Category Archives: Prepping

Gardening, Off Grid Living, Prepping

Grow Your Own Ginger

We’ll definitely have to try this, there’s nothing like fresh ginger.

While it’s true that ginger is a tropical plant, it is possible to grow it outdoors in most climates. The catch is that it can only survive in temperatures 50 degrees Fahrenheit or above. That means that in some parts of the country—like certain areas in Florida, California and Arizona—ginger can be a year-round crop.

But the rest of the U.S. isn’t completely left out in the cold: according to Sher, it is possible to grow ginger is cooler climates—the season is just shorter. In these areas, she says that it’s best to plant ginger after (what appears to be) the last frost of the spring

.Although it takes around eight months for a ginger plant to reach its full potential, in the cooler parts of the country, you can harvest the young ginger after three or four months. Or if you want to keep the party going, just bring the pots in for the winter.

Source: How to Grow Ginger at Home

(Click on the link for the full article)

Prepping

Here’s What 75 Preppers Learned During the Lockdown

The lockdown that recently took place due to the pandemic was like a practice run for a bigger SHTF event. Many of our prepper theories played out and were accurate, while others weren’t as realistic as we thought beforehand. People who weren’t preppers already learned a lot about why they would want to be better prepared in the future, but they weren’t the only ones who learned lessons.

These preppers took a moment to answer questions about the lessons they learned during the lockdown.

What did you learn about preparedness during the lockdown?

Source: Here’s What 75 Preppers Learned During the Lockdown

Click on the link for more interviews, and lots of ideas.

Odds & Ends, Off Grid Living, Prepping

Opting Out & A Memorial Day Weekend Message

Virtually nothing in America’s top-down financial and political realms is actually transparent, accountable, authentic or honest.

Opting out will increasingly be the best (or only) choice for tens of millions of people globally. Opting out means leaving the complicated, costly and now unaffordable / unbearable life you’ve been living for a new way of life that is radically less complex, less costly and less deranging.

Continue reading Opting Out & A Memorial Day Weekend Message →

Gardening, Off Grid Living, Prepping

The Sun has been Ominously Quiet

At a time when the world is already being hit with major crisis after major crisis, our sun is behaving in ways that we have never seen before.

For as long as records have been kept, the sun has never been quieter than it has been in 2019 and 2020, and as you will see below we are being warned that we have now entered “a very deep solar minimum”.

Unfortunately, other very deep solar minimums throughout history have corresponded with brutally cold temperatures and horrific global famines, and of course this new solar minimum comes at a time when the United Nations is already warning that we are on the verge of “biblical” famines around the world.  So we better hope that the sun wakes up soon, because the alternative is almost too horrifying to talk about.

Without the sun, life on Earth could not exist, and so the fact that it is behaving so weirdly right now should be big news.

Source: The Sun “Has Gone Into Lockdown”, And This Strange Behavior Could Make Global Food Shortages Much Worse

Now, more than ever it seems like a good time to store a little more, and above all try to “stay away from crowds” as Uncle Remus says.

The pandemic this year has shown just how vulnerable our “just in time” delivery systems are. With literally tons of food being thrown away because of logistical issues, and the potential shortage of meat due to the concentration among just a few large factory farms, relying on supplies being available in tighter times such as these is just foolish.

FEMA says everyone should have three days of food & water, but as we’re only nine meals away from anarchy, one surely ought to try and have a little more.

Where to start? There are many good articles about preparing on a budget. Whether it’s a pandemic, a solar minimum, or even just an old fashioned hurricane, better to have more and not need it, than to want in an emergency. Start today – Ben

Gardening, Prepping

Gardening Popular During Pandemic

As the coronavirus pandemic shook the country this spring, grocery stores quickly sold out of essentials and produce departments were emptied. Fearing food shortages, and afraid to expose themselves to other shoppers in the store, many following orders to stay at home came up with the same idea: pandemic gardens.

It happened to be spring planting season as shelter-in-place orders came down in the U.S. Even people unfamiliar with gardening began placing orders for seeds and those selling them saw exponential spikes in business.

“Not in any recorded history have there been sales at these levels, certainly in the last 20 years,” Dave Thompson, director of sales and operations at organic seed company Seeds of Change in Rancho Dominguez, California, tells PEOPLE. “This is so unprecedented. We’re doing the best we can. You can’t capture all of this business.”

Source: Pandemic Gardens Are Trending: Fears Over Food Shortages Lead First Timers to Get Growing | PEOPLE.com

Off Grid Living, Prepping

How is Your Long Term Storage Food Holding Up? Test it!

During my recent move, I was drawing down some stocked items.  One of the things we decided to consume and restock post move, was a bunch of Spam that I had acquired from 2011 to 2014.  My wife, who rarely allows me in the kitchen, had never taken an interest in the preps I had stocked, so the Spam didn’t rotate.  This gave us a nice test of how well Spam stayed on a shelf in long term storage.

The Spam had been stored in our basement, which was temperature controlled, so it wasn’t subjected to years of wild temperature fluctuations, but it had been sitting on the shelf for 5 to 8 years.  Our basement in that house was also dry.  There was no point in moving the Spam rather than using it and replacing it after the move.

If you are getting to where you have a decent inventory of food, you might want to sample things that you bought to see if they are what you expected.  We also are rebuilding our “deep pantry”.

Source: Testing Old Storage Food – Beans, Bullets, Bandages & You

One authors’ experience with a variety of long term storage foods. If you’re going to be ready for the long term, one important thing is to rotate and test your foodstuffs regularly.

Gardening, Off Grid Living, Prepping

Growing and Drying Your Own Herbs – Daily Prepper

As a new gardener, I often found the task of growing prize-winning tomatoes and succulent melons very daunting. Can I say succulent melons here? Get your head out of the gutter! But growing and drying your own herbs, now that was a new task.

Gardening has never come naturally to me. But I learn and grow each and every year. I finally began to master tomatoes by the third year of gardening. But I’ve still never mastered the green bean. It’s easy to get discouraged when you’re gardening, but I’ve found one thing that I can never kill. I suppose I could if I drenched it in chemicals, but ultimately, they’re very forgiving. What is it, you ask? Why, herbs, of course!

Herbs are one of the easiest things in the world to grow and maintain. Drying your own herbs is one of the easiest skills to learn, and will come in handy often.  Whether you’re drying them once harvested, making a tincture, preserving dried herbs into spice rubs, or simply hanging them until you’re ready to use them. There are plenty of ways to grow and preserve herbs on your homestead.

Source: How to Grow and Dry Your Own Herbs – Daily Prepper News

Lots of useful information, a good read.

The photo above is a salad without a speck of lettuce. Taken at Chacra d’Dago in Villa Rica Peru, home of an amazing biodynamic farm. -Ben

Gardening, Off Grid Living, Prepping

Start Your Medicinal Garden Today – 7 Reasons

Growing medicinal plants are a great way to ensure garden sustainability and more notably, have access to natural medicine when you need it most. When I introduced more herbs in my garden, I noticed it had a profound impact on the vegetables and fruits I was growing. It also encouraged beneficial insects and birds to visit my garden and this helped cut down on plants being eaten.

Because of this observation, I changed my focus from solely growing to eat and, instead, worked to create a welcoming growing environment. Not only were my plants healthier, but I had access to natural herbs to use for making extracts and poultices. The following are reasons I feel gardeners should adopt adding medicinal herbs to the garden.

7 Reasons Why You Should Have a Medicinal Garden

1.) have fresh cut herbs to use for natural medicine, you have access to the freshest forms of their healing properties. For example, what if you cut your hand and did not have a bandage.

Did you know that the sage leaf can be wrapped around a wound and used as a natural band-aid? Or, if the bleeding from that cut was so bad that it wouldn’t stop. Did you know that a few shakes of some cayenne pepper can help control the bleed? Or, if you have a severe bruise, make a poultice. It’s one of the easiest and fastest ways to use herbal medicine.

2.) Calm your senses with medicinal teas. (Click to read more)

Source: 7 Reasons Why You Should Have a Medicinal Garden | Ready Nutrition

Read more at the link. Pictured above is Ephedra which is quite common here. Known as “Mormon Tea,” it’s said to be a wonderful decongestant. It must be simmered for at least 20 minutes prior to drinking. It’s quite stimulating, and should be avoided by those with heart conditions.

Gardening, Off Grid Living, Prepping

Pandemic Causes Seed Shortage

Americans are panic hoarding plant seeds as the coronavirus outbreak confines millions to their homes, crashes the economy, and disrupts food supply chains. This has resulted in people questioning their food security.

A Google search of “buy seeds” has rocketed to an all-time high across the US in March to early April, the same time as supermarket shelves went bare.

Seed companies who spoke with CBS News said they have stopped taking new orders after unprecedented demand. George Ball, chairman of Pennsylvania-based Burpee Seeds, said the recent increase in new orders is “just unbelievable.” The company will start accepting orders again on Wednesday after it stopped taking new ones for several days to catch up on the backlog.

Americans in quarantine are becoming increasingly concerned about their food security. What has shocked many is that food on supermarket shelves that existed one day, could be completely wiped out in minutes via panic hoarding. Some people are now trying to restore the comfort of food security by planting “Pandemic Gardens.”

“If I had to put my thumb on it, I would say people are worried about their food security right now,” said Emily Rose Haga, the executive director of the Seed Savers Exchange, an Iowa-based nonprofit devoted to heirloom seeds.

Source: It’s Not Just Toilet Paper, Seed Shortages Spread As Locked-Down Americans Turn To Growing Their Own Food  | Zero Hedge