Keep our heritage foods

The link to the article below is very distrubing. Will we be left only with Frankenfoods?

Please Save non-GMO seed sources

Garden Planning

Although we are back to cold and snowy days, the recent warmer weather was a little reminder that spring is coming soon. With spring comes the excitment of peparing and sowing the backyard vegetable garden. Before it gets to late we need to start planning for that awesome veggie producer. Now is the perfect time to choose which vegetables and how many of each you would like to plant this season. Check your notes from last season to see what you liked and what worked to try again this year. It is also important to see where each crop was planted in the garden and make sure to rotate this year.

As early as it may seem, in many areas, now is the time to start planning and start some seeds indoors. Use this CHART to figure out when you need to start your indoor seeds for the coming season.

Now is also a great time to get a quick inventory of your seed stocks and gardening tools. Do you need anything? I know I do. Last year my seedlings that were started indoors were started a little late and were weak and leggy. I had only used a germination station and some shop lights with growing bulbs. This would have been ok except for the temperature of the basement at night. This year I will be adding a propagation heating mat. This mat will keep the soil an average of 10-20 degrees above ambient room temperature. This mat can be more precisely controled with the addition of a thermostat. I have found that Seeds of Change has a great selection of seeds and other supplies. I also plan to organize my set up better this year. Last year was slightly rushed and not PLANNED well, hence the reason for this post. Don't let it happen to you. Once I have everything set up I will post some pictures that can be used as examples. No copyright on how my stuff is set up. I am here to help and share.

Simple steps to self sustainibilty

The road to self sustainability is a long one with great rewards. This is can be a problem, however, with most peoples lifestyles today. Everyone wants results instantly. As you travel down this road there are things that can be done to help achieve this smaller, but more rapid results.

Garden: I would have to say that one of the best ways to start down the self sustainable road would be to start some type of garden. Even if it is only a couple vegetable plants in a container garden. This is also a very important step.

Food Storage: Storing non-perishable food items can fall more under the "survivalist" or "prepper" category, but isn't life survival? Being self sustainable is being able to survive on your own without needed to rely on an outside source. You could easily start a substantial food storage supply and plan by grabbing a couple items every time you go to the grocery store. Look for things on sale or discounts for buying in bulk.

Cooking At Home: With the amount of restaurants and take out places around today it is easy to grow distant from the traditions of home made meals. There are a good number of people that can't even put together a simple meal on their own. Being able to create healthy and nutritious meals is essential in becoming self sustainable. This is also a quick and simple way to start towards self sustainability.

The path is long but it can be taken in mostly small steps. It is really changing your lifestyle more than anything. The reward is well worth the work even if you don't become a full off-gridder.

Spacial Gardening

Click the title to link to the video.

This is a great idea for people with minimal or no garden space. Perfect for Urban environments. It would also come in pretty handy if Senate Bill S510 goes through and creates steps towards making home gardening illegal. I could see this in my basement or safe room hidden away from government home gardening gestapo.

If I could make one change to it however, I wouldn't built it from PVC. I would want something that didn't leach chemicals into my food supply.

Let's catch up

Well, it’s been awhile since my last post. I apologize! I am also going to focus my posts more towards their purpose; self-sustainability/ self-reliance. I will do my best to avoid politically charged posts unless they relate directly to the idea behind this blog. From time to time I may post about how the US as a country/community should and can also become self-sustainable/ self-reliant. With that said I will proceed to providing you with useful information.

Let’s catch up. This year I had great improvements in my backyard vegetable garden. I built a more organized layout with a fence to keep out pests, namely a woodchuck that had been enjoying use of my garden. I found that woodchucks are far more clever than I had given them credit for. He/she found the fence to only be a small obstacle in the trip to a wonderful meal. I quickly solved this with a live trap (have-a-heart) and removed him from the property to a nice waterfront piece of public land. Once that problem was solved the garden took off.

I would argue that one of the easiest and beginning steps in the path to self-reliance is a backyard garden. Now for those of you without a backyard don’t get your panties in a bunch. Container gardens are just as effective and can be indoors or outdoors on a porch/deck/patio. All you need for either is some good soil with mixed in compost (preferably compost you make yourself), seeds (that are GMO free and non-hybrid), and natural or simulated natural light. Be sure to plan, well before planting, on which items to grow and when they need to be started.

If you choose to use fertilizer I would recommend a product called “Neptune’s Harvest.” For me being from New England I get an added bonus on top of its outstanding fertilizing abilities. Neptune’s Harvest is made in Massachusetts so I am purchasing a product made in close proximity to my location. I used this fertilizer in a method called foliar feeding. This is spraying the liquid fertilizer directly onto the plants leaves. This is best achieved using a pressurized container that allows the liquid to come out in a very fine mist. I purchased the one I use at Sears. It is more commonly used to apply insecticides.

My garden is an insecticide and pesticide free area. I figure that one of the major benefits of becoming self-reliant is being able to control things that involve your life. This is very important when thinking about food and what you ingest. There are many organic and “safe” products out there to protect against pests and any other aliments that may harm your garden. This year I had some problems, but I did some research and will be applying my findings next season. I will be trying to attract natural pest predators to take care of any problems. These would be typically, ladybugs, lacewings, trichogramma wasps, etc. There are ample websites explaining how to attract these protectors of the garden, but you can also purchase them online.

As your garden begins to produce the pride of harvesting something that you have grown yourself is indescribable and very rewarding. It is more than likely that towards the end of the season you will notice you have more vegetables that you know that to do with. There are a few things that can help with that. It is always nice to give to others so giving your neighbor some extra harvest is nice and can strengthen local community. Another is to allow some fruits and vegetables to go to seed and harvest the seeds for storage or the following planting season. This will require some knowledge and I choose to purchase a book called “Seed to Seed.” In something like that you can learn the ins and outs of seed saving. The method I used this season to handle extra harvest is canning. The most effective way for me was mason jars and a “ball” canning kit found in stores such as Target. The secondary benefit to canning is the ability to store the food over a relatively longer period of time. This comes in handy for the “survivalist/ prepper” as well. The last method I am going to mention would be drying or dehydrating. I think this would be best used for herbs, but I may get into trying this in a future season.

Self-Sustainiblity

Webster dictionary definition:
sus·tain·able
1 : capable of being sustained
2 a : of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged b : of or relating to a lifestyle involving the use of sustainable methods

And for our use it will be as follows:
Self-Sustainability – the ability for oneself or a building to sustain itself by it’s own means.

An example would be an apartment building that produces it’s own electricity via wind and/or solar power and uses passive solar design principles to aid in heating, cooling, and lighting. This building would also retain rainwater for use in grey-water systems, such as, irrigation of landscaping and toilets. A very well managed recycling plan must be in effect and followed. Vegetable gardens and greenhouses located on the property or building itself would provide fresh organic food for the occupants. Also, the occupants should be trained in and willing to live this type of lifestyle.

The main reasoning for this type of living is to become dependant on oneself and one’s community. (I believe this is where some ideas for “sustainable government” come into play. A nation that focuses more on the local community and independence will, in turn, create citizens who are more willing to help one another without force. But, that is for a later post where more details will be discussed.) The idea of this post is to help figure out how to attain a self-sustaining lifestyle and to present the ideas and products that will make that possible.

From an Architectural standpoint, a sustainable building can obviously be created more easily than a person’s thought process and lifestyle can be changed. Buildings can be designed and built to utilize a plethora of methods and products that will allow it to provide for itself. While, a single person, family or community making the choices and decisions to make their lives self sustainable, can be a more difficult feat. A good example of this would be how.. Most people have focused on using a supplement of green power production to lessen their demand and dependence on the grid. But, there is a solution with an even bigger outcome that people are missing. The larger picture here would be to fully remove the building from the grid by using multiple power production units in conjunction. By applying an accurate electrical demand estimation for the building and providing multiple solar arrays and vertical wind turbines, the building can better provide for itself. This would also, more than likely, require a battery bank for some storage and backup. There are also software programs that will help manage this self-contained system. Two such systems I have found (but not used) is on this agilewaves and Lucid Deisgn Group. Utilizing all of these things will show a large up front cost but it is the pride and long-term that we should focus on. Most of these systems will pay for themselves within 10 years. It may seem like a long time, but if you think of the building as an investment, it makes perfect sense.

Stopping at the power supply would be foolish when you look, again, at the big picture. Building materials can also have huge benefits in the “going green” process. This rings especially true in renovations and new construction. We must also remember that self-sustainability includes the sustainability of the community we live in and the Earth we live on. Finding products that are locally produced with the concept of environmental conservation kept in mind is key.

After saying a building is an “easier” step towards self-sustainability, lets agree that a lifestyle change is well worth the “extra” effort. We need to learn to grow all that we can within our own local communities and to not rely on the major distribution of produce across our country or imported from another. Granted, there are some imports that are unavoidable and I can understand that. But, when it comes to transporting, exporting and importing produce, a successful self-sustainable government must maintain a healthy balance of trade - unlike what we have now. (We need to export at least the same amount we import, but preferably, export more than we import. Once again, I digress… more about that in another post.) I have started producing my own vegetables and buying locally because of what I saw personally while living Florida; GREEN tomatoes by the truckload for shipment around the country. They are sprayed with a type of chemical to turn them red for the market. Anyone else see something wrong with this?! We have eliminated the local farmer in order to make way for massive farm companies who supply an unhealthy, inadequate product. We’re depending on this large yet lacking company for our produce. That dependency causes major issues and clearly does not follow our plan for self-sustainability. Growing your own vegetables and buying locally lessens dependency and provides a much better, healthier life. This idea can also be applied to the products you use in everyday life. Finding local and organic products is becoming much easier and less cost prohibitive everyday. All of these things help to sustain ourselves, our communities, and our planet.

This is by no means a quick or easy change for each of us to make. Nor is it the only step. But I truly believe that it is all necessary and achievable goals. I do not think we need to go extreme and completely rid ourselves of fossil fuels or using trees or anything like that. My ideas focus more on lessening dependence and improving our environment as an extra bonus.

As you can see, there is a lot to talk about. From here on out, my posts will be, or at least aim to be, one-subject entries. Lets take this one step at a time… after all, it is the best way to achieve a goal.

Gardening

Seedlings start soon! Here in New England our season is fairly short. Having a well planned vegetable garden is key. I get my seeds from an organic supplier in my state via Internet orders . The important thing is first trying to find a supplier as local as possible. Remember part of being sustainable is supporting locally. (or as local as you can get) The second thing is making sure they are GMO free and have no added hormones. Heirlooms are usually the best.

For starting seedlings I personally use cowpots, but that is up to you on the company. With this item again you want to make sure it is as natural as possible. A type that can be directly planted into the soil is convenient and works as a fertilizer.

I just got back from a trip to Disney World in Orlando, FL. In the Epcot park they have a ride you can take through their greenhouse and aqua farm. They use methods involving PVC pipes and many automated systems. Though I found it fascinating I would shy away from using a material that is made from petroleum. I believe that if you are going to go through the trouble to grow healthy organic foods you need to keep them safe from chemicals. Also since we are talking about sustainability personal and as a country we need to keep in mind where the larger percentage of our petroleum comes from. We can't keep purchasing a product that we can produce/mine ourselves from countries that try to kill us. Our economy would have a better chance of recovery quickly if we keep jobs and our money within our boarders. You can't get out of debt when you primarily import. This is another topic for another day, which I will definitely get into.

At the top are photos I took of a couple quotes painted on the wall at Disney World's Epcot ride, Living with the Land.