When life gives you lodged wheat, plant potatoes, carrots and turnips!

 

Wheat patch

Last winter when I started tinkering with this crazy idea of subsistence gardening for a year I had grand plans of buying, renting or borrowing a good manual seeder of the variety that you walk behind and push. They usually consist of two wheels, one of which is attached to a bin full of seeds via a chain and several gears. Some of these do an excellent job of seed placement and plant at just the right depth. My plan was to use the seeder to expertly plant all the grain’s I was planning to get in the ground in early spring. Well, as time went by reality set in and as usual I opted for the method I could actually afford at the time and ended up just broadcast planting the wheat and other grains by hand. I basically just walked around the planting area throwing handfuls of grain to get as even a distribution as possible and then followed this up with a rake to cover the seed so the birds wouldn’t end up with a free lunch. They tend to be hungry and very opportunistic in early spring. As it turns out, this method worked quite well for the barley, oats and rye and about half of the wheat. But in the first portion of the wheat patch I ended up with too dense a stand and mother-nature eventually caught up with me. As much of the rest of the country could attest, we ended up with a very wet spring. This thick stand of wheat looked very healthy and grew quickly. But a portion of the individual stems were so close to each other that once they started to lean a bit due to wind and excessive rain it wasn’t long before their close neighbors also started to lean, usually in the same direction. The best I can surmise is that there was enough weight distributed through multiple stalks leaning on each other that eventually it caused some stalks to fail and fall under this pressure and as they toppled the neighbor they were supporting fell as well and I ended up with a bunch of useless mulch. I tried creating rows by pulling some wheat and pushing the others back up but quickly saw this was not going to work. I think once a stalk has been bent to the ground it’s not going to stand straight again. So I ended up pulling about one third of the wheat crop by the roots while using a bit of choice language directed in roughly equal portions toward myself and mother nature. After having an evening to calm down a bit and think things through I decided to make the best of the situation and plant something in the wheat’s absence. It so happened that I had a small bag of seed potatoes that I didn’t have room to plant several months ago so I put them in the ground with the hope that they’d have enough time to pay some starchy dividends by November or December. I’ll also plant some carrots and turnips in the excess space. My hope is that while I’m eating a hearty vegetable stew on a cold winter day, minus a thick piece of bread, I’ll have a chance to remember the importance of planting wheat in a thoughtful way.

Adding Value to Food?

Kale Soup

Go to any standard grocery store and wander out of the produce isle. The seemingly diverse options for filling your cart and feeding your family can seem both exhilarating and daunting at the same time. With the exception of a few basics such as dried beans, rice and frozen vegetables it seems that the food industry is in a constant state of evolution toward making our lives so much easier by simply offering products that are as close as possible to their “set me on the table ” state. All in the name of adding value. But at what point does attempting to add value start to diminish the original ingredients value? Sometimes it has to do with the amount of processing and eliminating components of the original ingredients, like creating white flour from whole wheat. And in others it has to do with adding ingredients such as the ever ubiquitous corn syrup that appears on so many ingredient lists. It’s interesting that foods that tend to spoil quickly are often the most healthful but are also the most likely to be targeted for processing in order to increase their shelf lives or to add taste. And in the process they become less healthful. For example why pack peaches in heavy syrup? How much value does canning give a food such as beans or tuna? Certainly it increases the amount of time you can store the tuna, but what about the beans? In the instance of dry type beans such as black, pinto or kidney the life is probably not extended too much but it does admittedly eliminate a lengthy step for the cook by eliminating the need for soaking and cooking them. The problem is most people never think to rinse the beans before use, thus adding another source of salt into their diet.

Granted, there are many examples where processing a basic ingredient definitely adds value to the finished product. For example with wheat, we grind it in order for our bodies to get much more sustenance than if it were simply consumed as a seed. In the case of milk, we convert it into cheese. And like turning grapes to wine, in the process we add value in several ways. We not only transform food that would spoil quickly into something that can be stored for later use, we also create in essence something new that resembles its initial taste but in many ways surpasses it. The same could be said for fermenting cabbage into sauerkraut, though I’m sure plenty of people would say this is an awful example.

Will there come a day when all we eat is corn processed in myriad ways and combined with clever combinations of chemicals in such a way to make one think they are consuming a varied and interesting diet? I sure hope not! But the scary thing is we are sure trending that way in a hurry.

It just seems that the more appealing the marketplace attempts to make most foods, thus supposedly adding value, the less value you actually get in regards to your health. Are the food, health and pharmaceutical industries all working together in order maximize their profits at our expense? I really doubt it but things have sure panned out that way. How does one counteract this “value adding”? I think buying food in its most natural state that is practical is probably the simplest and least expensive alternative. Sure, you may end up in the kitchen for a lengthier time than you are used to; so pour up a glass of wine, turn on some good tunes and enjoy the wonderful aromas!

Why am I doing this backyard subsistence thing?

I get plenty of blank stares and questions when I explain to people what I am planning to do in regards to raising all of my own food. Is that even possible? Why not just a few vegetables? Are you crazy? All are valid and pertinent questions to be sure. I think the best way to answer will be for me to give two lists, one giving the reasons why I am doing this and another to dispel what some people may think my reasons are.

Not reasons I am doing this:

To save money because of currently high food prices.

With the labor involved and the price of city water it would really only make sense for me to do this as a money saving endeavor for a few types of vegetables and greens. Certainly not for grains, dried beans and dent corn for tortillas!

Because I don’t trust that the food I buy is safe and as good as it can be for my family.

I’ll be the first to say there are definitely problems with the way the vast majority of our food is factory farmed and monocropped. But I think in general most food you buy in the store is safe for you in the long and short term, though there are certainly items that it makes the most sense to buy as organically raised. I mostly take issue with the way our society negatively impacts the environment with our current mode of agriculture and the cruelty involved in raising animals on factory farms. 

To ensure that my family will have food in case of some terrible disaster or sudden collapse of the current distribution system.

It’s fairly plain to see by all my neighbors that I’m an avid gardener and have always raised some of my own food. Now, I’m on pretty good terms with all of my neighbors but I’ll not kid myself that they wouldn’t think twice about taking what is not theirs if real hunger set in for them and their children. I’d likely do the same under extreme conditions.

 

Reasons I am doing this: 

To see if I can

For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated with the idea of self provisioning and for many years I’ve been an avid gardener. Over the years I’ve raised varying proportions of my own food. I’ve raised pigs, chickens and goats. I’ve done plenty of canning and freezing. But at this point I have decided to put it all together and to add some things in order to try raising a nearly complete diet. I’m quite sure I’ll never swim the English Channel or scale Mt. Everest so this will be one of my life’s big challenges.

To see what is possible and tease out what is practical

A fair amount of what I am planning to do will likely prove to be impractical for most people to attempt. Such as growing and processing my own grain and making my own cheese out of the milk from my own goat. And certainly doing all of this simultaneously would be a daunting task for most people. But if I can pull this off, then I have at least proven it is possible under my specific set of circumstances. But more importantly I’ll hopefully demonstrate to others a set of practices that are practical under their unique set of circumstances. I suppose you could look at it like product development in a corporation. The R&D department can prove if a product is possible and then others in the company can work with these ideas and hopefully come up with practical ways to build it.

My Kids

It’s really important to me that my kids develop a deep understanding of where their food comes from and how it is grown. From this, I think, will come an understanding of how they fit into nature. They will learn that with healthy soil, clean water and air and an amenable climate people can thrive, but without these gifts mere survival can become questionable.

A financially pressed citizenry

Though some may argue about the reasons why, I think it’s pretty clear that our country came very close to entering another full blown depression. And though economic statistics tell us were doing better and better each quarter I think most people would agree were not out of the woods yet and that the ground has really shifted in regards to the ability of the average citizen to simply earn a living, let alone get ahead in life. Considering this, I think making available to people a working example of growing a portion of their food and thus making their hard earned dollars stretch a little farther will be an important and appreciated contribution.

Unsustainable Agriculture

As I stated above, my main beef (pun intended) with our current prevailing methods of agriculture is the negative impact these methods have on the environment. Top soil loss, aquifer depletion, oceanic dead zones, decreasing crop diversity, and the list goes on. These are all effects of the way modern society goes about growing its food. If I can have even the tiniest impact on trying to help turn society toward a more sustainable and resilient  agriculture all of my efforts would be worth it.

An Ode to Garlic

It is fitting that garlic should have the pushy I’m first attitude of entitlement as it is so often the first ingredient into the pot or pan. There are some things I can periodically do without in my garden but garlic is never one of them. After being harvested in mid  August or so it is hung to cure in the late summer sun and then sometime in October an average of one clove per head is planted to start the whole process over again. This was about the seventh year I’ve been harvesting and then replanting.  Nothing quite say’s it was a successful garden year as seeing copious amounts of garlic and onions hanging in the sun and then in my shop. With around three hundred cloves planted in October I’m hopeful this will be enough to again keep my family supplied for a year, re-plant again in October and give some away to family and friends. Being in the ground for so long, nearly eleven months, is surely one of the reasons this allium is valued as a culinary starting point. Like a person who has seen many years can become all the wiser, I think garlic is able to build its wonderful taste and aroma by witnessing a cool autumn, cold winter, warming spring and hot summer while sometimes merely subsisting and sometimes thriving in a healthy soil. Last spring a deer made it over, under or through the nine foot fence that is supposed to keep these beautiful but sometimes maddeningly garden wrecking creatures out. She, for some reason I rarely see bucks on our property, nipped the first several inches off of nearly every one of my “shaking in their roots” garlic’s. But like a well conditioned fighter, they were able to bounce back and I ended up with a pretty good crop. A good testament to this splendid plants toughness and character I think.