As supply chains get disrupted, diesel fuel costs rise, and wheat-producing countries feel the sting of lost grain crops due to war, conflict, heat, and export restrictions– it’s not that hard to see the writing on the wall.
Countries dependent on grain imports from Russia and Ukraine might be the first to feel the effects of food insecurity caused by shortages.
However, there is some good news: the US is number four in the world in wheat production behind China, Russia, and India.
So we shouldn’t be that worried, right? Well, not exactly. As a significant player in the world market, the bulk of that wheat gets shipped to other places worldwide.
While North Americans probably won’t starve because of this shortage, they will likely see a very steep price increase and fewer baking goods or wheat-based foods in their grocery stores.
Still, since wheat and bread are so fundamentally important to humans, this could cause panic. Additionally, it’s not just wheat that’s at stake here. Many other grains and oil crops such as rye, sunflower, rapeseed, and more also see scarcity and record-high prices.
⇒ Learn How To Get 295 Pounds Of Extra Food For Just $5 A Week
Since we all saw what happened with the great toilet paper panic of 2020 – among other strange events – one thing is clear: people tend toward irrationality when faced with scarcity.
For this reason, it would benefit us all to be as personally prepared as possible before it’s too late. Here are just a few ways you can prepare for the looming wheat and grain shortage.
Whole Wheat Flour
Whole wheat flour contains more essential vitamins and minerals than its bleached-white counterpart.
Even though whole wheat boasts high levels of calcium, vitamin D, iron, fiber, and more – it has a shorter shelf life and tends to be more difficult to keep for the long term.
Despite its superior nutrient profile compared to white flour, the downside to keeping whole wheat flour is its shorter shelf life. Under optimal conditions, you can store repackaged wheat flour in a cool, dark, dry place for around 3-6 months and up to a year.
So if you choose to stock up on whole wheat flour, you’ll want to take measures to prevent it from spoiling or use it sooner than your other flours for the best results.
The moisture content of whole wheat flour hovers around 14-15% so keeping it in a mylar bag or a food-safe air-tight container with oxygen absorbers is ideal.
All-Purpose Flour
All-purpose flour – otherwise known as refined or bleached white – is arguably the most versatile and widely used type of flour. For this reason, it will probably be easier to find compared to others when shortages or price hikes hit.
However, the process of refining flour means the bran and germ of the wheat kernel have been removed and many of its important vitamins and minerals are destroyed along with it.
Historically, this process has been done to please consumers who prefer the pure-white color.
Flour bleached in its natural state is more of a creamy off-white color. Although the nutrient profile for bleached flour isn’t as impressive as whole wheat flour, the good news is that this type of flour stores very well.
Related: How to Can Flour for SHTF
All-purpose flour can be kept for up to 5-10 years under optimal conditions. It’s important to keep in mind that the original packaging of flour isn’t meant to hold up to long-term storage.
This means that your flour could accumulate dust, insect eggs, moisture, or other contaminants over time if not repackaged. So, when storing any kind of flour for later use, you’ll want to transfer it from its original bag into a container.
For best results, store your flour in an airtight container or mylar bag in a cool and dry place away from direct sunlight and humidity.
Unbleached Flour
Unbleached flour is refined flour that’s been aged naturally over time rather than aged with chemicals like all-purpose or bleached.
Technically, unbleached flour is still “bleached” naturally. But the color of unbleached flour isn’t a pure bright white like bleached flour is.
As far as maintaining the nutrient profile goes, unbleached flour may not contain as many nutrients as you would think. Due to its natural aging and bleaching process, a lot of key nutrients are still lost. In fact, unbleached flour is only slightly more nutrient-rich than bleached flour.
Many people prefer unbleached flour as it has a more natural texture, taste, and hasn’t gone through a chemical wash.
However, if maintaining a good amount of extra nutrients is important to you, look for “enriched” bleached and unbleached flours. Enriching flours is the process by which the stripped nutrients are added back into the final product.
Related: Turning Flour into Hardtack Biscuits With Over 100 Year Shelf Life
Both enriched and regular unbleached flour have a shelf life similar to that of white flour. Still, you can lengthen the shelf by keeping optimal storage conditions as you would with all-purpose flour.
Alternative Flours
Many alternative flours are made from seeds, oil grains, nuts, and other plants. These types of flours can be fun to bake with or mix in with other flours for a more nutritious blend.
However, due to the higher fat content of these flours, they tend to have a shorter shelf life.
For example, almond flour and coconut flour have a shelf life of around 3-6 months before they begin to spoil. The same can be said for nut, root, or plant-based flours.
So, when keeping these types of flour, it’s important to use them before other hardier grains. You can extend the shelf life by practicing good storage habits and keeping them away from sunlight, heat, and humidity.
Buying Wheat Berries In Bulk
When storing grains for an upcoming grain shortage, wheat berries are a great option because of their long shelf life and lower cost by weight.
Wheat berries are the edible grain kernels left over after the outer hulls are removed.
The outer shell part of the remaining kernel is known as the “bran” while the inside is made up of the germ and endosperm. There are several types of wheat berries to choose from.
However, due to their hardiness and consistency in bread making, most people choose hard red wheat, soft white wheat, or some combination of the two.
While you can soak and cook these grains for food, many folks prefer to grind their berries into flour using either a handmill or an electric mill. This allows you to harvest 2 cups of flour from about 1 cup of grains.
Buying whole wheat berries for your stockpile is a smart way to store grains for a very long time. When stored properly, wheat berries can last for 30 years or longer.
How To Store Flour And Grains
Storing your grains and flour properly will help prevent pests and moisture from spoiling your grain stash. When storing flour, there are a few tried-and-true ways of preserving it for the long term.
Of course, there’s the option of freezing it. However, there are far too many SHTF scenarios in which relying on electricity to freeze food might not be ideal.
With that in mind, the best way to store flour for long-term storage is by dry canning it. This will prevent any moisture from disturbing the quality of your flour.
If dry canning flour isn’t an option, storing it in an air-tight food-grade container lined with a mylar bag and enough oxygen absorbers will also keep your flour fresh for years past the normal shelf life.
When storing wheat berries and other whole grains, canning isn’t really necessary. Due to the density of wheat kernels and their low moisture content, the ideal storage for grains is in a 5-gallon food-grade bucket or another similar container. Keeping your grains in a cool, dry, and dark place will ensure they’ll be safe to eat when you need them the most.
Although it seems like this looming grain shortage could affect the world in a big way very soon, it’s always important to remain calm and pragmatic.
It’s good to know that even if this grain shortage doesn’t affect you as you anticipated it would, you can still learn how to stand better prepared for whatever life throws your way.
Better order your grain quickly.
Durum wheat berries.
Soft white wheat berries.
Soft red wheat berries.
Takes care of, pasta, and all types of bread and cake products, plus pie dough, also.
I never wanted to store grains of any kind but better safe then sorry.
There’s lots more work invoved, but the rewards are worth everything when you seat down at the table and have some fresh bread, or something sweet.
Grinders are a must. better buy a good one. Mine was around 150 bucks. Don’t buy a junky china crap one.
Chose wisely, there are a lot of really crappy products out there. Buyer beware…
Durum wheat was the hardest, for me to find. Bought there last one. Check around, there maybe some out there.
Happy Hunting.
Pepper Friends. Y’all stay safe out there.
We are aproching the Third Horesman. He sets on a BLACK HORSE.
His name is “Famine”.
This Horseman will bring what is to come next… starvation…
after this horseman, is the horseman of DEATH…
If we are to endure a wheat shortage of any kind, then we must stop exporting any wheat products and keep what there is for us (US). I do not care if other people in the world suffer from starvation because we stopped exporting. Before you can care for others, you MUST care for your own first. Starvation is a horrible way to die, so we MUST take care of Americans FIRST. I sound terrible, but I have seen starvation first hand, and wouldn’t want my neighbors to suffer this way watching them suffer from malnutrition, especially our children!
We ain’t in the tribulation yet, but it’s coming soon.
Rainy Day Foods has Durum Wheat currently in stock.
They do have Durum wheat. 35lbs bucket. @55.69 each.
I bought 55lbs for 76.00 plus shiping cost 132.00…
Got the last one they said.
Gunpowder: Not for us. No gluten. Corn, rice, and a lot of beans. Chia is great. The Aztec army marched on a few tablespoons a day; American Indian slaves in Mexico worked hard 6 days a week on it. We stored 100 lbs of Mexican, and have California and Tarahumara growing wild on the place. niio
What is a good hand grinder?
My grinder came from VKP brand
VKP1024
From Amazon.
There are a large variety to choose from.
choose wizly…
Wondermill Jr is a really good one
Fedup, mine is a Wonder Mill, totally satisficed, I bought it years ago used, total sticker shock when I saw current new pricing
FedUP: We use the blender. It will cut pretty well, and as long as the electric is running, that’s our flour mill. niio
The chief reason why the US is 4th in wheat production is because of it’s superiority in corn and soybean growing >>> as everyone knows the US exports to the very same wheat producing exalted countries that are the so-called bread growers …
if you aren’t prepared to take advantage of the US bountiful corn & soybean crop – time is a wasting !!!!!!!
Be careful, consuming “SOY” in the raw and in the Diet.
Please, Research and Read about it before you go out and buy some. It can be harmful to ingest… RESEARCH, SOY, not good…
Yes, and I forgot to mention that 100% of US grown oats are contaminated with more than twice the FDA allowable amount of glyphosate.
I used to eat oatmeal almost every day until I read that.
Justin, look up Quaker Oats. I’m pretty sure they prefer organic or low chemical use. GMO oats is on the market, adding a gene to give it more gluten. niio
Justin, Glyphosate if sprayed on oats will kill them, it’s unlikely that there is any residue on a crop that hasn’t been sprayed. There is a lot of good information out there but there is also a lot of misinformation out there too.
From Modem farmer.com
“So, why are there no GMO oats? There are a bunch of reasons, but the main one is, not surprisingly, money. There simply aren’t enough oat farmers in the world, or enough oats grown, to create sufficient demand to justify the incredibly expensive research that goes into developing genetically modified seeds.Jan 10, 2014”
Mak63: Oats is on GMO the agenda. It’s a very good grain for the far north and wet areas. There’s a strong interest in oats as a baker’s grain, and it needs gluten to make it inexpensive as a bread grain. To do that, it has to have the gene for gluten. Oats is very popular as a winter grain in warm areas (like southern Mexico) for grain or as hay and graze. niio
By the way, to ELIMINATE GLYPHOSATE AND FLUORIDE FROM YOUR BODY, ingest 1/8t. of borax/boron everyday in water. Twenty mule team borax is what I use.
oy has gotten false information told about it. Yes, most soy is GMO’d, thats’ sad. However, soy has been consumed by Asians for many centuries and they thrive on it. Soy can cause thyroid problems if you are low in iodine which we need more of. Eat organic soy that has been fermented, which is Miso, natto, or Tempeh.
Soy does not feminize men, in fact it protects men against prostate cancer and women from breast cancer. Soy has plant estrogens, not animal estrogens. When humans criticize soy, they totally ignore the accumulating animal estrogens they consume in dairy products, chicken, hops, animal flesh, etcetera. No human needs any hormones from other animals! yest hormones are in every single animal product. Milk from cows contains up to 30x the amount of normal estrogens in their body, not healthy for humans. See the forest through the trees and only drink human milk.
Soy has er-BETA estrogens which inhibit estrogen, animal estrogens are er-ALPHA, which stimulate growth, including growth of tumors and cancer cells.
See this video about dairy to learn and understand. Go vegan for health, the environment, and saving animal lives. cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcN7SGGoCNI
Then there is the BULL SHIT HORSEMAN, promoting all the MAN MADE RELIGIOUS DOGMA! MAN CAUSES MANS PROBLEMS! The ANUNNAKI were and are our GODS! PRAY that they come back to save us all from all of this evil man made Bull Shit! EVERYTHING MAN HAS TAUGHT US IS A LIE! IT IS ASHAMED THAT 99.9% of humans on this planet do not know the TRUTH! and would rather believe in some man made fairy tale !
Corn crops are mostly for pet food and ethanol now.
Almost 100% of all US commercial corn and soy is GMO. Unless you grow it yourself.
I’m betting that a large percentage of wheat is too.
and livestock feed
don’t tell Kelloggs and the veggie oil companies >>> they have different ideas
You are absolutely right, the current administration is calling for more ethanol based fuels and you know where it comes from. The price of corn is already high because of ethanol, as they convert corn into fuel it will cause food cost to rise beyond some people’s grasp. This will further increase our everyday food prices as well as damage our cars and truck, that are not designed to run more than 10% ethanol, think about that as well. Just a thought.
Milton: What remains after making ethanol is about 3 times higher in protein than the grain. Most goes to livestock where they get a lot more for it than they would grain. niio
Illini: The eatable cardboard people? 🙂 niio
Talking about pet food. LOL growing up we ate corn. When I was an adult I had no idea that the corn we eat now is not the corn we buy in the store. Hubby went to the mid west and I am saying bring home lots of corn. He says no this is cow corm. That is what we used to eat before all this sweet, candy sweet etc. I guess if wasn’t GMO I would rather eat cow corn anythime. If my grandparents ate it then good enough for me.
TRUTH. However, if the Reich Fuhrer, and their cronies in Congress that the Communist states (like Illinois) would stop electing based on their dumb ass damn party politics, would go back to the policies of Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan, or Trump…….NONE of this would be an issue! When we had people in Washington DC that PUT AMERICA FIRST! This was never an issue! Mean tweets, and Union bullshit lies should have no business in how people vote. Y’all done got what you wanted! A POTUS, and a Congress too damn stupid to even know HOW to tweet!
Guy, when you stop ranting & mouth foaming – start to begin to understand the demographics involved with having a mega-size international city involved with a US state >>> you can comment outside your tiny little realm of a double wide, your Slurp & Go blue apron and the huge responsibility of the freezy ice machine ….
PS – you thinking FDR policies and especially the fictitious non-existing Kennedy policies are something for the country to strive for – have to be a joke ….
Paul: FDR was a nazi and welfare creep. JFK wasn’t much better. the clintons learned most of their control freak creepiness from studying what FDR did. FDR liked hitler and elitist communism. many of his programs were inspired or copies from hitler’s elitism. niio
US corn and soy is mainly GMO junk. I don’t know about wheat. But I guess the corn and soy would keep people from starving if they are desperate enough.
Illini: Wheat rust kills a lot of crops. So does the Hessian wheat fly. Because other nations can raise wheat cheaper than we can, farmers and ranchers don’t plant like they did. In the West, more money is made from sesame, quinoa, safflower, canola and sunflowers. Wheat stopped being profitable decades ago. niio
The problem with corn and soybeans are almost all are GMO, which are deadly for your body. If you can find organic non GMO seeds then you will be fine. If you can’t eat gluten try the ancient grains – Einkorn, spelt, emmer. Most people with gluten problems can eat spelt with no problems because our ancient bodies ate this. Spelt is a complete protein, has all the essential amino acids. If you make banana bread with spelt, you have all food groups inside. Never use corn oil, soy oil, peanut oil, all are deadly. Only use butter, lard, coconut oil and olive oil. Everything the government has told you about nutrition is false. Americans had almost 0 heart disease when we ate butter and lard. It was when they added cotton seed oil, margarine, corn oil, etc that we developed heart disease. If your city water has fluoride (almost all do) use something to remove the fluoride. We bought a water distiller which removes everything except the H2O. Fluoride is the cause of most of our heart disease and many other ills. Research this heavily. All purchased beverages have fluoride inside. All restaurant drinks have fluoride. We only drink German beer because they don’t allow fluoride. Fluoride is not necessary for your teeth; in reality fluoride is the toxic byproduct from aluminum manufacture. They sell it to our city water systems and make money by not having to dispose of this toxic waste.
Not to pee on anybody’s parade but the current US supply of wheat and other grains is at a multi–DECADE LOW. That is per FDA, farmers reports, Barrons and others.
Current planting information and the Distraction proxy war between Russia and the USA crippling the fertilizer and grain production of most of the world is looking very BAD. As in 3rd world starvation, Arab Spring Revolutions BAD.
So WHAT I hear? Arabs starving? Where does a lot of the Oil in this country COME FROM? Saudi Arabia is a Major Wheat Importer, same with the rest of them. Not food independent.
Add to that the idiots crippling US Oil production affecting OUR Fertilizer production and truckers -fuel for farm machinery and even the propane that dries the Grain CROP a LOT of Farmers are taking the USDA’s Money to NOT Grow crops this year. YES, we are PAYING Farmers NOT TO GROW Crops.
Article is nice enough but a day late and dollar short.
Folks need to realize while we MIGHT not see actual starvation in the USA UNLESS Riots and such cripple the truckers (Might Happen folks) low level hunger will stalk most Americans and actual malnutrition will occur when food prices are too high to afford for fixed income, EBT and such.
Bread flour can be replaced with almost 50% cooked and mashed potatoes or beans blended. A heavier bread than we like but tasty enough.
An article on Food Stretching MIGHT be in Order, recipes how Grandma fed the family during the Great Depression.
Information like ALWAYS putting every egg into a small egg bowl as so not to put a BAD EGG into a meatloaf Ruining it. Yes, desperate folks did sell knowingly bad eggs and lime water as “milk” during the Great Depression.
Like using that screen sifter to get the bugs out of your flour as so Grandma could bake up biscuits (a well-known meal stretcher). Not a time to get queasy about buggy flour. You’d be appalled to see what happens in food factories and behind the restaurant kitchen doors.
Info like how to make yeast from potatoes and make sourdough culture and use it well.
It’s not too late to plant more potatoes, and beans folks. Tempus Fugit.
If food shortages are a concern, maybe grandma should not have sifted out the bugs at time of use. She should have considered cooking them, because they were sources of high protein or maybe there were hunters that could hit, gut and prep the meat the family needed on a regular basis. Currently, I don’t have the hunting skills, freezer, … to constantly have meat from my limited property.
Michael, To this bleak picture, add the fact that the Chinese are trying to buy up as much farmland as possible. They already are well invested in major city properties like the historic Waldorf Astoria here in NYC. Over the last twenty years, there has been a flood of Chinese, mostly from Hong Kong, immigrating to North America. Almost all of the Boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn in NYC are foreign born. Whole huge neighborhoods, consist of Chinese Nationals as China does not recognize Chinese Americans as US Citizens, even those born here, are considered citizens of China by China. Now look at the Ukraine and the reason Russia gives for the invasion – to rescue their citizens.
This is something that most people don’t really know. But China is buying up most of the farmland in the Midwest pretty soon they’re going to control the entire food supply. And you know the first thing they’re going to do is cut us off and make sure that they have enough for themselves by exporting everything that they’re producing on their farms. And our governments just blindly letting him do it. People are so ignorant to what’s really going on.
Well everyone is going to be getting hit hard and nothing we can do about it. Its been coming for a long time with the last 4 leaders out spending each other and now the country just can’t afford it anymore and its over foliks
You are going to have the front row seats to the end of this what used to be a great country.
Compared to all other nations, we still are the greatest. It’s those who sin against God and nation that will not vote that makes us less than we were.
Kind of silly statement to make considering the voting machines and political machine ensure that our elections are all rigged. The 2020 election was completely stolen. Why vote when your vote means nothing? Our only salvation is Jesus Christ. If you don’t know Him, do so quickly.
which God, Enlil, , Enki, Toth.? YOU are NOT talking about the FAKE MAN MADE DOGMATIC RELIGIOUS GOD are you ?
then we rebuild it back as an America First Republic
dz: and non-voters hung as traitors. niio
Revolution is the only logical way I can see to reset America back to the time of the original constitution. Of course some caveats – no slavery, all equal men and women, few other. But yes need a reset. Only the people can do it – not a single politician like Trump. He is done with now anyway after that partisan judge.
During the inflation of the 70s my mother would have at least a ton of wheat in the cellar at all times. I remember her talking about how cheap wheat was in relation to everything else. I think it was $8 a 50 lb sack or less. She made eight loaves every other day for our large family and we had our own milk cow, so we made it through. We wouldn’t have made it though if Prop. 13 in California hadn’t gone through, as they could no longer afford the property taxes.
Here in Kansas we are now surrounded by wheat that is trying to ripen in feilds that are so rain soaked that the grain can’t dry and if it does dry will be molded by the time that the combines can get in. There will be a grain shortage. Believe it
There used to be reserves for that very reason. However, it’s been sold and shipped overseas to China in recent past. Trump tried to stop it but was overruled by Congress as “Raycesst” and so on.
If you doubt that try buying a 50 pound bag of wheat. Let us know the results of you “success” and the prices including shipping (thanks Brandon’s fuel idiocy).
We are at the Move it or lose it phase of this situation.
Plant potatoes folks.
Tempus fugit.
You can still buy 25 and 40# bags of grains from AzureStandard.com/start. If you go there, please put in my “share code”, which is JoyceStotts1. That helps me, as well as it helps you get started!! BEST food distributor we’ve ever found in 25 years!! WE LOVE AZURE!!
JESS
I have purchased 60 lb bags of wheat berries from my local Great Harvest bread store. $38 for the 60lb bag. The bags say on them “Not for resale – except to customers of the store”. I tried to buy two at once and they would only sell me one. So I buy them one at a time.
I can run right out today and buy 50 pounds of flour. (AP flour: 25# for $11.53, 50# for $27.20). Not grains locally, which I have no desire to own (to what? grind into flour?). I don’t need the flour to last decades. Price is definitely higher for the flour now, 6 months ago that same APF was $8.63, so thats a 33% increase. Everything is. (I think my husband will be annoyed if I buy any more flour… but he generally lets me go ahead and do my prepping. We’ll eventually eat the stockpiles.)
I just looked and there’s 50 pound bags of flour for sale all over the place and lots with FREE shipping
I live in the high desert. We have been having odd levels of rain lately. This area grows a lot of sugar beets for the sweet tooth based diet of today. Soy and corn are grown for ethanol. Of course, everything is Round-Up ready, meaning GMO to tolerate broad-spraying with the chemicals. The state’s power company has a few towers in a less populated area that are designed to manipulate the weather. A few weeks ago, the sky above me looked like a tightly-woven tartan plaid because so many of the chem-trail planes had flown overhead. It seems that so many negatives are coming from every direction affecting our lives.
Time to plant a big vegetable garden. Not too late for most U.S. states. Especially for the gluten intolerant. You can grow veges year round in Southern states.
Penny: Extreme gluten intolerant. South AZ north of Tucson. 102F today and the cowpeas are thriving, as are tepary beans, native wild tobacco, non-native tree tobacco, collards, sunchokes, chilis, tomatoes, grapes, jujube, moringa, cherries, figs, and so on. I’itoi and other green onions are going to rest till the rains, the garlic is hung in the garage. This is a good year here for potatoes. calabacita squash (the best I ever ate!) are sprawling all over, chilacayote are climbing fences, aloes pushing pups, and so on. So far, a good summer. Peanuts are slow, but they’ll vine when the rains come. Citrus is great, apple is surviving, date and pindo palms are doing very good. I just wish I had room for peaches! niio
Potatoes are one of the best “bang for the buck” and easy to grow vegetable, followed up by beans and legumes of all kinds. Grains are good but take a lot of space to grow large quantities. If you have space for a few fruit trees, figs are supposed to be about the easiest and fastest to start producing fruit. I bought a fig tree last year, it’s doing great, but it might be another couple of years before it produces.
Vegetables are normally annuals that you have to replant after harvesting, but fruit and nut trees (and berry bushes) are for long term and once established should produce year after year.
and always let some of your garden go to seed to add to your “seed bank”, keep each year’s saved seeds separate from previously harvested seeds, and mark the date you saved them on the package. The germination rate goes down every year after saving, so seeds saved three years ago won’t germinate as well as seeds saved last year, so if you have to grab them and go, you want the most recent and viable seeds to get started somewhere else.
dz: potatoes do badly in my area. Sweet potatoes do very well, though, and the greens are eatable. For starchy roots, yucca and canna do well. Canna seeds are used like a grain, BTW. Yucca fruit is bland, but easy to clean and stuff. Pick when they’re young. Coat it and deep fry. Old-timers would slice and dry canna root, then crush it and sift out the fibers. What’s left is a very high quality starch. It’s the most popular starch plant in SE Asia, and American Indian soldiers taught them it was more than just a pretty plant. One rancher in Brazil raises 36,000 acres of it for the China market. It’s getting common, again, and popular.
Yeah, we’re still developing a food forest. The major tree is honey mesquite for light shade and nitrogen. The beans are as high in digestible protein as soy, without the problems soy causes. Darn hard to shell, though. We usually boil the whole pod or crush it, grinding it in a blender for flour. Do not try Julian, even livestock won’t eat it (very bitter) unless starving. Western honey should be common out your way. A lot of acacia produce a nice ‘bean’, but need to be roasted to make them eatable. carrots, radishes, and so on will self-sow if allowed to. niio
red, I have sweet corn growing in two locations’, in open ground in the front, and containers in the back. I planted some containers first, and then planted more containers a few weeks later, then planted some in open ground a couple weeks ago. The first plantings in containers are doing very well, about four feet tall, but the following plantings seem to be struggling and we found out my dogs are eating the new leaves, similar to your dog eating your watermelons, so I decided to try some in open ground in the front, and so far, they are doing well, especially considering last week I trap killed the gopher that was tunneling in that area. I keep checking for new gopher diggings, but nothing so far. It can’t be that easy, I kill two gophers and that is all? Then again, it’s super dry and hard dirt in front so they may have moved to areas where people are watering, including my back yard under my containers.
red, I have no experience with sunflowers but just bought some “Mammoth” variety seeds, and the packets only say to plant after danger of frost, not how long until mature to harvest seeds. Do you grow sunflowers?
dz: Our corn is knee high. That’s due to the wind and probably to maze dwarf mosaic. Zinc is keeping it alive and I hope to get some corn off of it. If I had the room, sorghum would be a better grain choice. It’s mosaic resistant.
Yep, wild sunflowers. They’re native here and don’t take a lot of room, but turn into bushes and produce like crazy all summer. The seeds are small but are picked when still ‘green’ before the shell hardens, and eaten whole or cooked. They self-sow and are a short-lived perennial, growing for 2-3 seasons before they die out. But, by then, there’s fifty seedlings coming on. You’ll need mesh bags for the Mammoth heads or the birds will take all of them.
The dog loves sunchoke leaves and roots. Kumquats, mulberries, peas, and anything that termite can eat. niio
New here and learning so much. I have never grown potatoes. And yes, I can google everything but love hearing tried and true experience here. Any tips for first timers? I live in an HOA so will be doing raise bed or pant bags on my deck or something. Any guide on which one to plant? I have read about slicers and seeds. Which one is better? How long can they be stored? Even if purchase bags of potatoes from store. How long can they be stored? Thanks…
I had a cousin in an HOA. while they both worked, they had no trouble with bills and house payment. He got laid off, and my cousin was working 2 jobs trying to keep up but they were failing. Only ornamental plants were allowed so I told her, blueberries are considered an ornamental. Strawberries, ‘wild’ plums and crab apples, ornamental corn, squash, peppers, and you can hide tomatoes and so on behind a screen of plants. Most wild varieties of food plants are grown as ornamental. Black cherries (rum cherries) taste better than store cherries. A major plus, deer in the area were corn fed by city people and almost tame. Feed them in the garage at night, and use a silencer. Anything that isn’t eatable, haul it off a few miles to a field and dump it for the bears. But, use bleach to clean up any mess or you’d have rats. I found him a job working mornings for another cousin with a 200 acre farm market patch and told him, ask for produce, not cash. a year later, he was back to work but they both still were picking at the farm. And still making mysterious hauls off to the famer’s fields. He knew and did not care because bears scared deer out of his fields.
If you are just now beginning to plant, look at each seed packet for how long it will take for the plant to mature. There are some perennials that won’t produce anything until the second year. Look up advice on companion planting. Some plants don’t do well growing next to each other, such as beets and peas, while others, like corn and squash like each other. Walk around your yard at all times of the day, noting if some areas seem to be warmer or more exposed to the higher winds. Each yard has it’s own little areas of micro-climate zones. If you are planting in pots on your deck, have risers under them so that water doesn’t get trapped in the pot and water-log the plant. Your deck will last longer too if there is air circulation under the pot. I prefer cheap plastic pots over the nicer clay pots as they don’t dry out as fast. If you need to appease the HOA, plastic can be painted and look nicely color coordinated. If your soil has never been used for a garden before, you will need to amend it quite a bit the first time you plant. Your local garden store will be happy to give you advice, if you purchase a bag or two of their product. One of my friends lives in a subdivision and started digging in her backyard. There was only a thin layer of soil for the scraggly looking lawn with a black netting below, then hard pan dirt. Save your egg shells for the garden. Free method of building it up. I had a bag of sea shells and threw them under a couple of bushes. The bushes both began to thrive as the rain and watering leached the minerals into the soil. This site is populated with many who have real experience and do a better job than I do producing a good product. Go into old articles in the archives on this site and also scan the comments at the end of each article.
Sage: Tell her to plant rye and turnips where she wants the garden. Rye makes a nice, silky soil, and turnips will force a tap root as much as 8 feet. A summer of sorghum is great for hardpan. The tap root will grow as deep as the grain grows tall. It should be cut (at 6 inches up the stalk) and left on the ground when it hits 4 feet. It will tiller and grow fast to be cut again. I can get 4-5 cuttings before I let it go to seed. each time, the roots are driving deeper, and putting more carbon in the soil. niio
Michelle, this will be my third year of learning how to grow potatoes, started from both russet and golden we bought from the produce section, and when some started producing eye-bud “slips/sprouts” I decided to try growing some. I started with potato bags but set them on the bare ground and the wild Bermuda grass rhizomes and other “weeds” keep force-growing through the fabric and into the bags. I have also had some tear on me when trying to move them, and one had about a two-inch hole in the bottom, probably from gophers, so this year I started using plastic containers as well for my potatoes. I will not buy any more potato bags because they are not durable enough for what I put them through. I recommend using 5-gallon or larger containers. Larger is better, both width and depth, and I am using some 10-gallon containers, and one 5-gallon food grade bucket I drilled 1/2″ drainage holes to see how it works out, and a good quality potting mix for raised bed and outdoor containers. Then do some serious research on lots of different gardening websites, and also youtube videos. As well as insects, I also get raided by 1-inch gray slugs, so you may want to research for slug pellets that are for vegetable gardening. In the past I have used Corry’s Slug & Snail pellets, and they work, but this year I am trying Sluggo by Monterey and it seems to work better, and the label says it’s Organic and safe for pets and wildlife.
Storing the potatoes is a whole other topic itself, and also requires research. When you harvest, do not wash them with water, that makes them susceptible to mold and rot, instead let them dry off for a few days in a dark and well-ventilated area, and then gently brush the dirt off, again, do not use water, they need to stay dry, then store them in a dark and well-ventilated area. You should check them every couple of weeks and remove any that are getting soft or appear to be degraded in any way, so they do not spoil the other potatoes. If still edible, eat them, if they have sprouts, plant them, if rotting they make excellent compost. I have not produced enough potatoes yet to have much excess, so I keep some “ready to clean and eat” in a box in a dark ventilated area on my storage shelves (not the refrigerator) and cut the extra potatoes up and store them in Freezer zip-lock bags, marked with the date they went in the freezer. I also cut up and freeze green beans, carrots, green onions, tomatoes, peas, and bell peppers. This year I am growing more potatoes than previous years, so I may have to learn how to dehydrate them and store them in sealed mylar bags, so I don’t use up all the freezer space. My container gardening is a never-ending and very rewarding learning curve for me. I plan to continue as long as I am able.
Slugs love a shallow bowl of beer
One more thing, if you are buying rice for prepping, I recommend that you buy organic rice from California, such as Lundberg Brand. The reason to avoid the rice from the Southern U.S. and Texas is because all of those states used Arsenic to kill off bugs in cotton fields, and it is still in the ground, toxifying any rice grown there. You may already know that rice picks up arsenic from the soil in a big way! There were also no battles of the U.S. Civil War fought in California, to my knowledge, so that means the soil is not so contaminated by lead, either. Better stick with California rice, if you want it to sustain you and your family!! OR go to Walmart and buy the 18# bag of Himalayan rice for cheap!! Grown in the pristine foot of the Himilayan Mtns. Whatever you do, do NOT buy the famous Arborio Rice for Risotto from Italy or France, due to battles fought there in WWII…very toxic! Good luck now!! JESS
We normally keep 100LB’s or more of Jasmine rice on the shelf, as well as some in long term storage. We prefer Dynasty Brand Jasmine white rice grown in Thailand, not sure about the chemical exposure, but it cooks and tastes better than other varieties we tried, including grown in the USA. Dynasty has been in short supply, with off and on availability for the past two years, so the next time we go to Costco I may pick up a 25LB bag of Thai Hom Mali Jasmine rice from there and see how it compares. It was $18.49 for a 25LB bag a few months ago (I took a picture) and have no idea if it’s even available anymore, or what the price it will be now from the store. Costco online shows it’s $23.00 for a 25LB bag and a 2-day delivery fee of $3.00, but I prefer to choose my own bags in the store to check dates and any damage.
Jess, Thanks for the very valid points regarding the history of the soil. Lundberg Rice is also one of my favorites as it is one of the easiest to digest.
A couple of years ago, I purchased a huge bag of rice, supposedly US grown, from a restaurant supply store. Terrible stuff. Maybe it was already really old or the CCP artificial rice made with plastic. It never gets soft enough to really eat. With shortages, more of those old products from the back of the warehouse might start showing up.
Those of us doing this for quite awhile have stocked up on wheat [various], buckwheat, sorghum, oats and loaded up on seeds [bulk…50 lb bag(s)] of each. Quinoa is great, but in our area of the world you will have a better yield from Amaranth. We stocked up beans [various], lentils, peas and cowpeas…both for seed and in sealed barrels to eat. The beans, lentils and peas can be used to increase the protein content of the bread. Yes, in a not refrigerated world you will probably not want to store very long. We grow regularly and have commercial farmed [sorry, this idea that you can just start in the coming spring and all will be well] well it doesn’t work that way. You will face things you never imagined and after the third planting and you run out of seed you will understand my words. Grinders… multiple for redundancy with a dedicated work space for grinding.
Remember, if you have milk cows or milk goats [even sheep] and you make cheese you can use the whey to add to the above to increase the protein content of your breads. You can also add this to a pot of beans and in the same way increase protein. If you have excess feed it to your chickens. You don’t want to waste anything if your going to survive. The old adage…we used everything in the pig but the squeal will be true for everything.
Salt, both stock salt and iodized salt and in bulk. We keep two to three 55 gallon barrels at any one time. Mineral for livestock–two 55 gallon barrels, Diatomaceous Earth [both as wormer for livestock and garden pests] presently one but will try to have two 55 gallon barrels by 8/1.
Most folks have no idea how much food it will take, or how a squirrely crop year could wipe out your seed supplies. I suggest you learn. I’m not trying to be mean…but it’s going to get REAL. The choice is yours.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. The most recent USDA estimated put this years U.S. wheat production at about 18% below normal. Too many weather problems, difficulty getting in the fields [fall planted wheat], difficulty correcting that early this spring and drought conditions in much of our growing regions. If your counting on U.S. wheat to save your a– your probably about to get a shock. Those combines will start rolling pretty soon now on the fall planted wheat.
There is not a grain shortage, another republican scare tactic. Where’s the recession you tried to scare us with?
Lisa Blake, when was the last time you bought groceries or a meal out….. prices are way up!!!
Lisa: I bet you live in the middle of city and never saw a field but in passing. Family in the northeast and midwest are complain of not being able to get in the fields. Family to the north complain of blizzards–in June!–knocking down wheat, oars, and barley and freezing other crops. Never mind all that, just sit back, relax, and believe all big brother tells you. You’ll make a good slave for one of them because yes, the number of women and children brought to the US, allowed in by dems, is ‘way up. Enjoy your support of slavery and humans sold like cattle, being tortured to death for the liberals you support.
Lisa, we are just starting to feel the long-term effects of the fuel shortages and inflation intentionally caused by the Libtards in office, and much worse is coming. The effects of the reduced food production this year will have its greatest effect several months from now, and probably carry over for years before recovering. You have been warned, I hope you have your cardboard “I’m hungry and was too stupid to prepare, please help” sign ready to go.
Another person in my little group bought a breadmaking machine for the group. I know the shortcomings of such things in a power outage, but it will still come in handy, at least while we have electricity. We can more easily make bread for our little group at least for awhile. We also bought 50 pounds of wheat flour from Amazon. We repackaged it and put it in two sealed 5 gal. buckets. We also have filled another bucket with all purpose flour and another with 25 pounds of hard red wheat. Those things were recently purchased and stored to share with ther few families in our network, but I also have quite a bit of dry canned flour, corn meal, baking mix, etc. stored in half gal. and quart canning jars with oxygen absorbers for my family.
Some of us have been expecting these shortages for a few years, but now is certainly the time to ramp up our stockpiles. Where I live it is too hot to grow potatoes, except in winter, but I have planted extra shelling beans, some of which are suitable for making a kind of flour. Don’t forget that acorns, if properly processed, can be ground into flour. I have made acorn bread in the past and may have to do it more often in the future. You might also want to store yeast, honey, and sugar for breadmaking.
all kinds of SHTFs – and a great many haven’t got a total grid down portion to them >>> only reason not to have electricity during The Depression was lack of cash $$$ – no place to call home – and electricity wasn’t yet considered to be necessary or a requirement for everybody and everywhere ….
don’t eliminate from your prepping electrical appliances and tools just because of the PAW lit influence on prepping – hydro & nuke plants could be pumping juice onto the grid long after other fuel sourced plants are shut down …..
Illini: Until Rural Electric caused so much poverty most people made their own electric. If they didn’t own a car or truck to charge the batteries, they built a windmill and put an alternator on that. One brother does it on the farm in Belize, like our grandparents did it. niio
Fr. Bob, I live in San Diego County, Inland Microclimate, Zone 10A, and it gets hot here, is very dry, and lots of wind. I grow potatoes and sweet potatoes in containers, and the sweet potatoes do great even when it gets over 100 off and on from July through October, but do need regular water or they will wither, dry up, and go dormant until the tubers get water again. They also die off after frost. That is how I got my sweet potato starts for this year. I put all the small tubers from last year in a dark and well-ventilated location, then this spring I sprayed them with water a few times and they started producing slips, so I planted them in large containers and also in open ground, and they are growing very well, but I do have to keep them watered. For areas east of the mountains from the Kalifornication Deserts all the way to eastern Texas that regularly hit 110-120, I don’t know if that would be too hot even for sweet potatoes. I heard black-eyed peas can handle lots of heat also, and grew them here and did well, and am trying tepary beans this year, which are new to me but are producing beans and our temps are now in the 80’s.
I can grow all sorts of food, but have not had much luck in growing potatoes (except for a few small ones) in the 45 years that I have been gardening and preserving food. I am not sure why, but I don’t personally know anyone in Georgia that has consistantly been able to produce good potato crops. I grow just about any other vegetables with no problems, although for 20 years I lived on land that would not grow corn. Where I live now, it grows fine.
Fr. Bob, sounds like me and broccoli. I get good starts and then it always bolts. I think my timing for planting broccoli is off by several months because I was following the “charts” that say to plant in Feb-Mar, but a few weeks later they bolt to seed. This fall I’ll plant in NOV and see if I can get some broccoli to produce edible heads instead of bolting.
I can grow potatoes in containers year-round here, but they are small compared to open ground / farm grown spuds, but are still good eating. I’m still learning how to do container gardening and slowly learning here and there as I go what works and what doesn’t for these conditions. When it gets over 100 the top greens of my potatoes often seem to get cooked and then they wither up and turn brown, so I don’t water them for a week or two, then harvest. We like the golden potatoes the best.
dz: red potatoes are doing well even with the heat and wind. Sweet potatoes like it hot. Friends up past Phoenix always raise some and there, Zone 10, they get some blooms, as well. My Zone 9 A is too cool for them to do that. Right now, we’re in triple digits, up to 105, but Phoenix is going to hit 120 again this year. Great news! They’re predicting an above average monsoon rainfall. We need it, and hope to have a rainy winter, too. niio
Fr. Bob, how goes it? I have a problem with maize dwarf mosaic and am experimenting with zinc. Zinc kills viruses in us, so I thought…Not much sign of DMM in the corn, but it’s not getting very tall, either.
Consider potatoes to be a winter crop. You can plants fava beans in the frost as you would peas, and plant sprouted potatoes in the rows with them. We sprout potatoes in December and January. Potatoes can handle a lot of frost, and even thrive in it. niio
Both grown in the U.S. are GMO only, unless perhaps from a family farm.
I can’t even get a good watermelon this year. Hope they thrive in the garden and dog lets them alone. He loves them, the rat. Last year he stole a couple of dozen and damaged more. Then I dusted them all with DE LOL! niio
Last year, a silly gopher or something made it’s way into my garden and took off with my squash, even before they were prime. As a back-up, I put a few plants in pots on the back patio, safe from gophers or even two legged types.
I have a surprise of several volunteer mullein plants. I am beginning to dry the leaves. I read that smoking them for a short period (less than two weeks) is good for breaking up chest congestion. The article advised mixing the mullein with mint. I will have to look up what else to do with them. They have HUGE leaves.
Sage, I think you said you are in Washington State? It may not have been gophers, might have been squirrels or raccoons. I don’t know if deer will eat the squash itself, but if the green vines were eaten it might have been deer. In Oregon, my dad’s garden would get raided a lot by squirrels and deer.
dz, I no longer live in Washington state. The beyond crazy politics and such chased me away. I am pretty sure it is a gopher because my neighbor put a battery-powered beeping device in his flower garden when he had a gopher eating his flower bulbs. After he had put the beeping device in his yard, his gopher moved to my yard. It moved way off into a far back corner of my yard that is in rough condition with more weeds than lawn so it’s not hurting anything back there. I just don’t like it when it goes out “shopping”. I have since put a couple of those battery-powered beeping devices around my veggie garden area. Interestingly, I did some earth moving and dug into a raised bed about 3 feet down. I found the gopher’s pantry. There was a stash of roots (thistle?) all the same length, about 1 3/4 inch. There were about 2 cups worth in that hole.
Sage: It would have been deer that raided, or bears; both love squash. Deer would have eaten the plants, as well. niio
?? Explain, please…
Sorry, red. That reply was supposed to be for Mak63, above yours.
Sabel, my apologies. Both corn and soy beans are GMO only from factory farming in the U.S.
I’m carb intolerant because of a fungal infection and gluten intolerant. But, on occasion, I like something made with flour. Corn is a major, usually for beer (a very rare one). Tamales and tortillas. Chips. Corn starch is a given because we like Asian food. Homemade soy sauce is made with rice and pinto beans. Pintos were bred as a flour bean. Mix that with corn flour and oat flour and cornstarch and it makes a good pie crust. Corn meal or ground rice and starch for noodles, 1 part starch and 3 parts grain.
How to Make Starch from Scratch
How To Make Corn Starch | Homemade Corn Flour
Canna lilies are big for us because they make the 2nd highest quality starch in the world.
Starch Noodles from Edible Canna
Learn how-to from 3rd world nations. Diabetes was called the rich man’s disease in the US because only the wealthy could afford wheat. Get off the wheat diet and go low gluten grains, non-grains like quinoa and squash seeds like chilacayote. If you have a garden, raise canna lilies! the roots make one of the best starches and seeds are ground to mix with other flours. Any roots you can’t store over winter, clean, peels, and grind in water for starch. Any cooking starch makes noodles that are done when clear. The kids and now the grandkids get giggle fits from eating them. niio
How long will the flour last if you vacuum it in plastic bags and put it in a freezer?Or don’t put in a freezer?
How long will flour last if you vacuum seal it and put in a freezer? or do not in a freezer?
paul: Anything made of grain and seeds, Freeze! 24 hours to a week to kill insect eggs. You need to use oxygen absorbers to help prevent the flour from going rancid. Whole grain can last for years, if frozen and sealed, but grinding exposes the endosperm and oils. niio
I’ve been stocking up on food as much as possible, even though I’m skeptical of a grid down, starvation scenario. I’m reminded of the y2k scare, which I knew was ridiculous even though many others panicked.
Beth: Wisdom dictates and you are wise. Please remember, no dictator would pass up a chance at a planned famine. Given the lunacy of the nazis in DC, the earth first, gates and others, a famine is a possibility.
Remember what we’re dealing with. The jackasses will do anything, prostitute themselves in any way for one more dollar and more power. The greed of cutting oil production was planned long ago. The plagues we get hit with every 2 or so years are planned. In covid, thousands of elderly were killed when liberals put sick people in elder care facilities, even though the military offered ample beds to help. Liberals knew the elderly are highly susceptible to covid and slaughtered how many thousands.
Our lives means nothing to them when compared to more power. Like folks say at pow wows, never get between a dem and a nickel in the sewer. They’ll gnaw off your arm trying to suck it out of the used toilet paper. niio
You are correct, which is why I’m preparing. This is different than y2k. In addition to what you mentioned, the dems stole the 2020 election – it was a coup, plain and simple. We are expendable to them.
Dang, Red, sometimes your rhetoric is so over the top I think you’re a loony tunes, but when I think about what you’re actually saying I can’t argue with you. U.S. oil production, the lack of it, is a mystery. I’ve read in a couple of places that the Petro Majors are holding out to force Biden to drop all current and future restrictions before they up production, but it could easily be a crisis they created together with Biden. But I think calling Biden a Nazi is a bit extreme and it would be more appropriate to call him just another Dumbass Sock Puppet.
This is our world, Cuomo will never be punished for loading up the nursing homes with Covid patients. A thousand times more victims than Uvalde.
ArsePoetica: Nope. I had a stepmother, 2 aunts, and a mother-in-law who were SS. When I was little, I would get bad asthma attacks, and was kept indoors being fed coffee to help me breathe. Every Sunday afternoon there was a kaffeeklatsch at the farm. These women spoke Deutsch, which is close enough to Dietsch for me to understand. They all said the same, the dnc is America’s Nazi party. They voted Republican because of that.
The stepmother graduated with honors from Heidelberg University. The mother-in-law was a guard at Auschwitz. Ask why so many Nazis poured into nations around the world without being vetted. We took thousands. the mother-in-law should have been sent back, but was welcomed.
FDR was a Nazi in practice and outlook. He was a friend of Hitler’s and wrote to him often. He had to be blackmailed to force him to declare war on the entire Axis. A nazi is an elitist communist. Stalin took in thousands of SS and Gestapo. The the dnc ignored it. Joe Kennedy became a nazi in the 30s and never left it. Why do dems hide this?
Why were the starvation deaths of 9,000 Tarahumara ignored in the 90s? Because Hitler despised American Indians. Why were Navajo on the Joint-Use lands treated like vermin by the feds? Hitler despised American Indians. Dems always do what he wanted. Hitler was an abortionist, gun control, violent homosexual (his doctor listed him as such), supported gay rights (Ernst Rohm was a violent pedophile who found the Vogul Jungen, then the Jungen), hated eating meat and was an animal rights advocate, was a New Ager and possibly an atheist because he never acknowledged any god after he was elected, hated anything Jewish and Christianity is Jewish. Praised Islam while deriding Christians as fools and morons for following a dead Jew. Gave human sacrifice to ascended masters. The dnc adopted his ways and we see that today. Ask at Ruby Ridge about SS tactics. There’s a lot more. Ask and ye shall receive. niio
Beth, Y2K was a financial scare based upon possible banking software problems so I “prepared” by saving digital and hard copies of all my banking accounts during DEC up to 31 DEC, just to have records to prove any claims I may have had to make if required. That turned out to be a non-issue.
Our current economic and supply issues are from real world conditions being created and/or exasperated by a worldwide group of elitists like Straub, Soros, Gates, and the DNC. They are not joking when the say “never let a crisis go to waste”, and if they don’t have any crisis they can exploit, they will create some, like the COCVID-19 panic and Un-Constitutional and tyrannical mandates they managed to get away with – so far, lawsuits are still pending.
Just so you know, Y2K was not a “scare”. It was a real problem that was avoided because we had years to prepare, with a specific target date. I know that I personally worked on software that was corrected. Without the fix, it would have failed.
During WW1 and WW2, the population was encouraged to save the wheat for our fighting soldiers. At that time, there were many cookbooks published with recipes using less wheat. Many of them have been digitized and are at Gutenberg Project or other archives of digitized books, such as archive.org.
I read that some became healthier during WW2 because they didn’t have as much access to wheat and sugar.
Great article, thank you! I just bought hard white, soft white and durum wheat berries all 50# bags and all organic at Azurestandard.com. First time shopping there. They have “drop points” to places that may be near you. So, instead of it costing me an arm and a leg for shipping it’s only costing me about $15 to go 17 miles (20 minutes) to go pick it up from one of their trucks. Pretty neat. I could have it shipped to my address for around $130.00. I placed my order and I have until the 21st to add, subtract from it. They are just like a grocery store and have tons of items. Anyway, just in case anyone wants to check it out. I only bought items from the sale page besides the wheat berries.
her’s the link
Azure Standard
Been talking the the farmers in the next county to mine and they are saying it is costing them $1000.00 in fuel and fertilizer to produce 1 acre of corn this 2022 season. You better get ready. Prices are going open this winter 2022-23! People are going to FREAK THE FU#K OUT!
Rob: Gabe Brown, you tube, ranches 5,000 acres in S. Dakota outside Bismarck. “Why buy nitrogen where there’s 10 miles over every acre on earth? You have to be a fool.” Pretty much anyone in the family in ag have ben going natural. 27 cousins in one county alone in PA, a lot more scattered over the country. Best thing is, a cocktail of deep-rooted pants and shallow rooted. Clover should always be part of it. Radishes and turnips with rye make good winter graze and add tons of fertility to the acre. When a plant loses it’s top, roots die back and regrow as it does. that can be done a lot of times, each time making more humus. When farms obeys the liberals and went monoculture, they lost their fertility. niio
hoping someone can tell me,
what is niio
thank youa