Urban farming and surviving after the SHTF

Yesterday during my class on the UW campus, one of our guest speakers was Kate Rogers, a young lady from The Mountaineers Books press. The non-profit Mountaineers have published several mountain climbing, rock climbing and other outdoor related books over the years.

I learned that book publishers have what are called “imprints” in the trade. An imprint is a line of books that the publisher produces in a particular theme. The Mountaineers two imprints are Braided River and Skipstone. Braided River is their green eco-friendly and conservation line. Skipstone is their outdoor and local interest line.

In keeping with my theme of survival and self-sufficiency, I was interested to see some of the books featuring outdoor interests in the Pacific Northwest under the Skipstone imprint.

One book that I thought would be of interest to someone attempting to survive would be The Urban Farm Handbook.

The Urban Farm Handbook

The paperback version is available from Amazon, and I understand REI also carries some of these books.

I am lucky that my house sits on a fairly large piece of property, so if I had to I could probably grow enough vegetables to feed my family. Livestock would be a problem as I do not have enough room for both animals and a large garden. Perhaps small animals like chickens, geese and ducks would be possible, but any large livestock is out. Doing a quick seahappen, had better get hard copies of the books that might help him feed his family.

If things get as bad as some fear, there is not going to be any power to read ebooks. I have been slowly collecting books concerning small urban farming, raising livestock, and foraging for my personal information as well as a source of information should things go very bad.

A quick search of the Amazon web site I see several books within this theme all covering urban farming.  Another book that catches my eye is the one covering growing fruit trees in the Pacific Northwest. I know and have wanted to fix for several years, that my yard lacks enough fruit trees. I planted a sickly asian pear tree a few years ago but it died almost as soon as I planted it.

The prospective urban farmer planning on using his property to farm should the SHTF and TEOTWAWKI might get a few books in hard copy like this.

Urban Pantry

This book has some interesting recipe ideas for the urban pantry keeper. One of the things I dread about my diet after the SHTF is how bland it is going to be!

My wife and I have canned in the past, and still retain the basic equipment to do so again should the need arise. I still need to buy more canning jar lids, but we have enough canning jars stashed around the house. About the only thing I have never canned is meat. Although I know the mechanics of canning meat I have never done so.

I still lack a pressure cooker, which is on the list of items to buy one of these days. Still I remember fondly my Grandmother’s spiced canned peaches. When I was a kid I used to sneak into her pantry and steal a jar of those yummy peaches and eat the whole thing by myself!

There are many edible plants in my yard that I can identify. All those damn dandelions that I have been waging ecological chemical warfare against I know I could eat in a salad (after a while for the weed killer to wash away). I also have clover and some version of a cress in my yard.

I will be the first to admit that without a guide-book I am not the most savvy when it comes to identifying most edible plants in the wild. I am the only one in the family that can and will eat mushrooms, so I am not worrying about gathering mushrooms. Although I live in the PNW (Pacific North West) where a lot of mushrooms grow wild, I have never bothered to collect wild mushrooms.

Blackberries, the kudzu of the PNW, however I have gathered a lot of over the years. Etremely prolific and easy even for a naive like me to identify, the blackberries get turned into jelly and mead using my old Safborn juicer.

If you get a chance check out the Skipstone line of books either on Amazon or your local book seller. Some of these books might be handy to the average prepper, and some might give ideas and information for expanding and maintaining your diet if the SHTF.