Article: crisis garden...enough?

[Ambergris]

Did I just speed up somebody's plans?

[Mt_Rider]

Soooo....WHAT 3 kinds?  Never too early to research chocolate ....um, garden possibilities... 

 

MtRider   

Edited September 13, 2019 by Mt_Rider

[The WE2's]

On 8/25/2019 at 10:57 PM, Jeepers said:

Thanks for the gratitude reminder ladies!  

 

Some of my meds are years past the expired date. I figure the best I can do is double up on them if I need them in an emergency until I can replace them. I'm THINKING they are just losing their potency. I need to make a replacement list. I'm totally lost without lists. 

 

I vacuum seal all our "extras" as well as our fishy stuff and keep them in a re-cycled heavy duty leather motorcycle trunk.  One I open them I vacuum seal the bottle in a mason jar and into the frig it goes.  Just the way I do it around here.

[Jeepers]

I store mine in a pill bottle and then vacuum seal it too. I did get into the Cipro last week. Glad I had it even though I could have paid the doctor another office call and paid for another prescription. $$$$$  It was the same thing and same dosage. Plus they only give 6 -10 pills at a time. 

[Ambergris]

Get veterinary Cipro.  You can get 40-100 in a bottle for $40.

[Ambergris]

21 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

Soooo....WHAT 3 kinds?  Never too early to research chocolate ....um, garden possibilities... 

 

MtRider   

Can you get on Facebook?  Here are some pictures of yellow pods, fresh. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1051473268576440/

Three kinds are red, yellow, and I think green.  Or red yellow and some other color that I am forgetting.  This is the color of the outside of the pod, is all.  Most are yellow.  The red ones are gorgeous, and smell better, but are more delicate.  I have never seen the little green ones except in pictures, and might be mis-remembering something. 

[Jeepers]

Ambergris, that's what I got from the fish meds place. I got about 90 of the 500mg. I think I've had them 2 years but they are sealed tightly. I divided them up into 3 containers with 30 each. They come from a store down there in Florida. Very fast shipping if I remember correctly. 

 

 

I have penicillin for a real emergency but after about 4-5 days on it I look like I have a horrible case of measles. And it hurts. According to ER Dr. all of my capillaries were bursting. Not pretty. I'd take it if life depended on it though. I have other antibiotics I can turn to too. But I have allergic reactions to them too. Cipro 'only' caused constipation. I sort of was glad she prescribed it because if I was going to have a bad reaction to it I'd rather it be now than in a SHTF situation. At least now I know I can take it if I absolutely have to.

 

Edited September 14, 2019 by Jeepers
Continued My Thought.

[Mt_Rider]

Not on Facebook.    So I googled 'growing chocolate in FL'

 

https://www.offthegridnews.com/survival-gardening-2/make-your-own-chocolate-how-to-grow-cocoa-in-a-greenhouse/

 

https://ediblesouthflorida.ediblecommunities.com/eat/tree-bar-chocolate-south-florida

 

" A working cacao farm in South Florida may have been unthinkable not long ago. Native to central and northern South America, cacao (Theobroma cacao) thrives in hot, humid tropical areas where temperatures never reach freezing. Only Hawaii and Puerto Rico have been able to support cacao plantations. "

 

 

https://ergilbertblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/growing-cacao-in-florida/

 

And my favorite title:  "Chocolate really does grow on trees"   

https://www.miamiherald.com/living/home-garden/article125455464.html

 

'Course you have to grow the sugar cane too....but I KNOW that grows in C&H Hawaii.

 

MtRider  ...wow, this could be fun someday

Edited September 14, 2019 by Mt_Rider

[Ambergris]

Did I tell you I am growing pineapples?  When I get an actual greenhouse, I could grow these too.

[Mt_Rider]

Cool!  They take up a lot of room with their spikes tho....unless you have a different variety than the ones in HI.  But you can keep replanting from the tops...renewing plants are good. 

 

MtRider   

[Ambergris]

Lots of room.  So I could put another slow-growing little tree in amongst them without taking up any additional room at all.

[Ambergris]

Guess what?  The fellow who was growing cocoa--cacao?  is also growing breadfruit now.

[Mt_Rider]

   That's very versatile.  Trees I saw back on Maui were very tall and massive branches.  Like the majestic oaks of the Midwest.    Those things..breadfruit,  are HEAVY so they'd require sturdy branches.  Wonder how fast they grow to maturity?  I want to live in an old section that still has the old type mature trees.  The "office" of one of my jobs was in a house with mature trees...including mango, avocado, breadfruit, etc.  And the breed of landrace, feral chickens who brood and raise their own.  Nice "office", huh?  

 

MtRider   

Edited September 28, 2019 by Mt_Rider

[Ambergris]

Wow, yes.  The breadfruit fruit Aaron had was fist-sized, so I suspect it's from a much smaller tree.

[Ambergris]

We were talking about Cacao.  This is a three-year-old tree bearing in a 25-gallon barrel half.  

[Mt_Rider]

Cool.  All foreign to me.....as yet.

 

MtRider   

[Ambergris]

This is, sigh, completely twisting the thread.  I have been looking at calorie crops and protein crops. Beans, potatoes and squash.  Anyone want to talk about that now?

[mommato3boys]

3 hours ago, Ambergris said:

This is, sigh, completely twisting the thread.  I have been looking at calorie crops and protein crops. Beans, potatoes and squash.  Anyone want to talk about that now?

The thing with veggies there are not many calories. So need to look at ways total increase the calories when you cook them or add things like bread. Lima beans are higher in calories as well as pinto beans.

[Ambergris]

[Ambergris]

[Ambergris]

[Ambergris]

In that final image, the bush size shows the potatoes are almost ready to harvest, but the foliage is not showing signs of ripeness.  They can grow a little more.  Sorry about the size of the pictures.  I have a lot of trouble with big pictures on this site, but I don't know how to shrink them either.  Here, we plant Irish potatoes anywhere from January 1 (risky-frost) to late April or even May (risky-bugs and heat) for a series of harvests.  The best traditional time is on Valentine's Day, and I can tell you it does work best.  If these were my buckets, I would have put something else in two rows, is what I'm saying, because I wouldn't want all my potatoes coming in at once.

 

[Jeepers]

That is a very nice set up but I would have a lot of trouble getting to the middle  buckets of the upper two rows to plant, weed and harvest. Being short and having a bad back would make it hard.

 

If there were only two rows, where you could walk around them, it would make it doable though. I really like the idea of raised gardening but only if I can reach it. That's why they say to plant raised beds only as wide as you can reach across on either side. 

[Ambergris]

There's no weeding buckets.  That's a very large part of the point. 

You use a stepstool to plant the tall row if you don't have a hoist.  If this were mine, I would have the back open so I could reach the tall row from behind.  I might also build in a step.  Or rather have it built in for me.  This is clearly a long-armed guy's project.  There's a garden with two raised beds behind.

He also put more buckets along the sides, which I wouldn't do.  So I didn't show those pictures.

[Littlesister]

I love those pictures. That setup would be great for DH and me. Something we could handle. And yes no weeding.  The things we grow as it is a small back yard garden, is green beans, butter beans, squash, tomatoes, okra, carrots, and eggplant. No room for potatoes or corn. We do have 2 blueberry plants as well. Along with basil, oragano, and a few other spices. If things look like they are going to get bad store wise we might then plough up the side yard and fence it in. 

I would love to build a set up like that. We do have the buckets. Would just need a stand. That would work for potatoes instead of planting in the ground. Could keep that on a section of our patio.