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To: FreeAtlanta

Sorry, but just gotta chime in...

I agree with the cans of heirloom seed commercials - buyers don’t have a clue - sellers don’t care that they overstate the situation and how much ‘balanced’ food nutrition you will get... Plus as you say, they never mention the 3-4 months during the growing season part of the year only...

Now,
Regarding >>>1). why non-hybrid????? Shouldn’t you try to get the most hardy hybrid seeds for post apocolypse?<<<

Yep, good idea - BUT you have to store the parent stock that went into the cross of the hybrid to get the vigor.

If you plant that hybrid the second year, you only get 50% like the hybrid and 25% like each of the parents. Research will show you that a Priest many years ago discovered this while working with peas. Think of it this way you have plant AA and plant BB when you cross them to make a hybrid, you have AB and BA which are identical and have hybrid vigor. If you planted the AB/BA plants you would get equal quantities of AA, AB,BB and BA - so with each years planting, you get further and further away from the hybrid. Hope that is about as clear as mud for ya...

With the adapted heirlooms, you can plant repeatedly and select your plants for seed each year based on performance. Plus, seeds can also be stored for years (except onions). Please don’t do like some though - ‘I heard of canned seeds, so I canned some in my pressure canner, so I am all set’. NOPE they are sterile now.........

Regarding >>>2). Why not just buy a bunch of already grown stuff like wheat or MREs and canned food? When bad times happen, are you going to have time to grow stuff before dying of starvation???<<<

Initial storage can be bought and stored and if packaged right, can still be good after 25 years (shoot, they found grain in some of the pyramids still viable after more than two millennia. Since few have combines, they need to have the resourcefulness to devise their own way to harvest it. I have a frame that is covered with 1/4” hardware cloth that just fits on my garden wagon. put it on and after cutting and shocking the grain for drying, you place a bundle of it on the screen and aggressively rub it against the screen - then you have the grain and some chaff in the wagon. Then winnow it (toss it up in the air with a nice breeze and the chaff gets blown out, till you get it good and clean. Works pretty well to freeze it for a couple of weeks before sealing it up in a mylar bag in a sealed bucket. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots and winter squash like butternut will easily store all winter. Home canned meat is basically good ‘ indefinitely’ and veggies are good for many years - and I mean MANY...

Put your growing plan into action NOW and can/freeze/dehydrate more than you will use in a year - I do about 80+ cases (soon to be over 100) plus two freezers and dehydrate quite a bit. Right now, as I plant this years crops, I still have enough for a whole year on hand. That way I can even survive a total crop loss for a year and still be able to carry on. USE YOUR FOOD! No cooking/eating break-in period and an excellent rotation without having to throw out the old for the new.

Yes, I have generators and inverters along with batteries, but I have gasoline, kerosene and water stockpiled too. I can cook on LP gas, electric, wood, coal, kerosene interchangeably from stocks I have of each of them. (could probably do solar oven too if needed.) I have raised hogs, calves, goats and sheep, have butchered all of them and have canned, frozen and dried all of it. Butchered 3 deer last year and two this year - have about half of it backed up in glass jars.

It is time consuming, particularly when you have 5 gallon stainless pots simmering tomato sauce and pressure canner processing green beans/corn/etc. and hot water bath processing pickles all at the same time. 2 acres of intensive garden is providing for 4 families quite nicely - fortunately am retired and can input the time required.

You don’t have to buy the most expensive equipment, but a Victria mill will suffice along with a meat grinder and sausage stuffer - Oh, and a sauce master is well worth the price. I buy jar lids by the case and keep more than a year ahead in stock on them.

When you do it that way, you hardly notice the prices going up in the grocery store (other than gloating when you see what others are paying for a tomato or such). You also have a piece of mind, knowing that you don’t NEED no stinkin gov’t. handout - and I have a family Dr. within 500’, a nurse and two surgeons within half mile for medical needs. (cultivate their friendship! I regularly give them surplus veggies that I won’t have time to preserve - or that two daughters living very nearby don’t need.

/soapbox


215 posted on 04/02/2010 8:18:43 PM PDT by DelaWhere (Better to be prepared a year too early than a day too late.)
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To: DelaWhere
You don’t have to buy the most expensive equipment, but a Victria mill will suffice along with a meat grinder and sausage stuffer

What brand names do you have? I've seen some down at the local farmer supply store... would like to know what you bought!

290 posted on 04/03/2010 1:12:17 PM PDT by JDoutrider (PLEASE HELP FREEPER JEFF HEAD: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2481989/posts)
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