Guest Post - Seed orders and barren gardens

 

A Warning About Seed Orders and Barren Gardens

By Steven Gregersen

I love it when the seed catalog arrives with the Christmas cards. We used to spend hours drooling over the latest offerings, comparing growing days and zones, resistance to diseases, prices and other data relevant to our location and needs. Although we made our seed orders early we were never in a hurry to receive them because most years we have snow on the ground until at least the end of March. We had plenty of time we thought.

Then one year our languorous affectation was blown completely away! We'd made our normal seed order in early January then waited. Waiting was nothing new to us. In our northern climate we often specified that fruit trees be shipped in the spring after the snow was gone. We usually got our order in parts and we'd never experienced problems in the past. But this time it was different!

That year in particular, after rising fuel prices made everything else expensive a lot of people began gardening to alleviate the skyrocketing price of fresh vegetables. And I mean a LOT of people. Even in our area we met dozens of people who were planting their first garden. We were so thankful that so many were going to experience the joy of eating actual fresh vegetable that we never considered the problems it would cause nationally. At least we didn't until January slipped past, then February, then March, and then April, and we still hadn't received our seed order.

Inquiries were made and each time we were reassured that our order would be shipped "in season." Finally we got our package from the seed company with about half of our order in it. The apology and explanation was short. It seems that they'd underestimated demand and had run out of the seed we'd ordered. They shipped out orders to the warmest places first, expecting to have more seed available for the colder climates but the new seed never materialized. They were sorry for any inconvenience and encouraged us to order the missing items from other suppliers.

To say we were angry would severely understate our emotions at the time. We'd done business with this company for years! Naturally every other seed supplier was also out of the varieties we wanted. Some were out of almost all of their seed. We were relegated to purchasing from the very limited selections at our local merchants and chain stores. What a disaster! Especially when we depend on the garden for most of the food we eat.

But that disaster brought some needed changes in our lives. We now save our own seed instead of depending upon suppliers a thousand or more miles away.

I'm not going into the "how-to's" of seed saving because it would be too lengthy for this type of forum. I just want to sound a warning to those who rely on outside sources. If for some reason you cannot replenish your seed yourself be sure to include instructions to ship your order immediately. Second; try ordering enough extra to save some for the next year. Rotate your stock and make a new order every year and you'll always be a year ahead ... just in case!

If you've never saved your own seed now is a good time to start. By that I mean ordering heirloom and non-hybrid varieties that reproduce themselves. Most seed companies have them and you can also look for seed exchanges in magazines like Grit and The Mother Earth News. Plus, by starting now you'll have time to study and learn the seed-saving process before harvest time.

If, like us, you are striving for self-sufficiency saving your own seed is one more step forward on the road to independence.

Thank you, Steven.

Steven, by the way, is my husband.  He writes for magazines, including Backwoods Home Magazine, Backwoodsman, Back Home Magazine, Fur Fish & Game, Primitive Archer, Traditional Archer, and others.  He has two published books and is working on another.

 

As always, please leave comments or questions below, or by email at

povertyprepping@yahoo.com

Susan

 PS:  There's been a tremendous amount of mail lately and I'm working my way through answering everyone's emails.  Please be patient!



Dave's Kitchen: Making hominy

Dave's been busy in his kitchen lately, while most of us slowed down as gardening season winds to a close and the harvest is preserved and stored.  Here's what he wrote to me today:

I use "Feed Corn" purchased from a local feed store to make Hominy
and to grind as "Corn Meal".  Many will say that this is not a "Healthy"
practice but I dont accept that argument as a general rule. That debate
can be pursued in other places.

I dont use "Deer Corn"; it is usually full of garbage, bits of cob and less
than perfect kernels. Also it doesn't usually have any limits of "Aflatoxin"
content like much of the feed corn, and all the corn marketed for human
consumption does.


How To Make Hominy

Pick and clean 2 quarts of corn.  The kernels can be poured on a table

top and picked through as one would do for dry beans. Reject any
kernels that are broken, damaged or otherwise not perfect. Cracked
kernels will break down in the soaking process and "Gum Up" the
works, making the finished hominy harder to rinse clean.

Place the cleaned/washed corn in a 4-gallon granitware pan and fill it
to about 4 inches of the top. Add 1 rounded tablespoon of Lime(Pickling
Lime from the Grocery store will work) per pint of corn and gently mix
it into the water. Be careful not to let the dust get airborne, it can be

hazardous to breathe. It may seem like a lot of water for the amount
of corn but at the end of the the "Liming", you will see why.

Place the pot on the stove and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to just
under a boil. Cover and let it sit for about 4-6 hours, stirring occasionally.

When the kernels have doubled or even tripled in size, pinch one between
your fingers and if there is no "Dry" material inside, it is ready to rinse.
Drain the lime water and rinse the corn in clean water and return it to
the pot.

Fill the pot with warm water and, using your hands, gently rub the
kernels together to remove any dissolved shell that may still be on
them, and rinse. Repeat until the water is clean and clear.

At this point the "Hominy" is finished and can be eaten. I usually
dehydrate and grind it into meal and use it to make cornbread, but it
can eaten fresh, cooked with peppers and onions and eaten like corn,
or made into tortillas. It's also good cooked into soups or chopped fine
in a food processor and added to Chili.

To dehydrate/dry the Hominy, it can be spread on a flat surface in a
warm, dry and clean location that is free of insects and other pests.
To dry in a dehydrator, spread the kernels on your tray in a thin
layer and dry at medium heat. If the dehydrator heat is set too
high, it may "Glaze" the outsides of the kernels and seal in the
moisture.

This batch of Hominy is destined to be ground into "Meal" so I
left much of the "Germ" in during the rinsing.  It adds flavor, fat
and other nutrients. If you are going to use the hominy as a table
dish, you may want to rinse the germ out for a better appearance.

 Two quarts of whole kernel corn straight from the feed
bag, along with the "cast offs" seperated from it. This bag of
corn had more broken kernels than most I buy but it was still
a good clean bag of grain.

The limed and rinsed kernels, ready
to eat or dehydrate.

 Kernels spread on the dehydrator tray, the layer is

thin enough to allow air flow around the hominy to speed the
drying process.

The finished dried hominy, ready to store or grind
into meal for use as "Grits", in cornbread or other recipes.

 

 

 

Thanks, Dave, for sharing this with us.  It sounds like something that would be good in Taco soup, among other things!  I'm looking forward to trying to make my own hominy.  We've always bought it in cans from the store. I love learning how to make things myself.   I appreciate all that I've learned from people as I've worked on this blog.

 

Please keep sending your emails with comments, suggestions, and questions!

 

Susan

povertyprepping@yahoo.com



New Book - Food Self-Sufficieny: Reality Check

It's here!

 

 

    More great information for preppers, homesteaders, and others who have a goal to work toward food self-sufficiency!  Find out what you'll need and how much, to produce and store your own food!  Read great tips from my own experiences.  A great deal, for only .99 on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Self-Sufficiency-Reality-Check-ebook/dp/B0097G797U/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1347456082&sr=8-14&keywords=susan+gregersen

Here's a list of the chapters in the book, so you can see if there's a subject of particular interest to you:

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Gardening

Chapter 2 Jars
Chapter 3 Chickens
Chapter 4 Other Domestic Meat Animals
Chapter 5 Grains
Chapter 6 Foraging
Chapter 7 Hunting
Chapter 8 Fishing
Chapter 9 Conclusion

And here's the Introduction, copied and pasted from the book file.  It'll might help you decide whether to buy the book.


Introduction

     Often in conversations the subject comes up about growing or producing our own food. Some people want to move to the country and get into small-time farming, and some just want to have a garden. Others want to have a few meat animals around, such as chickens or rabbits.

    There are also those who want to work toward producing most or all of their own food. Some like the independence and some worry about future hardships, either from natural disasters or man-made events.

         But if you're going to grow a garden or crops, what do you need to do that? How much land? What type of land? How will you preserve and store the food you grow?

Animals need shelter and food. Do you have a place to put your chickens, rabbits, goats, calves, or other animals? What will you feed them if times are hard? How will you feed them now, if your goal is self-sufficiency? Will your plan include buying feed, or growing it yourself?

         In addition to gardening and raising animals, other sources for food self-sufficiency include foraging, hunting, and fishing. What supplies or equipment will you need to do these things? What laws will you have to follow, and do they allow you enough plants or animals to meet your needs.

         This books is about the numbers. It's not a how-to book, it's about what you need for the “how to”. We'll look at how to figure out how much space you need for gardens or animals, how many jars you'll need if you plan to get into canning, and what other options there are for storing food.

         I'll talk about animals and their needs, and suggest ways to feed and shelter them that won't break your bank account. I'll try to point you the right direction to find out what you need to know about foraging, hunting, and fishing, plus share some tips from my own experiences.

        This book is geared toward those with limited funds, but will also be helpful to more prosperous readers who are considering growing or otherwise providing for most or all of their own food. The 'how-to' may vary but the numbers are the same, whether you're rich or poor.

         Some people are 'preppers' and have been buying and storing food in case of hard times. It's a great plan, but knowing how to produce your own food is real security. Hand in hand with that is knowing what you'll need to produce, preserve, and store that food. That is what this book is about.

 

This book kind of snuck it's way from my mind and out my fingers on the computer keyboard.  It's not the second book I'd planned to write, and still plan to write.  But now that one will be Poverty Prepping, Volume 3, and whatever subtitle I give it.

 

So keep those stories and comments coming.  The winners of our prep items contest will be in the third book...the one that was meant to be the second book!

 

Susan