Working toward food self sufficiency

Ha! Ha!
Two hards frosts and lot of raining now and still the raised beds produce:
the very last of the green beans and a handful of ever-bearing strawberries;


S.U.

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This is a worthwhile video. The guy is a entomology person. His basic premise is ā€œbugs donā€™t attack healthy plants. Bugs only feed on plants that are unfit, nutritionally poor, dead or dyingā€ Then even sets up tiers of plant health based on the bugs you find on the plants, and more then thoroughly explains what he is saying in a fairly logical, but fairly good detail.

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I got 2-3 kilos of brussels sprouts, small but good, wonder if the formation of the sprouts has something to do with the day length, anyone know?

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I havenā€™t seen a black soldier fly trap before. I might have missed it since I didnā€™t want them in the house during winter. It looks like a decent (probably unsustainable) way to have black soldier fly larvae for your chickens or whatever) or if you want to use the larvae to start a more sustainable black soldier fly farm rather then buy them off amazon. Black soldier flies are great at breaking down meats and fats. If you process animals, it can help get rid of the carcasses and other unused portions, and turn it into something useful.

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They will eat more wastes than worms and you can use their climbing instinct to have the larva fall into a collection bucket for easy harvesting. The adult flies only mate while in flight so itā€™s tough to keep a colony going over winter without a ā€œflight areaā€. And youā€™ll need to let some larva hatch. Iā€™ve heard they like coffee grounds and so baiting your starter with coffee grounds is a nice, low odor way of getting started.

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The ā€˜overwinterā€™ part is an issue for pretty much everything. (including my worms which frozeā€¦) I honestly donā€™t know much about them. I just never saw the trap like that. I know a lot of folks feed them to chickens and they eat a lot of meats and fats. that is about as much as I learned about them. :slight_smile:

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Worms have a life cycle that stays in the bin. If you have a warm bin, worms and food scraps, you can keep and grow a worm colony. A garage that doesnā€™t freeze would probably be enough.

Black soldier flies need air space enough to fly around in order to produce eggs and start the cycle over and I think the cycle is pretty short. Eggs hatch larva. Larva eat and get bigger to become flies. Worms stay as worms and continue chomping away. Pros and cons to every system I guess.

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I donā€™t think many want to overwinter the flies, and paying 20 bucks to have them shipped to you to just experiment. It isnā€™t really worth it.

It could be worth setting up an outdoor spot IF you process animals then you have a place to dispose of waste and turn it into something useful. It might also attract unwanted critters. If there werenā€™t drawbacks chances are everyone would be doing it.

Their lifecycle is around 45 days.

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May apply to flys, maybe not to gasifiers :slightly_smiling_face:

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okay, I have been watching facebook shorts of various farmers, they typically have youtube channels as well. What I am noticing is a couple of trends. The first is the actual farmers are starting to incorporate things like vertical tillage (shallow till) and biologicals into their systems. They arenā€™t organic but they are starting to mess around with some of the concepts but they are kind of glossing over it. And there are ALL sorts of biologicals to add now. 10 years ago there was basically stuff pot people used for hydroponics. 15 years ago nothing. But it is one step closer to organics.

The second trend seems to be posting of mold board plows, a lot of times by europeans, then having a bunch of people support it, but then you see the comments and you know they arenā€™t farmers. So it is really weird. I donā€™t know if it is like a gas/oil, or these are fake accounts from other countries. Or this is part of the european farmers ā€œwarā€ against the new EU regulations that is spilling over. or they are just trying to make money by getting views. I have no idea.

Almost every single one with the plows that I comment on. I get a friend request from a fake profile. (i google the pictures of odd friend requests) the last one used a picture from a singer from Dubai, and the one before that used a picture of a hooker from Maldives. I donā€™t know if it is related or someone just decided it was a good idea. Heck maybe they go together and figure only old people are watching plowing video and they are easy to scam? I have no idea. Just weird.

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Does anyone have an opinion on the lost superfoods book? Supposedly it has different ways to store food for long durations without spoiling or refrigeration. I am more curious what the foods are then actually doing it. :slight_smile:

EDIT:

Here is a link to the book

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Looks like something I should have, though Iā€™m going to have to live longer than I want to to use up what Iā€™ve already stored.

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It has some interesting techniques in it, but probably not something I am going to do. It is why I looked for the PDF version. I didnā€™t want to spend 40 dollars for a book, that I donā€™t have a use for. :slight_smile:

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Middle of January. That means itā€™s time to start gardening. Today Iā€™ll soak all my supplies in a sink with bleach water. Easy because I use these 12 space cels to start my seeds or else the red plastic cups sitting inside clear plastic cups. This is the fourth year Iā€™m using the same cels, so very durable.
https://www.amazon.com/VIVOSUN-Humidity-Reusable-Germination-Propagation/dp/B09LQFNH6T?th=1

Should have been growing lettuce and beets all along but itā€™s been a rough winter and Iā€™m just getting back to feeling normal. I will be starting those and parsley, kale, chard and carrots now. Always a miniature thrill to start sticking seeds in soil. This is a little early for most people but I do have a greenhouse that can be heated and Iā€™ll start transferring plants into that in early March. Also when Iā€™ll start the hydroponics. Really looking forward to messing with that again.

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I just thought of it when you mentioned starters, we have been using those plastic ā€™mini greenhousesā€™ that you buy a pound of grapes in from the grocery store. Just shove dirt in them and start the seeds, we have had serving trays with them on shelves in south facing windows. It works surprisingly well.

I canā€™t remember if I already mentioned that, i f so then please excuse mme repeating myself :smile:

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Wifes family had some aincient carrot woriety passed down generation to generation, for centuries probably. I heared a lot about it but culdnt locate a sorce of seed. I finaly got it! And just in time. Wifes aunt, the last keeper of the seed and also the secrets of seed preservation, dyed recently and her children probably wuldnt keep the seed alive. I got 4 carrots for seed, and a bit of seed, planted 3 and gave one to a friend. Dont carry all the eggs in one basket.

This one is yellow but they also had some that are rhe same kind of shape but completely white. Unfortunaly, l did not get that one. Hope there is some mixed in the seed l also gotā€¦

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its good you got the seeds quickly, because carot seeds keep only around three years ability for germinationā€¦iif you have more seeds from your harvest, i am interested

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Realy? Then the sewn ones are probably badā€¦ but l hope the roots will produce good seed. Sure!

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Sometimes you can get germination for old seeds by soaking them in H2o2 for a few hours but carrot seeds are not good for storage plus if you have Queen Annā€™s Lace in your area your saved seeds are likely not going to reproduce the same genetics.

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There is a way to pollinate carrots in a greenhouse, but I donā€™t recall exactly what that was.

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