To be extra clear: Once you have a basic store of food, shelter, etc, then I think it's time to move the conversation away from "what can I buy to make myself safer?" to "what activities and behaviors can I adopt that truly make my world safer?" And also: "What can I possibly do without to make this entire business of survival less of an ordeal...?" That's the point.
P.S. This article is not about "only eating weeds." It starts there and then uses it as a way into a number of important points. Ultimately, the idea of "stocking up" may be essential for the short term, but it's not a longterm solution. When supply chains do ultimately go down for good, as we know they will at some point, then there will be no way for us to "stock up." We should be using this final window to develop the long term, sustainable solutions that will help us. Adding weeds to your diet is just one example.
Lambs quarter, purslane and dandelions are free food I yank from the yard and bring inside to eat. But they aren’t very high in calories. We need things like beans, grains and potatoes for that. I gained a bit of extra sun by cutting down a dangerous tree this year, allowing me to expand my garden space. But I still have too little room to grow everything. I look to a neighbor with urban chickens and a yard that’s 90 percent garden for inspiration!
From the article: "We don’t have to kill ourselves with homesteading. We could grow potatoes and beans, cultivate weeds, and that would just about do it. Yes, an experienced gardener will grow a wider variety, but you can just start there."
Thank you so much for this! I've been in a worm hole for days on here of just doom and I thought to myself this morning like what if I just don't, what can I learn outside of panic buying that would actually help my family long term and no one is talking about it and i think it's because a lot of people don't know how to we have become so reliant on the system that we can fathom if we didn't have it but really it's all a lie to begin with.
I'm so glad you left this comment. I've been feeling the same way, which is why I wrote the article. It's gotten easy to just repeat platitudes about stocking up on this and that, without thinking about the bigger picture.
Sunflowers. They will grow anywhere. There's wild onions and wild garlic. Plant an oak tree or two for acorns. Plant some apple seeds. Grow blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Oh, white clover is also great.
I cannot understand the thing about stocking prescriptions. I mean those fucking pbm gatekeepers wont allow more than a 90 day supply so how could this thing possibly happen?
I think the comments about protein and carbs are important. But I will say people who live in suburbs won't need turfgrass anymore. They might as well convert to something useful. And while you are trying to grow traditional fruits and vegetables, you're gonna have to weed anyway, so just call it harvesting. Changes the whole ballgame. It's amazing how much food can be grown in a suburban yard space, especially when you count the amaranth, purslane, lambsquarter, etc. And surplus production becomes barter points. Maybe, as a community, turn that golf course into a potato farm. Potatoes generally produce forty tons per acre. And again, instead of weeding, harvest those weeds.
The minimum a home owner can do is stop spraying pesticides on their lawn. A perfect lawn is worse than a desert in some ways. It is a dead zone and you will struggle to grow anything without external inputs that you might not have one day. You also have pesticide contamination from neighbors who spray their lawns so they can't grow as effectively.
Love this take. Here in Florida we have so many things that grow wild that we can forage. Yes, I have a farm and chickens and can grow some things, but I'm also spending time learning what I can use that nature already planted for me. Cutting down on my material needs, becoming more minimalistic, etc. To your point, it's about figuring out more sustainable systems and not having to be constantly dependent on the existing one. It's so rare to see anyone write from this perspective — thanks for sharing this.
I have been thinking about this myself - - some of these drugs have about 2 years of shelf life, and then what do you do? And nutritionally stripped white rice year in year out doesn't sound like a life I want. It seems to me most of the prepping industry works well for a 1-2 week interruption in current system, but does not envision a whole sale loss of the current way of living. In terms of a one week ice storm or 1-2 weeks from a dramatic hurricane this industrial stock up prepping plan works. It is more like we should be stocking up on skills and community networks than freeze dried food buckets.
I’m drawing the line at purslane. Its a weed in my yard and i have bben trying to eradicate it. Besides, before i started spraying it with vinegar salt solution, i tried it. No thanks. The weed i like best is amaranth - love lies bleeding variety. Bought a seed pack some years ago, planted a few seeds and now it is taking over in some parts of the yard with zero water! Reseeds all by itself . And it is wonderful to have blood red colored plants in the yard.
I love this! However, I have to use pots in my porch to grow things. At least I get a lot of morning sun there and it’s central FL, so that’s better than the searing afternoon sun. I’d have to move otherwise. We have townhomes/villas and own our property/lawns. The HOA’s lawn service here uses pesticides everywhere and they won’t allow fruit trees due to rats. I picture most everyone going wild in their yards someday though, all of us helping one another. It’s a nice thought.
I grow cherry tomatoes and berry bushes in 5 gallon buckets (poke holes in the bottom) with good composted live soil. Collect rain water with empty 5 gallon buckets. Very economical and it works. The soil is the biggest investment. I get it at a community garden that has a soil specialist working with a university research team . It's incredible.
Wow, that’s great! I’m inspired. University of FL would be a good resource here and I’m going to try to get a plot at the local community garden (it takes luck and timing to get in that one).
Wow the last bit of this especially… I love it. I was the weed research girl (this reminded me I still haven’t finished my spreadsheet!) but that last point still hit me so hard… what do we want our years to look like? Sometimes the monkey brain gets so stuck on survival in and of itself that we forget to think about what we want out of the rest of our lives.
Excellent point. Yep, I think reshoring supplies always makes sense, but the deeper we get into this, the more important it's going to become to see what's in front of you that doesn't require much investment. Why make more work for ourselves? We have enough.
Why are so many afraid of poke greens (salat)? Sautéed with garlic, they’re my favorite greens. Which reminds me, they’re in season now. And they’re free!
I’m with you on that, Jessica. I read some years ago that dandelions were deliberately brought to the new world as food. I like how you pointed out that instead of solving the real problem of corporate poisoning and pollution of our food and water, we just spend money on ever more expensive “clean” food. We don’t treat our back yard because we have two small dogs. So we could eat the weeds there. Is clover edible? It’s everywhere here. Please let me know. Thank you, Jessica. I follow you because you are the only voice in this channel. And you’re smart.
To be extra clear: Once you have a basic store of food, shelter, etc, then I think it's time to move the conversation away from "what can I buy to make myself safer?" to "what activities and behaviors can I adopt that truly make my world safer?" And also: "What can I possibly do without to make this entire business of survival less of an ordeal...?" That's the point.
P.S. This article is not about "only eating weeds." It starts there and then uses it as a way into a number of important points. Ultimately, the idea of "stocking up" may be essential for the short term, but it's not a longterm solution. When supply chains do ultimately go down for good, as we know they will at some point, then there will be no way for us to "stock up." We should be using this final window to develop the long term, sustainable solutions that will help us. Adding weeds to your diet is just one example.
Lambs quarter, purslane and dandelions are free food I yank from the yard and bring inside to eat. But they aren’t very high in calories. We need things like beans, grains and potatoes for that. I gained a bit of extra sun by cutting down a dangerous tree this year, allowing me to expand my garden space. But I still have too little room to grow everything. I look to a neighbor with urban chickens and a yard that’s 90 percent garden for inspiration!
From the article: "We don’t have to kill ourselves with homesteading. We could grow potatoes and beans, cultivate weeds, and that would just about do it. Yes, an experienced gardener will grow a wider variety, but you can just start there."
Nuts and roots. Hazelnuts, acorns, hickory including pecan. Cattails and wild sunflower. Lots of calorie dense foods out there.
And kudzu root!
Thank you so much for this! I've been in a worm hole for days on here of just doom and I thought to myself this morning like what if I just don't, what can I learn outside of panic buying that would actually help my family long term and no one is talking about it and i think it's because a lot of people don't know how to we have become so reliant on the system that we can fathom if we didn't have it but really it's all a lie to begin with.
I'm so glad you left this comment. I've been feeling the same way, which is why I wrote the article. It's gotten easy to just repeat platitudes about stocking up on this and that, without thinking about the bigger picture.
So many bangers in this one:
"Think about what you could not do, what you could not buy, what you could make easier, just by adjusting your perspective."
"You're not going to shop your way to safety!"
Sunflowers. They will grow anywhere. There's wild onions and wild garlic. Plant an oak tree or two for acorns. Plant some apple seeds. Grow blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Oh, white clover is also great.
I cannot understand the thing about stocking prescriptions. I mean those fucking pbm gatekeepers wont allow more than a 90 day supply so how could this thing possibly happen?
I have the same feeling. Everyone is saying stock up on prescriptions. Like fucking how? Pay cash? Can you even do that, if you can afford it?
I think the comments about protein and carbs are important. But I will say people who live in suburbs won't need turfgrass anymore. They might as well convert to something useful. And while you are trying to grow traditional fruits and vegetables, you're gonna have to weed anyway, so just call it harvesting. Changes the whole ballgame. It's amazing how much food can be grown in a suburban yard space, especially when you count the amaranth, purslane, lambsquarter, etc. And surplus production becomes barter points. Maybe, as a community, turn that golf course into a potato farm. Potatoes generally produce forty tons per acre. And again, instead of weeding, harvest those weeds.
The minimum a home owner can do is stop spraying pesticides on their lawn. A perfect lawn is worse than a desert in some ways. It is a dead zone and you will struggle to grow anything without external inputs that you might not have one day. You also have pesticide contamination from neighbors who spray their lawns so they can't grow as effectively.
Love this take. Here in Florida we have so many things that grow wild that we can forage. Yes, I have a farm and chickens and can grow some things, but I'm also spending time learning what I can use that nature already planted for me. Cutting down on my material needs, becoming more minimalistic, etc. To your point, it's about figuring out more sustainable systems and not having to be constantly dependent on the existing one. It's so rare to see anyone write from this perspective — thanks for sharing this.
Yes, that's exactly it. :)
I have been thinking about this myself - - some of these drugs have about 2 years of shelf life, and then what do you do? And nutritionally stripped white rice year in year out doesn't sound like a life I want. It seems to me most of the prepping industry works well for a 1-2 week interruption in current system, but does not envision a whole sale loss of the current way of living. In terms of a one week ice storm or 1-2 weeks from a dramatic hurricane this industrial stock up prepping plan works. It is more like we should be stocking up on skills and community networks than freeze dried food buckets.
I’m drawing the line at purslane. Its a weed in my yard and i have bben trying to eradicate it. Besides, before i started spraying it with vinegar salt solution, i tried it. No thanks. The weed i like best is amaranth - love lies bleeding variety. Bought a seed pack some years ago, planted a few seeds and now it is taking over in some parts of the yard with zero water! Reseeds all by itself . And it is wonderful to have blood red colored plants in the yard.
Purslane by itself is not so great, but mixed with other greens its just fine!!
I checked it out. Clover is edible!
I love this! However, I have to use pots in my porch to grow things. At least I get a lot of morning sun there and it’s central FL, so that’s better than the searing afternoon sun. I’d have to move otherwise. We have townhomes/villas and own our property/lawns. The HOA’s lawn service here uses pesticides everywhere and they won’t allow fruit trees due to rats. I picture most everyone going wild in their yards someday though, all of us helping one another. It’s a nice thought.
I grow cherry tomatoes and berry bushes in 5 gallon buckets (poke holes in the bottom) with good composted live soil. Collect rain water with empty 5 gallon buckets. Very economical and it works. The soil is the biggest investment. I get it at a community garden that has a soil specialist working with a university research team . It's incredible.
Wow, that’s great! I’m inspired. University of FL would be a good resource here and I’m going to try to get a plot at the local community garden (it takes luck and timing to get in that one).
Wow the last bit of this especially… I love it. I was the weed research girl (this reminded me I still haven’t finished my spreadsheet!) but that last point still hit me so hard… what do we want our years to look like? Sometimes the monkey brain gets so stuck on survival in and of itself that we forget to think about what we want out of the rest of our lives.
Excellent point. Yep, I think reshoring supplies always makes sense, but the deeper we get into this, the more important it's going to become to see what's in front of you that doesn't require much investment. Why make more work for ourselves? We have enough.
Why are so many afraid of poke greens (salat)? Sautéed with garlic, they’re my favorite greens. Which reminds me, they’re in season now. And they’re free!
I’m with you on that, Jessica. I read some years ago that dandelions were deliberately brought to the new world as food. I like how you pointed out that instead of solving the real problem of corporate poisoning and pollution of our food and water, we just spend money on ever more expensive “clean” food. We don’t treat our back yard because we have two small dogs. So we could eat the weeds there. Is clover edible? It’s everywhere here. Please let me know. Thank you, Jessica. I follow you because you are the only voice in this channel. And you’re smart.
Yep, just double checked. Clover is edible!
Have some Pharmaceutical Seed 🌱 and some garden plots, if someone in Vienna region want to join