ECON: Surviving the greatest Depression of the 21st Century

Dont let Green Tomatoes discourage your progress!

If you have been following this and many other threads that have helped you jump on the bandwagon of natural growing at home to either suppliment your food source and have seen problems, dont fret, you are not alone.

Take a look at this article which explains what you may have been facing as well as some healthy tips on what to do with those tomatoes that just dont want to turn red.

well.blogs.nytimes.com...

For Tomatoes, Green Is the New Red

Late blight appears innocent enough at first — a few brown spots here, some lesions there — but it spreads fast. Although the fungus isn’t harmful to humans, it has devastating effects on tomatoes and potatoes grown outdoors. Plants that appear relatively healthy one day, with abundant fruit and vibrant stems, can turn toxic within a few days.

So not to worry if the red tomatoes have you feeling down, when nature gives you green, make salsa verde!

Figured i would bring this thread back out and dust it off as we seem to be needing this kind of incouragement more today than when it was written.
hang on to your hats folks we are in for the ride of a life time very very soon.

hi.
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Obarak.
The Lemonade Diet

I tell ya' what, there are some cynical damn people on here. I agree with all you said 'cause my mother and father lived through that time, the places are different, but the stories are the same.
As for those that don't believe these kind and caring things could happen again under such pressures need to go and really visit or even move to a rural community. Even now, we help and visit our neighbors. Our church has a food closet for anyone of any color that has a need. We have a firewood ministry and deliver free firewood to homes that have needs. We volunteer in fixing up homes, do missions here and abroad, and we actually get together and have dinners, bakesales, the best Xmas parade ever for a small x-roads community, we all garden, raise-trade-sell-help slaughter livestock, help at the VFD with stew sells and BBQ sales.
Yes, Virginia, there really are still people and places like your grand mother spoke of.
I suppose there are those that are a bit more high browed and too sophisticated for church and such quaint rural charms, but we won't be hungry, cold, and prowling around like a lost dog on the side of the road when the stuff hits the fan.

So You Want to Start a Garden but have Little Space?

Hi friends, I have found a great site which can help you solve those questions you may have about starting your own victory garden to feed your family and friends when SHTF.

Below is a wonderful site (all free for the most part) that can help you through the first stages of getting yourself in ready state.

Whether you live in the subburbs or in a rural country setting, the time and effort it takes to supply enough food in a small space can be daunting at best. If you like me have spent more time weeding, tilling and howing than eating the benifits of your family treasure, then this will be the site for you!

The ability to raise enough food to sustain you for a year is not an impossible task even if you have disabilities or lack of knowledge, by following some of these easy steps you will discover that not only can you raise enough to sustain you and your loved ones, but you could also make enough food to either share or even sell as these hard times continue to get worse.

Imagine if everyone began to become at least selfsufficient to the point where you no longer rely upon the system for your basic essentials of health and nutrition, where you can cut down the cost of your grocery bill by half and begin to reap the rewards of a lifestyle which is not only healthier but financially benificial as well if you take it to the next level!

Go ahead and give this wonderful site your full attention today and start making those plans to be self reliant and independent.

Be sure and take pictures as you progress and share your blessed bounty with all of us here.

Happy growing!

www.freeplants.com...

reply to post by antar


Just wanted to shamelessly bump the last post as it just may be one of the most significant and relevant posts so far. We cant wait in denial until we find ourselves in the bread lines only to be denied the basic necessities of our survival.

The time is now upon us to take the needed steps to ensure our survival in the coming months and to see the futility of waiting to adjust once the ability to simply shop for our food has passed.

Something is brewing, we can all tangibly feel it coming, so please take a minute to visit the site listed above and start doing what you can to prepare and not rely on anything but your own skills to see you through whatever may come our way.

Well it seems this thread has again fallen into the abyss, so I shamelessly pull it back up for those of you who have not had the chance to read it can and hopefully join in the discussion.

As for me and my family we continue to make strives towards a life of self sufficiency should the need arise and if not, if we simply continue down this slow suicidal path toward the National failure we all experience daily.

My work is still not in vain even if we do not have a definite point where the dollar collapses at once or food supplies end abruptly, I have taken all we have discussed here to another level which in the future could bring me and my family to the next higher level of living.

Here is how we are doing it:

I have put in a 12x20 green house and everything in it is doing exceptional, there is plenty to eat and can as well as share with neighbors and family.

My vegetable gardens are double what they have been in the past and again the abundance will be shared and sold to the local markets.

We have also taken the first steps towards self sufficiency in the future whatever may come by installing mist systems and have thousands of starts on a timer daily.

We have also put in (quite nice) cold frames to over winter various varieties which need protection in my area.

I have come to the understanding that even if the lines continue to me marked between the rich and poor, there will always be a market for plants, shrubs, tree's, and a large cornucopia of vegetables and fruits.

It is amazing how much you can squeeze into a small space! And we have 5 acres to play with.

I admit in closing that this may not be for everyone, as for me, I have spent more time covered in mud this year than cleaned up, but the rewards are more than I could have ever hoped for.

So even if you get a 5 gallon bucket and plant something, anything, you will have taken the positive steps towards helping the enviroment and your independence.

Just wanted to share 'the haul' my youngest and I had a great time bringing in this afternoon. Now the point is that if "I" can grow a garden so can you!

I have learned so much this year and look forward to preparing my soil and getting everything closed up and conditioned properly this fall so next spring we will be ready to get busy.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/63d13d8cadf5.jpg[/atsimg]

Opps the picture is small and blury, but we got a 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes, braden loves the green zebras he is holding in his hand looking at fondly, and several other things like zucks and squashes, garlic, jade green beans (my fav) hot peppers, pickles, cucks, and bells.

We have plenty of watermellons and pumpkins coming on and the corn is high and tassling.

Nice thread ya got here Antar!

I just wanted to do a drive-by and bring something up that was discussed on page 1 of the thread - the Great Depressionand what it did to commerce.

The whole notion of an economic depression is a bit of a misnomer. It was given the moniker because they were depressing times. But they were NECESSARY times. To be more true to it's origins and effects it should have gone down in the history books as "The Great Correction". The roaring 20s created an unsustainable economy, a series of economic bubbles that needed to pop in order for normalcy to prevail. As a society, we have failed to learn the lesons of the 20s, 30s and 40s and we have ramped up another roaring 20s and more unsustainable bubbles. The difference this time is that the government is not allowing the one thing we need, a REAL market correction. Those who failed should have been allowed to fail and enter the dustbin of history. Stronger and more inventive companies would have replaced them. Instead we are laboring under the same broken system, hobbling along, confused as to why things aren't improving.

Next, to address the cynacism that has permeated the thread with respect to "Society". I witnessed neighbors and perfect strangers pulling together during the great blackout of 2002 in a very large metropolitan area. I watched perfect strangers pull together after 9/11. I have hope for society!

reply to post by kozmo


I am not certain which cynicism you speak of but then I can be single pointed when I get revved up on a subject, the whole point of this thread is to give hope when very little seems available and if what many experts say is true we have not begun to see the bottom.

I believe in humanity and brotherhood in hard times. Some of the stories I have shared are from my own families history and here I am today as the living proof that even in the darkest hours love and respect can and does happen. Yes chaos may ensue, but that is not what will prevail and last.

This thread is about hope, and to learn from the greatest teachers of the last great correction as you said, and it was, but also as you said we did not move forward but instead continued in the same manner that brought us down the first time.

Let me correct myself, I will not disrespect my family, because they were honest people, hard working people and it actually brings tears to their eyes to see this repeat, and worse of what they survived so many years ago.

Edit for spell check

[edit on 27-7-2010 by antar]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d8447dd8c85c.jpg[/atsimg]

Here are some of the delicious jade green beans we are putting up. These are tender and very tasty, the best Ive ever had.

One thing I will say is that I did have trouble getting parts for my pressure cookers, one was my grandmas an old big Presto, I will have to order parts... the other is a Mirro and it too has to have parts ordered,

If you have stuff just sitting around, I suggest you get any extra parts now so that when sitx is upon us you are not rendered helpless... Seals and such do need replacing from time to time.

So went ahead and bought one more that was ready to go as the beans were picked this morning and I wanted them fresh.

I did try last year to dehydrate green beans and although they were 'ok' they were not as good as fresh canned.

The other thing is that most recipes call for the beans to be cooked before canning, but we like them a bit crisp so I blanch them and then can.

Anyway, off to pick beets! ( one of my favorites, extra spicyish pickled beets!



[edit on 28-7-2010 by antar]

Spam

[edit on 22/8/10 by masqua]

reply to post by antar


I feel the same about my Grandparents, one of whom worked in those oilfields and took us kids to eat at the Green Shack a few times in the 1960s. Thanks for the story.

reply to post by antar


The Grandma who I wrote this thread about, has passed away today.

We went to her home to celebrate a birthday and have a dinner party and when we arrived she was already gone.

Words cannot express my sorrow tonight, but before I lay down I wanted someone, anyone to know that today a great woman has passed away.

reply to post by antar


My deepest sympathies antar.

May you celebrate her life as you mourn her passing.

Hugs, sofi

reply to post by soficrow


Thank you Sophi, miss rubbing elbows with you of late.

I wanted to add something cool I have incorporated into my gardens this year on the thread. I will try and get a picture up later.

What I have is a cow panel that I grew peas on earlier in the season, once the peas came on I planted pole beans next to them. As the peas finished, the beans were really coming on.

Now on the opposite side of the panel, I placed my tomato plants and low and behold, they compliment one another as well as the pole beans hold the tomato plants sturdy on the panel!

Fun stuff!

Just wanted to add something undeniable to this thread about this years Gardening...

I just went and picked up 2 bushels of freestone peaches to can and make mix for fall/winter pies and discovered that everything at the orchard is about 1 1/2 months ahead! I will go back to get Jonathan apples this next month if not sooner! They are never ready until end of sept/oct.

I had to pick up my early apples today as well which are never ready until next month.

So, I guess we have to roll with the punches and just do what we must to prepare for this winter which promises to be as unusual as it gets.

reply to post by soficrow


This is the first year canning without Grandma. It is weird she always supported me doing it but for some reason my mind went blank this year on how we always do things. her birthday was the 5th and Grandpa was pretty down about it, we just gave him his space and he slept alot.

Dusting off another older yet important thread today, one thing that was not considered in the writing of this was the reality we all face with climactic changes worldwide.

Face it change is the new norm, yet out of chaos comes clarity, or so it has been said.

At one point many of us were looking at the past for answers to our future and more importantly how to survive with our humanity intact. Is that really possible from what we have witnessed from the hurricanes and earthquakes we have been hit with in the past couple years?

Seems like each time we come through a disaster continuity would progress but I am not so sure that is even wanted by the very same organizations in control of commerce, goods and services in a disaster, and when they fail to serve the people as first priority it creates that chaos which is based in fear of being without.

During the depression era, people were far more prepared than today, even in the cities there were options available with less people to consider so after a short period of regrouping the norm was soon established which may not have been ideal even back then, but people seem to want familiarity regardless of what that is.

Today with the population boom and the dependency on technology for communication and answers, I am not so sure we are not regressing as a global society. Not just in the western world but the entire planet.

I used to get pissed when after a large disaster in some other country my fellow Americans would donate and then put it behind themselves as they are steered by the media to put it out of mind. So many times the real disaster came only after all the media circus ended and the supplies stopped arriving for the dog and pony show.

It is driving me mad today when I see the news station show what they want people to see and not the reality of what is really going on (Hurricane Sandy).

Seems the squeaky wheel does get the oil but in this case it is not enough. People dumpster diving? Gas wars?
Hunger and panic setting in because when continuity of commerce forgets the average person a base survival mechanism sets in rapidly. It gets worse each disaster rather than better!

Why did they not helicopter people out as an option for those who were stranded? Why not fly in supplies, gas, food, water, and set up to help take names and find out who survived, what people need?


Anyway, at one point I knew that we could overcome anything as long as we were prepared and stood together but now I am not so sure. I think it is going to take time for the fall to happen first and then those survivors who make it through are going to have the chance to restart if the gov. does not sell them out first.


I know we have not seen the tip of the iceberg in disasters and disease.