want2feed

[want2feed]

To combat the difficult times ahead for the USA "easy" gardening will help many people.

Real easy gardening is not a thing that exists. For the purposes of this discussion it is probably better to call it controlled foraging. The goal is to plant as many crops as we can that, for all intents and purposes, basically grow themselves.

Once again I am not sure where to start so I will again begin with an itemized list of plants that I immediately think fit the criteria. This list is as incomplete as can be so if you know of something to add please reblog with your additions.

1. Wild type Blackberries (the ones with the thorns). You will actually have to fight this one to keep it from growing places you don't want it.

2. Mulberry trees (The North American native ones, do your research). Use the same way you would blackberries.

3. Persimmon trees. While the fruit (if eaten improperly) can be very bitter it is also dense in sugar and can be used to make excellent preserves.

4. Paw paw trees. Plant multiple, they don't self fertilize.

5. Blue berries. Again wilder verities will serve you better. They're not as sugary but they will grow just about anywhere.

6. Sunflowers. Stupid easy to grow, harvest, eat, reseed and best of all unlike other seeds in this list you can likely buy an enormous bag with thousands of viable seeds at your local hardware store. These are usually marked as bird seed.

7. Literally just look up wild edibles plants in your geographical range and plant the fuck out of them.

8. Trees like walnuts, pecans, oaks, pines, and others I can't immediately name all produce various nuts and other substances that you can use for both food and tools. In a country without commercialized wheat farms acorn flower will be a necessary resource so do some research and learn to make it before it's too late.

9. Gourds. Pumpkins, water melons, yellow squash, acorn squash, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, cucumber, honey dew, and so many more. Collect as many seeds as you can and hold on to them. Reasons: they are (relatively) easy to grow, they are pest resistant with a little help, they are nutritious and the sugary ones are super dense in calories which is the name of the game. These slightly break the criteria as they need a decent amount of care but they are very easy to reseed. So easy that I decided to include them in the list anyway. Also if you thought their usefulness ran out after their growing season then you are very wrong. Pumpkin seeds can be dried, roasted, and consumed for months after the harvest

10. Jerusalem artichoke. It has potato-like tubers that can be stored through the winter and takes very little care to grow as it is a wild plant.

Now what do you do with all of it? Most seeds can be dried out and stored pretty easily while a lot of fruit will need a bit of help. Drying is a decent technique so a dehydrator is a useful tool. Keep all roots in a cool dry space and they will last months past their season. Canning jams and jellies is a good way to preserve calories. A non obvious one that I don't think many people consider is alcohol. Alcohol (when done right) is dense in calories and can be stored for decades when done correctly just be careful. Alcoholism is a bitch.

Again to end off, calories are the goal. Get all of the calories. And if you gain a little weight, good. You will need it to survive the winter.

As always help the community out by sharing links to any and all written/video/audio resources involving keeping plants and list any plants you think could be missing from this list. Remember, our mission is to feed as many people as we can through the coming years so never be stingy with food.

Please share this to spread some knowledge and include more people in the conversation. More knowledge and experience needs to be pooled together to help feed as many people as possible.

[want2feed]

I realize I am on the "gay left" social media so I doubt I will get many arguments but trophy hunting, like the kind where someone kills an animal, takes a trophy and then leaves really disgusts me.

1. It is disrespectful to the animals.

2. It is disrespectful to the land.

3. It is a product of the idea that this land is ours to take whatever we want from it.

4. There is so much more you can potentially do with the animal. So much food, so many tools and resources and you are just leaving it all behind for decomposers to reclaim.

I do intend to start doing some yearly hunting but that will be food and tools and soup stock and broth and jewelry. I will only kill a few animals per year and everything I can possibly use or sell will be used or sold.

But most of all I will have respect for the animal that has given its life to enrich mine. I will respect the animal that I am wearing, that I am eating, and that I am using.

This is not a transaction where I am trying to blindly steal away as much of nature's gifts as I can but it is instead a relationship where I am being a part of my local environment and my environment is a part of me. I am being an animal in an ecosystem.

I intend to do as much as I can to live without the need for large mass production and distribution systems. I intend to live local and support local. Not for some gross xenophobic reasons or because I think American shit is better than foreign.

Efforts like this will in the long run help to feed more people by reducing our society's dependence on these wasteful systems of mass production and transport and encouraging people to share what we can produce ourselves.

That is all.

[want2feed]

This... This is beautiful.

[want2feed]

Times are about to be really hard. General food scarcity or just scarcity of safe food may become a major issue in the US so we need to regain the ability to get our own food without the use of industrial mass production and transportation networks. Where do we begin? I guess a list of major sources that can be maintained without any mass infrastructure. I am not the best person to start this conversation but I guess I will try.

In order of achievability:

1. "Easily" maintainable hearty crops that are full of nutrition and tons of calories. They also need to be easy to cook. This will provide the most reliable food that will last for most of the year in most areas. Alongside good preservation techniques this will keep the most people fed.

2. Hunting (with a caveat) we need to set the ground rule early on that we only hunt exactly what we need and that we use up as much of the animals as we physically are able. People who don't have an understanding of their impact on the world tend to make foolish mistakes that will lead to their own destruction. Also a heavy focus on reusable hunting tools. Things like bows, crossbows, slings, various traps, snares, and spears. Bullets won't last long after all of the infrastructure that mass produced and distributed them falls apart. Again good preservation techniques will save lives.

3. Foraging, yes I put this one third. Foraging is helpful and a good supplement to the others but it is also

(a) a skill that can take years to learn or else you will eat something poisonous and die.

(b) usually not reliable enough to get a single day's worth of nutrition much less a year.

(c) foraged fruit will not last you through any harsh winter.

The biggest benefits of foraging will be in the nuts. I'm talking about acorns, walnuts, pecans, and probably many others I am forgetting to mention (please tell me any and all I could be missing). Despite the prevalence of various nut allergies for those who can eat them they will represent a solid source of fats, calories, and other various nutrients and usable materials that will store easily through the year.

4. Community will be the thing that keeps the most people alive. Everyone deserves a chance to survive and even though we will lose access to a lot of medicine in the coming years if we can hold together and support each other we can carry those who will be most affected by the hard times ahead. I put this one fourth because If I'm being honest I think it is the least likely to happen. People are so torn apart right now and disability is a bad word in today's world. But if we can be better, if we can focus on feeding each other, nevermind previous borders. Nevermind past allegiances, we need to feed people. By our kindness we will build a new community and if people don't want to be a part of it we won't make them be, but we will feed them if they ask.

I realize this post is not "the end all be all of food in the apocalypse" (most of what I've said is probably wrong) but it is hopefully the start of a conversation that may keep some people alive.

My next four posts will be breaking down the four points I described here but in much more detail. I will probably make a lot of incorrect statements and I want to be corrected. Please send me every single resource that you can possibly think of (free and downloadable PDFs are appreciated). Not just for my sake but so that as many people as possible can be fed and kept alive.

Am I catastrophising? I hope I am. I hope these efforts will be in vain and we won't need the background of information and the resources that I hope to collect together in this blog. But the community is never in vain. The friends we make are always worth it. Feeding people who are hungry is never a fruitless endeavor. And we can still use this. We can use this to reliably feed people who don't have the luxury of being able to rely on the major food distribution systems currently at play. The current systems are failing people every day but if we can put together the resources and build a new community for the purpose of feeding everyone we can, then maybe one more stomach won't go hungry.

So again I am asking for every written text that exists on the topic of feeding people with little resources and anything to do with the four topics above or just any topics you think will be helpful. I am asking for every video, blog, magazine, and web series on this topic as well. Literally every resource.

Lastly, I am asking you to do the hardest part of all. I am asking you to talk to people. Talk to people that you normally don't. Just talk to them about feeding people and if they spit in your face or yell at you or get all self righteous about it then you don't have to talk to them. Talk to people in need. Talk to people who don't know where their next meal is coming from. Learn their names and memorize them. Write them down. These are the people we are working for. I am also asking you that as you see things you can do, actions that you can take, please do them. Plant those fruiting trees in places people don't want them. Grow those blackberry brambles and tell your HOA they can shove it up their ass. Or better yet get them on board with it. Build community gardens and feed your neighbors and your family and your cousins and your friends and even your enemies. Feeding people is never in vain.

So let's feed people.