Food Prices, Shortages & Inflation - The Trash Index

[Icu4dzs]

I am picking on this becuase there are a lot of newbies on this board who read careless statements like this and *believe* them

Pat

Quite frankly, I didn't make that number or fact up out of the blue.

This is data quoted from a site that teaches French Intensive Gardening. It was aso found in a book called "Gardening:Len's Way" which describes how to do as I described in a raised bed garden. It was NOT wriiten carelessly nor was it believed to be so. Your gardening methods may differ.

 

[Wifezilla]

Its hard to get 2100 cal./day (or possibly more if you are grubbing in the garden, or digging holes for fence posts) just from garden produce.

Your biggest bang for your buck is meat and eggs. They are way more nutrient dense than veggies. Of course, critters have to eat and that has to be taken in to consideration.

Freem... I learned last year I have been throwing out perfectly good food for years. I did not know WILD PURSLANE was not only edible, but one of the highest sources of omega 3's! DOH!

 

[freemotion]

Yeah, but it is puckering-sour!!! Yowza! An emergency food only for me! Or maybe a bit could be thrown in with other greens to add a lemony flavor...hmmm....

 

[Wifezilla]

I throw a little in to salads. Or course I only pick the small tender leaves. The rest go to the ducks. They are not as picky as me

 

[ORChick]

Free, do you live near the ocean? Maybe you could extend your foraging skills to seaweed? I would love to do that, as well as work on getting to know the local shellfish, but I live 1 1/2 hours from the coast, by car. If I have to walk, or borrow the neighbour's horse, I'm not sure about making that a part of my post-disaster plan
(I just got a book called "Forgotten Skills of Cooking" by Darina Allen; she is the Grand Dame of cooking in Ireland, with a wonderful cooking school down on the southern coast. One chapter is on foraging, and she includes seaweeds, which have long been used by the Irish.)

 

[freemotion]

I am 1.5-3 hours to the ocean, depending on which direction I go. It is all maintained beaches that I would have access to, so not much by way of seaweed. My aunt is selling her cottage, otherwise, I got to go for a day or two each summer and that is how I got my buckets of sea water to make salt.

 

[k0xxx]

...I don't believe it will be as bad as the usual doom and gloom on here. I heard that GB is spreading the D&G real thick so that gives me some hope. When someone reliable says it's going to get bad real quick I'll start to worry a little more...

All it takes is a look at the commodity trading boards and seeing that over the last 12 months corn is up over 90%, wheat is up over 50%, soy bean over 30%, cattle and pork up over 20%, etc. etc. etc., to know that it is going to get real expensive to purchase food.

Everyone is free to believe what they want, but I honestly feel that things will get much worse. With the fiscal direction of the country, and the added economic stress of much higher food and energy prices, I believe that we are in real trouble. We could easily see at least a period of 70's or worse inflation, or a long period of 1930's style conditions.

I don't think that the average American has a clue of what it will mean when the US Dollar loses its' place as the world's reserve currency.

 

[KevsFarm]

Freemotion, how do you actually make your own seasalt with seaweed..? I live very close to the bay and ocean, have for decades gathered seafood and kelp.I eat nori all the time, but would like to learn about eating kelp for it awesome nutirents.
I rinse the kelp in fresh water to get the salt off before using in my garden.Kelp resemble jumbo lasagna noodles and is loaded with a huge varitiy of minerals and nutrients, good for humans and gardens.I chop it up, best i can as it takes awhile to break down in the garden, it pretty tough stuff.
I'm going to try making a kelp tea for my garden, using the food processer/blender and water.
Do you wash the seaweed, then evaporate the water to obtain sea salt..?
This past week we had a break in the weather and a good low tide long enough for me to get a few dozen nice big soft clams/piss clams.I fry them up Ispwich style, WOW, are those babies good with a squeeze of lemon and tarter sauce.
This year fo the first time in 15 yrs or so, the blue eyed bay scallop made a come back to , even to te surprise of old time local baymen, talk about tastey little gems...! My favorite is baked stuffed hard clams and homemade white clam sauce.
Living and foraging near the seashore is something special for sure.It has it moments though when them hurricanes come racing though.
Knowing how to forage from the local waters is very valuable knowledge.when the tide is right i can almost always find something good to eat, clams, mussels,perwinkles,scallops and thats jst the shellfish..! Knowing how to fish and catch flounder, stripebass, blackfish, etc is important to, along with the local freshwater fish.
Almost everyone lives near some body of water fresh or salt.Its a good thing to know how to catch fish/shellfish for all SS'ers.Of course if you don't like any kind of seafood or fish, well....its a big protein loss...
Yep, the more sources of fresh local foods you can ID,utilize in the wild and grow the better off you'll be.I agree that things are just going to get worse, on all fronts.We are not going in a good direction, indeed the world is not going in a good direction.Food,energy and clean water are going to be a bigger issue each passing day....

 

[KevsFarm]

Ahh, okay...i missed your mention of buckets of sea water to evaporate for salt in prevous post, Freemotion...

 

[freemotion]

It is actually kinda fun to watch the water every day, and then every few hours, then almost hourly as it gets thicker and thicker and suddenly is a pan of salt!