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

[Ra_]

What is Comfrey? Looks like a weed, can people eat it?
gary

Some people eat it and it was very popular for livestock until someone in the 80s consumed massive doses and was able to record negative results.

I have more info on it here

 

[Eggcentric One]

Well hopefully more people realize the truth that


So good you see the science on this. Clearly the evidence shows that since the industrial revolution the earth has been warming at a greater rate. For some reason people want to deny science and stick their heads in the sand and pretend all is well. Our kids are inheriting a mess.

Gary

They are indeed inheriting a mess. According to the UNs IPCC there has not been a single constant degree or partial degree rise in global temperatures since 1992. Further, they went on to add that there have been no more global floodings, fires, droughts, typhoons, hurricanes or other weather related event more numerous than the previous years, in that same time, margin of error of +3/-3. That only the locations of global events have shifted. They state that there is a an increase in CO2, yet say nothing of the destruction of the Amazon Forest and the dispersing of cities that eradicate CO2 consuming Trees/Forests , you know the same ones that in our symbiotic relationship provide us oxygen to breathe. Nor does anyone touch on what factually created the Ice Age and what created the warming ( possibly continued as we are in Solar Min.) that melted the ice. This is the United Nations Panel directors on climate change, the executive branch, if you will.
However, my concern is that the IPCC is currently researching the scientific communities concerns on "geoengineering" and it's potential to utilize weather to hinder, harm and initiate war with other nations. The biggest potential for this is currently the United States and China. Both are utilizing geoengineering to alter weather patterns and they have come a long way since the cloud seeding in the 60's Vietnam War. So hacking the climate, at least regionally is nothing new, just more advanced. The concern here is, what this hacking or intended manipulation on a region can do to our food supplies/ ability to grow our own/ ability to feed our livestock.
In the U.S. we already have seasonal issues that can limit or destroy our ability to provide, be it flood, drought, fire, cold snap, tornado or severe rain storm. Add the ability of someone to hack the system and ensure that the majority of a commercial growing belt is ruined a few years in a row while another nation sees crop proliferation. These are real concerns.
Meanwhile there is already a global food shortage, but no news is good news right? Guess they are just attempting to keep us happy.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Storing a year's worth of food back is just good sense regardless of why people might be concerned. Might lose the breadwinner or a breadwinner in the family, someone laid off, slow business if self employed, and yes the flooding we saw this spring is going to raise feed prices and thus food prices. I remember back in the late eighties feed prices soared for some reason and the chicken farms were advertising on the radio to come pick up your free chickens, from chick size to nearly half grown. I got an 18' long flat bed trailer full of the darned things for free. Standing room only. LOL

And learning about what wild foods might be used is a great idea even in good times if you have more time than money. I always thought fishing for trash fish like gar and carp would be a great idea for both chicken feed and dog feed, pressure can it, bones ought to be nearly jelly.

But this so called "climate change" was pushed on us in the eighties but society had enough since to call it quackery while they called it "global cooling". Then it became "global warming" and the science didn't back up their claims so they re branded it as "climate change".

The reality is that it is all propaganda designed to stampede people into supporting radical agendas, eliminating the raising of animals for food, forcing Agenda 21 type population clearances by forcing people off the rural land and back into cities. I used to run a volunteer fire department in Arkansas and we were trained at the state fire academy to save every building we could. These days the rural fire departments in my state are told not to fight the fire for safety reasons and just prevent the fire from spreading. I have literally been told this by folks who lost a home over a small kitchen fire that could have been put out.

So I wouldn't worry about what the mainstream media is saying. They are just pushing an agenda and are not trustworthy at all. There are people that believe this with all their heart because they have been terrified into thinking a disaster is sure to come. Same thing with Y2K, someone could make money or make hay politically so they helped push the panic while industry and government made the changes to the software to prevent problems.

So calm people, calm. Prepare is good, panic is silly, giving away your child's birthright to a thriving society, the ability to raise some backyard chickens, and to live in the country is not a smart idea.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

I planted amaranth this year, up in an old pasture we have above the house. Amaranth grows wild around here, but not on my property. The greens are supposed to be great for chickens and people, and the seeds are extremely high protein (quinoa family, I read). I’m trying to plant some perennial foods, too, a la permaculture, but I just moved in here a year ago so just getting started.

Science supports the reality of climate change. I think we all should do our part to use less energy. And I think it’s smart to be
more self sufficient.

 

[Al Gerhart]

I suppose they no longer teach the cycles in school. Water cycle, carbon cycle, I think there were a few more. The carbon dioxide builds up, spurs plant growth like mad (some greenhouses use CO2 for this purpose) which soaks up a lot of the excess CO2, and the increased acidity causes limestone rocks to dissolve faster till the excess CO2 is soaked up. Oxygen levels become a bit higher as a result but with a boom in food and plants comes a boom in animals. Even when a monster volcano eruption occurs the planet can regain balance in short order and volcanoes will dwarf what humans can pump into the atmosphere. And I have heard that simple algae is powerful enough to bring down CO

 

[Willowspirit]

My husband and I had a great talk tonight about how to orient the land we have toward feeding ourselves more sustainably. We have accomplished some of what needs to be done and will work toward developing other parts of the property for food crops, forage for the horses and the possibility of raising a meat animal like goats or something. We are fortunate to have a huge rain capture and storage system and our own well. I’d like to add solar to get fully off the grid but we’ll see. If it weren’t for this discussion here our talk probably wouldn’t have happened.

 

[Willowspirit]

I suppose they no longer teach the cycles in school. Water cycle, carbon cycle, I think there were a few more. The carbon dioxide builds up, spurs plant growth like mad (some greenhouses use CO2 for this purpose) which soaks up a lot of the excess CO2, and the increased acidity causes limestone rocks to dissolve faster till the excess CO2 is soaked up. Oxygen levels become a bit higher as a result but with a boom in food and plants comes a boom in animals. Even when a monster volcano eruption occurs the planet can regain balance in short order and volcanoes will dwarf what humans can pump into the atmosphere. And I have heard that simple algae is powerful enough to bring down CO

Okay so at the high school level all of those simplified cycles they teach more or less hold theoretically as long as you are talking animals and plants. Very tidy, too. And it all worked out more or less until we changed the balance of naturally generated exhalation CO2 from animals by burning plants as fuel and releasing extra carbon into the atmosphere. Then to make things worse we started digging stable carbon out of the ground in the form of coal and gas and burning that, also increasing atmospheric carbon. Plants do eat up CO2, but not when they’ve been wiped off the face of the earth and replaced with concrete, asphalt, housing and commercial buildings. And a few skinny ass Ficus benjeminas in the lobbies will never make up for what’s lost. So the old cycles they taught still more or less make sense as long as there is balance which there isn’t any more.

 

[Al Gerhart]

No, they were not simplified, they will always be representative of reality. These models were taught a hundred years after the industrial revolution even though we have far more acres of forest in the U.S. than we had at the turn of the century. We burned far, far, far more coal and wood then than we do now. BTW all that concrete on the ground in in those commercial buildings and residential driveways and side walk soak up CO2 like a sponge, first helping when the concrete is curing and later making it more porous as it dissolves the concrete. CO2 and rain water combine to form carbonic acid, the carbonic acid eats away at the concrete and locks up the Co2. Same as limestone and that ought not to surprise you as we get cement from burning limestone. And if there are more bare areas that is that much more limestone exposed and that much more CO2 turning into carbonic acid and being locked away in the stone.

And forget about the land mass and vegetation, the oceans are the largest sink of CO2 and the algae and other organisms in the ocean have a much larger effect than land vegetation. 71% of the surface area on Earth is water. Water is far more productive for life than land.

If you knew about all this you wouldn't have made that argument. Global cooling/global warming/climate change hoaxes only fell on fertile ground once the educational system had been dumbed down enough.

Not to mention the "acid rain" that was supposed to kill off half of the U.S. in the seventies? That went away, that was your horrible and evil CO2 reacting with rain water to form carbonic acid. It was supposed to destroy most of the forest in the U.S. but the hoax failed after honest scientists realized the higher the CO2 in the air, the quicker it was washed and and neutralized, washed into the ocean, subducted into the crust or turned into coral reefs and animal shells. The ocean is a vast carbon sink and perhaps by 2100 we might see a .3 point change in sea water IF the carbon cycle stopped working which is isn't going to do. Even if we do lose .3 points on the PH scale we are still 300 years away from the ocean being even slightly acidic instead of alkaline.

Again, if people are ignorant of science they will fall for hoaxes. The vast majority of people do not believe in global warming and if one did they wouldn't be burning fossil fuels or increasing their carbon foot print by posting on the internet and would kill every animal they have, have their car crushed, and go live in the forest.

Your chickens give off CO2 and increase your carbon foot print. If you believe in climate change you know what to do.

 

[Willowspirit]

Gearhart. I have a Masters Degree in Biological Science. My husband has a PhD and just retired as a Botany Professor. Science has moved ahead since you were in high school. Trust me. You are criticizing new knowledge with old ideas.

Popular Science may be interesting but it is not peer reviewed literature.

Ps if you took biochem you’d understand how inadequate high school level — actually junior high now — cycles are.

 

[achiekitty]

I've got a Comfrey patch established and will be adding more.
Once established, it can be harvested every three weeks.
It comes back every year. (Mine didn't even go dormant last winter)
All it requires is water and chicken manure to thrive.
So if the SHTF, I'll be able to sustain my flock and eat the roosters.
Of course, they'll be a lot of bandits attempting to steal your birds.

Bonus: I make new plants from root cuttings and they sell well.
It's also fabulous for making an ointment that is great for many skin ailments.

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My 3 girls are ignoring comfrey. My one plant has the most gorgeous leaves, untouched by chickens.

But they love collards. I have multiple perennial collards in my suburban homestead that they (and harlequin bugs)love to devour. The cuttings root very easily and they grow fast in our area in Northern California.