Some points from her article Choosing a Survival Seed Bank.
If you have never grown anything before, a bag seeds isn't going to save you. While I have tried to put together a good set of instructions to go with our seed packs, some experience with gardening will be a huge help.
Appropriate to your area. In an email with Ashley she mentioned that the variety of corn in our packs is 115 day but their growing season isn't long enough in the North Eastern US. Our growing season is 280 days here in South Central Texas. Some of the things she can grow well will burn up in our summers! So our seed packs are chosen for the the South Eastern US plus Texas and Oklahoma.
Practical vs Impractical We have focused on getting the calories and protein in a diet that will allow you to thrive. You can supplement with fun crops like watermelons etc, but you can't live off watermelons!
Packaging Our packs are dual vacuum sealed with silica gel desiccant. If you only use part of the seeds you will need to put it in a plastic bag or something similar. The pail has a lid with a seal which will protect the seeds from mice, moisture, light, etc.
Please check out Ashley's site for more information!
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I watered them a few times and then got busy with other projects. I neglected the garlic patch for two years. The patch now looks like a field with all of the various weeks etc. Some garlic survived and some didn't. We prepared a new area and transplanted the survivors. We will (hopefully) do better with weeding and fertilization and find out which varieties are best for our area of Texas.
So neglect can still teach us which crops are best suited for our area. If they survive with neglect, just think how well they will do with a little care!
Survivor Garlic Before Transplanting
]]>From US Dept of Agriculture Yearbook, 1907
History
From Kansas State Agricultural College Bulletin December 1913: Reid’s Yellow Dent is the purest and most highly bred variety of corn in America. So carefully has it been bred, and so true is its type when grown under favorable conditions, that it has become the greatest prize winner among yellow varieties of corn throughout the Corn Belt. This corn was originated by Robert Reid, in Tazewell County, Illinois, in 1847, from a natural cross between a large, rather late-maturing red corn, known as “Gordon Hopkins” corn, which Mr. Reid brought with him to Illinois from Brown County, Ohio, and the “Little Yellow” corn, a rather early-maturing variety grown at that time quite generally in Tazewell County. The cross was accidental and came from replanting the missing hills in a field of the red corn with the early yellow variety. Mr. James L. Reid, son of Robert Reid, recognized the value of this cross-bred corn and at once began to improve it. He continued its careful breeding for more than fifty years, until its characteristics were firmly fixed. The Reid’s corn has been more widely distributed than any other variety. It is probably grown in every state in the Union and in every corn country in the world.
Uses
This corn is usually ground up before using and is great for making grits and cornbread.
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We grew Magic Manna Parching Corn. This variety was developed by Carol Deppe (and we got the seed directly from her). We interplanted Magic Manna Parching and Magic Manna Starburst Corn. The yield was good and we did not grow any other corn, the planting was isolated from other corn by miles, and none of the commercial corn was tasseling at the same time so we have good uncontaminated seed to offer (after independent lab germination testing). Carol Deppe maintains quite a bit of genetic diversity in her breeding and we have removed about half of the all white corn from the seed but have kept some white corn in the seeds (as she recommends). This was grown south central Texas and did pretty well. The plants topped out at about 3.5 ft tall which makes it seem short compared to other corn that is growing in the area.
Most importantly, the corn is very pretty!
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Amazingly complex hive stand (most people use cinder blocks).
When the bees were ready for pickup I drove to Navasota, Texas with my son and picked them up. My wife and daughter had to travel for a funeral so I had a friend help me put the colonies on the stands and put the nuc into its own 10 frame deep brood box. I should have had a mentor help, but no bees or people died so it was a success! I will tell you the first time opening a hive and hearing that hum is a little intimidating. We have been enjoying working with the bees and eating (and selling) our own local honey. It has been a great business venture and I am glad my wife always wanted to be a beekeeper.
Putting the nuc into its new home.
Our healthy and happy bees (the tan circles are capped brood)
]]>Tunas are the fruit of a prickly pear cactus. He is living with a hunter gatherer society in South Texas. When they can’t find anything to eat, they go hungry. Agriculture gives more certainty to the uncertainty of hunting and gathering. If society collapsed, a lot of the 325 million people in the US would start hunting. The deer and wild hogs would soon be pretty scarce. So how do you guarantee you and the family don’t go hungry? You grow enough food to meet your calorie and protein needs. You always have something to eat. Your hunting then supplements your food supply but if game cannot be found everyone still goes to bed with a full belly.
Growing your main source of calories and protein in different than the garden most people in the US plant. This also shows on of the main deficiency of the “prepper seed packs” that are being sold on the internet. These seed packs are nice “supplements” to a meal, they don’t make the meal. The second issue is that the same seeds are marketed all across the US. Growing tomatoes in Montana is very different than growing tomatoes in Texas. In south central Texas “beef steak” tomatoes only produce for a few months before it gets too hot to set fruit, even for high heat tolerant tomatoes. Gardeners in Ohio would have better harvests of these tomatoes and have success with a wider range of tomato varieties. So what should you do?
Grow staple crops that are well adapted to your growing season, rainfall, and temperature. Here at the Seed Vault Company we have put together a Survival Seed Pack that provides you with all the calories and protein need for a 3,000 calorie per day diet. This pack is for the south eastern US and assumes average harvests. If you are a great farmer, then you wouldn’t need to plant as much. More Survival Seed Pack details on the products page. Shop Now!
]]>Most blackberries fruit on floricanes (2nd year canes). After they fruit you prune them and throw them away (to reduce the possibility of disease). The first year canes (primocanes) should be tip pruned after they are about 3 feet high. This will improve branching which can also increase yields.
We used T-Posts driven in pairs to make a "V" and then ran two galvanized wires along each side of the posts. This makes it easy to keep the vines off the ground and harvest the fruit.
]]>Someone must have thrown out a peach pit and it germinated an grew. Later this year, there were some small peaches. The birds and bugs got them, but we are going to do some pruning and maybe get some next year.
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My daughter felt the need to photo bomb the picture of our first fruit.
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