Growing your own Food

[Chris]

If the worse happens and you need to supply your own food, stores can last awhile, but it'd be better, assuming no contamination, to grow your own.

Which foods though?

You'll want a complete nutrition profile, you'll need your vitamins. So sweet potatoes would be a good choice. Very hardy, extremely high in vitamins, and I read that the first jamestown (or maybe it was the pilgrims) more or less survived on sweet potatoes the first year. They also provide a good amount of calories.

Asparagus doesn't provide a whole lot of calories, but they are a perennial vegetable, when most are annuals. Not having to worry about saving and protecting seeds every year has got to be worth something.

For fruits or berries I like raspberries. They are very hardy, will tolerate poor soil, spread like mad, and produce all summer long. You will get a good harvest with minimal effort.

Then of course there are nuts. Nuts last a long time, and pack a good amount of protein and essential fatty acids. Planting a nut tree would definitely be a good investment.

[mamab]

So, Chris, how many ways do you know of to fix sweet potatoes? If you were in an emergency situation, you'd get pretty bored with them being made like mashed. And I don't think you'd really be able to make candied.

[tater03]

I don't know all that many ways to make sweet potatoes but I do love them so this would be a good thing for me to have in case of an emergency. I do have my own garden but I just never thought about picking things that would be good in an emergency.

[Chris]

So, Chris, how many ways do you know of to fix sweet potatoes? If you were in an emergency situation, you'd get pretty bored with them being made like mashed. And I don't think you'd really be able to make candied.

It isn't really an emergency, more like a disaster. Like nuclear war. Think like that Jericho show on CBS, where you can no longer rely on anyone else for any of life's necessities. And if you're trying to live I don't think boredom with food is going to enter you mind.

However, my favorite way to make sweet potatoes is mashed with a bunch of cinnamon. You can also make a dough out of them to make bread products.

[tinystar]

It isn't really an emergency, more like a disaster. Like nuclear war. Think like that Jericho show on CBS, where you can no longer rely on anyone else for any of life's necessities. And if you're trying to live I don't think boredom with food is going to enter you mind.

However, my favorite way to make sweet potatoes is mashed with a bunch of cinnamon. You can also make a dough out of them to make bread products.

Mm, sweet potato bread sounds fantastic to me. Sweet potatos aren't bad, though I would need an ample amount of sugar, haha. But given the circumstances, I'd be happy just to have food.

[Minwaabi]

It isn't really an emergency, more like a disaster. Like nuclear war. Think like that Jericho show on CBS, where you can no longer rely on anyone else for any of life's necessities. And if you're trying to live I don't think boredom with food is going to enter you mind.

However, my favorite way to make sweet potatoes is mashed with a bunch of cinnamon. You can also make a dough out of them to make bread products.

No offense, but unless there is new research to the contrary, you generally should not be worried about nuclear war. You really have three options: (a) you are in a place where you won't notice (someplace like the middle of the Amazon), (b) you die in the explosion, (c) you die horribly days, weeks, or months later from radiation sickness. Our modern bombs send out a lot more radiation than they used to and it doesn't go away in a day or a rainstorm like it does on TV. (Of course that does not mean a "minor" nuclear attack could not be survivable far far away).

[mamab]

If there's a nuclear war and you do survive, isn't the ground going to be radiated and therefore not capable of producing edible food? Your water supplies would also be contaminated. I don't know what you'd do in that situation, and I hope none of us ever have to find out.

[Minwaabi]

If there's a nuclear war and you do survive, isn't the ground going to be radiated and therefore not capable of producing edible food? Your water supplies would also be contaminated. I don't know what you'd do in that situation, and I hope none of us ever have to find out.

That's exactly my point. If the ground is that radiated so are you. If you have ever known anyone to go through Chemotherapy you know what you get to look forward to. The only difference is that these won't be regulated doses so it will probably be much worse and no meds to really help you out. Like you said, hopefully none of us have to ever find out.

[tater03]

Well I would have to agree I hope that this never happens. But to get back to the sweet potatoes. I never heard of sweet potato bread before. That actually sounds really good.

[Chris]

No offense, but unless there is new research to the contrary, you generally should not be worried about nuclear war. You really have three options: (a) you are in a place where you won't notice (someplace like the middle of the Amazon), (b) you die in the explosion, (c) you die horribly days, weeks, or months later from radiation sickness. Our modern bombs send out a lot more radiation than they used to and it doesn't go away in a day or a rainstorm like it does on TV. (Of course that does not mean a "minor" nuclear attack could not be survivable far far away).

Where do you think most of your food comes from?

Look at the spinach problems from last summer, almost the country's entire spinach supply was lost because a handful of plants in California shut down.

If there was a major catastrophe, such as nuclear war, or some huge environmental disaster, where communication and transportation was lost. Most areas would suddenly find themselves in a food shortage because most areas rely on other areas to grow their food. California, Mexico, Florida for most foods. The midwest for grains.

Consider even something as simple as a power outtage. We had that power outtage a few years ago that took out the entire north east all the way to Michigan. 50 million + people. And it was an accident. What if rerrorists launched attacked simutaniously against power stations across the country. Without electricity you would lose your utilities, communication, refridgeration, transportion & food harvesting or processing would suffer.

None of these scenarios are that likely, but the point of disaster preparedness is to be prepared for the unlikely.

[Minwaabi]

Sorry, that was not my point at all. I was merely saying that in the event of nuclear *war*, you would not survive the *war* part of things and so we should focus on what you are now talking about - terrorist attacks and the like. We can survive a few nukes going off. We can NOT survive lots of them. Some scientists even doubt the availability of oxygen in such an occasion (all fires including explosions of the nuclear variety convert oxygen into non-useful CO2).

[Chris]

Oh certainly... although the issue of surviving a nuclear winter is also one that could be discussed. Could you handle 4 years without sunlight?

[Minwaabi]

Oh that gives me a horrible thought. What would global temperature do after a nuclear war? A nuclear bomb is actually hotter than the surface of the sun. I distinctly remember calculating the atmosphere generated by a nuclear bomb *after* it *cooled down* to the *temperature of the surface of the sun* in a Thermodynamics class. (Words that should never go in a sentence together). If several went off you could probably dramatically change the weather patterns. Additionally you would change the gas components of the air and change our atmosphere. This might actually be good for tropical and some temperate plants, but animals (like us) might have a real hard time adjusting.

[Minwaabi]

Also Chris has a great idea there. Suppose we are cut off from the sun for 4 or 5 years. (Either by nuclear winter, volcanic winter, or the dust cloud from an asteroid or comet impacting the surface of the earth). How could we survive? Note: of course we are not actually cut off from the sun, sunlight is only reduced, but it is reduced to alarming low levels. Many plants and most crops I think would fail (though not all). What do you guys think? What food grows well in limited sunlight?

[Chris]

Mushrooms can grow in darkness... not really filling though. Plants can grow in artificial sunlight as well, it isn't great, but it works. A wind turbine powering an artificial greenhouse.

There are also seed vaults all over the world buried deep in the ground to make sure plant life can survive such catastrophes.

Too, remember that even with cloud cover some light/radiation comes through. So many plants are adapted to growing in the shade. The only edible one that comes to mind is blueberries, but I'm sure there are many.

[mamab]

I hadn't thought of the possibility of the sun being blocked for a long period of time. I mean, I know that it happens occasionally with volcanic debris, but I hadn't thought about long term. Guess we all need to be hording our canned goods.

[arppt01]

Getting prepared for an extreme situation requires a lot of experience and planning. You never know which one will help you in extreme situation.

[echos]

I have a great supply of soil for indoor growing. So , I hope it would be good , if the worst happenend.I grow all my own salad greens inside in the winter. I would just keep going, until , I couldn`t.

[rubybeetle]

I wonder how difficult (and expensive) it would be to have an underground green house.

[BSM]

Ha, you brought up the point I wanted to research for a story I'm working on. I'm trying to determine, given a near unlimited source of money, could one build an underground greenhouse capable of supporting a human population of any size? I know there are many people who are very sucessful at growing Marajuana inside under UV lamps. I'm not interested in growing the drug, but, sadly, these are the sort of people who would probably have the most practical knowledge about growing plants indoors. Would the waste produced by the human population be enough to keep the plants soil enriched? Would there be enough plants to keep oxygen levels in the underground facility breathable? Could enough water be reclaimed to keep a sealed underground resovoir of water at safe levels? Both assuming a total cutoff from the outside world, both air and water. Is this even physically possible? Any speculation would be extremely helpful for inspiration's sake.
Thanks,
BSM