Preparedness Mishaps & Garden Prep
The preparedness-minded person needs to remember not to get complacent when stocking their shelves or preparing in other ways. So often we know what is required to live a life of self-reliance and preparedness, but it is very easy to forget simple things. This happened to me last week and while the outcome ended up being wonderful, being in the midst of the chaos was very stressful. I had just gotten back from the feed store and asked my husband to help unload the 50-pound sacks out of my trunk. We were walking around the front of our house when we heard what sounded like a raccoon dumping over a trash can full of recyclables, and neither of us was very alarmed but it did give us pause. I went and checked the trash cans, and nothing was amiss, so my husband Matt went inside to see what had made the loud noise. Our eldest son was downstairs while our two younger children were upstairs taking their naps and when asked, Thomas said that it had occurred downstairs. My husband walked into our stockroom, which is my working pantry, and one of our plastic utility shelves had fallen. I was met with sheer panic, tears, and anger, as all of the hours of work that I had put in preserving, dehydrating herbs, and fruits were in vain, as all of the contents of those items were broken into a thousand pieces on the floor. What hurt the most however was a gallon of fire cider that had been sitting for over a month ready to be strained and put into smaller jars, had fallen off a high shelf and cracked all over the floor. If you're not familiar with fire cider, it is a natural immunity concoction filled with many vitamins and nutrients that help ward off the flu, colds, and viruses throughout the fall and winter months. The only saving grace however was that all of my different milk powders, buttermilk, heavy whipping cream, etc. had all fallen out of the shelf as well and acted as an absorbent agent for the fire cider. At the time all of this was devastating, but looking back it probably made clean-up a little bit easier as it soaked up a gallon of fluid all over the floor. It did not come without work though, as I kneeled scrubbing a two-inch thick layer of powder and fire cider off the floor.
I failed here in a few ways, the first being that as a person who has been stockpiling and using a working pantry for a few years now, I know that it is preparedness 101 to place liquids only on the bottom shelf or not on a shelf at all. The fire cider was at eye level and on the second to the top shelf. I got complacent and it was more convenient for me to shake the fire cider every few days by reaching it at eye level than to reach down to the floor to do this. What's also important to consider are the plastic and metal shelving units that you can buy at your local home improvement store. The shelf that fell over in our house was rated at 750 pounds total capacity or 150 pounds per shelf and I can guarantee you that we came nowhere close to that. The shelf was put together as designed, the only shelf that had maybe close to 100 pounds was the shelf with the fire cider because it also housed many jars full of dried herbs and some grains. It is truly important to understand that these shelves do not hold the weight they advertise. While this felt like an immediate tragedy, in the long term it was not because we learned a great deal, we remembered that we need not get complacent, and my husband sprang into action and made me a new shelving unit that is just absolutely amazing and I'm so thankful. Less than twelve hours later he was at the home improvement store buying wood and everything needed to build a complete and sturdy unit for me and all of my glass canning jars. A unit where I can store liquid jars that will not have a big chance of falling. Overall, Matt spent about the same cost as it would be if we had bought 2 new plastic shelving units, but what he built me will last forever, is sturdy and stationary, and not going anywhere. He showed his love language as a doer and person who gets things done and it just really made my heart happy that I have a husband who cares enough about me to help fix any problem I may face. I am thankful to God that he blesses me every day with such a strong, disciplined, and loving partner.
Another thing that happened this week was our discussion on garden prep for the 2023 summer season. Depending on what zone you are in you may have started garden planning or have started some of your seeds indoors. If you're like Matt and I, we like to have our garden mapped out with where we're going to plant things. This way it is easy to just follow the diagram and know where to put our seeds and where we will put the transplants that we have started indoors months prior. We come from a long line of gardeners on both sides of our family, and we have been raised on traditional gardening which requires a rototiller, lots and lots of weed pulling, and daily evening watering. Last year I had done some research on a gardening method called Back to Eden gardening, which is a method of gardening that sounds and is what it sounds like, basically letting nature do what nature does, not disturbing the soil, letting things grow the way God intended them to grow. If you go into a forest that is undisturbed by man, and you reach down and scoop a handful of soil, what you'll discover is magical. Under the pine needles, the leaves, the branches, and anything else that has fallen from the trees will be a very moist, dark layer of earth that contains the perfect ecosystem. With the Back to Eden gardening method, you use wood chips that are freshly chipped from trees, and you lay a 4- to 8-inch-thick layer of wood chips on top of your garden bed. There is no rototilling, you just put the wood chips in there and let nature do the rest. I know it sounds a little confusing at first but it really isn't. During the first year of gardening with the Back to Eden method, we read that we would not see much of a yield because we are completely disrupting the ecosystem and we went into it knowing that we might lose a year of gardening. We went ahead anyway because we decided the benefits of this method of gardening outweighed that one lost year. We were pleasantly surprised that we ended up having a yield in 2022, not what we are normally used to, but it was adequate.
When sowing seeds directly with this method, you will need to move the wood chips over just a little bit to plant the seed in the dirt and then you just leave it. When the plant starts emerging from the ground and is strong enough to not be easily damaged you gently move the wood chips back over the base of the plant. For plants that have been started indoors that you are transplanting, all you need to do is move a little bit of the wood chips, plant the already established plant, and then cover the base of the plant with wood chips. There is absolutely no weed pulling and last year in 2022 we watered our garden maybe twice and that was it. We probably didn't even have to, but because it was our first year using the Back to Eden gardening method, we got nervous, and the temps were high. You will notice that if you go out to your garden at any time during the summer and put your hand down and scoop up the earth underneath the wood chips it is very moist and acts as its own little sponge as the wood chips soak up the water, then hold onto it tightly, until needed. With traditional rototilling, the dirt gets hard and dry soon after you rototill, and you constantly need to water.
Another thing to consider as we venture further into February is what you're planning on growing this year. When considering what to grow, keep in mind what your family eats. It is important to grow things that your family enjoys, although it's nice to experiment with a new thing or two, don't give it too much real estate in your garden. Something else to consider if you're looking to maximize your growing space is to plant things on the outside of your garden that are resistant to animals, which will amplify your interior-protected garden space. Vertical gardening is also a huge space saver, letting things climb instead of blanketing out and growing over your prime real estate. If you are looking to start seeds indoors, you can do it for relatively inexpensive. I bought a greenhouse at a local supermarket a few many years ago, which has served as an indoor seed-starting greenhouse for the last seven years. You do not need to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a greenhouse setup and grow lights to make an indoor greenhouse efficient. I personally like to use shop lamps; the same ones that would be used in a garage or a barn with simple regular-sized grow bulbs. I usually clamp between six and eight of those in my greenhouse when I start my seeds. I start around four-hundred seeds every March and I am fine with between six and eight grow lamps. All of the things needed to create and maintain a seed starting journey this year can be located on our Amazon storefront which you can access by clicking the button below.
As always if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail us at info@faithhomestead.com