Aftertime food production

[Gerard Zwaan]

I had been thinking about the ways of providing enough food for survivors of the PS in the area where winters are long and cold. Since the gardens will be not very productive after the PS (drizzle, gloom, high winds) it seems to me that preserving of what we will be able to grow is the most important issue. Doing my research on how to preserve harvest I came to the understanding that all ways of drying and curing the harvest (sun, dry days, light breeze, electricity for fans, dry shade) will be not available any where on the earth after the PS. The moisture is the number one killer for long storage. Where in the warmer areas one can eat bugs and insects and plant the seeds over and over that will be not the case in the colder areas. To keep flocks and herds in the winter one will need the grain and hay to be stoked. You said that hunting will not be available for long. So it seems to me that long term survival will be possible only in the altitudes where temperature can support gardening or living near the oceans. If this is the case than starvation in the colder areas of the Earth will be the only option and we need to take this into account and many of us need to make a big changes to their plans after the PS time. Am I correct?

If one applied the logic being used here to the present day inhabitants of Earth, and the climates they live in, there would be few areas that would squeek through as habitable. You would certainly exclude the Eskimos, as their climate is too cold for crops. Yet they have no need for flocks and herds and growing grain, having adapted. You have our Aftertime prediction of gloom and drizzle formost of the world eliminating any kind of preservation means, ignoring that high humidity is an inciter for most crops. In those climates where crops cannot be grown year round due to cold, the colditself is a preservative. No need for a freezer when the window just needs to be kept open in a room. 

The key to survival is to be resourceful, see the glass as half full rather than half empty, and explore new nutrition possibilities. In this it is important to look to the many ways cultures around the world survive today. Putting cabbage and apples in cold cellars, along with squash and pumpkin, provides necessary vitamins and calories aplenty, and these cold cellars are certainly not bone dry. Look back to 100 years ago, for examples, not to the present when electricity and transporting produce is everywhere. You have been led to expect the pantry of today, not the limited pantry of yesteryear. Change your attitude!

Source: ZetaTalk Chat Q&A for January 28, 2012

[Vicky]

Homemade fodder systems: This system requires lots of seeds and would require stockpiling a lot of it to feed your animals thru the first two years of the ps. the nice thing about this system is that it uses the heat of the animals to heat up the growing area so the seeds will sprout and it doesn't need sun. I think it's impractical to use after the ps BUT it gives me lots of ideas on food production after ps:

we have a small fodder system in our house and use it to feed our small flock of birds and goats now. it's in addition to their hay and helps reduce our feed costs considerably. The two videos below detail easy systems you can do in your bathtub or laundry room:

the two systems above are from the same family, I have more animals to feed so use much larger drawers. we are going to build a field hoop house and build a larger system and use the heat of the animals to keep the air warmer. it probably won't work at first but we'll tweak until it does. I hope to eventually use this type of system to help me start seeds in the colder months so I can get a head start on the growing season and keep some greens growing all year round.

Hopefully the above have spark some ideas that will help feed you and your family when it counts.

[Vicky]

be careful when making silage, a bad batch can be fatal for the whole herd. It is doable though and you should start practicing now by doing small batches.

http://www.dairygoatjournal.com/issues/86/86-3/John_Hibma.html

In Riverdale, California, Tony Brady milks about 1,800 goats—mostly Saanens—and has been feeding them silage as part of their diet for over 10 years. He feeds both corn silage and oat silage and ensiles them in ag bags. Brady said that when he first put up silage, he tried the pit style bunker and his herd developed major health issues. Two hundred goats died. He said there was never a positive conclusion reached as to what caused the deaths, but the silage was heavily implicated. His suspicion was that something went awry with fermentation in a poorly packed bunker. He's been using ag bags ever since with no problems. Brady feels the ag bags give him much better control of the ensiling process.

Extended fermentation and heat will also degrade protein so that it will vanish as ammonia. If butyric acid is present in significant amounts, it quite often means the forage crop was much too wet when chopped. The silage will have an extremely putrid smell, making it very unpleasant to handle. Aside from the fact that goats will probably turn their noses up at this foul smelling forage, silage with high levels of butyric acid should never be offered to goats. It will do bad things in the rumen.

[joy m]

Julia, I'm glad you asked this question as it has made me think a little more about food production and storage for our animals too, even though we don't get the snow here, it would be wise to think about storing food for them during the dry season when the grass is not available or so dry it has not nutrient content.

My husband suggested 'silage', below are some links to this subject of preserving grass or grain grasses in a pit and covered with plastic - sounds good. A lot of dairy farms use this method on the tablelands.

There is a lot more info on the net for research

http://www.farmpoint.tas.gov.au/farmpoint.nsf/CropsPastures/11C9BA2...

http://www.biotechlearn.org.nz/themes/future_farming/what_is_silage

[joy m]

Here is another idea, if you had a room with shelving  and racks in it and a wood stove with a fan like the one below which works on the heat generated from the hot plate you might be able to dry your produce for storage.

http://www.lehmans.com/store/Stoves___Hearth_Accessories___Large_He...

[Derrick Johnson]

@ Julia

Hi Julia

This ZetaTalk talks about how winters will be moderated in the years after the pole shift so unless you are in the arctic or at a high elevation I imagine if it doesn’t get to the point of freezing grass and weeds will grow for livestock and humans to eat even in the winter, at least for a while.

http://www.zetatalk.com/index/blog0308.htm

Sharper Axis

“What is the likely tilt in future, after the coming shift? Normally, rotation is much more aligned with the magnetic alignment than at present. A tilt does occur, so seasons such as winter and summer do occur, in fact, a bit more extreme than at present. But due to the friction of the core and heated land masses, winters extreme to the point of freezing in colder climes will not occur [in the years after the pole shift]. And due to the increasing ocean surface, where the moderating effect of ocean currents can condition the air above land, they will likewise not find themselves frying.”

[Nancy Lieder]

@Julia, there are dehydrators that run on Electricity, and I think passive dehydrators that work on solar heat.This does not require SUNLIGHT but heat from the Sun .. or heat from another source such as a wood fire or whatever. Found this putting "passive dehydration equipmentment" into Google.

http://ljs.academicdirect.org/A16/071_082.htm

Abstract

The solar drying system utilizes solar energy to heat up air and to dry any food substance loaded, which is not only beneficial in that it reduces wastage of agricultural produce and helps in preservation of agricultural produce, but it also makes transportation of such dried produce easy and promotes the health and welfare of the people. This paper presents the design and construction of a domestic passive solar food dryer. The dryer is composed of solar collector (air heater) and a solar drying chamber containing rack of four cheese cloth (net) trays both being integrated together. The air allowed in through air inlet is heated up in the solar collector and channeled through the drying chamber where it is utilized in drying (removing the moisture content from the food substance or agricultural produce loaded). The design was based on the geographical location which is Abeokuta and meteorological data were obtained for proper design specification. Locally available materials were used for the construction, chiefly comprising of wood (gmelina), polyurethane glass, mild steel metal sheet and net cloth for the trays.

[Vicky]

look at raised garden beds with hugelkultur instead of irrigation. hugelkultur is a practice that used downed wood to fill a trench, then cover with dirt and plant in that. the decomposing wood provides shelter for the millions of soil microbes, attracts water and holds it, and provides nutrition for growing plants. Here is a nice article on this method with diagrams: http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

[joy m]

I came across a book called 'Earth sheltered Solar Greenhouse' which bases its design on the principle that warm air rises and cold air sinks, so the design of the greenhouse in this book allows the roof area to warm up through the clear roof material and the cold air sinks down into the bottom of a sink pit, in the middle you have an area developed for gardening and small animal farming.  The designer claims it works well in his snowy environment.

The youtube video shows the original design many years later...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hV8Teiskfo