of different ways. If your garden is genuinely intended for survival and supplementing your food sources, consider these pseudo cereals, legumes, and whole grains from ancient times that are experiencing a revival today. After a disaster, when people are searching for food, they will likely walk right by these, and they can be planted in the wild quite easily. Sorghum, for instance, is often spread from millions of bird feeders and messy birds.
POTATOES & SWEET POTATOES
The first thing to understand about sweet potatoes and potatoes is that they are different plants. The potato plant is in the nightshade family, and the leaves cannot be eaten. There are over 5,000 different varieties that all originate in a small area of present-day southern Peru. That alone is incredible to fathom. On the other hand, the sweet potato is in the morning glory family, and the leaves can be eaten as an additional food source. It is native to the tropical regions of the Americas but is now cultivated worldwide. Unlike the potato, the sweet potato is an herbaceous vine and can be trellised quite easily. Though they are entirely different plants, I categorize them together here for three reasons.
First, they require a sizeable enough container, whether a trough, as we demonstrated in our blog on sweet potatoes, or a tower, which we demonstrated in another blog. Second, they are a caloric powerhouse of starches, sugars, and carbohydrates. One medium-sized potato has 161 calories, 4.3 grams of protein, 897 milligrams of potassium, and 37 carbohydrates. One cup of cubed sweet potatoes has 114 calories, 2.1 grams of protein, 448 milligrams of potassium, and 27 grams of carbohydrates. If those two reasons weren’t worthy enough of putting one or both of these plants in your survival garden, the third reason should be enough. That is that they store for an incredibly long time on their own, so they don’t need very much attention to be preserved. You can even leave them in the ground for far beyond the 90 days it minimally takes, and you will end up with even larger tubers. Some varieties of both can winter over and don’t need to be harvested before frost sets in with winter. With sweet potatoes, this can lead to just a larger and larger tuber. The Official Guinness Record for the world’s heaviest sweet potato weighed 37 kg – an incredible 81 pounds and 9 ounces. While we are not suggesting you will have similar results, that record-holding sweet potato packed a massive 31,787 calories, 7,443 grams of carbohydrates, and 580 grams of protein. You can feed an entire village with that.
When you consider your survival garden, you definitely want to consider the potato and sweet potato. Here too, is a plant that most people will walk right past.
SUNCHOKES & SUNFLOWERS
If you only grow sunflowers for the seeds, you are missing out on much of the nutrition available. The entire sunflower is edible from root to leaf, flower, and seed. Most sunflowers grow pretty tall, so factor that into your space if you are confined to a balcony with a roof. Both sunflowers and sunchokes are in the Helianthus genus, and there are about 70 species. We have previously done a video on sunflowers, making sunflower flour from the stalk and the sunchoke, and cooking that. I will link to both videos below. Helianthus are also native to north and central America but are now grown worldwide. The Incans worshipped sunflowers as the symbol of the god sun.
A single sunflower head may contain up to 2,000 seeds. Just a 1/4 cup of just seeds will provide you 163 calories, 5.5 grams of protein, 6.5 grams of carbohydrates, and 3 grams of fiber, but don’t limit your consumption to just the seeds. You’ll get calories, carbs, fiber, and protein from the leaves, and you will also obtain from their high levels of vitamins K, A, C, B6, and folates. It’s a nutritionally dense food that definitely has a place in your survival garden. When it comes to the sunchoke variety, you get a healthy dose of carbs, calories, fiber, protein, and potassium, but you also get a plant that will come back year after year. The roots which hold the bulk of the nutrition can just be left in the ground year after year and pulled up as needed. It grows so well that gardeners must make extra efforts to contain it. It is also one heck of a plant with a large 2-8 foot stalk around 6 inches in circumference and a bush of small sunflowers that branch out like a tree where the upper stems terminate in one or more flowerheads on peduncles up to 8″ long.
KALE, CHARD, COLLARD GREENS & OTHER CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES
We usually would not put these in a list of survival foods because they lack caloric density like the others discussed; however, where they lack calories, they more than make up for nutrition, abundance, and hardiness. The trick with these is keeping them pest free, as many insects and caterpillars are fond of the tender leaves. We have succeeded in using neem oil to keep these pests away. Beyond their nutritional density, cruciferous vegetables can bring in massive harvests when a hydroponic system is used as in a grow tower, which we will build later in this series of videos. Because of this, they can provide you with tons of bio mask bulk that can leave you feeling full.
We will be honest. We weren’t much of a kale fan until someone gave it to me, wilted in a little bit of bacon grease and a dash of vinegar or lemon juice. Cooking it in this manner completely changes the bite and taste of it. It’s the versatility of the cruciferous vegetables, which is another reason they make the list here. Whether you’re drying them, powdering them, blending them, or eating them in a traditional salad, there is a diversity of different ways you can keep consuming them in your diet. If you grow them right, you will have more than you can consume, so you will look for different ways to eat them. You will also have a diet rich in iron, vitamins A, C, and K, and trace minerals like calcium and selenium. These will keep you functioning well at a cellular level. So, though they lack enough calories to sustain you over the long haul, they make the list of survival plants for other reasons.
Those are the dozen or so survival plants you absolutely should consider in your survival garden. One or more assures you calorically and nutritionally dense, high-yield potential food sources. We are by no means saying these are the only survival plants out there. Nor we are saying there isn’t value in a highly productive bush cherry tomato variety or other plants. These are simply the powerhouse calorie and nutrient-dense varieties we cover in this video. We will release a future video that will provide many more options for you to consider, along with more significant details about those plants.
CONSIDERATIONS:
CLIMATE ZONE
The size of the plant and the amount of space required to grow it to maturity are critical considerations as you evaluate what you will grow in your small area. Of course, your grow zone is also a chief consideration. If you try to grow sweet potatoes in the desert, you will soon find out they need moister soil. If you try and grow a citrus tree in the pacific northwest, you will quickly find out they favor warmer climates. You can do either, but you went from an easy garden to one requiring a tremendous amount of special attention and care. One bad day or event can destroy all your hard labor. You are better served to select plants and varieties that thrive in your climate zone. Given my desert climate, we grow and use as a food source pear cactus, for instance. It’s far from a ton of calories, and we rarely harvest any and eat it, but we can. It is an excellent source of vitamins, sugars, and carbohydrates in a crisis situation. In the meantime, we let it grow naturally and slowly, as it would, on the side of our house. Whatever climate zone you are in, make that your chief decision as to what you venture to grow. You may find other foods we haven’t covered here that will thrive in your environment.
To find your climate zone use the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. You can simply put in your zip code and zoom into your zone. The zones range from 1 through 13. You are not limited solely to that zone, but that is your optimal zone number. The further you deviate from that zone up or down in scale, the more attention you will have to give to your plants and their environment. Also, your yields will be lower than they would be in their optimal growing zone. Something like amaranth is considered hardy because it will grow in zones 2-11. Tomatoes are in a more narrow range between 5 and 8, but if you account for the shorter growing season and frost, they will grow all the way down to zone 1. If the temperature in your area doesn’t stay above 55 degrees for three or more days, though, they won’t set fruit. After setting fruit, they could suffer frost damage if they get too cold.
Sometimes, when determining your plants, you will find a range of cold hardiness zones on the plant label, zones 5–8, for example. This indicates the lower and upper climatic thresholds for the plant. This can vary by variety within the same plant species.
WHEN TO PLANT
When to plant is also a significant consideration. Certain plants are only going to produce well in warmer months. Asparagus, onions, ramps, garlic and other alliums, radishes, and root vegetables can be planted late into fall for an early spring harvest. In many cases, they can be mulched over in beds and will be the first to pop up and give you sustenance after the snow melts and the frosts pass in spring. The more control you have over your growing conditions, the less relevant when to plant becomes. If you are growing all indoors with grow lights, fans, and a heater, your climate is regulated, so you can grow whatever you want to whenever you want to. If your apartment balcony receives decent sunlight in the winter, shades and an outdoor heater may be enough to ward off bitter frost die-offs until you can harvest.
Each plant you consider in your space will give you a climate zone and recommendations for planting dates, as well as the minimal time to maturity, which is the point you can first harvest mature plants. We still use the Old Farmer’s Almanac to identify future weather pattern probabilities, the best times to plant, and potential periods of frost. Some people use it to plant by moon cycles or for biodynamic agriculture, but we wonder if there’s any credibility to that. Others argue there is. When you do plant, consider planting over a period of several weeks with some plants. This will allow you to have a continual supply of maturing plants instead of all at once. Three heads of lettuce per week are much more manageable than 40 heads all at once.
GROW WHAT YOU WILL COOK, PRESERVE & EAT
We have things in my garden, specifically as survival food. For instance, we only occasionally eat Sunchokes, but we have a well-established patch of them. The carrots we plant mainly for the greens, so we plant them close together and don’t worry about the carrot part growing deep, though they will still give me decent carrots. Most people don’t consume carrot tops. Most people have never tried pea pod pesto. Understand what plants you can eat the leaves off and how to prepare them. Use as much of the plant as possible and compost the rest to return it to your garden. We cook with copious amounts of garlic, but it takes nine or more months for our garlic to mature. Some things you eat occasionally, and some you rarely eat. Only plant things that you will eat and that you can digest well. If you hate the taste of Kale, don’t plant it because if you are forced to eat it after a disaster, your pallet and your body will hate it. Whatever you grow, make sure you have the plan to preserve it. Don’t let any bit of your hard work go to waste. Consider trading with others if you have too much. Learn to pickle, dry, freeze-dry, or otherwise preserve your harvests.
SPACE & GAPS
You may want to grow squash, but that takes a good deal of space. If you have good vertical space, however, it can be trellised and the fruit supported by being gently tied to the trellis to support the weight. Each plant you consider will have indicators for how far to space it from other plants. It’s printed on the seed packet or on an insert in the potted plant. If you can grow it tightly together, like garlic only needs 4 inches of space between plants, you can better maximize your space. Bunching onions, bush cherry tomatoes, bush pepper plants, carrots, chard, and radishes can all be grown in tight spaces. Corn has to be grown in tight rows, or it won’t pollinate. Whatever plants you choose, plan to do some reading on the optimal conditions for them to grow.
Though they won’t provide much but vitamins and trace minerals, fill in the gaps with flavor-enhancing plants like herbs, ginger, turmeric, or lemon grass. You won’t eat a plate full of any one of them in particular, but they can elevate bland food to more than palatable. They can also provide you with some medicinal benefits. If you have a medical condition that a particular herb is proven to help with, consider growing that as a backup should your medicine supply run dry after a crisis. You want to ensure every usable piece of your area produces to its maximum potential.
COMPANION PLANTING
Some plants like other plants, and some don’t. It’s just like people. Perhaps the most notable companion planting trio is the three sisters. Indigenous Americans planted maize, climbing beans, and winter squash together. The beans could climb the corn stocks and also fix nitrogen into the soil for the other plants. The low-growing squash shaded the ground to prevent moisture loss and discourage weed growth. The plants thrived in harmony together. Basil or edible nasturtium flowers planted next to tomatoes will reduce the number of leaf-eating caterpillars. Hundreds of time-tested combinations of plants do well together and even help each other. With each plant, you think of growing, see if there is a companion plant for it.
There are also combinations of plants you want to avoid growing together. Some plants compete for nutrients or space or attract damaging insects or fungi. Beans are considered allelopathic plants, which means they produce biochemicals that can hinder the growth of another plant. Sunflowers are allelopathic. They give off toxins from all their parts that impede the development of other plants or even kill them. Some plants are solitary, and some like companionship. Know your plants. Maximize your space by planting some plants together, but give those who like to be solitary their own space.
HEIRLOOMS, COMMERCIAL, and UNKNOWNS
A final consideration for your small-space, high-yield survival garden is heirloom versus commercial varieties. There are around 10,000 varieties of tomatoes, 400 varieties of dried beans, 100 varieties of squash, 1,000 varieties of potatoes, and 1,000 types of bananas. Still, you wouldn’t know that if you went to the produce section of your local grocery store. You will find carefully selected and cross-bred hybrids that favor thicker skins, disease, pest-resistance strains, and genetically pretty fruits and vegetables. You might be tempted to harvest some seeds from these commercial varieties, but some are specially modified not to favor successive cultivations.
Some commercial seeds are specific varieties that favor large fruits and vegetables and offer more significant pest and fungal protection. That may be great for you over heirloom varieties. An heirloom vegetable is an older cultivar of a plant that likely fell out of favor or was crowded out by commercial varieties. While sometimes more temperamental, sensitive, and challenging to pollinate, heirloom varieties can allow you to rediscover the food of your ancestors. Some grow better in wet or dry conditions, so they may be better than your commercial varieties. Most heirlooms have better, more complex, rich flavors than early harvested commercial varieties. Growing heirlooms also take us all a step back out of the monoculture farming system that is peaking this century. When that one variety of banana, the cavendish, succumbs to a virus, fungus, or pest, we will all suffer a global shortage despite the 999 other types that could be grown.
We always have a combination of commercial and heirloom varieties in my garden space. We also have what we call “unknowns” growing in my garden. You should watch our video on Purslane we did this year to get an understanding of those. They are plants that, while commonly eaten in other places in the world, aren’t likely in your local grocery store. Purslane, Egyptian Walking Onions, dandelions, Goji berries, Poke weed, lambs quarter, stinging nettles, Jelly melons, bitter melon, yard-long beans, gooseberries, huckleberries, and thousands more vegetables and plants are out there that we don’t typically consume as food. Still, they could give you an abundant harvest of flavor, calorie, and nutrient-rich foods. Don’t discount them. Find a new one that interests you each season and seek it out to taste it. If it appeals to you, make a space for it and try growing it for a season. You will be glad you did.
Conclusion
To plan your survival garden heed the guidance in this blog. Make sure to plant one or more of the survival foods to ensure good calories, nutrients, and extended storage capabilities. Consider your zone, the best time to plant, spacing, companion plants, the abundance of varieties, and how to maximize your space. Right now, in this series, we are still in the planning phase of our garden. We like to call it the dream phase. There are many things we dream of growing, and these winter months are when we contemplate and narrow my options. Visit one of the seed sites listed below, request their available catalog, and see if there is a variety you would like to grow. The seeds from these sites will be of better quality than what you will buy at the store, as many of those seeds are on the older side and may not germinate as well.
Read our previous blogs on small space and high-yield gardening, and we look forward to seeing you for the next one. For now, imagine and contemplate all of your survival garden’s possibilities as we move closer to planting season every day.
“The clouds that parted following the end of the Cold War are gathering once more…Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation” – António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General.
There is an ongoing upheaval to the current world order as we know it. The rise and unification of nations to contest the global power that the West holds is leading to events that, when fully understood, show a deeper issue that will soon change our life as we know it. While the United States enjoys the many benefits that come from having our currency as the reserve currency of the world, there are nations that are one by one joining an economic alliance that will soon be able to work around the systems that have benefited the United States and its allies for decades. This will lead to an inevitable contesting of the world’s power structures culminating in a confrontation that will have profound impacts. In this blog, we will look at BRICS, the expanding economic alliance that began with Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. It is now seeking to expand its membership, destabilize the dollar and euro, and completely alter long-established boundaries and trade agreements. It has recently made great strides to this end and is implementing a game plan to completely replace the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency by 2025. Though we had mentioned BRICS before and followed it closely for quite some time, it is swiftly becoming one of the greatest threats to the world order and global economy, and good or bad, how we have functioned and maintained relative peace in the world. This is a massive threat you have to know about because it has the potential to change the entire world forever forward.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BRIC(S)
The acronym BRIC was first established in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill. It was an investment strategy in Brazil, Russia, India, and China that was predicted to dominate the global economy around the year 2050. South Africa was added in 2010, and BRICS became BRICS. Goldman Sachs eventually abandoned it as an inclusive investment strategy.
These five countries are part of five significant trade agreements: the South American Free Trade Area with 11 member nations, the Economic Union Free Trade Area with 8, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation with 15, and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement with 34 member nations. Together, the four original BRIC countries comprise more than 2.8 billion people or 40 percent of the world’s population, cover more than a quarter of the world’s land area over three continents, and account for more than 25 percent of global GDP. It’s a tectonic-shifting group that is massively influential, and it is only getting bigger.
MASSIVE EXPANSION OF THE AXIS
Egypt ratified its participation last week. Argentina, Algeria, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Indonesia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia are all leaning towards or taking steps toward joining the alliance against the dollar. Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, and Vietnam are all leaning towards membership. The Bank of Indonesia called upon importers and exporters to stop payments in the US Dollar. Russia is bolstering its transactions outside of the US dollar. China is facilitating billions more in transactions in Yuan. The New Development Bank (NDB) in Shanghai in 2014, with $50 billion of start-up capital, was another milestone. The NDB replaces the IMF and World Bank. Their Interbank Cooperation Mechanism would seek to replace SWIFT. The BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) balances these transitions for member nations by facilitating a liquidity mechanism for members facing short-term balance of payments squeezes or currency instability as they transition. Any way you cut it, BRICS is the formal rival to the G7 nations. As the BRICS grows, the dollar and Euro will proportionally drop in strength.
Here’s why this spells trouble for the status quo of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency that everyone has traditionally traded with since 1944. BRICS nations are developing their own transactional system outside the US-controlled SWIFT system and encourage transactions in local currencies over US dollars. Clear battle lines are being drawn. Coupled with global inflation and recession, we are very likely on the cusp of an economic world war. Without the SWIFT system and the economic sanctions the G7 can agree to impose on rogue nations, there is no mechanism to deter countries from human rights violations or even invading neighboring countries. Sanctions become meaningless.
As the US-led postwar system crumbles, a New World Order is emerging. Anti-western, communist, and authoritarian countries like Russia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and China are basically huddling together to counter western influence. Their game plan would entirely replace the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organization, SWIFT, and the dollar all by 2025. This axis of countries is a behemoth hostile to the US, Europe, and the US dollar. This unprecedented rise of an authoritarian axis, rivaling the democratic order led by the US, opens up China’s ability to make territorial gains, Russia’s ability to fund the invasion of more countries, the Islamic Republic’s ability to ignore any nuclear deals, and the list goes on. Any despot leader could commit any number of atrocities, from ethnic cleansing to invasions of sovereign nations, with the confidence that the other BRICS members will simply turn a blind eye to their actions.
Each country has its own motivations for joining, but there is an underlying tacit agreement not to influence other member nations’ actions, no matter how horrific. The Islamic Republic of Iran wants to join to develop outside of sanctions and be free to build its nuclear arsenal. China is motivated to expand its market share away from the US. Russia wants to be free to pursue its efforts to reunite the former Soviet-bloc nations by force. India hopes to amplify its voice in global governance and to expand the choices of international partners. Brazil’s left-leaning government hopes to emphasize South-South diplomacy to please their domestic political supporters. South Africa, having already suffered from sanctions in the past, wants to court China’s support in Africa’s growth.
MULTI-POLAR FORCES
If you live in one of the countries not part of this axis, it will have some profound effects over the next several years. First, natural resources, economic resources, and trade will all flow away from your economy and into the feeding of this axis of nations. Imagine the impact of Brazil’s $26 billion in iron ore or $20 billion in petroleum no longer going to your country but exclusively to China, Russia, and Indonesia. Imagine India’s exports of $61 billion in oil, $13.6 billion in machinery, $11.7 billion in pharmaceuticals, or $12 billion in bio-chemicals similarly flowing away from your country to feed this growing aligned axis. We have already seen what dramatic shifts in the flow of natural gas and cereal grain can do to the world.
If your country uses the dollar as its reserve currency, as most do, buckle your economic seatbelts because your economy is about to take a nose dive. A reserve currency is a currency held by central banks in significant quantities. It is used to conduct international trade and financial transactions, eliminating the costs of settling transactions involving different currencies. Historically, shifts from one dominant international currency to another occur over many years, as occurred when the dollar took the dominant role from the British pound sterling. This significant and sudden shift off the greenback will result in central banks shedding what they hold, and the flooded market will exponentially drop the dollar’s value. Suddenly, everything you may want to purchase, from a stick of gum to a tractor, will cost more with your dollar buying less. That will drive the cost of everything higher and make a global recession and inflation look like the peaceful, calm moments before the storm strikes of a worldwide great depression, at least a western storm.
As BRICS expands and implements its agenda, a multi-polar system is established that cleaves the world into two separate pieces. One is the traditional methods by which the world has operated with pro-democracy and anti-authoritarian ideals. The other is an authoritarian group of nations that shares anti-western ideals and has traditionally had a dismal track record with human rights and a history of territorial expansionism. Some would cheer this and praise the dismantling of the old systems in favor of newer systems. That argument may have some merits, but the details and nitty-gritty of that exploration could quickly fill volumes and is far too complex of a discussion for this short blog. More concerning to us is the instability created by these two competing, economically warring polarities. It will result in economic upheaval, global flare-ups of economic unrest, and possibly an outright global world war. With the conflict in Ukraine and potential conflicts in Taiwan and the South Pacific, we could already be nearly there.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU
We know this is a heady and complex subject to tackle, especially in such a short blog, but you must understand how this is already impacting you and the world and how rapidly and dramatically it will escalate from here. If you ever had a long-term threat to your food, energy, water, finances, resources, and social stability, this is it. If you needed a reason to really focus on your preps and bolster your self-sufficiency, this would be it. This is only going to intensify over the next several months and years. Barring the collapse of China or Russia, their programs to disrupt the western status quo are on cruise control at this point.
Hundreds of new trade agreements will result in a complete rerouting of the existing supply chains. Those agreements will be transacted outside the US dollar, and tectonic shifts in economies will occur. The best thing you can do right now is to brace for impact. Bolster your food resources. Supplement your food resources by producing some of your own food or finding local sources. Expect that your grid and infrastructure components could eventually fail until the massive machinery and parts needed to maintain them are sourced within your own country. Financially, as these polar extremes pull apart, there’s a possibility precious metals will rise as the only valid means of cross-polar value. We try to be so cautious about making financial recommendations on this channel, and we have no sponsorship for precious metals. We say that to make it clear we have no conflict of interest in pointing this out, but it’s something you may want to research a bit further.
We try to err on the side of caution with this channel to not bring up issues like this with the intent to scare our audience, but we would be remiss if we didn’t inform you of the seriousness of the BRICS axis and why you should be prepping to endure this economic world war we are looking in the eye. In this next year, we expect we will be unpacking this out further and witnessing and reporting on how it is impacting supply chains and economies around the world. Until recently, BRICS was more of a hypothetical threat, but with the recent expansion, the war in Ukraine, and the strengthening China-Russian alliance, this threat is easily one of the greatest threats to global stability we have witnessed in our lifetimes. Prepare accordingly.
We’ll post some links to some of the resources we studied in preparation for this blog if you’d like more information.
This is kind of a cool site. I get daily links (which can be a pain, I admit), but I usually scan them once or twice a week. Sometimes they offer REALLY good deals. They primarily deal with Augason Farms’ dehydrated and freeze-dried foods. I have purchased and used this brand. But there are other deals as well. Check it out.
GARDEN HAPPENINGS
* I’m itching to start my late-winter garden plants by seed. To know WHEN, just subtract 100 days from your last frost date. You can get there here: https://www.almanac.com/gardening/
My zip code says the first frost is Jan 3, and my last frost is Feb 14. But here’s the thing. I know for a FACT we had three frost days last year in March. So, I’m going to go with March 14 instead. Having said that, you can go ahead a plant, but be ready with frost blankets just in case. According to Nicole Burke at Gardenary.com, she says to count backward 100 days from your last frost date. THAT is the date you can start seeds indoors. Well, counting back from March 15, you get to Dec 7! – which is today as I’m typing this. So, probably sometime during the next week, I’m going to try and plant my broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.
THIS WEEK’S PURCHASE: sauces 8-10 jars
Time to pick up some additional jars/cans of
spaghetti sauce, alfredo sauce, or whatever sauce you might add to pasta to form the basis of a meal. If you don’t want to store canned sauces, pick up ingredients to make your own: tomato sauce, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, etc. Alfredo sauce is difficult to make from shelf-stable items, so it would be worth getting a few jars if you have favorite meals using this sauce.
MISC PURCHASE: fuel, propane
This is a great time to make sure that all your propane tanks are full. If we ever have to cook with our BBQs, propane will sell out quickly. In fact, you should probably have a spare tank as a backup. Don’t have a propane BBQ? You can get a small camp stove for a reasonable price, AND an attachment that will let you hook it up to a large tank.
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES
Chili Mac
This is just what it sounds like: chili with macaroni. What’s NOT to like??
Boil some water and cook 1/2 pound pasta (elbow macaroni or another similar type), drain
While the pasta is cooking, start on the chili. 1 large yellow onion diced (1-2 TB dehydrated onions reconstituted) 1/2 green pepper, seeded and diced (1 TB dehydrated green pepper reconstituted) 1-2 TB olive oil Sauté onions and pepper in oil. 4 cloves minced garlic (1 TB minced garlic reconstituted) Just put all dehydrated veggies in a small cup, add hot water, and let them sit for 15 min or so until they look like you JUST chopped them!
Add the garlic and sauté a few min more 1 lb ground beef – add and brown Drain if needed 1 TB ground cumin 1 TB red chili powder 1/2 tsp smoked paprika or sweet paprika 1/2 tsp salt 1 can crushed tomatoes (14 oz.) 1 8-oz can tomato sauce 1 c. beef broth 1 TB tomato paste 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed Bring to a boil, and simmer about 10 minutes while flavors combine and chili thickens. Then add the cooked pasta and toss well to combine. Optional: Top with cheese and either cover or place in the broiler for 2 minutes to melt the cheese. Serve with sour cream
Hawaiian Haystacks
I just bought an e-book advertising recipes using food storage. I was pretty disappointed to see that there were only 12 recipes using all shelf-stable foods. There were lots of recipes using fresh foods, but that was not what I was looking for. ANYWAY…… Hawaiian Haystacks was one of her food storage recipes. For me, they are like making hamburgers or tacos. It’s not conducive to just two people. AND… I DO like fresh tomatoes and green onions on my haystacks. But, in a pinch, this would make an easy meal.
rice: 1 c. rice + 2 c. water = 3 c. cooked rice.
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup 1 can chicken 1 can crushed pineapple (I prefer pineapple tidbits) 1 pkg Chinese noodles (I’m not sure what the expiration date is on these, but there is a really yummy Christmas treat that I make with them, so one package could serve double duty.)
If you have never had these haystacks, you give everyone a scoop of rice. Mix the soup with the chicken, heat, and spoon over the rice. Then pile on top what sounds good.
I like: peanuts (you’d think this would be weird but it is SO good) Chinese noodles green onions diced tomatoes (also seems weird but tastes so good) pineapple cheese (ditto)
Other people like: celery, green or red peppers, chopped broccoli, olives, spinach, coconut, raisins, and mandarin oranges
Christmas Jumbles NOT a food storage item. Well, I guess it could be if you have chocolate in your food storage!
As promised, this is my treat using Chinese Chow Mein noodles that I only ever make at Christmas for no particular reason. 1 package semi-sweet chocolate morsels 1 package butterscotch morsels 1/2 package Spanish peanuts 1 bag Chinese Chow Mein noodles Melt the chocolate carefully in the microwave or with a double boiler. Add the nuts and noodles.
Spoon out onto tin foil or wax paper with whatever utensil will let you make small drops of yumminess. Two spoons? A spoon and a fork? Two forks? Whatever will work. Let them cool and harden. SO GOOD!!!
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Be vigilant! We do NOT know when, but we know emergencies WILL come!!!
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need” Marcus Tullius Cicero.
In this 3rd blog of the series on small-space, high-yield gardening, we turn our attention to growing survival plants. When we think of the typical garden, we tend to think of traditional garden plants like rows of tomatoes, corn, carrots, beets, peppers, peas, lettuce, squash, and similar vegetables. As any seasoned gardener will tell you, what you plant will depend significantly on your growing zone and the amount of sunlight you get daily. We have seen many gardeners boast about their tomatoes that, when everything was said and done, cost 10s if not 100s of dollars more per pound than what they could have just bought at the store. One plant that requires a ton of attention and loads of money for minimal yield hardly qualifies as survival food, nor does it have a place in a garden you are trying to set up for food independence. In this blog, we’ll discuss the most important considerations for plants you plan on putting into your small space garden.
HIGH-CALORIE
The more calories you can produce in your small space, the better off you will be if there are severe shortages and you need to supplement your stored food supplies. There are just a few that truly fit into this category, and even fewer can qualify as small-space high-yield food sources. The high-yield calorically dense foods are beans, corn, rice, lentils, amaranth, quinoa, sorghum, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, and sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes. It’s not likely that most people can turn their patio into a rice patty or grow rows and rows of corn, so we need to remove them from our list here. Let’s examine some of the remaining high-calorie foods and nutritionally dense foods. There are a dozen, or so we will cover here, but there are many:
BEANS
While beans are excellent for a small space survival garden, you must consider the yield and total calories you can produce from a healthy plant. Beans can be trellised up walls and railings and will yield about 1/2 to 1 pound of beans per plant. Pole beans, like your common green bean, would only net you around 140 calories from that. Pinto beans would provide you with ten times that amount. Fortunately, well over 400 different types or varieties of dry beans are grown worldwide. As you consider what beans you will plant, find some images of mature plants and learn how many calories are in a cup of beans. Those two factors should determine whether you grow pole beans, Anasazi, adzuki, garbanzo, lima, or soybeans. You need to know the space the plant needs, the yield, and the caloric density.
LENTILS/AMARANTH/QUINOA/SORGHUM
While these are staples in many parts of the world, you won’t commonly find these growing in gardens of the Western world. They are pseudo cereals, legumes, and whole grains, vastly different from each other. They are similar in that they grow densely in controlled plants and can yield copious amounts of calories. Here are just the heads of some amaranth we recently harvested. The amaranth plant is also called Chinese Spinach; the leaves, shoots, and sprouts can all be consumed. One cup of cooked amaranth has 251 calories, 9.4 grams of protein, 3.9 grams of fat, 46 grams of carbohydrates, and 5.2 grams of fiber. Amaranth is an excellent source of manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron and a good source of zinc, vitamin B6, vitamin B5, and folate.
We will probably be doing a blog just on Amaranth because most people are unaware of it, and it is such a powerhouse of nutrition. We often throw a 1/4 cup in my sourdough baguettes to provide a nutritional boost to my bread. It gives a nutty crunch to the bread. It definitely fits the bill as survival food. As a bonus, it’s one of those plant-it-and-forget-about-it crops which require almost no attention but provide a high yield. The red and gold varieties are stunning in a garden. Sorghum doesn’t contain gluten and can be forced to grow in a compacted plant by limiting the container size or selecting smaller varieties. The plant looks similar to corn when it is growing. One cup provides a whopping 660 calories, 143 grams of carbohydrates, 21 grams of protein, and 12 grams of fiber. Historians place sorghum as an early staple food in diets across North Africa and the Indian subcontinent, where its edible grains and leaves are used in savory and sweet dishes.
Most of these grains can be cooked like oatmeal or rice, mixed into soups, or even popped like popcorn, so they can also be consumed in a variety of different ways. If your garden is genuinely intended for survival and supplementing your food sources, consider these pseudo cereals, legumes, and whole grains from ancient times that are experiencing a revival today. After a disaster, when people are searching for food, they will likely walk right by these, and they can be planted in the wild quite easily. Sorghum, for instance, is often spread from millions of bird feeders and messy birds.
POTATOES & SWEET POTATOES
The first thing to understand about sweet potatoes and potatoes is that they are different plants. The potato plant is in the nightshade family, and the leaves cannot be eaten. There are over 5,000 different varieties that all originate in a small area of present-day southern Peru. That alone is incredible to fathom. On the other hand, the sweet potato is in the morning glory family, and the leaves can be eaten as an additional food source. It is native to the tropical regions of the Americas but is now cultivated worldwide. Unlike the potato, the sweet potato is an herbaceous vine and can be trellised quite easily. Though they are entirely different plants, we categorize them together here for three reasons.
First, they require a sizeable enough container, whether a trough, as we demonstrated in our blog on sweet potatoes, or a tower, which we demonstrated in another blog. Second, they are a caloric powerhouse of starches, sugars, and carbohydrates. One medium-sized potato has 161 calories, 4.3 grams of protein, 897 milligrams of potassium, and 37 carbohydrates. One cup of cubed sweet potatoes has 114 calories, 2.1 grams of protein, 448 milligrams of potassium, and 27 grams of carbohydrates. If those two reasons weren’t worthy enough of putting one or both of these plants in your survival garden, the third reason should be enough. That is that they store for an incredibly long time on their own, so they don’t need very much attention to be preserved. You can even leave them in the ground for far beyond the 90 days it minimally takes, and you will end up with even larger tubers. Some varieties of both can winter over and don’t need to be harvested before frost sets in with winter. With sweet potatoes, this can lead to just a larger and larger tuber. The Official Guinness Record for the world’s heaviest sweet potato weighed 37 kg – an incredible 81 pounds and 9 ounces. While we are not suggesting you will have similar results, that record-holding sweet potato packed a massive 31,787 calories, 7,443 grams of carbohydrates, and 580 grams of protein. You can feed an entire village with that.
When you consider your survival garden, you definitely want to consider the potato and sweet potato. Here too, is a plant that most people will walk right past.
SUNCHOKES & SUNFLOWERS
If you only grow sunflowers for the seeds, you are missing out on much of the nutrition available. The entire sunflower is edible from root to leaf, flower, and seed. Most sunflowers grow pretty tall, so factor that into your space if you are confined to a balcony with a roof. Both sunflowers and sunchokes are in the Helianthus genus, and there are about 70 species. We have previously done a video on sunflowers, making sunflower flour from the stalk and the sunchoke, and cooking that. Helianthus are also native to north and central America but are now grown worldwide. The Incans worshipped sunflowers as the symbol of the god sun.
A single sunflower head may contain up to 2,000 seeds. Just a 1/4 cup of just seeds will provide you 163 calories, 5.5 grams of protein, 6.5 grams of carbohydrates, and 3 grams of fiber, but don’t limit your consumption to just the seeds. You’ll get calories, carbs, fiber, and protein from the leaves, and you will also obtain from their high levels of vitamins K, A, C, B6, and folates. It’s a nutritionally dense food that definitely has a place in your survival garden. When it comes to the sunchoke variety, you get a healthy dose of carbs, calories, fiber, protein, and potassium, but you also get a plant that will come back year after year. The roots which hold the bulk of the nutrition can just be left in the ground year after year and pulled up as needed. It grows so well that gardeners must make extra efforts to contain it. It is also one heck of a plant with a large 2-8 foot stalk around 6 inches in circumference and a bush of small sunflowers that branch out like a tree where the upper stems terminate in one or more flowerheads on peduncles up to 8″ long.
KALE, CHARD, COLLARD GREENS & OTHER CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES
We usually would not put these in a list of survival foods because they lack caloric density like the others discussed; however, where they lack calories, they more than makeup for nutrition, abundance, and hardiness. The trick with these is keeping them pest free, as many insects and caterpillars are fond of the tender leaves. We have succeeded in using neem oil to keep these pests away. Beyond their nutritional density, cruciferous vegetables can bring in massive harvests when a hydroponic system is used as in a grow tower, which we will build later in this series of videos. Because of this, they can provide you with tons of bio mask bulk that can leave you feeling full.
We will be honest. We weren’t much of a kale fan until someone gave it to me, wilted in a little bit of bacon grease and a dash of vinegar or lemon juice. Cooking it in this manner completely changes the bite and taste of it. It’s the versatility of the cruciferous vegetables which is another reason they make the list here. Whether you’re drying them, powdering them, blending them, or eating them in a traditional salad, there is a diversity of different ways you can keep consuming them in your diet. If you grow them right, you will have more than you can consume, so you will look for different ways to eat them. You will also have a diet rich in iron, vitamins A, C, and K, and trace minerals like calcium and selenium. These will keep you functioning well at a cellular level. So, though they lack enough calories to sustain you over the long haul, they make the list of survival plants for other reasons.
Those are the dozen or so survival plants you absolutely should consider in your survival garden. One or more assures you calorically and nutritionally dense, high-yield potential food sources. We are by no means saying these are the only survival plants out there. Nor are we saying there isn’t value in a highly productive bush cherry tomato variety or other plants. These are simply the powerhouse calorie and nutrient-dense varieties we cover in this video. We will release a future blog that will provide many more options for you to consider, along with more significant details about those plants.
CONSIDERATIONS:
CLIMATE ZONE
The size of the plant and the amount of space required to grow it to maturity are critical considerations as you evaluate what you will grow in your small area. Of course, your grow zone is also a chief consideration. If you try to grow sweet potatoes in the desert, you will soon find out they need moister soil. If you try and grow a citrus tree in the pacific northwest, you will quickly find out they favor warmer climates. You can do either, but you went from an easy garden to one requiring a tremendous amount of special attention and care. One bad day or event can destroy all your hard labor. You are better served to select plants and varieties that thrive in your climate zone. Given my desert climate, we grow and use as a food source pear cactus, for instance. It’s far from a ton of calories, and we rarely harvest any and eat it, but we can. It is an excellent source of vitamins, sugars, and carbohydrates in a crisis situation. In the meantime, we let it grow naturally and slowly, as it would, on the side of my house. Whatever climate zone you are in, make that your chief decision as to what you venture to grow. You may find other foods we haven’t covered here that will thrive in your environment.
To find your climate zone use the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which I will link to in the comments below. You can simply put in your zip code and zoom into your zone. The zones range from 1 through 13. You are not limited solely to that zone, but that is your optimal zone number. The further you deviate from that zone up or down in scale, the more attention you will have to give to your plants and their environment. Also, your yields will be lower than they would be in their optimal growing zone. Something like amaranth is considered hardy because it will grow in zones 2-11. Tomatoes are in a more narrow range between 5 and 8, but if you account for the shorter growing season and frost, they will grow all the way down to zone 1. If the temperature in your area doesn’t stay above 55 degrees for three or more days, though, they won’t set fruit. After setting fruit, they could suffer frost damage if they get too cold.
Sometimes, when determining your plants, you will find a range of cold hardiness zones on the plant label, zones 5–8, for example. This indicates the lower and upper climatic thresholds for the plant. This can vary by variety within the same plant species.
WHEN TO PLANT
When to plant is also a significant consideration. Certain plants are only going to produce well in warmer months. Asparagus, onions, ramps, garlic and other alliums, radishes, and root vegetables can be planted late into fall for an early spring harvest. In many cases, they can be mulched over in beds and will be the first to pop up and give you sustenance after the snow melts and the frosts pass in spring. The more control you have over your growing conditions, the less relevant when to plant becomes. If you are growing all indoors with grow lights, fans, and a heater, your climate is regulated, so you can grow whatever you want to whenever you want to. If your apartment balcony receives decent sunlight in the winter, shades and an outdoor heater may be enough to ward off bitter frost die-offs until you can harvest.
Each plant you consider in your space will give you a climate zone and recommendations for planting dates, as well as the minimal time to maturity, which is the point you can first harvest mature plants. We still use the Old Farmer’s Almanac to identify future weather pattern probabilities, the best times to plant, and potential periods of frost. Some people use it to plant by moon cycles or for biodynamic agriculture, but we wonder if there’s any credibility to that. Others argue there is. When you do plant, consider planting over a period of several weeks with some plants. This will allow you to have a continual supply of maturing plants instead of all at once. Three heads of lettuce per week are much more manageable than 40 heads all at once.
GROW WHAT YOU WILL COOK, PRESERVE & EAT
We have things in our garden, specifically as survival food. For instance, we only occasionally eat Sunchokes, but we have a well-established patch of them. The carrots we plant mainly for the greens, so we plant them close together and don’t worry about the carrot part growing deep, though they will still give me decent carrots. Most people don’t consume carrot tops. Most people have never tried pea pod pesto. Understand what plants you can eat the leaves off and how to prepare them. Use as much of the plant as possible and compost the rest to return it to your garden. We cook with copious amounts of garlic, but it takes nine or more months for my garlic to mature. Some things you eat occasionally, and some you rarely eat. Only plant things that you will eat and that you can digest well. If you hate the taste of Kale, don’t plant it because if you are forced to eat it after a disaster, your pallet and your body will hate it. Whatever you grow, make sure you have the plan to preserve it. Don’t let any bit of your hard work go to waste. Consider trading with others if you have too much. Learn to pickle, dry, freeze-dry, or otherwise preserve your harvests.
SPACE & GAPS
You may want to grow squash, but that takes a good deal of space. If you have good vertical space, however, it can be trellised and the fruit supported by being gently tied to the trellis to support the weight. Each plant you consider will have indicators for how far to space it from other plants. It’s printed on the seed packet or on an insert in the potted plant. If you can grow it tightly together, like garlic only needs 4 inches of space between plants, you can better maximize your space. Bunching onions, bush cherry tomatoes, bush pepper plants, carrots, chard, and radishes can all be grown in tight spaces. Corn has to be grown in tight rows, or it won’t pollinate. Whatever plants you choose, plan to do some reading on the optimal conditions for them to grow.
Though they won’t provide much but vitamins and trace minerals, fill in the gaps with flavor-enhancing plants like herbs, ginger, turmeric, or lemon grass. You won’t eat a plate full of any one of them in particular, but they can elevate bland food to more than palatable. They can also provide you with some medicinal benefits. If you have a medical condition that a particular herb is proven to help with, consider growing that as a backup should your medicine supply run dry after a crisis. You want to ensure every usable piece of your area produces to its maximum potential.
COMPANION PLANTING
Some plants like other plants, and some don’t. It’s just like people. Perhaps the most notable companion planting trio is the three sisters. Indigenous Americans planted maize, climbing beans, and winter squash together. The beans could climb the corn stocks and also fix nitrogen into the soil for the other plants. The low-growing squash shaded the ground to prevent moisture loss and discourage weed growth. The plants thrived in harmony together. Basil or edible nasturtium flowers planted next to tomatoes will reduce the number of leaf-eating caterpillars. Hundreds of time-tested combinations of plants do well together and even help each other. With each plant, you think of growing, see if there is a companion plant for it.
There are also combinations of plants you want to avoid growing together. Some plants compete for nutrients or space or attract damaging insects or fungi. Beans are considered allelopathic plants, which means they produce biochemicals that can hinder the growth of another plant. Sunflowers are allelopathic. They give off toxins from all their parts that impede the development of other plants or even kill them. Some plants are solitary, and some like companionship. Know your plants. Maximize your space by planting some plants together, but give those who like to be solitary their own space.
HEIRLOOMS, COMMERCIAL, and UNKNOWNS
A final consideration for your small-space, high-yield survival garden is heirloom versus commercial varieties. There are around 10,000 varieties of tomatoes, 400 varieties of dried beans, 100 varieties of squash, 1,000 varieties of potatoes, and 1,000 types of bananas. Still, you wouldn’t know that if you went to the produce section of your local grocery store. You will find carefully selected and cross-bred hybrids that favor thicker skins, disease, pest-resistance strains, and genetically pretty fruits and vegetables. You might be tempted to harvest some seeds from these commercial varieties, but some are specially modified not to favor successive cultivations.
Some commercial seeds are specific varieties that favor large fruits and vegetables and offer more significant pest and fungal protection. That may be great for you over heirloom varieties. An heirloom vegetable is an older cultivar of a plant that likely fell out of favor or was crowded out by commercial varieties. While sometimes more temperamental, sensitive, and challenging to pollinate, heirloom varieties can allow you to rediscover the food of your ancestors. Some grow better in wet or dry conditions, so they may be better than your commercial varieties. Most heirlooms have better, more complex, rich flavors than early harvested commercial varieties. Growing heirlooms also take us all a step back out of the monoculture farming system that is peaking this century. When that one variety of banana, the cavendish, succumbs to a virus, fungus, or pest, we will all suffer a global shortage despite the 999 other types that could be grown.
We always have a combination of commercial and heirloom varieties in my garden space. We also have what we call “unknowns” growing in our garden. You should read our blog on Purslane we did this year to get an understanding of those. They are plants that, while commonly eaten in other places in the world, aren’t likely in your local grocery store. Purslane, Egyptian Walking Onions, dandelions, Goji berries, Poke weed, lambs quarter, stinging nettles, Jelly melons, bitter melon, yard-long beans, gooseberries, huckleberries, and thousands more vegetables and plants are out there that we don’t typically consume as food. Still, they could give you an abundant harvest of flavor, calorie, and nutrient-rich foods. Don’t discount them. Find a new one that interests you each season and seek it out to taste it. If it appeals to you, make a space for it and try growing it for a season. You will be glad you did.
Conclusion
To plan your survival garden heed the guidance in this blog. Make sure to plant one or more of the survival foods to ensure good calories, nutrients, and extended storage capabilities. Consider your zone, the best time to plant, spacing, companion plants, the abundance of varieties, and how to maximize your space. Right now, in this series, we are still in the planning phase of our garden. We like to call it the dream phase. There are many things we dream of growing, and these winter months are when we contemplate and narrow my options. Visit one of the seed sites listed below, request their available catalog, and see if there is a variety you would like to grow. The seeds from these sites will be of better quality than what you will buy at the store, as many of those seeds are on the older side and may not germinate as well.
Read our previous blogs on small space and high-yield gardening, and we look forward to seeing you for the next one. For now, imagine and contemplate all of your survival garden’s possibilities as we move closer to planting season every day.
“The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself” – Franklin D. Roosevelt.This 2nd blog in our gardening series is your crash course in soil. While we will cover in this series other grow mediums, from hydroponics to clay pebbles, this video is just about soil. There’s a difference between dirt and soil. Dirt tends to be nearly void of organic materials and nutrients. Soil is a living thing, rich in nutrients, and usually always in the process of rendering organic materials into micro and macronutrients. Nutrient-rich soil is rich in humus, resulting from decaying materials such as leaves, twigs, compost, manure, and grass clippings. Plants use these nutrients to grow. In nature, those plants lose leaves or die off, decay into their base nutrients again, and feed the soil. In a container garden, you often don’t have this decay process feeding the soil and keeping it rich and full of nutrients plants love. The first mistake many container gardeners make is to assume that the bags of potting soil they buy at the store is all they will ever need. You still need to feed bagged gardening mixes because, over time, they will pass their nutrients to the plants you will be harvesting, and we will cover this later in this blog.SOIL When starting out from scratch, you have three choices: purchase pre-packaged soil and suffer the expense, use the dirt from your area and amend it, or combine the two. Each of those choices has considerations you must make. Each will still require you to feed your soil. We will address each in this video. If you buy your soil pre-packaged, you must ensure it comes from a reputable source. Big chain stores sometimes have low-quality bulk garden and potting soil. A nursery where you can buy in bulk, preferably one that mixes its own blend, is the best; however, this can be expensive. You will see a few different kinds. There’s potting soil, and that isn’t actually soil. It’s a combination of usually five different ingredients. There is typically some type of slow-release fertilizer, often in the form of tiny colored beads. Vermiculite is a type of limited-expansion clay. Perlite, which looks like little pieces of polystyrene but is actually made from superheated and “popped” volcanic glass. Either of these two help to keep your soil looser and aerated. Roots need to weave through the soil, and water needs to be able to flow away from the roots. Neither perlite nor vermiculite provides any nutrients to the plants. Peat moss or coconut coir to retain moisture and provide bulk. And, possibly, some type of bark, usually pine. If you buy a potting mix for the purpose of gardening, understand that it will lose nutrients and require fertilization. Some people purchase a well-packed block of garden soil, make an X slit on the top and plop a vegetable plant right in there. It can be done, and it is a good basic growing medium for your plants. The nutrients the mix comes with are probably just right for one or two plants over one growing season. The densely packed cube makes it more difficult for insects to infest, but it also makes it rather difficult for roots to penetrate. Moisture control is also a problem, as the cube of potting soil will want to expand when wet and won’t wick water away from roots easily. That said, it can be done successfully, and many use this method.Another thing to know about potting mixes is that they can go bad. If it smells rotten, detrimental bacteria and fungi may be at work in it. We have heard it said that you could spread it out in the sun, which will kill off the bacteria and fungi, but we don’t think this is very effective. The bacteria and fungi will continue to thrive and use up the nutrients in the soil before your plants can. Your store-bought potting soil could also have an insect infestation. Tiny fungus gnats are the most common. The soil is acceptable to use, but this can be a nuisance. The sub-surface larvae can damage roots. Allowing the soil to dry out completely and using a specially designed yellow sticky trap can manage any infestation of these. They are attracted to the color yellow.The second type of bagged mix is more of a generic garden soil mix. Typically this doesn’t have perlite, fertilizer, or much vermiculite in it. It’s more of a combination of wood materials, peat moss, coconut coir, and sometimes manures. This, too, will require feeding. If you plan to purchase your soil, remember that healthy soil is the basis of healthy plants. It’s worth paying up. Purchase your soil, if possible, from a non-chain nursery, landscaper, or farm that produces and amends its own soil. You can purchase their soil by the square yard, pick it up, or have it delivered. Simply measure the length and width in feet of all your containers. Multiply your total length by your total width to derive square feet. Multiply square feet by .11111 to get the square yards of soil you will need. Excess can be stored in a dry area in bins, and you will need to top off your containers as the peat moss decays, settling occurs, and the container volume decreases.If you plan on mixing your own and saving money, purchase the base ingredients: coconut coir or sphagnum peat moss, perlite or vermiculite or fine sand, and standard garden soil. A typical mix will be 1 gallon each of generic garden soil, sphagnum peat moss, or coconut coir, and then enough sand, vermiculite, or perlite to give you a consistency that, when wet loosely stays together without clumping too solidly into a ball or falling entirely apart. If you want to add some organic components to enrich this base soil, like chicken or steer manure or compost, use just a 1/2 gallon to not over-fertilize and burn your plants. These organics break down over time. These base ingredients can likely be purchased at any garden store, nursery, or landscaper. Buying these base ingredients in bulk is much cheaper than buying several bags of soil from your local store.WHAT HAVE YOU GOT?If you are like us, though, spending a bunch of money for garden soil isn’t in our budget. Because of this, we mix our own and use the dirt in our area. You introduce several local bugs, grubs, and other critters to your grow space–some beneficial and some not so beneficial, but it’s much more affordable and provides you with a greater understanding of your soil and what is in it. We will show you how to do this here. To start, you need a soil test kit. These are affordable. It will allow me to test my soil to determine nutrient levels and pH. We will cover the nutrients later in this blog, but let’s do a quick test and see what one of my outdoor garden beds has in it right now. We will link to the specific test we use below. A few years back, we sprang for a massive load of garden soil for some of my beds, specifically from a landscaper and grower. The beds where we put this soil provided me bumper crops, but my initial costs to purchase several cubic yards of soil were high. For our test, we will use a bed that we started with the lousy dirt in my area and have slowly built up over time. That’s closer to what most people will be working with. This bed is a combination of dirt from the hole for the pond we dug out two years ago and has been steadily amended with compost, grass clippings, bone meal, worm casings, blood meal, and liquid fertilizers since then. The soil in my area is desert soil, and it’s not very good for growing much on its own. We have been building it up slowly over time, but this is the first time we have tested this garden area, so we will see how good or bad it is here for my garlic and Egyptian Walking Onions.pH TestpH tests the alkalinity or acidity of the soil. pH affects the bioavailability of nutrients for your plants. Certain plants will favor certain acidic levels- typically between 4.0 and 8.0. Onions, as in this patch, prefer a soil between 6 and 7- garlic a range just .5 wider in either direction. The test kit has a guide for an array of plants, so you know how to adjust your soil from there. It doesn’t have to be perfect, as you can grow a variety of plants in a variety of soils. If you are within the favorable range of the plant you are growing, however, you will have healthier, bigger, and better plants. Not having the correct pH will lead to nutrient deficiency in plants.To do the pH test, take a soil sample from your area and break it up into finer parts. This pH test is different than the nutrient tests, so you will only need to follow this procedure once. Fill the soil to the soil line on the container. We put the cap on the test pill side to avoid getting dirt or water in the non-testing chamber. You add distilled water when your test chamber has the soil to the fill line. You use distilled water because it will be in a very narrow pH range of 5.5 to 6.9, depending on how long it has been exposed to air. The tests are calibrated to this in their formulas.With your soil to the soil fill line, add the water using the dropper to the water fill line. Carefully break open the green capsule and drop the powdery contents into the test chamber. Properly affix the lid, shake vigorously, then wait ten minutes. You should then be able to compare the color to the chart on the test container. Record your results. My color isn’t a perfect match for any key colors, but we estimate it to fall between 6.9 and 7.2. That’s higher than we want for my plants in this area, but it’s what we expect from the soil here in Southern California, which runs slightly higher than that. Most soils west of the Mississippi lean toward alkaline, and water in Southern California is definitely alkaline. The general goal is maintaining garden soil close to neutral or slightly acidic. In Southern California, that means adding acidic elements to the soil slowly and in small quantities over time. If you adjust pH at all, you want to do it slowly. The addition of hydrated garden lime or wood ash will reduce acidity. In my case, unique to our environment, we want to add acidifying elements.To do this, we can use more compost with leaves in it; kitchen composts with citrus in them, compost tea derived from similar composts, or sulfur powder in small amounts, which we can buy in the gardening section of many stores. The other option is to do like my great-grandmother did for her acid-soil-loving Hydrangeas. She poured pickle juice into the soil. The vinegar acidifies the soil. If you are correcting in this way, one cup of apple cider vinegar to a gallon of water applied every month or so to the whole area will slowly correct pH levels. Some people try to acidify their soil with used coffee grounds, but that doesn’t work because the acid in coffee is water-soluble, so the acid is mainly in the coffee. There is a chart that comes with this kit that defines a few of the soil amendments and quantities needed.Nutrient TestsThe subsequent three tests are the three primary nutrients plants need: Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash- the common name given to a group of minerals and chemicals that contain potassium and have the chemical symbol K. There are about 17 different nutrients your plants need in lesser amounts, but these are the three biggies. For instance, we add calcium when my peppers show thin walls or sun damage, as the plant uses this to strengthen the walls of the peppers. The best way we have found to do this is to bury a calcium tablet vitamin near the plant and water it. Epsom salt, which is magnesium sulfate, helps seeds germinate and makes plants grow bushier. Boron, Chlorine, Zinc, Copper, and the rest of the 17 are all in your soil to some degree, and you rarely need to supplement them. So, it’s a deeper study than what we need to understand our soil. We just need to understand the big three our plants will need the most.To conduct this test, you will mix 1 cup of soil with 5 cups (or 40 ounces) of distilled water. Shake vigorously and allow it to settle between 30 minutes and a full day. The clearer and the more sediment free your water is when you do this test, the cleaner your colors will be. We will strain off the water for the test from this to ensure we have little to no sediment in my water. My water is still pretty dirty here, so we will take a second measurement later. Fill the containers to the water fill line with the dropper to eliminate any large pieces of sediment. Use only liquid. Add the contents of the appropriately colored capsule. Affix the cap and shake vigorously. Allow the color to form over 10 minutes, then record your results. Repeat this process with all three test containers.In our case, our nitrogen was depleted to deficient. Our phosphorous was sufficient. My potash was sufficient. Based on these readings and the conditions my particular plants favor, we can decide how and when to fertilize my plants. At this point, we could safely use any well-balanced fertilizer to bring these NPK numbers up, and we will do just that.FEED THE SOIL/FEED THE PLANTSThink of soil as the food source for your plants. Over time, the nutrient levels in the soil will drop because the plant has taken up those nutrients in its growing process. Most potting soils are marked with phrases like “Feeds plants for 6 months” and similar. There are still nutrients there, but they are in shorter supply. Because potting soil doesn’t have a steady supply of falling leaves and other organic material, and pill bugs, worms, and other creatures, breaking down this organic matter and converting it to raw nutrients for your plants, your potting soil can get kind of barren over time. The easiest solution is to purchase some form of pre-mixed fertilizer and follow the instructions on the package regarding dosage, times, and application. Liquid fertilizers are ideal for this purpose. The plants can access the nutrients more easily. Liquid fertilizers are typically composed of liquified kelp, seaweed, fish, liquid bone meal, blood meal, feather meal, rock phosphate, compost tea, or worm castings tea. In a future blog in this series, we will show you how to make your own liquid fertilizers, as they are expensive if you aren’t buying gallons at a time. The drawback of liquid fertilizers is the cost. While we believe the plants take up the nutrients better from liquid fertilizer mixes, even at a low rate of a tablespoon per gallon of water, at $20 per gallon, it can be used up pretty quickly.Solid fertilizers are another option. These usually come in the form of plant spikes or granules and release over time with each watering. However, the plant cannot access nutrients unless these are dissolved by water. Granules that dissolve in water are an easy, affordable, and better option we have used for years with great success. For our small vegetable garden, we frequently use Miracle-Gro Granules Plant Food. It has an NPK of 18-18-21, so it’s very balanced. To apply it, you simply dissolve it in water and then water your plants. A $12, 2-pound bag will cover 800 square feet so that it will last you an entire growing season. While it states on the label to use it every 7-14 days, we only use it once or twice per month. When applying it, try to water it as close to the base of the plant as possible, as some plants don’t like any type of fertilizer on their leaves. This is the easiest and most straightforward method of feeding your soil and plants. Another kind is hard granules that can be sprinkled on top of the soil, worked in slightly, or watered immediately. These will release nutrients more slowly over time.The type of fertilizer you use and when you apply it to your plants is a science unto itself. At different phases of your plant’s life cycle, like establishing roots, greening up, flowering, setting fruit, and maturing, your plant relies upon different nutrients. We want to keep this as simple as possible, so with a smaller setup, we can pick a fertilizer with a balanced ratio of N, P, and K. These three letters represent the levels of the micronutrients your plants need. N is nitrogen and is primarily responsible for the growth of leaves on plants. P is phosphorous and is mainly responsible for root growth and flower and fruit development. K is potassium which helps the plant’s overall functions. Different plants favor different ratios at different times. These nutrients will be expressed on the label in three numbers– 2-2-2, 4-5-4, 5-10-5, 8-0-24, or similar. For a contained area small garden like ours, you want something that is pretty balanced and not too extreme, so a 3-3-3, 4-5-4, or 18-18-21 is going to be mild and balanced compared to an extreme 8-0-24. You don’t want to put your soil off balance.Typical potting soil that is marked that it will feed plants for some period is usually fertilized to an NPK ratio of 3-1-2. That’s ideal for indoor potted plants but will deplete nutrients quickly for vegetable plants with a more rapid growth rate. You can’t simply put your plants in pots and then forget about them when it comes to feeding them. They need nutrients to survive, and the lack of newly introduced organic materials will create a barren environment. While many people’s inclination will be to simply bring in organic material like leaves to mix in their soil, don’t do this if you are container gardening. The risk of introducing insects to your garden is too significant. A tomato hornworm can produce nearly 1400 eggs so small you won’t notice them. A soldier fly will lay 500 eggs that aren’t bigger than a grain of rice. A weevil will lay about 300 eggs, and they’ll hatch in about three days. A mature aphid lays 3 to 6 eggs per day that are only a half millimeter long. One handful of organic material from the wild could introduce thousands of bugs to your growing space. If it isn’t insects you introduce in this manner, you could introduce millions of fungus spores. Some fungus spores will ravage your soil of all nutrients and kill your plants.The only safe way to do this is to grind up the organic material and then boil it to kill any eggs or let a compost pile heat it up. Only that will kill off insect eggs and fungal spores, but this is a lot of work. Trust us, with small-space gardening, you are far better off with organic pre-made fertilizer mixes than with a handful of leaves. We’ll cover in future blogs organic methods we can deploy, like a worm tower, composted kitchen scraps, and similar techniques, but this will depend significantly on what growing method you use and the space you have available. Again, the safest and easiest way to keep your plants fed and pest free is a pre-formulated, balanced fertilizer.The final thing to know about those micro-nutrients N, P, and K is that different plants will favor different balances and take what they need and leave what they don’t. If we know we are specifically going to grow something like a pepper, for instance, we simply do a google search for the ideal NPK for pepper plants. You will find pepper plants like a 5-10-10 mix when you do this. Lettuce, on the other hand, likes 8-15-36. Onions like a 20-20-20 ratio. These super-balanced generic fertilizers shoot for the middle range of most plants. If you are growing something very particular, you might want to match your fertilizer or tweak your fertilizer more closely to that plant’s preferred combination. It’s a real rabbit hole you can go down, which all comes with time and understanding your plants’ needs.Are you feeling overwhelmed? Don’t be. When it comes to soil and fertilization, you want to keep an even balance middle-of-the-road approach until you know what you’re doing. It’s like using salt in cooking. You can’t take the salt out once you have added it to your cooking, so it’s best to err on the side of too little than too much. If you use a balanced fertilizer, you will not likely go too far out of whack for any of your plants. For now, your takeaway is simply that you do have to feed your plants, and you should look to do that with balanced fertilizers marked “All Purpose,” “For Vegetables,” or with relatively even NPK ratings.THE FINAL SCOOPThere is, of course, a whole lot more that we could put in here. As in-depth as all of that may have seemed to you, there’s so much more to the soil–volumes and volumes of information. There’s enough in the field of soil science that you could get a bachelor’s degree just in that topic. That’s far more than we can cover here, but what we cover here is enough to get you growing and learning as you go. From this, you will be able to understand your pH, the big three nutrient levels-NP & K, the types of soil available to you, and how to calculate how much you will need. Most importantly, you will begin to understand your soil. From that, you will start understanding where and when to adjust it.One final thing to note is that as our understanding of soil mechanics has increased over the years, so has the complexity of what is available to you. Many soils and fertilizers now advertise that they are inoculated with healthy bacteria and fungi. This fertilizer we are using is an excellent example of this. Neither the bacteria nor the fungi feed the plants. They perform, instead, a host of other environmental controls. They make it more difficult for harmful bacteria and fungi to take hold in your soil. Primarily, they help break down organics and facilitate the transport of micronutrients to your plant’s roots. A mycorrhiza, for instance, is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant. Fungi mineralize nutrients from organic matter. Sometimes they feed on each other to produce nutrients. Their workings are far too complex and nuanced to cover here. For our purposes, don’t shy away from ingredients that begin with “bacillus” or end with “mycorrhizae.” These will be naturally occurring beneficial bacteria and fungi that will transform dirt into living soil.Thanks for growing with us, and stay safe out there.LINKS: Soil Test – https://amzn.to/3FxIdeoBasic Fertilizer – https://amzn.to/3uAv2TXYellow Sticky Gnat Traps – https://amzn.to/3FBcolgStorage Bin – https://amzn.to/3uytOIYSeeds – https://bit.ly/3PoA0ww
* You can easily make your own baking powder. According to an article I read, MYO: Double Acting Baking Powder | Make Your Own, commercial baking powder contains small amounts of aluminum. Double-action baking powder helps make baked goods light and fluffy (biscuits, etc.). Baking powder contains both an acid and a base. Baking soda is the base, and cream of tartar is the acid. Corn starch is added to prevent premature activity and absorb moisture. All recipes made with baking powder are meant to be baked immediately, within 5 minutes of mixing.
To make 1/2 c. of Homemade Baking Powder to keep on hand: 2 TB baking soda 4 TB cream of tartar 2 TB cornstarch
Plastic bags have a tendency to “sweat,” which can have undesirable consequences on your homemade baking powder. Better to use a clean, dry glass jar.
You CAN purchase aluminum-free baking powder such as Rumford.
To test your baking powder, put 1/2 tsp into half a cup of hot water. If it bubbles heavily, it is still good.
Click image for printable 40 knots PDF
* We had a fireman in our ward who could gather in a rope, hand over hand, and coil it in such a way that he could throw it out again, and it would simply uncoil as it sailed through the air. It was the coolest thing! I think of him every time I see a chart like this – 40KnotsBSA.
Don’t you wish you knew all these knots and how to use them? I do.
GARDEN HAPPENINGS
* My cherry tomatoes that finally began to blossom AFTER the hot summer months are finally ripening! Oh, they taste so delicious. I have large green Roma tomatoes on a few plants, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed they will ripen. Carrots are up; broccoli is up. Just waiting for the “winter” vegetables to grow.
THIS WEEK’S PURCHASE: baking soda & baking powder: 1 box each Unless you are going to make your own baking powder, you will want to store some. Each of these only has a shelf life of about 1 year, so every year, about this time i.e., baking time, I try to remember to get a fresh box.
MISC PURCHASE: yeast, vanilla Even if you do NOT bake bread, get the yeast. Think of it as a “just in case” item. Just in case you need to make your own bread. Try to keep it in a cool place (the freezer works too). And get some imitation vanilla. You can get REAL vanilla — I did for years. But suddenly, it’s like $25 a bottle!!! And…. according to the internet, you cannot taste a difference in baked goods.
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES
The Best Mashed Potatoes from The Prairie Homestead
Who doesn’t LOVE mashed potatoes? Potatoes are so inexpensive if you buy them in a 5 or 10-pound bag. It’s just using up all those potatoes before they spoil that is the trick.
I like to bake 5-6 at a time. We have 2 for dinner. Then I can slice up 1-2 and fry them for breakfast. You can also have twice-baked potatoes on another night.
With a few ingredients, you can have DELICIOUS potatoes.
3 pounds russet or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered. 2 cloves garlic, peeled (not chopped) 1 TB fine sea salt 1 bay leaf Add to a pot and cover with water. Boil and simmer for 20-25 minutes until potatoes are tender. Drain potatoes and immediately place them back into the hot pot. Discard the bay leaf, and stir the potatoes for 1-2 min over low heat until the water cooks away and the potatoes are dry.
3/4 c. sour cream 6 TB unsalted butter and 1/2 tsp salt OR 6 TB salted butter, no extra salt needed 1/4 c. whole milk 1/4 c. black pepper Mash until smooth. Serve immediately.
Cheddar Biscuits (Red Lobster copycat)
I make a very small batch (6-7 biscuits). If you want more, just double or triple. These are SOOO good!
1 c. flour 1 TB sugar 1/2 TB baking powder 1/2 tsp garlic powder scant 1/2 tsp salt Mix together In a measuring cup, melt 1/4 c. butter (1/2 stick) and then add 1/2 c. whole milk
Add all at once and mixt just until blended
1 c. grated cheese
Drop by 1/4 c. on parchment. Bake 450˚ for 10-12 min. While they are baking Melt 1/4 c. butter and add 1/4 tsp garlic salt.
Brush on immediately!
Frosting for Gingerbread Houses
When my kids were young, we made gingerbread houses every year. Of course, I didn’t use gingerbread!!! I used graham crackers instead. The object was to build a house, get messy, and eat candy……. so there you go.
BUT, you need the frosting that will dry hard as a rock. Here it is:
2 eggs whites, at room temperature (Just let the whole eggs sit in a cup of hot water for a few minutes) 1/2 tsp cream of tartar Mix egg white until foamy. Add the cream of tartar 3 c. powdered sugar. Add a little at a time. Beat 3-5 minutes until thick and holds it shape. Spoon a bunch into a baggie. Seal the bag, snip off a corner and voilá, instant piping bag.
—
Marti
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Egg prices have jumped an average of 49% in the past year, and are currently on a rather steep upward trajectory. Eighty cents per egg, maybe even higher, is possible before this gets any better. Last year, they were at about twenty-one cents per egg. Bird flu typically arrives during the spring migration and disappears by the summer, experts said. But this year was different; the virus reemerged in September. These elevating egg and poultry prices will last well into the second quarter of this year before there is a glimmer of hope that the outbreak is subsiding.
You might be asking, “why now?” Avian flu has been around for a while, and this particular strain was first reported in 1996. First, there is a particularly virulent strain of avian flu circling the world. In the US, bird flu viruses have been found in commercial and backyard poultry in at least 44 states and wild birds in 46 states that we know for sure. It’s everywhere. The world is going through its worst-ever outbreak of H5N1 bird flu. Depending upon where you live will depend on how extreme this current food supply disruption will be for you, but all will be affected. Modern agricultural practices, lack of genetic variation in poultry flocks, and even warmer weather affecting migratory birds’ time, distance traveled, and patterns have all contributed to this recent but steady building surge.
Poultry birds are particularly susceptible to H5N1 bird flu with a near-certain fatality rate. It kills 90-100% of chickens within 48 hours. Ducks and other wild fouls may recover but will continue to spread the virus through contact and manure. Fortunately for humans, there is very little chance of it jumping to humans. It can, mainly if you handle infected birds or their waste materials, but for us, it’s just a bad case of the flu and not a death sentence like it is for our feathered friends. One hundred forty million birds were culled last year in North America, Europe, and the UK, and the reported cases are currently surging to record numbers. If an industry can only remain by culling millions of animals, it will not survive at peak levels.
When an egg-laying flock is culled, some farmers lose their livelihood altogether, processors and distributors lose product and profits, supply decreases, and demand from panic buying increases and puts more pressure on the demand side of the supply and demand equation. Farmers are more reluctant to resume operations, having already absorbed massive losses, so supply struggles to recover to pre-H5N1 bird flu levels. All of that combines with the second part of the reason for the current shortage and high prices. The supply chain is out of whack. This creates buying limits, a doubling or more of cost, and product scarcity.
The third reason is that conditions were already ripe for an increase, partly from inflationary pressures and partly from rising production costs. The war between Russia and Ukraine has lowered and tightened feed grain production numbers, decreased supplies of fertilizer, grain hoarding, and low agricultural yields have all sent the costs of feed grain soaring. So, even as inflation was driving prices up, consumer demand was rising, production costs were rising, feed supply was tightening, and the sickness was spreading like it never had before. All the ingredients for an explosive rise in price were in place, as we alluded to in our video last year.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Beyond the price or scarcity of poultry or eggs, there’s a serious environmental challenge posed by H5N1. It is a very serious pandemic for all wild birds of all types. Wild birds, which we don’t monitor as closely as the birds in agricultural operations have been hit harder than ever. The current virus has affected at least 80 different bird species. In some cases, estimates of deaths amongst species populations are as high as 40%. The die-offs of wild birds are further increased by some of the dramatic shifts in weather we have seen in recent years. Warmer or colder weather encourages migratory birds to move, then a sudden storm front or cold snap can leave birds starving, emaciated, or dead from hypothermia. Significant multi-decade droughts also reduce water resources and fish and insect food sources. The wild bird die-off is the definition of what we call on this channel a polycrisis. Several storms combine to create a perfect storm of a problem.
For the implications of such a die-off in our recent world history, one needn’t look further than the Great Chinese Famine from 1959-1961. The Communist government implemented what it called the “Four Pests Campaign.” Citizens were called upon to destroy mosquitoes, rats, flies, and sparrows. I don’t know if they made any headway with mosquitos, rats, or flies, or even if they could, but the campaign did result in a documented mass eradication of the sparrows. Their reduced population increased the population of crop-eating insects, which had no significant predators without the sparrows. Crops were decimated, and tens of millions of people died of hunger.
Birds are pollinators and voracious consumers of pests, insects, and even rodents. Any significant decline in their population has an immediate reciprocal decrease in agricultural production. The rise of insects substantially damages crops, trees, and wild plants. If predatory birds are significantly impacted by H5N1, then we will also experience an explosion in the rodent population. More insects and rodents force farmers to use more potent pesticides and encourage everyday people to use stronger poisons that can travel up and down the ecological food chain. Birds are also significant wildflower and fruit pollinators and seed spreaders. Birds, especially seabirds, play a crucial role in cycling nutrients and helping to fertilize marine ecosystems such as coral reefs. From seed spreaders, pollinators, fertilizers, exterminators, and even sanitation workers processing dead animals, the overall importance of birds in the ecological system cannot be understated.
If H5N1 continues to spread in the wild population, we will be in store for more problems than the rising price of the per pound broiler or a dozen eggs. Large areas of the Earth will teeter on the edge of ecological collapse. We don’t want to alarm you, but even a 20% decline in the wild bird population will dramatically affect the environment. It has to get far worse than it is right now or even at this rising moment of H5N1 surge before we get to that point. There are an estimated 50 billion birds on the planet, so we will likely have thousands of more warning signs before 20% of them– 10 billion birds die off.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
The average American eats 288 eggs or 24 dozen eggs per year. Americans consume 160 million servings of cheap, convenient chicken daily. Backyard farms can never keep pace with that level of consumption, but they also aren’t meant to. The backyard flock is a personal means of freeing oneself from dependence on commercial production sources. It may not be the total solution, but it is undoubtedly part of the more comprehensive solution. The CDC would suggest you stay safe from bird flu viruses by avoiding contact with birds. We will tell you the opposite of that. Raising your own chickens and pulling eggs every morning are fantastic ways to maintain a protein supply and further free yourself from the global supply chain. Some folks raise ducks, turkeys, geese, guinea fowl, quail, and pigeons are all raised for meat and eggs by many homesteaders and farmers. You are limited only by your level of commitment to your flock, space, and the local and state ordinances. Laws about keeping chickens vary by state, county, and town. Zoning regulations, building codes, lease restrictions, and Home Owner Associations further enhance the laws and bylaws of each area. Large entities like Sanderson Farm, the National Chicken Council, United Egg Producers, the National Turkey Federation, and others spend over 1.2 million annually partly to maintain their interests in corporate-produced poultry and eggs over your backyard flock.
Whether it’s chickens in a small coop in your backyard or quail, you can easily have eggs for breakfast any day of the week. To keep your home flock safe, keep them isolated from other animals. Don’t let them come into contact with wild birds or other animals that may have been in contact with wild birds. Keep their area well-cleaned. Have dedicated shoes or boots for your coop area to avoid spreading any viruses. Keep a clean, isolated coop and yard to prevent creating an inviting spot for rodents or wild birds to visit. At least right now, consider your home flock on a pandemic lockdown until conditions in the world improve.
For your part, to protect yourself from this recent outbreak, avoid contact with wild birds. Avoid petting zoos or even feeding the ducks at the lake for a while. The less they flock together, the better chance they have. If you have a bird feeder out and want to help the birds, regularly clean their area. The National Wildlife Health Center recommends cleaning bird baths and feeders with a solution of nine parts water to one part bleach. If there is visible debris, scrub it off. Consider planting sorghum, black seed sunflowers, berries, or wildflowers this spring in a wild patch of your yard. The birds will have greater access to food resources, with less need to congregate. Make sure these wild plants are away from your home a bit, as they will also attract rodents. If they do, don’t use poisons. These rodents will feed the birds of prey and snake population in your area.
When it comes to fighting higher prices, that window has closed for now. We expect poultry and egg prices to go up for the foreseeable future until we get ahead of the current H5N1 outbreak. You might stock up on packaged, liquid egg whites right now, as these have a long shelf life, and what you see in the stores now was packaged before this recent outbreak really took off. The packaged egg whites we bought yesterday are good if refrigerated for up to 6 months. If frozen, they are good for a year. Another option is freeze-dried eggs. Again, these were probably produced well before avian flu was even a thing because when appropriately stored and unopened, they have a shelf-life between one and two decades. A $10 can of freeze-dried eggs has gone up in price like everything else this last year, and it will go up even further, but it equates to a long shelf life for about 108 eggs worth per 48 ounces. One egg blend option, the price breaks down to about .53 cents per egg price. That already puts it as a cheaper option than fresh eggs, at least for the moment.
When it comes to chicken meat, we just paid $3.49 per pound for breast meat, and that was up to .30 cents a pound from what we paid just last week. Putting some canned meat options in your inventory would be a prudent choice. Canned chicken meat has a shelf-life of between 2 and 5 years. The price for canned chicken is also at the early stages of a dramatic price increase in the future, as the current outbreak impacts the existing supply. You can expect that people will start stocking up where they haven’t before, just like you might be planning to do after watching this video. This will increase demand and price and further erode inventory.
The final thing you can do is give up on poultry and eggs altogether. Many will have to do this because they are priced out of the market. Other binders can be used in cooking, and there are other protein sources and alternatives. If you feel that the high prices or shortages may impact you significantly now or in the future, research and explore these different options and alternatives.
Conclusion
We’ve got 2 blogs in our library: How to Raise Chickens in your Backyard and How to Build a Year’s Food Storage. These are both critical blogs for you to watch right now as we continue to assess this threat. What we see with H5N1 bird flu could just be the beginning of a much larger crisis. Various factors, including the outbreak of avian flu, supply issues, the cost of production, and food inflation, are causing the global egg shortage. Some farmers have also blamed retailers for not paying a fair price for eggs as production costs have increased. This current crisis is centered around the egg layers, but it could get larger in scope from here. The war in Ukraine and the resulting disruption to wheat production, a key ingredient in chicken feed, may also contribute to the shortage. Retailers worldwide will continue to impose restrictions on the number of eggs that customers can purchase, and the price of eggs and poultry will continue to rise.
By next year at this time, we might look back on the shortages, buying limits, and high prices as something we prefer over the circumstances we will find ourselves. We are still determining how bad this will get, but we know this may be one of your last opportunities to prepare for it. The best-case scenario is it passes, and supply chains and inventories are restored within a year. The worst-case scenario, well, let’s simply say that’s not an egg we want to crack here. What do you think? Is this current crisis affecting you, and what are you doing about it?
For now, heed our advice and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. If you find yourself sitting on a heap of eggs and canned chicken this time next year and prices have dropped by then, you’ll have a critical protein source in your prepping supplies for future disasters. If you take that a step further and establish your own egg-laying backyard flock, you’ll save hundreds of dollars annually, at the very least. If this outbreak gets far worse from here, you will have eggs and protein, while many others will not. Whatever you choose, make your decisions and take your actions now.
As always, stay safe out there. 
Hi Everyone,
* I have “canned” butter before. Some of the jars are still on my shelf. It turns out just like softened butter. It tastes and acts just like real butter because none of the oils or fats or solids are removed. It’s pretty amazing. With the price of butter, I am constantly watching for a “really good deal” so I can replenish my stock.
Time to update photos of your family. Tomorrow, after everyone is dressed, just snap a photo of everyone. 
As we covered in the previous video, we’re in what many economists consider the early stages of a recession. It’s increasingly likely that things will get worse financially in the coming year. There are multiple factors putting downward pressure on the markets. The way to endure and emerge stronger from a downward market is by prioritizing your financial situation as one of your preps.
We have covered the challenges facing agricultural production in several videos this year. The supply chain remains frazzled. A big war and lockdowns are already straining low agricultural output, and crops suffer from extreme weather and expensive fertilizer worldwide. We cannot stress enough how this will impact our food supply. It will only result in higher prices and diminished variety if you’re lucky. Some countries will face shortages and even famine. It will get far worse this next year.
If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything. When your car won’t run or there’s no gas coming to your area, will you be able to walk the 5, 10, or 20 or more miles home from work? Could you lift yourself over a 6-foot wall? Will you be successful in the high-stress and strained environment of the aftermath of a disaster?
This is probably the best point to segue into addressing your mental health, as your physical health enhances it. So far, this decade has been nothing short of a crazy-making stress bomb, and many out there are pushing the craziness further. Politics are divisive and leave neighbors turning on neighbors. Algorithms on social media try to get our juices flowing and feed us a one-sided narrative designed to excite, anger, and get a rise out of us. The power goes out, our gas station runs out of gas, or our stores no longer have the food we need. 
Finally, we encourage you to set realistic, attainable goals. Go ahead and make them ambitious but not outlandish. You may want to grow 10 pounds of your own food, or a 100. Maybe you’d like to be able to walk 1,5 or 10 miles. Perhaps you’d like just to be able to save 10% of your income for emergency use. Personally, we dream big, and we constantly have to pull ourselves back to today. We have to force ourselves to understand that tomorrow’s possibilities are seeded with today’s actions.
Let me start off with a high-level overview of this specific setup and the heart of it, the Smart Home Panel, or SHP. The SHP is Ecoflow’s newest addition that allows you to tie their Delta Pro into your home’s existing electrical panel. If the grid goes down, the Delta Pros will instantly provide power to select lines that you tied in with the Smart Home Panel. 2 Delta Pros can be combined with up to 3200 Watts of solar panels and can be also connected to Ecoflow’s dual-fuel generators. These dual fuel generators can be programmed to automatically kick on when the Delta Pro batteries drop to a specified amount, programmable in the app. 
For the SHP’s installation, we highly recommend going with a professional. We set this system up on one of our team member’s house using a local electrician. While Ecoflow does provide instructions to do this, and we’ll provide a link to their video documentation, when it comes to altering anything with our house’s electrical wiring, we always use a professional. The professional used the information provided by Ecoflow and had no issues completing the project. The electrician installed a 30 amp circuit breaker that powers the 2 Ecoflow Delta Pros if you want to charge them from the grid.
As mentioned earlier, the Delta Pros connect to the Smart Home Panel providing the power for either an emergency or for power arbitrage purposes to save money on your monthly electricity bill.
While we mentioned the app a few times in the video, we think it’s worth showing a little bit more information to highlight the power of the smart home panel and how you can utilize it both for emergency power outages and lowering your monthly electrical bill. The app can be connected to the internet to allow you monitor all of this remotely.
So, here’s our takeaway with a setup like this. Ecoflow is targeting the whole home power backup market with a system that is expandable, modular, and mobile. We did a blog awhile back detailing my whole home battery backup system, and we think it’s worth comparing this system to a fully integrated install if you’re in the market for a system like this. First, my whole home inverter battery backup system, named the Soluna S12, retails for about $13,000. We was able to qualify for tax rebates for that setup to further reduce the cost. With that system, when it comes to power arbitrage, we can push power back to the grid during the peak hours between 4 and 9 pm PST when the electric company charges double the rates per kWh. With the Ecoflow, you can’t push back to the grid, but rather only power lines. Second, my whole home battery system can accept 8000W from the solar panels, whereas 2 Ecoflow Delta Pros can only accept 3200W of solar combined. Third, my battery backup system has a capacity of 11.5 kWh at the price of $13,000. In comparison, 2 Ecoflow Delta Pros with 1 smart battery as shown here will give you 10.8 kWh (which is close to my integrated system) will cost you $9200 and the SHP will cost you $1500, so at this point, we’re at roughly $11,000. Lastly, the Soluna can output 150 Amps and the SHP can output 30 Amps maximum. The biggest advantage of the Ecoflow setup is the modularity and mobility. We can’t really move the Soluna weighing in at 660 pounds. So we ran through my whole home setup and maybe you’re shopping a different system, but we gave you the numbers to consider when comparing. Maybe you’re in the market for a whole home battery backup system but don’t want to spend a lot up front, but rather build it out as your budget permits. If that’s the case, this might be something for you to consider.
The more calories you can produce in your small space, the better off you will be if there are severe shortages and you need to supplement your stored food supplies. There are just a few that truly fit into this category, and even fewer can qualify as small-space high-yield food sources. The high-yield calorically dense foods are beans, corn, rice, lentils, amaranth, quinoa, sorghum, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, and sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes. It’s not likely that most people can turn their patio into a rice patty or grow rows and rows of corn, so we need to remove them from our list here. Let’s examine some of the remaining high-calorie foods and nutritionally dense foods. There are a dozen, or so we will cover here, but there are many:
While beans are excellent for a small space survival garden, you must consider the yield and total calories you can produce from a healthy plant. Beans can be trellised up walls and railings and will yield about 1/2 to 1 pound of beans per plant. Pole beans, like your common green bean, would only net you around 140 calories from that. Pinto beans would provide you with ten times that amount. Fortunately, well over 400 different types or varieties of dry beans are grown worldwide. As you consider what beans you will plant, find some images of mature plants and learn how many calories are in a cup of beans. Those two factors should determine whether you grow pole beans, Anasazi, adzuki, garbanzo, lima, or soybeans. You need to know the space the plant needs, the yield, and the caloric density.
While these are staples in many parts of the world, you won’t commonly find these growing in gardens of the western world. They are pseudo cereals, legumes, and whole grains, vastly different from each other. They are similar in that they grow densely in controlled plants and can yield copious amounts of calories. Here are just the heads of some amaranth I recently harvested. The amaranth plant is also called Chinese Spinach; the leaves, shoots, and sprouts can all be consumed. One cup of cooked amaranth has 251 calories, 9.4 grams of protein, 3.9 grams of fat, 46 grams of carbohydrates, and 5.2 grams of fiber. Amaranth is an excellent source of manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron and a good source of zinc, vitamin B6, vitamin B5, and folate.
The first thing to understand about sweet potatoes and potatoes is that they are different plants. The potato plant is in the nightshade family, and the leaves cannot be eaten. There are over 5,000 different varieties that all originate in a small area of present-day southern Peru. That alone is incredible to fathom. On the other hand, the sweet potato is in the morning glory family, and the leaves can be eaten as an additional food source. It is native to the tropical regions of the Americas but is now cultivated worldwide. Unlike the potato, the sweet potato is an herbaceous vine and can be trellised quite easily. Though they are entirely different plants, I categorize them together here for three reasons.
If you only grow sunflowers for the seeds, you are missing out on much of the nutrition available. The entire sunflower is edible from root to leaf, flower, and seed. Most sunflowers grow pretty tall, so factor that into your space if you are confined to a balcony with a roof. Both sunflowers and sunchokes are in the Helianthus genus, and there are about 70 species. We have previously done a video on sunflowers, making sunflower flour from the stalk and the sunchoke, and cooking that. I will link to both videos below. Helianthus are also native to north and central America but are now grown worldwide. The Incans worshipped sunflowers as the symbol of the god sun.
We usually would not put these in a list of survival foods because they lack caloric density like the others discussed; however, where they lack calories, they more than make up for nutrition, abundance, and hardiness. The trick with these is keeping them pest free, as many insects and caterpillars are fond of the tender leaves. We have succeeded in using neem oil to keep these pests away. Beyond their nutritional density, cruciferous vegetables can bring in massive harvests when a hydroponic system is used as in a grow tower, which we will build later in this series of videos. Because of this, they can provide you with tons of bio mask bulk that can leave you feeling full.
The size of the plant and the amount of space required to grow it to maturity are critical considerations as you evaluate what you will grow in your small area. Of course, your grow zone is also a chief consideration. If you try to grow sweet potatoes in the desert, you will soon find out they need moister soil. If you try and grow a citrus tree in the pacific northwest, you will quickly find out they favor warmer climates. You can do either, but you went from an easy garden to one requiring a tremendous amount of special attention and care. One bad day or event can destroy all your hard labor. You are better served to select plants and varieties that thrive in your climate zone. Given my desert climate, we grow and use as a food source pear cactus, for instance. It’s far from a ton of calories, and we rarely harvest any and eat it, but we can. It is an excellent source of vitamins, sugars, and carbohydrates in a crisis situation. In the meantime, we let it grow naturally and slowly, as it would, on the side of our house. Whatever climate zone you are in, make that your chief decision as to what you venture to grow. You may find other foods we haven’t covered here that will thrive in your environment. 
When to plant is also a significant consideration. Certain plants are only going to produce well in warmer months. Asparagus, onions, ramps, garlic and other alliums, radishes, and root vegetables can be planted late into fall for an early spring harvest. In many cases, they can be mulched over in beds and will be the first to pop up and give you sustenance after the snow melts and the frosts pass in spring. The more control you have over your growing conditions, the less relevant when to plant becomes. If you are growing all indoors with grow lights, fans, and a heater, your climate is regulated, so you can grow whatever you want to whenever you want to. If your apartment balcony receives decent sunlight in the winter, shades and an outdoor heater may be enough to ward off bitter frost die-offs until you can harvest.
We have things in my garden, specifically as survival food. For instance, we only occasionally eat Sunchokes, but we have a well-established patch of them. The carrots we plant mainly for the greens, so we plant them close together and don’t worry about the carrot part growing deep, though they will still give me decent carrots. Most people don’t consume carrot tops. Most people have never tried pea pod pesto. Understand what plants you can eat the leaves off and how to prepare them. Use as much of the plant as possible and compost the rest to return it to your garden. We cook with copious amounts of garlic, but it takes nine or more months for our garlic to mature. Some things you eat occasionally, and some you rarely eat. Only plant things that you will eat and that you can digest well. If you hate the taste of Kale, don’t plant it because if you are forced to eat it after a disaster, your pallet and your body will hate it. Whatever you grow, make sure you have the plan to preserve it. Don’t let any bit of your hard work go to waste. Consider trading with others if you have too much. Learn to pickle, dry, freeze-dry, or otherwise preserve your harvests.
You may want to grow squash, but that takes a good deal of space. If you have good vertical space, however, it can be trellised and the fruit supported by being gently tied to the trellis to support the weight. Each plant you consider will have indicators for how far to space it from other plants. It’s printed on the seed packet or on an insert in the potted plant. If you can grow it tightly together, like garlic only needs 4 inches of space between plants, you can better maximize your space. Bunching onions, bush cherry tomatoes, bush pepper plants, carrots, chard, and radishes can all be grown in tight spaces. Corn has to be grown in tight rows, or it won’t pollinate. Whatever plants you choose, plan to do some reading on the optimal conditions for them to grow.
Some plants like other plants, and some don’t. It’s just like people. Perhaps the most notable companion planting trio is the three sisters. Indigenous Americans planted maize, climbing beans, and winter squash together. The beans could climb the corn stocks and also fix nitrogen into the soil for the other plants. The low-growing squash shaded the ground to prevent moisture loss and discourage weed growth. The plants thrived in harmony together. Basil or edible nasturtium flowers planted next to tomatoes will reduce the number of leaf-eating caterpillars. Hundreds of time-tested combinations of plants do well together and even help each other. With each plant, you think of growing, see if there is a companion plant for it.
A final consideration for your small-space, high-yield survival garden is heirloom versus commercial varieties. There are around 10,000 varieties of tomatoes, 400 varieties of dried beans, 100 varieties of squash, 1,000 varieties of potatoes, and 1,000 types of bananas. Still, you wouldn’t know that if you went to the produce section of your local grocery store. You will find carefully selected and cross-bred hybrids that favor thicker skins, disease, pest-resistance strains, and genetically pretty fruits and vegetables. You might be tempted to harvest some seeds from these commercial varieties, but some are specially modified not to favor successive cultivations.
The acronym BRIC was first established in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill. It was an investment strategy in Brazil, Russia, India, and China that was predicted to dominate the global economy around the year 2050. South Africa was added in 2010, and BRICS became BRICS. Goldman Sachs eventually abandoned it as an inclusive investment strategy.
Egypt ratified its participation last week. Argentina, Algeria, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Indonesia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia are all leaning towards or taking steps toward joining the alliance against the dollar. Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, and Vietnam are all leaning towards membership. The Bank of Indonesia called upon importers and exporters to stop payments in the US Dollar. Russia is bolstering its transactions outside of the US dollar. China is facilitating billions more in transactions in Yuan. The New Development Bank (NDB) in Shanghai in 2014, with $50 billion of start-up capital, was another milestone. The NDB replaces the IMF and World Bank. Their Interbank Cooperation Mechanism would seek to replace SWIFT. The BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) balances these transitions for member nations by facilitating a liquidity mechanism for members facing short-term balance of payments squeezes or currency instability as they transition. Any way you cut it, BRICS is the formal rival to the G7 nations. As the BRICS grows, the dollar and Euro will proportionally drop in strength. 
If you live in one of the countries not part of this axis, it will have some profound effects over the next several years. First, natural resources, economic resources, and trade will all flow away from your economy and into the feeding of this axis of nations. Imagine the impact of Brazil’s $26 billion in iron ore or $20 billion in petroleum no longer going to your country but exclusively to China, Russia, and Indonesia. Imagine India’s exports of $61 billion in oil, $13.6 billion in machinery, $11.7 billion in pharmaceuticals, or $12 billion in bio-chemicals similarly flowing away from your country to feed this growing aligned axis. We have already seen what dramatic shifts in the flow of natural gas and cereal grain can do to the world. 
We know this is a heady and complex subject to tackle, especially in such a short blog, but you must understand how this is already impacting you and the world and how rapidly and dramatically it will escalate from here. If you ever had a long-term threat to your food, energy, water, finances, resources, and social stability, this is it. If you needed a reason to really focus on your preps and bolster your self-sufficiency, this would be it. This is only going to intensify over the next several months and years. Barring the collapse of China or Russia, their programs to disrupt the western status quo are on cruise control at this point.
YES, but you need Rennet Tablets 
frost date. You can get there here: 
This is a great time to make sure that all your propane tanks are full. If we ever have to cook with our BBQs, propane will sell out quickly. In fact, you should probably have a spare tank as a backup. Don’t have a propane BBQ? You can get a small camp stove for a reasonable price, AND an attachment that will let you hook it up to a large tank.
was looking for. ANYWAY…… Hawaiian Haystacks was one of her food storage recipes. For me, they are like making hamburgers or tacos. It’s not conducive to just two people. AND… I DO like fresh tomatoes and green onions on my haystacks. But, in a pinch, this would make an easy meal.
In this 3rd blog of the series on small-space, high-yield gardening, we turn our attention to growing survival plants. When we think of the typical garden, we tend to think of traditional garden plants like rows of tomatoes, corn, carrots, beets, peppers, peas, lettuce, squash, and similar vegetables. As any seasoned gardener will tell you, what you plant will depend significantly on your growing zone and the amount of sunlight you get daily. We have seen many gardeners boast about their tomatoes that, when everything was said and done, cost 10s if not 100s of dollars more per pound than what they could have just bought at the store. One plant that requires a ton of attention and loads of money for minimal yield hardly qualifies as survival food, nor does it have a place in a garden you are trying to set up for food independence. In this blog, we’ll discuss the most important considerations for plants you plan on putting into your small space garden.
The more calories you can produce in your small space, the better off you will be if there are severe shortages and you need to supplement your stored food supplies. There are just a few that truly fit into this category, and even fewer can qualify as small-space high-yield food sources. The high-yield calorically dense foods are beans, corn, rice, lentils, amaranth, quinoa, sorghum, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, and sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes. It’s not likely that most people can turn their patio into a rice patty or grow rows and rows of corn, so we need to remove them from our list here. Let’s examine some of the remaining high-calorie foods and nutritionally dense foods. There are a dozen, or so we will cover here, but there are many:
While beans are excellent for a small space survival garden, you must consider the yield and total calories you can produce from a healthy plant. Beans can be trellised up walls and railings and will yield about 1/2 to 1 pound of beans per plant. Pole beans, like your common green bean, would only net you around 140 calories from that. Pinto beans would provide you with ten times that amount. Fortunately, well over 400 different types or varieties of dry beans are grown worldwide. As you consider what beans you will plant, find some images of mature plants and learn how many calories are in a cup of beans. Those two factors should determine whether you grow pole beans, Anasazi, adzuki, garbanzo, lima, or soybeans. You need to know the space the plant needs, the yield, and the caloric density.
While these are staples in many parts of the world, you won’t commonly find these growing in gardens of the Western world. They are pseudo cereals, legumes, and whole grains, vastly different from each other. They are similar in that they grow densely in controlled plants and can yield copious amounts of calories. Here are just the heads of some amaranth we recently harvested. The amaranth plant is also called Chinese Spinach; the leaves, shoots, and sprouts can all be consumed. One cup of cooked amaranth has 251 calories, 9.4 grams of protein, 3.9 grams of fat, 46 grams of carbohydrates, and 5.2 grams of fiber. Amaranth is an excellent source of manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron and a good source of zinc, vitamin B6, vitamin B5, and folate.
The first thing to understand about sweet potatoes and potatoes is that they are different plants. The potato plant is in the nightshade family, and the leaves cannot be eaten. There are over 5,000 different varieties that all originate in a small area of present-day southern Peru. That alone is incredible to fathom. On the other hand, the sweet potato is in the morning glory family, and the leaves can be eaten as an additional food source. It is native to the tropical regions of the Americas but is now cultivated worldwide. Unlike the potato, the sweet potato is an herbaceous vine and can be trellised quite easily. Though they are entirely different plants, we categorize them together here for three reasons.
If you only grow sunflowers for the seeds, you are missing out on much of the nutrition available. The entire sunflower is edible from root to leaf, flower, and seed. Most sunflowers grow pretty tall, so factor that into your space if you are confined to a balcony with a roof. Both sunflowers and sunchokes are in the Helianthus genus, and there are about 70 species. We have previously done a video on sunflowers, making sunflower flour from the stalk and the sunchoke, and cooking that. Helianthus are also native to north and central America but are now grown worldwide. The Incans worshipped sunflowers as the symbol of the god sun.
The size of the plant and the amount of space required to grow it to maturity are critical considerations as you evaluate what you will grow in your small area. Of course, your grow zone is also a chief consideration. If you try to grow sweet potatoes in the desert, you will soon find out they need moister soil. If you try and grow a citrus tree in the pacific northwest, you will quickly find out they favor warmer climates. You can do either, but you went from an easy garden to one requiring a tremendous amount of special attention and care. One bad day or event can destroy all your hard labor. You are better served to select plants and varieties that thrive in your climate zone. Given my desert climate, we grow and use as a food source pear cactus, for instance. It’s far from a ton of calories, and we rarely harvest any and eat it, but we can. It is an excellent source of vitamins, sugars, and carbohydrates in a crisis situation. In the meantime, we let it grow naturally and slowly, as it would, on the side of my house. Whatever climate zone you are in, make that your chief decision as to what you venture to grow. You may find other foods we haven’t covered here that will thrive in your environment. 
When to plant is also a significant consideration. Certain plants are only going to produce well in warmer months. Asparagus, onions, ramps, garlic and other alliums, radishes, and root vegetables can be planted late into fall for an early spring harvest. In many cases, they can be mulched over in beds and will be the first to pop up and give you sustenance after the snow melts and the frosts pass in spring. The more control you have over your growing conditions, the less relevant when to plant becomes. If you are growing all indoors with grow lights, fans, and a heater, your climate is regulated, so you can grow whatever you want to whenever you want to. If your apartment balcony receives decent sunlight in the winter, shades and an outdoor heater may be enough to ward off bitter frost die-offs until you can harvest.
We have things in our garden, specifically as survival food. For instance, we only occasionally eat Sunchokes, but we have a well-established patch of them. The carrots we plant mainly for the greens, so we plant them close together and don’t worry about the carrot part growing deep, though they will still give me decent carrots. Most people don’t consume carrot tops. Most people have never tried pea pod pesto. Understand what plants you can eat the leaves off and how to prepare them. Use as much of the plant as possible and compost the rest to return it to your garden. We cook with copious amounts of garlic, but it takes nine or more months for my garlic to mature. Some things you eat occasionally, and some you rarely eat. Only plant things that you will eat and that you can digest well. If you hate the taste of Kale, don’t plant it because if you are forced to eat it after a disaster, your pallet and your body will hate it. Whatever you grow, make sure you have the plan to preserve it. Don’t let any bit of your hard work go to waste. Consider trading with others if you have too much. Learn to pickle, dry, freeze-dry, or otherwise preserve your harvests.
You may want to grow squash, but that takes a good deal of space. If you have good vertical space, however, it can be trellised and the fruit supported by being gently tied to the trellis to support the weight. Each plant you consider will have indicators for how far to space it from other plants. It’s printed on the seed packet or on an insert in the potted plant. If you can grow it tightly together, like garlic only needs 4 inches of space between plants, you can better maximize your space. Bunching onions, bush cherry tomatoes, bush pepper plants, carrots, chard, and radishes can all be grown in tight spaces. Corn has to be grown in tight rows, or it won’t pollinate. Whatever plants you choose, plan to do some reading on the optimal conditions for them to grow.
Some plants like other plants, and some don’t. It’s just like people. Perhaps the most notable companion planting trio is the three sisters. Indigenous Americans planted maize, climbing beans, and winter squash together. The beans could climb the corn stocks and also fix nitrogen into the soil for the other plants. The low-growing squash shaded the ground to prevent moisture loss and discourage weed growth. The plants thrived in harmony together. Basil or edible nasturtium flowers planted next to tomatoes will reduce the number of leaf-eating caterpillars. Hundreds of time-tested combinations of plants do well together and even help each other. With each plant, you think of growing, see if there is a companion plant for it.
A final consideration for your small-space, high-yield survival garden is heirloom versus commercial varieties. There are around 10,000 varieties of tomatoes, 400 varieties of dried beans, 100 varieties of squash, 1,000 varieties of potatoes, and 1,000 types of bananas. Still, you wouldn’t know that if you went to the produce section of your local grocery store. You will find carefully selected and cross-bred hybrids that favor thicker skins, disease, pest-resistance strains, and genetically pretty fruits and vegetables. You might be tempted to harvest some seeds from these commercial varieties, but some are specially modified not to favor successive cultivations.
When starting out from scratch, you have three choices: purchase pre-packaged soil and suffer the expense, use the dirt from your area and amend it, or combine the two. Each of those choices has considerations you must make. Each will still require you to feed your soil. We will address each in this video. If you buy your soil pre-packaged, you must ensure it comes from a reputable source. Big chain stores sometimes have low-quality bulk garden and potting soil. A nursery where you can buy in bulk, preferably one that mixes its own blend, is the best; however, this can be expensive. 
If you are like us, though, spending a bunch of money for garden soil isn’t in our budget. Because of this, we mix our own and use the dirt in our area. You introduce several local bugs, grubs, and other critters to your grow space–some beneficial and some not so beneficial, but it’s much more affordable and provides you with a greater understanding of your soil and what is in it. We will show you how to do this here. To start, you need a soil test kit. These are affordable. It will allow me to test my soil to determine nutrient levels and pH. We will cover the nutrients later in this blog, but let’s do a quick test and see what one of my outdoor garden beds has in it right now. We will link to the specific test we use below. 
pH tests the alkalinity or acidity of the soil. pH affects the bioavailability of nutrients for your plants. Certain plants will favor certain acidic levels- typically between 4.0 and 8.0. Onions, as in this patch, prefer a soil between 6 and 7- garlic a range just .5 wider in either direction. The test kit has a guide for an array of plants, so you know how to adjust your soil from there. It doesn’t have to be perfect, as you can grow a variety of plants in a variety of soils. If you are within the favorable range of the plant you are growing, however, you will have healthier, bigger, and better plants. Not having the correct pH will lead to nutrient deficiency in plants.
The subsequent three tests are the three primary nutrients plants need: Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash- the common name given to a group of minerals and chemicals that contain potassium and have the chemical symbol K. There are about 17 different nutrients your plants need in lesser amounts, but these are the three biggies. For instance, we add calcium when my peppers show thin walls or sun damage, as the plant uses this to strengthen the walls of the peppers. The best way we have found to do this is to bury a calcium tablet vitamin near the plant and water it. Epsom salt, which is magnesium sulfate, helps seeds germinate and makes plants grow bushier. Boron, Chlorine, Zinc, Copper, and the rest of the 17 are all in your soil to some degree, and you rarely need to supplement them. So, it’s a deeper study than what we need to understand our soil. We just need to understand the big three our plants will need the most.
Think of soil as the food source for your plants. Over time, the nutrient levels in the soil will drop because the plant has taken up those nutrients in its growing process. Most potting soils are marked with phrases like “Feeds plants for 6 months” and similar. There are still nutrients there, but they are in shorter supply. Because potting soil doesn’t have a steady supply of falling leaves and other organic material, and pill bugs, worms, and other creatures, breaking down this organic matter and converting it to raw nutrients for your plants, your potting soil can get kind of barren over time. 
There is, of course, a whole lot more that we could put in here. As in-depth as all of that may have seemed to you, there’s so much more to the soil–volumes and volumes of information. There’s enough in the field of soil science that you could get a bachelor’s degree just in that topic. That’s far more than we can cover here, but what we cover here is enough to get you growing and learning as you go. From this, you will be able to understand your pH, the big three nutrient levels-NP & K, the types of soil available to you, and how to calculate how much you will need. Most importantly, you will begin to understand your soil. From that, you will start understanding where and when to adjust it.
You CAN purchase aluminum-free baking powder such as Rumford. 
Even if you do NOT bake bread, get the yeast. Think of it as a “just in case” item. Just in case you need to make your own bread. Try to keep it in a cool place (the freezer works too). And get some imitation vanilla. You can get REAL vanilla — I did for years. But suddenly, it’s like $25 a bottle!!! And…. according to the internet, you cannot taste a difference in baked goods.