17 May 20XX+1
My Dear Lucilius:
Today was gardening planting day.
To be fair, this is about 1.5 weeks ahead of typical planting season, but given the weather and the need, it is a risk that most seem to be willing to take this year.
And oh, how we planted. Not one, but two gardens this year, my own and then the garden of Pompeia Paulina. More hands make light work of course, and with four of us planting – myself, Pompeia Paulina, Statiera, and Young Xerxes, things moved a great deal quicker than in years past when I was just planting my own garden.
We pretty much planted everything: pole beans, beets, broccoli, brussel spouts, cabbage, carrots, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, peas, peppers (bell and jalapeno), potatoes, spinach, squash, and tomatoes. This is a lot more than I would planted in a typical season and frankly, these were not all my seeds – some made their way from Pompeia Paulina and Statiera’s and some “magically” appeared from Xerxes. We planted the same at Pompeia Paulina and Statiera’s with some additions: kale and cauliflower, neither of which I truly like (but, I suppose, beggars cannot be choosers).
The bees continue to do well also – the weather continues to warm up sufficiently that they are making regular flights out of the hive at this point. The potentially broody quail is still barricaded away in the back of the greenhouse, but it is either this week – or nothing.
For dinner this evening I pulled out my barbecue and some of that precious charcoal. Young Xerxes brought steaks and Pompeia Paulina brought a vegetable salad and, wonder of wonders, a bottle of Old Vine Zinfandel that apparently had been saved for a special occasion. We had a meal outside in the fading sun, almost like something out of the “old days” as if the past year had not happened at all. More shortbread and after dinner coffee may or may not have also appeared.
It is odd how these moments creep up on me Lucilius: even now I can put the reality of the world on hold and find in small ways that life has a continuity to it that transcends the situation. I am sure that this is due less to events than to my perception of the situation: we have dinner as we would have a year ago, and somehow my mind carefully overlooks that there is no power and no fuel and our world has largely shrunk to what can be walked to in a day. I plant a garden as I would have last year, and my mind overlooks the fact that without this year’s crop, there may very well not be a next year.
But to dissect the situation is to somehow mar it. And, the wine and the company were delightful. Even in the darkest of circumstances Lucilius, we can still find small pleasures.
Your Obedient Servant, Seneca
Sounds absolutely ideal to me. But Seneca needs to figure out that he doesn't need charcoal to cook on a barbecue. Different tree woods impart wonderful flavors to meat (almost an art in itself).
ReplyDeleteLeigh, Seneca may very need to - I will say in Seneca's defense that 1) He seems to be a pretty linear thinker sometimes and probably did not even occur to him; and 2) In this particular location (based on an actual place), there really is not a lot of wood in general.
DeleteThat said, it is certainly a lack in my own experience as well.
But Seneca's thought processes and actions are realistic. Learning how to source and use available alternatives takes time to learn, starting with learning how to think outside the box! And that comes easier for some than others. (Most of my alternatives came from reading what someone else did.)
DeleteOne thing that interests me about the character is that he reflects the experience of a lot of people: he has lived in a society where some level of self sufficiency is "nice to have" (or in his climate a bit of a necessity) but there was always civilization to fall back on.
DeleteI, too, learn a great many things from reading - and then try them out and make adjustments mid-stream (as I am finding with my ongoing water supply to the garden).
I agree with Leigh above. Retrieving fuel from the local can be made more enjoyable by bringing back a small amount of fire wood every time you come back in from a woods trek.
ReplyDeleteI recall a line from the Pat Frank book 'Alas Babylon' where the character Randy Bragg recalled smoking packs of cigarettes with small satisfaction before The Day happened. He went to say smoking a pipe after the day's activities was now far more enjoyable than before. Funny how enjoying a small luxury can bring contentment.
Anon - That is a methodology of getting wood I had not even considered (likely not Seneca either, apparently).
DeleteI recall a similar thing as well, when Randy finds the Iron Rations he hid away months before and finds the coffee and chocolate. That really is one of the best post-apocalyptic books, hands down - not just because it is a love snap-shot of the 1950's, but it deals with a great many philosophical issues that are not handled in many others "survive or die" books.
Charcoal is a useful pre-burned wood. There are good reasons the pre-electric era went through all that work to make it, instead of simply gathering bits of firewood on your daily walks.
ReplyDeleteWater purification, steady no flare heat, less smoke. A bit ground up fine in a glass of water is useful for suspected bad food situations.
Seneca and company are going to learn about how much our throw away containers' society was throwing away something pre-electricity folks would have treasured.
All those traded-gifted honey containers, any returns? Dehydrated foods how to protect from getting damp or wet or eaten by bugs and rodents?
Seeds storage is also a container issue.
Carrying safe drinking water for longer trips?
I love washing out wide mouth peanut butter jars. A bit of sunshine air time gets rid of the last peanut smell.
Michael, I have done some research on traditional charcoal making methods. It is certainly not impossible for even the small homesteader with the appropriate amount of wood available. Sand and clay help, but I supposed could be worked around.
DeleteCertainly many things that are treated as effectively useless now would have new significance in a world that no longer manufactures them.
Michael - After scrapping out peanut butter, I let the ants do my cleaning up of peanut butter jar. Love those containers - Just big enough to allow viewing of items in center of container through the clear sides. Very lightweight and of course are not easily breakable.
DeleteSimilar to what we used to do with remaining honey in frames that had the honey removed: we put them out near the hive and let the bees finish them off.
DeleteSorry I was unclear. Seneca trades-gave away honey last year. How many MORE Containers does he have to continue to harvest-trade honey?
DeleteMy German Grandmother LOVED the canning jar jams and jellies that American stores had. FREE Canning jars was her chant.
Of course I am not sure, but as a general observation when I kept bees we had far more containers than we could ever fill. Hazard of keeping bees, having honey, using honey, saving for later, collecting other people's used containers, etc.
DeleteContainers for fermenting foods?
ReplyDeleteA nice link about that and using clamps to store root veggies over the winter.
https://heavenstretch.wordpress.com/2023/05/03/a-good-carrot-story-from-garden-clamp-to-fermented-wonderfulness/
Thanks for the link Michael! I really enjoy Herrick and wish that he was writing more often as he did in the past; I process the written word much better.
DeleteI do have that Lehman's crock he is referring to and have used it successfully for making a form of sauerkraut using napa cabbage. I have seen the small mason jar version; it is just an airlock attached to a lid. I am sure one could easily make several with a drill and inexpensive airlocks from one's local home brewing store.
Warmed up enough here for folks to think of putting in a garden. Cauliflower....ugh...bring out the crucifix and wooden stake. New routines in a collapse.
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - I continue to be amazed by your weather. You are farther North than even Seneca I think.
DeleteI am not a fan of cauliflower at all, and it is one of the few foods I will actively refuse to eat. That said, given a recent healthy living push around these parts, we have had some cauliflower pizza crusts and cauliflower rice. It is not great, but also not nearly as bad as cauliflower on the stem (which really is awful).
On my way down to the farm garden, I pass by the homestead of an industrious man. For many years, he bought and collected hedge apples, fruit of the osage orange tree, and harvested the seed oil which he sold to the cosmetic industry. He still does that but now his thing is making bio-charcoal by the ton. I have only seen it form maybe 100 yards away as I drive by but it looks like pretty good stuff. I've been meaning to stop by someday and ask how much he sells it for.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting Ed! I would love to hear the results of that conversation.
DeleteLook up Japanese Charcoal making if you want a journey into an incredibly interesting and unknown (to the West, anyway) tradition and product. Among the other interesting things, some of it burns almost smoke free.
And as noted elsewhere, another 100% renewable energy source that we overlook.
Thank you for the needed encouragement! Life and joy can grow even in unlikely circumstances!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome. I really need these sorts of reminders as well and am glad that Seneca offers them (although ironically, Seneca is a construct of my own mind, so why I am not doing this directly is a bit beyond me).
DeleteIf this is the end of year 1 then are they digging out a root cellars for themselves? They will need lots of firewood or fallen wood if they want to can any of those items. Fresh tomato sauce, pea's, spinach, etc..
ReplyDeleteAs Nylon said no cauliflower or broccoli. Daughter went through vegan stage and loves broccoli so I agreed to make it for her one thanksgiving. Had to leave the house for an hour the smell, for me was so bad I was gagging. To each his own. Hard no on broccoli.
I would wager that Seneca does not have a root cellar, at least. I will have to do a little research as I do not recall the layout of the soil/rock strata in those parts.
DeleteCauliflower is a hard no. Broccoli is okay (and very good nutritionally).
Most folks don't have a root cellar friend.
DeleteThus my link above about building clamps as the poor mans root cellar.
Do not have or - due to geography and topography - cannot build.
Deleteif this is after the collapse then they best find a way to overwinter root veggies. There are certainly area's where land / soil conditions would not allow that. But if the community could find a spot to dig then they need to at least talk about it. But at the end of a hard winter getting ready to plant most are down to minimum rations. Steaks and salad? More like beans and fried potatoes at that point.
DeleteSheet plastic is something VERY Valuable for a SHTF scenario. As a cover for veggie clamps as described by the link, as a rainwater collection system, can be used to line a hand dug pit to STORE that saved rainwater for later use.
DeleteAnon - Possibly, although in this timeline everything "stopped working" seven months prior, and there were pretty evident signs to anyone that was likely paying attention.
DeleteSheet plastic has a number of uses, many of which are not revealed until a general loss of common things.
DeleteYes, indeed sheet plastic an item of lesser value WHEN Lowes and Home Depot are open for business.
DeleteMuch HIGHER Value when you cannot buy MORE of it. I have several contractor rolls of HD clear and black. I have some Christmas Lowes cards soon to become more HD plastic sheeting.
A repairer of broken windows, a tarp of sorts for a leaky roof keeping the home from further damage.
A waterproofing layer for root cellars and dugout homes. Just be careful of sharp rocks and branches when backfilling.
DO buy replacement screens though, very useful for solar dehydrators as well as keeping bugs out. Don't buy fiberglass screens, I hate bits of fiberglass in my dehydrated foods.
Water collection and storage (just add a lid to keep surface trash out), a clamp roof for the winter, shielded by more leaves and such protected for years of service. A greenhouse cover, a black plastic soil warmer and smotherer of noxious weeds for a emergency garden.
Many uses, hard to replace with a "World Made by Hand" scenario.
Sorry about posting such a long comment.
DeleteAll good Michael - As always, you stayed within the lane guides and discussion is part of why this particular site exists.
DeleteCould we start a thread on what would be the minimum survival diet?
ReplyDeleteMy start for it, and why:
Fresh and Fermented cabbage (Sauerkraut/kimchee) Vit C,
Dry beans and leather britches of unshelled dry beans Protein
Potatoes Carbs
Nice to have:
Tomatoes, dehydrated Vit C and flavor
Peppers dehydrated Vit C and flavor
Carrots dehydrated or stored in moist sand buckets for use and or 2nd year replanting for SEEDS. Cabbages also stored in damp sand for replant needed for cabbage seeds 2nd year. All root crops ditto.
Any root crops stored as above.
Greens like turnip tops/collards even bean leaves (did you know they are quite edible, tasty even and you can take up to 10% off each bean plant without affecting bean crop) dehydrated.
Sweet Potatoes Vit C flavor and If I can grow it in zone 4 NH with row covering well worth it.
Extras:
Any decent sized critters that want to eat out of my garden. Even Ground Hogs taste good if your careful with the anal scent glands when cleaning.
Carbs and beans are almost complete proteins needing but a thumb sized bit of real meat (or an egg) every two-three days to do fine.
Michael, a few years back a prepper posted a list of absolute necessity for a 1 year survival for a family of two. Holy cow, was I astounded at the amount of food items necessary. He was explaining how to store eggs by some method that would keep for the year. Interesting article but with Seneca he's doesn't appear to be where plastic sheeting would be available.
ReplyDeleteSalvage springs to mind friend. Going to be a LOT of salvage after Lowes and such close down. Communities will have to agree about property rights especially about those who own property but don't live here.
ReplyDeleteI've seen those lists and that's why I was discussing what I can grow in my area to supplant my stored foods and such.
Winters coming as they say in Game of Thrones.