The Digital Homesteader (Beta)

This is a weird topic for a preparedness blog, but to do some things you need to have someone to hold you accountable when you have something that you need to do. So, this is my accountability to you, the digital world. I bought my seeds today! I didn’t get them all, I still have to get some corn, but I think I have the bulk of what I am going to get.

I got my seeds on eBay. I looked at a lot of places and just want to get some heirloom seeds in the ground and get this going. So far I have spent $11 and I got 20 different types of vegetables. I have to add corn yet, and I am probably going to spend $6-7 more for that. I just ran out to the barn and my tiller didn’t fire, but its freezing outside and a little ether in the carburetor will probably fire it up. A good task for later in the week (when I have some ether).

In 1944 amid concerns of food rationing (as was happening in Britain), American’s were asked to grow a Victory Garden.  We responded with 20 million of them and they produced 40% of the all the vegetable produce being consumed nationally.^[4] That’s pretty amazing! By the end of the war those gardens raised crops equal to $1.2 billion.

Its time to start thinking about Victory Gardens in a whole new light.  While our country may indeed be in a war again, the bigger concern is the war on poverty, or just survival! I recognize that not all people can grow a garden. I have family who live on a tiny lot with not enough space to put out more than just a few containers and friends who live in inner city lots that are not only deprived of necessary light, but would likely be a target for thieves if they tried. But for the rest of us there is a solution, Victory Garden v.2.

I see the vegetable garden as providing us with the freshest of vegetables at a minimum cost, and if we use heirloom seeds they provide a sustaining source of food. Could a person survive of what they produced in just their garden? Probably, but not likely in most cases. Our tastes require far more diversity than most people can grow. However, if we learn a little about canning and preserving we can greatly decrease our food costs. I think eventually we will begin to prefer the produce of our own gardens and may at some point eat only that which we can grow.

This year I am building a Victory Garden v.2 (or VG2). I hope you join me. If not, I hope you enjoy the ride as I blog about it here.

Whether preparing, surviving, or thriving, there are certain basics that I keep coming back to.  Security, shelter, water, and food. Everything else is extra.  Security can be maintained mostly through isolation and vigilance.  Shelter is either where you live or some place far away that is safer than the urban place where you are currently living. That is a choice that we all need to come to terms with quickly.

Water is a big problem in a lot of places, but not that many places in the USA.  Throw a tarp out and you are going to likely going to catch a lot of rainfall that will provide for the family.

But food is a whole other problem, and not one easily solved. We can store up a year’s worth of supply, but then what. Wouldn’t it be better if you had a perpetual supply of food? Heirloom seeds are the answer. Heirloom seeds are seeds which are not genetically modified and haven’t been implanted with terminator modification so that they can’t naturally reproduce as God designed. All hybrid seeds that you buy at your local farm store or big box discount store are modified so that you can’t reproduce with them. That means when you get that delicious ear of corn you can’t dry the seeds and replant them. This is a marketing device that requires that you come back year after year to buy seeds from that company. While they might be in business next year, we can’t be sure.

The solution is heirloom seeds. These seeds are natural.  You can plant them and let them go to seed to have as much seed in the future as you want.  You can spend as little as $35 for a collection or as much as several hundred dollars. Some market themselves as “survival seeds”, others just as collections of heirloom seeds. They usually will state that the seeds will store for 5-7 years. Of course you can seal them from oxygen and store them at 55 degrees and they will go a lot longer.

But the thrill isn’t in storing but growing. Make this the season that you will plant at least something heirloom. Eat 90% of what you grow and hold back that last 10% for next year.