#currently checking what's stocked in the pantry and writing my shopping list

[umilily]

meticulously planning my return to excessive christmas baking

[a-bit-of-owlish-fun]

Quarantine Shopping and Meal Planning

So I asked about this over on @steve-rogers-new-york​ and there was a positive response, so here we go. Date: 15 March 2020

Before I start, let me be clear that I am not a professional, just someone who deals with stress by planning, and who has some experience with emergency preparedness having lived in New Zealand during the more recent large earthquakes. Feel free to correct me or make positive additions. For clarity, I am currently in Ontario Canada, and cooking for one person, but have made allowances to feed my unprepared housemate in a pinch.

Priorities with this Pandemic Planning

Unlike some other emergency preparedness priorities, power, water, and phone do not appear to be issues. So you have greater flexibility with what you can make and keep. Your priority should be having a comfortable amount of food on hand in case you cannot leave the house. Don’t go nuts, don’t overbuy, and don’t buy thoughtlessly.

Planning What to Get and Make

When thinking about what to buy and what to make, you want to consider a few things:

How many meals do you need to make? That is, how many people are you feeding and for how long? Calculate the number of meals you need in total and make sure you have enough meals planned to cover those. Obviously, if you can prepare for more than that is good, but don’t go too nuts.

How many portions can a recipe make? You don’t want to be making single-serve meals. It’s inefficient and short-sighted. So pick recipes that make large quantities, that can be portioned up in containers to be chilled or frozen.

Am I being efficient with my ingredients? Are the quantities listed in regularly used recipes the most practical for your current ingredient availability? For example, if you’re making a stew with beef, but beef is in short supply, half the amount the recipe asks for, and then bulk up on potatoes, carrots, zucchini, etc.

What ingredients will last best? Don’t JUST get non-perishables! That just sounds miserable. I’ve had no issue so far getting fruit and vegetables, and if you’re smart with your choices and storage fresh foods can be good choices. This when picking items how long they will hold in your fridge or if they’re freezable.

Don’t forget about breakfast and Lunch!

If money is tight and buying ahead is challenging. Think laterally. Make use of dollar stores like Dollarama, Dollar Tree, or whatever your local variant is. They will often have a great range of shelf-stable foods like pasta, rice, canned goods, and other ingredients at really low prices. And from my experience so far, they seem to have passed the attention of many shoppers and are still in good stock-levels. Start there first, hit multiple ones to get a good variety, then shop at supermarkets for whatever you cannot get there. The quality is good, sometimes brand-names, and they can be far superior than supermarket prices.

Do you have a large stockpot, fry pan, and deep baking dish to make these large meals? If not, see about getting them. Large lasagne pans and other kitchen items can be found cheap at many dollar stores.

Don’t have a car? Me neither. Grab a backpack and some good re-usable bags and make multiple trips for heavier items like cans. Also, consider grocery delivery services. They can be hit and miss right now, as it’s harder to adapt to products being unavailable. This being said, they can be a good way to get bulk, heavier items to your house. Also, consider asking friends or family to get you items when they go and drop them off to you.

What Foods Hold Well and Go Far

Non-Perishables that can extend meals

Pasta and Noodles — Pasta is a great item for entending a meal. Be it soups, stir-fry, oven-bake, or just able anything, you can either cook-in, mix-in, or have as a plain side. They bulk up a meal and make it go further.

Rice  — Same as above.

Lentils and Other Legumes — Lentils are great for bulking up and extending soups and stews. Also consider chickpeas, beans, and other legumes.

Potatoes — Potatoes are great! The can be a great base, addition, or side to many many meals. While these will not last indefinitely, if you keep them cool and dark then they will last quite some time.

Non-Perishable Ingredients and Flavouring

Canned Vegetables — Don’t be picky. Yes, get fresh veggies where you can, but also suck it up and get some canned goods as a back-up. Carrots, peas, beans, tomatoes, all that. They’re good, they taste fine, and go well in so many recipes.

Canned Fruit — Many fruits have a shorter shelf-life, so consider some canned alternatives.

Herbs and Spices — Make sure you have a nice spread of these. It’s easy to grab the base ingredients for food, but if you don’t have something to flavour those meals with, you’ll have a miserable time.

Sauces — Same as above.

Canned Tomatoes and Tomato Paste — Yes, I’m listing this separately because of their versatility. With canned tomatoes, you can make soups, spaghetti, lasagne, chilli, curry...so damn much. So grab a good stock of these.

Perishables

Eggs — Eggs are so damn versatile. Get eggs. When kept in the fridge they keep for a good long time.

Vegetables — Think smart. Get items you know last well in your fridge, and avoid items you usually have to throw-out or use-up within a week or two.

Fruit — Same.

Breads — Same. Also, consider freezing loaves if you have the space to do so. It tastes just as good as fresh, honest.

Frozen

If you have the capacity to get things frozen or to freeze them. Do it. Frozen peas, corn, stir-fry veggies, meats...they last well and taste good.

My Grocery List

This is what I have been buying myself. Not all at once but in multiple trips over the last couple of weeks.

Pantry

Top-up herbs and spices: ground cumin, garam masala, oregano, basil.

Spaghetti pasta

Spiral pasta

Lasagne pasta sheets

Large bag of rice

Flour

Canned tomatoes (4 large cans)

Tomato paste

Canned asparagus

Canned coconut milk (2 cans)

Lentils

Potatoes (6 large)

Onions

Fridge

Eggs (12pc)

Milk

Cheese

Zucchinis (3)

Carrots (large bag)

Lemons (2)

Limes (2)

Bag of spinach

Bell pepper (1)

Crescent Rolls

Freezer

Peas

1kg minced beef

750g stewing beef

Box stuffed chicken breasts (I love ham and cheese and a good addition to any meal)

500g lamb (for curries)

500g stir-fry beef

Household

ONE pack of toilet paper. Seriously. Just get what you personally need.

A couple of small packs of cheap toilet paper from the dollar store.

Pack paper towels

Any cooking materials like tin-foil, parchment paper, that I use regularly.

3-pack tissues (I have killer allergies so I’ll always need them)

Plastic containers for portioning meals in the fridge or freezer.

Meals I have Planned

These aren’t full recipes, but rather a list of ingredients and volumes for grocery references. I might write-up full recipes later if people are interested. 

Lasagne

This is my fav vegetarian lasagne that also have minced meat. It makes around 6-8 servings (depending on home much you eat and size of baking dish).

Lasagne sheets (dried) or just those baby lasagne pasta if you like them better. 4 cups Milk 250g Cheese Butter Flour Nutmeg Chicken stock 3 Large Carrots 3 Large Zucchini Large bag of fresh spinach leaves 400g Canned Tomatoes Fresh/Jarred Garlic 500g minced beef Light Herbs (oregano, basil, etc to taste, but not too much)

Vegetable Stew

Technically a soup, but I never blend it and just eat it as is. Makes 3-4 servings alone and 5-8 servings when served with cooked rice.

2 cups dried lentils (soaked overnight) 1 Large Can Tomatoes (not pre-herbed, just used plain) 2 cups Chicken or Vegetable Stock 2 Large Carrots cubed 2 Large Zucchinis (quartered then cubed) Fresh/Jarred Garlic 1 Tbsp Cumin 1 tsp Ground Coriander Fresh Coriander (lots) Fresh ground peppercorn

Beef Stew

500g Stewing Beef 3 Large Potatoes cubed 3 Large Carrots cubed 1-2 cups Frozen Peas Fresh/Jarred Garlic 2-3 Tbsp Flour Fresh ground peppercorn 1 Large Onion 3-4 cup Beef Stock 3 Tbsp Tomato Paste Rosemary 2 Tbsp Cornstarch

D.’s Curry

This is just and random mash-up curry I make. It can be cooked with or without lamb and both taste great. It is not spicy. Makes 2-3 servings

2 Large Onions (one minces with spaces, one sliced) Fresh/Jarred Garlic Fresh/Jarred Ginger Ground Cumin Ground Coriander Ground Cardamon Whole Cardamon Seeds Whole Cumin Seeds Garam Masala 300ml Uncooked Rice (then cook it, obviously)

Closing thoughts

Once you have these items, don’t use them. Carry on like normal and don't use these items unless you need them. Now I have my meals planned, I am back to making normal meals with what I can get. Always have that TWO WEEK buffer on hand at all times.

Purchase your groceries gradually. Don’t buy out in one go, be considerate. Take only what you need.

Visit multiple locations, sell-outs are not the same everywhere and while one supermarket may be sold out of something, another may still have a fresh stock.

More stocks WILL come. So if you cannot find something, make alternate plans, find a substitute, and return every now and then to check stocks. Supermarkets are constantly restocking as they can.

Be kind to customer service workers. They are just trying to get through this like you are. They are not paid well, have no control over their employers' stocks or decisions. They have the same stress you do and you being an asshole is just causing them MORE stress they do not deserve. Be. Kind. Be. Understanding.

Support others. Friends, family, neighbours, co-workers. We do this together.

DON���T STRESS OUT! Be prepared. Be aware. But don’t become overwhelmed, it will all be FINE. We just have to adapt and ride it out <3

I hope this was helpful. Have further suggestions or any corrections, please do let me know, I’m always happy to correct myself. If you have any questions feel free to comment and message me. And if you want those full recipes likewise let me know!

[mybeinginnature-blog]

Action - Chemicals, Purchases, E-Waste & Food System

Investigate the chemicals in your personal care products. Use the product guide from the Environmental Working Group http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ to see how your products are rated for carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, etc.   (   /3)

After referring to the Environmental Working Group website and their analysis of products, I discovered that a few of my daily use items are harmful in a way I wasn’t expecting. There are many more items I found to not be as safe as I was expecting that I use almost everyday. Here are some examples:

Do an analysis of your purchases for one week.  Record all products, food, beverages and services purchased over this period.  Create screening criteria to categorize all items as “Good”, “Bad” or “Ugly”.  The criteria is up to you, but must be justified.  You may wish to consider factors such as: environmental impact, social impact, local or foreign, corporate or small business.  Add up the dollar values spent in each category and reflect on where you would like to make changes – if any.  (   /3)

While tracking my purchases for one week, there are a few observations where I would like to make changes in my lifestyle. Based on these dollar amounts, I would like to decrease the amount of times I eat out in a week and the habit of buying a coffee to study with. I can do this by making coffee at home and bringing it out with me, and buying more local groceries that I can make my meals in advance rather than having to buy my meals at restaurants which produce great amounts of food waste. My transportation is difficult due to my location outside of the city but I try to minimize the amount of times I drive anywhere for leisure activities. My activities are fine and I don’t think I need to make many drastic changes in that area. Here are the following categories, expenses, and my ratings on their impact:

Food ($174.85)

Transportation ($67.00)

Activities ($147.00)

Investigate the options and end fate of your household’s e-waste.  Discuss where and how you will dispose of this waste and your future electronics purchase plans in relation to the waste they will one day become.  (    /2)

In terms of e-waste, my family and I have always recycled our cell phones with the company (i.e. Bell MTS) as soon as we receive a new phone. Those companies have a recycling plan in place for the cell phone parts to be used in the manufacturing process. As for computers, each family member generally has one computer at a time and has lasted for a long period of time that e-waste isn’t a problem in that area. When they do come to an end, we can return it to our retail locations where we received the computer, such as Staples. Another option is to bring recycled products to a collection site where they can use and recycle each piece of that electronic.

Consider your food system and the ways in which you can improve the sustainability the food that you consume and throw away. Are there ways to improve sustainability such as shopping locally, growing your own food or reducing your household’s food waste? Which options might suit your household and value system? Create a plan for one change that you think would improve the sustainability of your food system. (   /3)

Currently, my food system consists of my parents purchasing groceries from either Safeway or Superstore, never from local stores. In the summer, a few vegetables are grown in our garden but never enough for more than one meal. Based on the waste audit I completed over one week, my household was wasting approximately 3.5kg of food weekly. Therefore, our food waste can be reduced a great amount simply by not buying more than we need. This could be achieved by using a shopping list or buying produce and fresh goods that will be used immediately rather than wasted if we choose not to eat them.

Using a shopping list would improve the sustainability of my food system in terms of significantly reducing my food waste. We buy groceries normally bi-weekly, and if we took note of what foods we were out of in my house first, as well as what our meals looked like for those 2 weeks, we could effectively buy only the foods that we need. Here are the steps for this grocery list:

1. Check fridge and pantry for any foods we may need for the next 2 weeks

2. Write down these missing foods

3. Determine a rough meal plan for the next 2 weeks

4. Write down the ingredients needed for these meals and see if we have them in stock or if they need to be purchased

5. Go to the grocery store with the list and purchase only the items on that list

References: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/

Photo: https://indianfolk.com/responsible-consumer-edited/

[sportymama]

I’ve been on and off about writing in The Time of COVID. I have friends and family all over the place about this crazy time of quarantine, and rationing toilet paper and visiting supermarkets with masks at only certain times of the day. For us, things haven’t been as hard-hitting as some have experienced. It’s heartbreaking to see the loss of jobs, business, finances, health, and the fear that has struck so many. Our area was later to the game as far as quarantine lock-downs and runs to the store to hoard goods. Little by little, we saw a trickle of items disappear but still at any given moment I’ve been able to walk into a store and get toilet paper. My husband and I eat a whole food plant-based diet, so for us, stocking a freezer or pantry doesn’t work incredibly well. . When I first decided to grab a couple “extras” it was 2 cans of chickpeas and 2 cans of black beans. Fear has caused people to go… a little off the rails. Throughout this entire time, I have continued shopping every few days. The fresh produce has been PLENTIFUL! My hubs and I joked that with the world ending, the Vegans will live on because as inside isles (packaged & processed foods) of the grocery store were getting barer and barer, the fruits, veggies, nuts, herbs, lentils, beans and seeds were overflowing.

I have had a few days when we watched the news and I thought… am I having a false sense of security? Should I run to the store and stock my car full? I didn’t and here we are, eating a healthy diet, still.

We are not news watchers. We never have been. I like a morning update (online) and the Sunday NY Times which we have delivered. ALL of a sudden I noticed my phone starting to blow-up with all sorts of banners and alerts and warnings. My social media feeds were going crazy with news and photos of cars filled with sanitizer and toilet paper. I started to fall prey to looking more. Finally, I took a step back. The media has been on a feeding frenzy over this and THEY SELL FEAR! Fear is the best way to control people. We can’t allow fear to dictate our stories. I did a social media cleanse which included cleansing from not only “looking” but also getting rid of articles and groups that were not nurturing my soul. I always say… just like the food you put into your body, what you put in your mind can be just as corrosive. Junk in, junk out. As an athlete, I would never demand or expect my body to perform well feeding it junk. Same with my mind. Watch news all day and see how you feel versus taking ONE day to not check your phone, not check your social feeds and instead get outside and move a little. Go for a hike, bike or walk in the fresh air. Take big full gulps of oxygen. See how things look after 24 hours. You’ll be amazed! Sitting inside during a pandemic may be the worst thing you could do.

My hubs and have a ritual; every morning we have coffee together and read and discuss a devotional. We pray together. It’s how we start the day to set our hearts and minds in a trajectory for the GOOD. It’s grown our faith. Some days challenge us. Much like that morning cuppa that gets people going, this does the same thing for us. Our minds are set above the waves and that’s how we walk through the rest our day. Not getting mired down. Even when things are trending downward globally we can still have the hope for a great tomorrow. We walk in gratitude and focus on things within our control. Not dwelling on the negative or the past. Each day is new and brings along with it, fresh opportunities. No matter who you are, this is a good practice. Set an intention.

We talked this morning about how much change this virus and quarantine is bringing to not only our states and nation, but the world! We have, for years, been a population of technology. Don’t get me wrong technology is fantastic (hello Zoom dinners and cocktail parties!) but the whole “social” part of social media has lent to people feeling more isolated, more alone, more depressed. People NEED people. We talked about how during this time of being more isolated than ever, MAYBE this is what will cause a change. A shift! I can tell you RIGHT now, I am dying to hug ALL the people. This has challenged me (us) G and I are very social. We love going out, going to breweries, going to restaurants, wine bars, museums, concerts, the theatre and we love people. We miss socializing with friends. I have continued to run with friends weekly since this virus started. We’ve been very careful to keep our distance, which is easy when you’re dealing with a bunch of dirt and vert loving trail runners. Not to mention that most of the time we are in the middle of Nowhere, Wild Forest, North Carolina. It’s nothing but space and fresh air. BUT I cannot wait to high-five after a good long run. Or hug goodbye when we get back into our cars. As a social person IRL this has been hard.

We talked this morning about the fact that we will probably never walk by a stranger without talking to them. We won’t ever sit by someone in a restaurant without saying hello. We won’t ever pass up the opportunity for a hug. Our pastor is SO great (in normal circumstances) before we sit in church on Sunday mornings he will always say, “hug 3, 7, 10…14 people!” Some days it is awkward. It will never be again!

There are still ways, even now, to feel the fullness of life. Are you eating well or have you succumbed to boxed foods because you feel like it’s what you hoarded and now need to consume? DON’T! Are you still exercising? Even with 100% of the country on stay-at-home orders and social distancing, the outdoors are still open. Fresh air is still available to you. Get outside! Pick up a new hobby. Read more. Paint. Take the time for bubble baths. Rearrange your furniture. Give your house a good spring cleaning. Purge all of the unrecognizable, unnecessary “things” you’ve collected that aren’t serving you a purpose anymore and are collecting dust. Clean a closet or cabinet a day and donate. A lot of people are in need right now and it feels good to bless with your excess. Learn to cook some new incredible meals. Challenge your significant other to an Iron Chef cook-off (we love doing this) Learn yoga or practice meditation. Lean into God and learn WHO he really is. Play board games. Go outside barefoot and stand or walk in your lawn. (This alone can make you feel better) Contact with the Earth’s surface electrons by walking barefoot outside is a therapeutic technique. It has positive effects on your body; improving sleep, helps pain management, reduces stress, anxiety, reduces inflammation and boosts immunity.

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a sold-out 100-percent glass half full girl! I can make a rainbow out of anything. Find the pony in the manure. I laugh a lot (and always have) and sometimes that’s all we can do. I grew up in a home lacking laughter, so as an adult, a wife, a mother that is something we nurtured and cultivated in our family. We laugh

A LOT.

We played tricks and pranks and had food fights, were silly, and joked about all sorts of things. We are, in general, a pretty un-serious crew. PS: laughing is great for your immune system.

I flung open my door and invited laughter right in to sit on my couch and have coffee, daily!

Take some time to laugh about things. Get goofy.

Have you chosen to change some things up, instead of being mired down in the fear of what “could happen?” Growing up all I heard from my parents was “what if?” As an adult, that was something I fought against. It didn’t make sense to me to think in those terms. For me, God flipped a switch from “what if?” in the negative sense to “what if!!!” in the excited and expectant sense. I never have the dismal, cloudy thoughts of “what if something goes bad.” And if I start down that road I can easily remember “This is the day the Lord has made… I love the TPT translation; “This is the very day of the Lord that brings gladness and joy, filling our hearts with glee.”

Are you still finding gratitude and joy every day?

Have you allowed yourself some down-time and self-care and some time to figure out a new plan? A new normal. Sitting and thinking about what could happen only steals the joy of today. Most of the time the “what if” and “this could happen” NEVER does. BUT what if it does? “What if” this is a brand new start to something extraordinary? Find new passions. Soak yourself in new wishes and goals and cravings and hope. Rediscover your spouse and who you fell in love with years ago. Watch your kids play outside and cultivate in yourself some of that youthful curiosity. Make a list of some dreams that you and your husband shelved a few years back, bring them to the forefront, and start creating the plan to make them happen post C19. Reorder your priorities. Allow things that are not serving you to break off and fall away. Make changes. Change is not comfortable and that’s why most people shy away from it, but you can’t grow if you don’t allow it to happen. Prune off the old, dead, damaged buds for new growth to spring forward.

I have done all of the above during this pandemic. Coming back from Central America as COVID was starting to make its way around the globe halted a lot of plans that my husband and I had. It halted our B-days, it halted a trip to NYC to celebrate our B-days, it paused some big races that we were training for and it paused a huge backpacking trip in the South Asia mountains of Nepal.

I’ve been reading a lot in Psalms and noticed that so many say “Interlude” between paragraphs. I have another Bible version that instead of “Interlude” is says, “Pause in His Presence” I loved this and realized this is where we are right now. Paused. It’s had allowed us a breath. A gigantic intake of fullness. A gulp of oxygen. It’s made room for some pretty spectacular new friendships to grow. It’s given us more time for our Life Group (eGroup) through our church; even if currently we have to meet every week via Zoom. Ha! It’s given us a chance to have some fun challenges with other friends that we run with, without the daily training schedule we usually keep to. It has allowed me to bake more. (Still wondering if this is good or bad) Ha! It’s given us the opportunity to explore more of our gorgeous state and the surrounding mountains, trails, and beaches.

How do you see this pause? Are you freaked and panicked and fearful? Are you thinking about what you’re missing right now or looking in the past? Or have you allowed this slow intermission to grow your potential? To allow joy to saturate all the dry patches? To allow some healing on your mind, body, and soul? To repair what was lacking and broken? To enable you to find new passions, interests, potential, and empowerment? To let go of things not serving you? To de-clutter not only your house but your heart and soul? To bring your tank to fullness? Are you being refreshed?

Your inward disposition will always determine your outward outlook. You cannot let what’s happening around you affect what’s living in you.

Do you find yourself saying you just want to get back to normal? Back to the old way?

I keep thinking to a few weeks ago at church and the notes I jotted down; what if normal isn’t something to get back to? What if we want to get back to what we were trying to get rid of in the first place? When you are fearful you reach out to what is familiar even if the familiar was killing you. Negativity can feel normal. Keep believing and trusting God by faith or you’re going to find yourself missing today’s opportunities because you were too attached to yesterday’s blessing.

  “If God can’t get your attention he will change your direction.” Wow!! Is he changing your direction right now? Your faith grows in unfamiliar places.

It’s a different time for sure but remember; Faith looks forward!

Keep your eyes above the waves and keep bumping into blessings, my friends.

  *Media notes curtesy of PSF. Wave lyrical quote curtesy of Oceans by Hillsong United

Untapped Fullness I’ve been on and off about writing in The Time of COVID. I have friends and family all over the place about this crazy time of quarantine, and rationing toilet paper and visiting supermarkets with masks at only certain times of the day.

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

 Editors Note: Another article from R Ann Parris to The Prepper Journal, a supplement for her last post on the subject. with new information and a guide on how much and seed would be the minimum someone needs. As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and be entered into the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards  with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies, then enter today!

“How much seed do I need?” It’s a simple question. And a common one, in the self-sufficiency and preparedness folds. It’s also a ridiculously simple answer.

It depends.

It depends on a lot of things. As with the perfect gun, the perfect dog, the perfect wedding dress, and even the perfect property size and location, it’s person specific.

There are about a dozen primary factors – all of which have subsets. You can pretty much apply that “it depends” and all those factors to the “how much land per person” question too. Deciding “how much” starts with weighing those factors, then crunching numbers and testing.

The first thing we have to do is determine our production goals. From there, we look at our yield averages – which is where “it depends” strikes hardest.

Then we check how hard something is to save seed from for a future yielding plant, and start dividing and multiplying.

It’s a huge topic, so it’s broken it into two parts. Here, we’ll run through the *ahem* short list of factors, and an example of how they intertwine to determine future-seed needs.

Another article http://www.theprepperjournal.com/2017/10/25/saga-seed-stockpiles-continued/  looks at some of the available planting guidelines suggested for families and briefly discusses how different plants and methods can affect how much seed we save and from where.

Variables in Yield

We can’t plan using others’ results. The upper chart here http://www.gardensofeden.org/04%20Crop%20Yield%20Verification.htm shows yield per acre for a small organic farm.

If you notice, it’s far removed from the Big Ag 120-bushel of corn per acre averages 20 years ago, and wouldn’t even be mediocre production for Big Ag’s current mid-160s to low-170s averages. Unless you plan for the same irrigation, testing, amendments, and equipment used by Big Ag, you’re unlikely to see Big Ag results. Their average yields do nothing for us.

See, when we start talking about “it depends”, it really does – on area, season, and growing style. That goes for both annuals and perennials.

Eventually we have to give it a shot ourselves, usually with small scale testing, to develop our averages.

Then we start to actually determine how much starter seed we need to meet our pantry goals, with a +/-margin for bumper crops and bust seasons and our desired seed saving. From those totals and our test plots, we start factoring how much land we need under cultivation to meet our goals.

To determine production goals, let’s develop what we’re going to call (charitably, and without snorting here) the “short list” of variable factors.

Primary Factors

– Are we only after a veggie-fruit garden to augment stored staples, or are we trying for true self-sustainability (calories, oils, and all required nutrients)?

– How many calories do we need?

– Fats and oils for cooking?

– Protein needs?

– Are perennials contributing to calories or fats? (Oaks, elms, nut trees)

– Are livestock or wildlife part of our food plan? (Fats, proteins, calories)

– Do we need livestock feed? Wildlife habitat?

– Are we also feeding animal helpers and defenders? (Short-term or sustainably?)

– Is irrigation needed? Is it possible? Probable? Hand or mechanical/electrical?

– Are we aiming for seed collection (which requires us to plant enough extra to stock as seed plus backup seed again), or a one-off planting (which opens up region-tailored hybrids)?

– Do we want/need “bad year” backups? (See http://www.theprepperjournal.com/2016/08/10/gardening-during-disasters/ for some garden-ag disaster scenarios; some “eek” regarding seeds are also found in the latter part of the http://www.theprepperjournal.com/2016/05/02/tracking-seperating-seeds-success/ seed-tracking article.)

– Growing method? (Plays into yields)

– What are our growing season & zone(s)? (How much growing time you have affects how much land you need to have planted during that season.)

  Wheat.pw.usda.gov – Variety selection affects our max-potential yields. We’d need more seed (and land) for a low-yielding variety, than for a high-yielding variety. However, we might not need amendments, pest control, or irrigation.

Additional Factors

There are other aspects that come into play once we have some of our method, climate, and goal answers. Some affect picking what we’ll grow, and some affect what we’ll need for our crops.

– Do we have slake water soaks planned for a corn-based diet? (Starving with a full belly = bad.)

– Do we know what OUR yields are, per general type (a bush green bean) or by specific variety (Channel Seeds VT TriplePro corn, versus Hancock’s “Trucker’s Favorite” white dent corn)?

– What are our past & locally common pest/disease problems?

– Previous land use?

– Planned preservation methods?

– Labor factors; in prep, harvest, and post-harvest phases? (Manual or mechanical, man hours, physicality)

– Focus on space efficiency?

– Got chill hours? (pro: apple yields; con: apple diseases and pests)

– Hoop-hothouse to extend seed-starting and planting seasons?

– Long-term sustainability, or expected short term? – Duration of short term: 12-18 months, 2-3 years, 5-10 years, etc.?

Uhm…Say What Now?

Thank you, boredpanda.com, for my go-to “incredulous/befuddled” Pallas cat, who balks at my “short” list & its contents.

Some of the factors may be head scratchers, without immediately obvious reasons for how or why they’d affect our seed stockpile. Usually, there’s a long, complicated article’s worth of considerations for each.

For example, we ask, Why does the sustainability of a system matter?

Because over time, we’re repeatedly taking nutrients and biomass out of the growing space, and sticking them in our toilets or catholes. This removes them from the production system – even only for 6-18 months if we’re into humanure.

The same is true of pulling weeds and flinging them far, far away, or letting livestock munch them and later returning manure – which has nutrients, but does little for soil structure. Eventually, it takes a toll on the soil.

We’re also walking and-or driving around our plants (compacting soil), possibly removing helpers like firefly larvae (they hunt slugs), and we’re possibly growing the same groups year after year (inviting pests and disease to set up shop).

Image: Sustainablesmallholding.com – Wheat hand harvest

For some timescales, sustainability just doesn’t matter. For those with enough resources to just repeatedly convert crop areas to covers and-or low-pressure grazing in cycles, it gets partly to mostly mitigated. There are intensive growing methods and practices that eliminate some to all of the possible problems.

However, there are methods that exacerbate them.

It took a thousand years to turn the Fertile Crescent into a desert, and only about a hundred years to convert the Great Plains’ six-plus feet of topsoil to the Dust Bowl. We can see less-dramatic but still-serious soil changes in just a year or two, definitely inside 3-5.

Avoiding the negatives (creating sustainable production) affects our growing method choices. Our choices also depend on our capabilities – physical and mechanical. The different methods see differences in yield, and affect the type and need for cover crops, or to have differing seed bases for alternating years.

It all combines to determine the amount of seed and land we’d need for cultivation to avoid having predictable problems down the road.

northportfarmersmarket.com – See those people at booths? They can be excellent resources. They also validate “it depends”. That market opens in October. See, it’s South Florida. They just shake their heads at “normal” planting guides.

Getting Help

Happily, we don’t all have to learn from scratch – although, unless you’re very light on the supermarket and skip the amendment and pest control portions of Tractor Supply, chances are prac-ap is going to be eye-opening.

Your local and regional Master Gardeners, county extensions and co-ops, and any permaculturists and sustainable ag growers in your area are going to be valuable resources.

Due to the limitations and capabilities in each region such as temperature and rainfall, the balance of crop types and varieties – and thus the seeding rate and-or yield – will vary significantly. People who are already doing it – successfully – can help with averages and predictions on those fronts.

Ask specifically about heirloom and OP, dryland-farming varieties, and disease resistance. Those are some of the areas where the biggest differences occur between “us” and Big Ag. (Remember that experienced organic farm yield versus Big Ag averages?)

We need to find a different expectation baseline, from people who grow the way we want to. That makes the internet an invaluable resource.

One, there’s a fabulous fallback: Your state’s old Victory Garden guides and farm reports.

Check the handout-guides, but also hit the cached newspapers. Many include canning rates based on the less-productive “then” crops and garden calculators, which can give us starting points for what our less-productive crops will potentially yield.

Two, we’re surrounded by growers, and the internet can help us find them.

Somewhere near us is a small market grower or a homestead blogger or forum user. A permaculture forum might also net somebody in the neighborhood.

Smaller YouPick farms are a good resource for varieties, pests, and controls. Some CSAs have programs for learning or apprenticeships, and some are open to conversations or hands-on tours even without them.

Should all else fail, you can also just keep those resources in mind (and on maps). These are people you might turn to for help later if you do have to expand before you have good established baselines.

Other Factors in Production

Way back when, there was a set of articles about seeds. They might be worth checking out again. The article on procuring and testing seeds http://www.theprepperjournal.com/2016/04/26/how-to-procure-test-seeds/ takes a brief look at some of the seed kits offered specifically to preppers, and talks about different types of seeds applicable to the prepper world. It particularly applies here.

Other articles about planting style, sowing schemes, growing methods, and the use of perennials can help start detailing some of the variables involved with successful kitchen gardens and larger crop plots.

There are also TPJ articles about production for livestock. Some of the efficiency and site-planning articles introduce integrated, multi-function system concepts that affect yield-per-area. Articles with focuses on specific disasters can sometimes also be sources for garden materials and seed types that can affect our yields.

There are a ton of variables with growing. Even Big Ag does not have cut-and-paste yields across the board – which is why we see variables in region and state production, specialization by region, and still periodic crop failures.

We must get started if we expect to grow food at some point in the future. There are too many learning curves to leave those seed kit boxes and vaults on the shelf until a disaster. Knowing how much of what we need to plant – in a normal year – is only the tip of the iceberg.

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[canaryatlaw]

alright. well today was fine. I slept until my 1:15 pm alarm went off, probably because it was like 2:55 by the time I actually got to bed last night, but oh well. I had my PT appointment for 2, so I got ready and was going to catch the bus set for 1:46, but then I had to cross the intersection at an inopportune time to make sure I got two pieces of mail in the mailbox, and ended up missing the bus by about 30 seconds, but it was fine because I had enough time to just walk anyway. I should probably give up on the bus method altogether when it really isn’t very far anyway, probably just like 8 blocks or so. So I got there on time, it was fine, I feel like I’m going to end up disappointing my new PT guy because he seemed super optimistic about making progress at first and like, I was not as optimistic lol and nothing’s really changed yet, so idk what he’s thinking. but it was good, I should still probably say something about the exercises, especially given how weak I’ve been proving myself to be lately when it comes to carrying things, so the exercises I’m doing should really be challenging ones. And I should do better about doing home exercises, because I really suck at those at the moment. So that was fine. Walked back afterwards and spent a while building a grocery list based off what was in the fridge and the pantry, and also on some recipes I’d like to make over the next couple of days since I’ll have free time, just stocking up on good ingredients to have on hand for baking and such. I think I’m gonna make caramels at some point soon, it’s been like, a year since I’ve made them lol and they were getting really good. this probably took about an hour, after which I grabbed my cart and walked down to the store. Shopping was fine, I had been really wanting to make a strawberry milkshake lately but was worried it’d be really unhealthy (being that milkshakes are generally like 700 calories) so I was like oh well what if I get some protein powder and if I mix it with like strawberries and ice cream and milk maybe it won’t suck??? so I got some that looked like it might be bearable. I grabbed a piece of flank steak because I wanted to make a beef and broccoli meal at some point, and the piece I got looked fine but the one next to it was starting to turn bad it was really nasty looking.....so I’m definitely going to use mine soon, probably tomorrow lol. I also wanted to get an extract of some sort to use for meringues, because the recipe I used last time came out really well in terms of crunchy and chewy ness, but pretty much just taste like powdered sugar, and the recipe said you can sub in another extract for the vanilla, so I thought I’d look at some alternatives. lots of interesting flavors of extract and such they sell (they legit had a pumpkin spice flavor, lol) but I ended up going with raspberry because I thought that sounded like a good choice. So I got everything and went to check out. There were two people ahead of me on line, an older lady right in front of me and a middle aged lady in front of her. the one at the front had quite the grocery load, and the older lady was like “you buying for a crowd?” and she was like “yes, I have three boys” and then the older lady started talking about her daughter and they talked about their kids and the older lady was saying she was thinking about moving closer to where her daughter was because she missed her and the front lady was like “you should do it, go be by the people who matter to you, that’s what’s most important” and I was really just watching this unfold while thinking about my family who left yesterday and what I’m thinking or hoping or planning for the future. My parents miss me a lot, that much is very clear, and I can’t really blame them, 3 out of 4 kids have never left the house, then there’s me who moved halfway across the country. And I love my family, of course, but I know living with them (mostly living with my brothers) can be bad for my mental health, and I’m in a fairly good state at this point and would not want to mess that up. And I mean, straight up moving back in with them is not really on the table at this point, if I go for the NY job I’d probably be there for the month of July while I do bar prep, but then after the bar I’d assumedly be moving to NYC because there’s no way I’m commuting every single day, and that much I’ve been very explicit about. But I keep coming back to thinking is that really what I want to do? I thought it was, but I’m not sure anymore.....but I’m also not sure if I want to stay here anymore. My emotions have kind of been in upheaval for the past month or so and it’s left me at a point where if I stay here I can’t really predict what my life would be like, and that worries me. sigh, I feel like I come on here and have the same conversation about all of this every night. still nothing on the email front, of course, as I continue to check each day. Sigh. Anyway. I checked out and managed to fit everything inside my cart (when I’m going shopping I’m always concerned I’m going to not be able to fit it all) besides my eggs, which I just carried which was fine. Got home, put the stuff away, and sat at the computer for a bit, and I think it was at this point where I checked to see if grades were posted, and I had a bit of a feeling it was going to be something this time, and I was right- as expected, my legal drafting grade was posted first since the assignments have all already been graded and there was no exam (and it really should’ve been posted sooner than this, but whatever), so there it was, a beautiful B+ in this class that has caused my so much anxiety and fear that I was going to flunk fucking child advocacy legal drafting, the class I should’ve fucking CALI’ed, but was instead thrown into turmoil because the prof hated my writing. I knew I was able to pull it out in the end, but the final is only half our grade, and since I had been getting like, 50% on the other assignments, I was concerned my grade was going to come out to like 75% (47 out of 50 points from the final, then about half of the remaining 50 points, coming out to like 75) which is still like, a C, and I’d very much like to not have any C’s on my transcript, and I didn’t know how this was going to turn out, so it ending in a B+ made me quite happy. I’ve been trying not to add any more B’s to my transcript because I don’t like them (I have two currently), and then 3 B+’s, and the rest are A’s and A-’s, which of course I’m fine with. So I was pleased with this. I have anxious thoughts in my head about yeah but what if you fucked up your civil rights final because you didn’t have the cases printed, but I know that’s bullshit because I can tell when I’m killing it on a test, and I very much felt that I was killing it, even if I didn’t have all the information I should’ve. I feel like I’m gonna end up with an A-, which I would have wanted to be an A, but I can obviously live with it. Remedies I’m not at all concerned with, the entire grade is based on the final and I know I killed it, it’s just going to be a matter of where everyone else falls on the curve, and that can be hard to predict when your grade isn’t actually based on the objective number of questions you got right but on how many everyone else got right, but I’m fairly confident I’ll end up with a good grade. That just leaves Secured Transactions of course, which may have been eclipsed by Legal Drafting at some point as my most worried about class, but it’s still been one I’ve been anxious about. I felt like I had a fairly good handle on the final, as least for not knowing any of the material a week before and shoving it all in my mind that week, but of course that’s also hard to judge because curve and such. If I can pull at least a B+ out of the class I’ll be satisfied. If I end up with a B I’ll be disappointed, but not really that upset about it. If I get lower than that I will be straight up pissed, but hopefully that will not happen lol. Anyway. I spent a little while longer on the computer before deciding to make a blueberry dutch baby for dinner again because I’m low key obsessed with them, so I did that and then got ready to watch The Flash. Not terribly impressed with this week’s episode, it very much felt like a filler episode that didn’t do much to advance the plot other than occupy time before the main climax comes in the finale next week. All the flash time stuff I really didn’t find very interesting, and idk what they’re trying to do with Caitlin and her apparently having meta abilities before the particle accelerator?? like that more or less just sounds like psychosis, and I don’t think that’s what they’re going for. So I guess we’ll see what they do next week, hopefully they’ll at least pull out a decent finale. Overall though I was pretty disappointed by this season, I don’t know what happened but they just really missed the mark. After the episode I forgot for about 2 minutes that Rise was on right afterwards, then switched over to them for their season/series finale. It really sucks that they didn’t get picked up for a second season because I think it had a lot of potential and some very strong storylines I would’ve liked to have seen carried into the next season. I very much dislike that it was now left with “we’re shutting down the drama department” and like, that’s just it, there’s no fixing it, the end of the show is them shutting it down, and like.....that is not a happy ending lol, I’m not sure how they felt about whether they’d get renewed or not but it was a peculiar note to end on. Not gonna lie, I loved teacher dude (whatever his M last name is) basically being like fuck it, let’s put on this whole damn production as explicit as it is because art is art and it deserves to be heard, even when it’s offensive (and as someone who’s seen this particular show on broadway, it’s explicitness is incredibly crucial to the powerful message it conveys). I understand of course why they still decided to do “totally eff’d” and just end it with “totally fucked” because there’s only so far you can toe the line lol. I probably have overly strong feelings on this particular subject, but Lilette’s mom is irresponsible and neglectful and you could make the argument she is even being abusive by forcing Lilette into the role of being responsible for parenting her, which is a recognized phenomena among child welfare behaviors. So obviously I was not terribly keen on that. And Maashous (definitely just checked imdb to make sure I spelled it correctly, and I did), which I’m so sad we don’t get to see more of his story, because there was so much there to explore. but with teacher guy’s daughter obviously being so emotionally compromised over this and just seeing him with the family, man, that’s hard hitting stuff. The show did a lot things right that Glee got wrong, but I guess in the end it just didn’t have the wider appeal Glee did. I’m sad for Auli’i (just checked again on the spelling and I did get it right) because she’s obviously so ridiculously talented and it sucks for a project she’s attached to to get chopped, but I’m sure she has many opportunities in her future. So yeah, lots of different feels there. During one of the commercial breaks the upcoming news advertising said something about a story on at 10 regarding Justin Hartley and a bad fan encounter in Chicago, so I wanted to watch that, but had an hour to kill, so I watched some of The Good Place, and decided it was a good time to try out my strawberry milkshake idea, so I got the strawberries, vanilla ice cream and milk in the blender, and added two scoops of protein powder, which was the recommended dosage. Set it to go and tasted it and it was a big NOPE you can totally taste literally all of it, so I added more strawberries and ice cream to try and help but it didn't work so I ended up having to toss the whole thing which was disappointing, and now I wanted a strawberry milkshake, so I just ended up making a normal one.  At ten I tuned back to the news. the preview was basically like “he had a bad encounter at a Chicago restaurant” and then when they did the actual “story” it was like 30 seconds, basically just saying he was “in town for a convention” (so C2E2 obviously) and was at a restaurant when a fan just like, came up to him and started kissing him????? lol, um, that’s cringey, but they didn’t give any other details or like even name the restaurant so that was kind of lame, but whatever. I watched Jimmy Kimmel, then Seth Meyers while I was waiting for my roommate to get out of the shower. Once she did I started getting ready for bed and now I’m here. Trying to think if there was anything else I wanted to say....nothing formal to do tomorrow other than watch the Riverdale season finale I guess (not like I’m terribly interested in that) so I’ll hopefully finish up cleaning my room and maybe sort through my entire wardrobe and divide it into the categories of currently in my dresser, in storage, and for donation, because I have way too much clothing that doesn’t fit me or I don’t like anymore that I could definitely get rid of. So we’ll see how that goes, hopefully it’ll be productive but I’m also able to get some relaxation in, since this is my one week to relax before bar prep starts, and I have to start at the DV clinic on Friday anyway. But yeah, I think that’s for now. Goodnight babes. Sleep peacefully.