The Digital Homesteader (Beta)

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.