what are y'all saving from the wild to deal with coming crisis?

[HennyPenney68]

Does anyone know where I can get the kind of comfrey that resews itself? I can't remember which it is, but I've had a hard time finding it.. my chickens, quail and all LOVE it.

 

[BamaBayFarm]

We have stinging nettle in the yard, in fact its so prolific that we could just about live off that alone as a food source. I also have volunteer sweet potatoes, just take a cutting from the runner about 2 or 3 that are 4ft in length, take 1 foot cuttings leaving a couple of leaves, and root them in a mason jar on the counter. In a week you have 12 rooted sweet potato cuttings that can stay in the jar for about 2-3 weeks. After the first week I look to plant bare root the afternoon before a day where it will rain the next day "in fact I do 90% of planting like that but it rains here on average twice a week most of the year and our 3 month dry season is fall which I mulch and plant larger trees/bushes/landscape, remove stuff". Long story short DON"T EAT your egg laying hens... yikes... would you rather have 100 eggs a year from a yard ranging free range chicken or one meal? Eat the possums, raccons, squirrels, birds, etc... or deer etc... I mean if your on 1/4th an acre with 10 hens by all means eat 8 and leave the two that lay the most to free range the backyard. You can also make some killer stock from hen bones that goes a crazy long way. In fact one hen can make about 10 gallons of good stock out of the bones of a fat one... that is like 10 crock pots of stock with leftover bones vs one meal...

 

[BamaBayFarm]

The Gift of Good Land "Wendall Berry" is one of the best books for small to large acre farmers. Its old school, has emphasis on the Amish, horse, sheep, and south American Peruvian mountain agriculture. Gias garden is also a great gardening book for incorporation of edibles into the landscape. EX my mom lives in a HOA VERY upscale nightmare neighborhood where you have to have a pool pass to take the grandkids to the pool. That said, NO edibles allowed. She has a meyer lemon, Sastuma, Grapefruit, peach, three blueberries, fig, about 10 bell pepper, small onion row, cilantro, basil, banna peppers, bayleaf, pomgranite, all tucked in among Japanese maples on 1/2 acre etc no fence overlooking the golf course... you can't tell except when the satsumas are in but it looks pretty darn natural and formal... in fact they have about enough food to self sustain the two of them on 1/2 acre.

 

[BamaBayFarm]

I agree with paying farmers but also think they should get paid a slightly higher percentage if they make the land more fertile while farming ie paying it forward. They should also have a slight percent increase for small farmers vs large corporate farms but I am a little bias towards that.

 

[ANightPerson]

I live in a forest & have PLENTY of edible wild forageables for both me and my birds. I'm also gonna start overproducing, preserving, and hoarding food from my garden as well. I think that maintaining self-sufficiency and keeping livestock are going to be incredibly important going through this, given that it ever ends. Scientists have predicted erratic climates shifts & famines severe enough to bring down entire countries, so I consider isolation & defense important factors as well. Climate change will kill & displace billions of people, if not all of us. It's important to fight it while we can.

 

[Maugwa]

I agree with paying farmers but also think they should get paid a slightly higher percentage if they make the land more fertile while farming ie paying it forward. They should also have a slight percent increase for small farmers vs large corporate farms but I am a little bias towards that.

I agree with this, but from what I see farmers who improve there land are already being paid more in two different ways; 1, They will have better land in the future - they are paying it forward to themselves, and 2, Organic, free range, non GMO, grass fed and etc. produce, poultry, dairy, and meat are things people are willing to pay more for. These are things that are more easily done on a small scale, but not enough volume for large scale ag industries to bother with. I think that's great.

I agree with you also about keeping some layers, but I think I'd want at least a half dozen, and a broody, and a rooster too, so I could replace my layers. I guess it depends on how long I thought hard times were going to last. But eggs are good food, I like them better than bugs or weeds. I'd find some way to feed them, even if I had to dig worms and ant hills. A river runs beside my 20 acres, I don't fish in it much. Well I do miles from home, higher in the hills, but seldom by my house. It's too many suckers and chub down here. But there are people who do fish down by the county road at the end of my place, by the bridge. There are occasionally a few trout or walleye - not enough to sit there all day and miss IMHO. Often they'll throw trash fish on the bank behind them. I usually can tell if there are new dead fish over there. Coons pack them off after dark, but if my chickens find them first, they chow down.

I haven't tried sucker, chub, or carp, but I know many people do eat them - I sure would if I were hungry enough, probably try young carp first, but I already know chickens like them, and I like eggs. I just saw a video the other day where this guy just scooped up minnows, and ate them raw. Yuck! He said it was an excellent source of protein. I believe him, but eggs are still more excellent in my book, I don't think I'd get many nutrients from a handful of minnows if I threw up lol. I have no problem getting lots of minnows in a minnow trap for bait. I never fed them to chickens before, but know I could. All this fish stuff would be high protein I know, but low protein things are a lot easier to find and it could be mixed.

 

[LoneOak]

The climate on this earth has been changing since the day it was born. The only difference now days is that media and mass communication has made it so much easier for the masses to hear everyones predictions of gloom and dire. The human has been on this earth for more years than I can remember and they will continue to be here for that many more. If we don't have chicken and eggs to eat we will surely find other sources of nourishment.

 

[austroberta]

The climate on this earth has been changing since the day it was born. The only difference now days is that media and mass communication has made it so much easier for the masses to hear everyones predictions of gloom and dire. The human has been on this earth for more years than I can remember and they will continue to be here for that many more. If we don't have chicken and eggs to eat we will surely find other sources of nourishment.

Yes, climate has changed in the past, but not with the rapidity with which it is changing at this juncture in our history and not with the same sort of rapid changes that are taking place. Take a look at what humans are doing to the planet. Insect populations are in rapid decline. Water sources are completely tapped out. (Look at what his happening in India, where 21 major cities are about to completely run out of ground water.) Bee collapse. Dead zones are increasing. 60% of animal populations have been wiped out since 1970. The Ogallala aquifer, which took thousands of years to fill up, is rapidly being depleted . These aren't projections of future events of doom and gloom. These are things that are happening NOW. People can stick their heads in the sand and call if fake news, but the fact of the matter is that humans are using resources like a drunken sailor, and in the process are doing what could be irreversible damage. Try raising chickens and growing food/grains when the well runs dry and there's no water. Some places are there already. It's not a doom and gloom scenario....we are there already.

 

[Shadrach]

Fascinating reading this thread.
I agree climate change is a massive problem. The causes are not absolutely clear. I believe the human race has had a part to play in some of the changes but climate is an extremely complicated business. A large solar flare from our sun can cause major changes for example.
I find it particularly strange that currently there are enough resources for everyone on this planet yet people are starving and many problems concerning water hygiene, access to medicines and a higher level of education are denied to people because a comparative few are just plain greedy. Most of us have far more than we need but the 'get more' rather than the 'use less' philosophy dominates in the industrialized world and it seems in this thread.
The one family survivalist strategy I read about is not going to work in a major global crisis. You can buy your plot of land and kit yourself out with a major armory, but others will group together and cooperate and take it from you.
Isolation, closing borders and hoping the rest of the world will leave you alone is not a realistic view imo. It hasn't worked in the past and I see nothing that makes me think it will work in the future.
Our species has made what progress it has (if you consider we are actually making any progress) because of cooperation, not isolation.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Climate change will kill & displace billions of people, if not all of us. It's important to fight it while we can.

Total nonsense. This is a fiction that keeps being repeated without any evidence. However, get rid of fossil fuels and you will see billions die. Civilization is built upon fossil fuels and will collapse without them. Anyone who thinks renewables are the answer needs to consider what's going to happen to the food in their fridge/freezer when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine, or to their job if they work 2nd or 3rd shift.