Pavlo from Ukraine is one of the video-bloggers who I follow. If you click on the link it will take you to a tour of his mother's garden as-of a couple of days ago. One thing that I found notable was the number of small fruit crops and the area dedicated to them. They also have fruit trees and nut trees. And they have a vast garden dedicated to "staples" like potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic and so-on.
It is my opinion that if you want to see effective food-growing technology (as opposed to "trendy" eye-candy) then you need to watch people who depend on what they produce to feed themselves.
If you are interested in hunting to put meat on your table then don't watch content put out by shooters critiquing the latest $1400 rifles and whiz-bang magnums at a shooting range. Find the guy who walks around with a simple, much-used shotgun or .22LR and maybe has a few live-traps and snares in strategic places. The first hunter is flying into Wyoming or Alaska and (maybe) shooting an elk or moose once a year. The other is likely bringing a squirrel, rabbit, woodchuck, muskrat or other critter into the kitchen EVERY DAY.
If you are interested in fishing for food, don't watch the guy flying across a reservoir at 60 mph in a brand new, $40k bass-boat. Find the guy who is fishing for catfish or panfish or whatever-bites-medley using set-lines and cane-poles.
In a similar way, Martha Stewart isn't going to show you how to grow a million Calories a year per person. Nope. She is going to show you how to grow geraniums and micro-greens for salads.
You need to visit guys like Possum Ridge and Pavlo's parents. In the case of Pavlo's parents, they were forced into it by 300% inflation in the cost of food. Their pension check now only covers the price of dairy products and eggs. That is why I am excited to see that Pavlo split-off the content where his parents show us how to garden as a stand-alone channel.
Consider popping in on them every few weeks and seeing if any of their videos strike your fancy. Their videos are about 8 minutes long which I find to be a very watchable length.
One miraculous thing about knowledge is that it can scale very quickly and inexpensively when we engage our minds. I hope we never NEED those skills in the US but God laughs when men make plans.
Thanks for the recommendations, ERJ.
ReplyDelete"using set-lines and cane-poles".
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in the bayous and marshes of Southwest Louisiana, we added trotlines and jug fishing. With the latter, one tied a hooked line to the neck of a gallon jug. Equipped with a few of these, one paddled up the bayou or in a big marsh pond, dropping the baited jugs at intervals over the side. After a bit of patience, you retraced your previous path. The jugs that were moving had fish.
If the bayou was brackish, something that happened occasionally, then a few crab traps added to the larder.
There were weeks when we ate products from the fields, marshes and bayous almost exclusively.
mc
I too have a sinking feeling we are going to need to learn how and what to glean off what we HAVE HERE and survive off of that. For that - potable water will become more valuable than gold !
ReplyDeleteMy first thought on seeing Pavlo's family was "how are the two men staying out of the army"? They both look like draft age cannon fodder. Yes the garden look magnificent.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don’t disagree with any of the comments, let’s not forget something to be thankful for… happy patriots day! Okay yeah, I’m two days early… you’re now forewarned ;)
ReplyDelete