Capability to produce your own food, pandemic/ financial collapse preparedness #4
By louievill
@louievill (28851)
Philippines
April 13, 2020 10:21pm CST
Let's all face it, almost all of us are on lockdown, did it ever occur to you that if this goes on any further that your supplies might run dry? Even if you're a prepper and have a lot, it's not infinite and another financial crisis is just a matter of when.
Long before all this pandemic, I experimented planting vegetables on PET bottles using a simple self watering kratky method using nothing more than old cloth and pet litter bottles sourced from my junk shop. Good thing I did not do it full scale otherwise the Mt. Taal eruption would had obliterated my little experiment.
I decided to put my plants on the roof top of our garage ( instead of the backyard), I used a lighter media of coconut husk mixed with soil to lessen the load on the roof. As you can see on my photo I also experimented on vertical planting using scrap materials I got from my junk yard to save on space
To date I already have 80 different plants and had already harvested water spinach from the earlier ones I planted and God willing my target is to make 300. I had also tapped power from my diy solar set up so the place is lighted up using solar energy.
Lotters do you have the ability to produce your own food? Do you plan to? Do you have fruit trees at home? Do you know how to preserve and can food?Thank you for reading, and please stay safe. Picture is the actual project I made.
13 people like this
16 responses
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
15 Apr 20
I think of it as "fun " first and foremost, it's a fun scientific experiment and hobby, but it will gradually build up and might come handy when a situation arises where there's nothing to buy with our money because everybody else wants the food or the vegetable. I hope we don't reach that point but this pandemic has shown us that anything is possible
1 person likes this
@FayeHazel (40243)
• United States
15 Apr 20
Resourceful of you. I do canning with my mom. It's so delicious
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@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
16 Apr 20
@FayeHazel yes I know that method too, cheap Chinese pressure cookers with snap on lids are the best I have here, I miss that All American canner with screw tightening lid and pressure gauge we made corned beef from it using a slab of beef. Good luck on your gardening and canning.
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@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
15 Apr 20
We use to have a pressure canner but no parts are available here and it's expensive to buy a new one from your country because of shipping. I think I read from your past posts that you have land? Am I right? Do you can what you produce?
1 person likes this
@FayeHazel (40243)
• United States
16 Apr 20
@louievill I used to have use of a community garden space.... but this year I won't have that. However I will garden at my mom's place. If all goes well we maybe have enough to do canning with, but for sure enough to eat fresh. Sorry that getting a pressure canner is difficult there. I know there is another method where you can set jars in a boiling pot...
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@Alexandoy (65308)
• Cainta, Philippines
14 Apr 20
When I was 12, my father brought me along in one of his hunting trips in Bulacan. We reached the place of his friend after walking for 4 hours. It was like paradise. They have the so called self-supporting means to live - livestock and plants plus the water from the mountain spring. I don't know if there is still such a place like that.
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@Alexandoy (65308)
• Cainta, Philippines
14 Apr 20
@louievill the place in Bulacan is now known as Remedios Trinidad town.
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@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
@Alexandoy will search it later, will ask mother where the firing range was located in Bulacan province, will eat lunch first
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@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
@Alexandoy I searched Remedios Trinidad and the place is beautiful, they have a lot of resorts, that place you went to is probably one of those resorts now. My grandfather's firing range is only in Valenzuela when it was still part of Bulacan, that whole place use to be wooded areas and rice fields.
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@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
16 Apr 20
So are you also doing artwork on the plastic bottles?
1 person likes this
@thelme55 (77081)
• Germany
16 Apr 20
@louievill No, I just painted them with red color.
1 person likes this
@yoalldudes (35037)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
This is a good thing you are doing. The future is so uncertain, I dont know what to prepare for.
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@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
@yoalldudes it's dangerous because it will create super bugs or antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
Take it one at a time, you first have to access first what you would like to prepare for, in our case the most common ones are earthquakes, fires, typhoons, volcanic eruptions. The pandemic came unexpected. Do your prepping one at a time ( a little difficult to do it now because we are on lock down but it could be done). The basics are food, water and medicines. You can start now by planting that kang kong ( water spinach), camote ( sweet potato) malunggay ( moringa) stalk you just cooked instead of just throwing them away.
@yoalldudes (35037)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
@louievill I wish antibiotics is still OTC and not prescription.
1 person likes this
@Butterfingers (66583)
• India
14 Apr 20
Actually no so am dependent on outside for food and veggies
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@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
Try planting anything on pots, we cannot be a hundred percent independent from stores but it's a joy to eat something that we raised and grew ourselves, it also tastes much better and we are sure it does not contain chemicals. ( just a friendly suggestion)
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@RebeccasFarm (89873)
• Arvada, Colorado
17 Apr 20
Here where I live I have to be careful if I were to plant anything in pots on the patio as it draws rodents.
I love your pots there
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@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
17 Apr 20
The roof top of the garage offer some defense because it's above ground where most of rodents are, the roof is also where my cats hang out. The pots are 6 to 8 liter distilled or mineral water containers that I cut, it's a modification of the soda bottle self watering system that I find too small.
@Letranknight2015 (51969)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
sadly, I didn't have the passion to do so even though it's quarantine.
1 person likes this
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
And why is that? Busy with something else? I had not seen you very active lately
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
Same here because of zoning laws, perhaps a few chickens for eggs would be tolerated. I also do not have the heart to slaughter or kill animals that I raised, not even chicken, I can't eat it
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (471421)
• Switzerland
14 Apr 20
@louievill Same as you, I could not kill and animal that I grow up. At most I could keep some hens for the eggs and a goat for the milk, but we cannot keep animals (except dogs and cats) here.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (340206)
• Rockingham, Australia
14 Apr 20
The vertical planting are a good idea. We have plenty of land but have to protect anything we grow from the kangaroos. I haven't been able to buy any vegetable seedlings to plant. I don't believe we will run out of food but I would like to grow my own vegetables.
1 person likes this
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
I would probably build a non-lethal electric fence that runs on solar energy if kangaroos are the problem. But yeah they will be safer planted vertically and planted high up.
Besides buying seeds online, I now save seeds and cuttings of plants we eat and cook.
The pandemic changed my attitude of not assuming or presuming anything. I also believe we will never run out of food but just a few months ago I would not believe that the whole world be quarantined, public transport would almost come to a halt etc...etc...
It's a good feeling to eat what we grew and be sure that it has no harmful pesticides.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (340206)
• Rockingham, Australia
14 Apr 20
@louievill I agree with you completely and if I were younger we'd be doing more to make ourselves self-sufficient. I'm saying I don't think we'll run out of food but, as you say, things have changed so dramatically in the world that it seems anything is possible.
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@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
Thank you for the best wishes, I'm sure you already know the types of crops that are best suited there. It's nice if you can start right away, no need to buy pots, just save those large to medium plastic containers.
My procrastination almost killed this project, in a way it was a blessing otherwise mount Taal Volcano would had destroyed my first wave of plants I'm taking no chances I placed nettings on top of the whole area to guard the plants from the elements.
@spiderdust (14760)
• San Jose, California
14 Apr 20
We have a lemon tree, a plum tree, and we're hoping to get a cherry tree still. My brother is sending me a bunch of seeds for my garden, as I haven't had a chance to buy any myself. I'm worried that we'll need to grow our own food to get through the summer, either due to food supply shortages or because we'll still be trying to recover financially.
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@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
Wow! Those fruit trees don't grow here, if only it were possible to swap with some of my mangoes
I hear you, I think our thoughts jive as to what we would be facing a few months from now or early next year. Seeds are very important and we need to start planting them soon as possible.
@allen0187 (58582)
• Philippines
16 Apr 20
Lotters do you have the ability to produce your own food? Trying but haven't been successful.
Do you plan to? es, especially with what has been going on.
Do you have fruit trees at home? Back in the day yes. Nowadays, no.
Do you know how to preserve and can food? Yes.
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
14 Apr 20
Yes , a good start, lets do it together and let's update each other, simple things we do now would help us cushion the impact of the looming financial crisis later as an aftermath of this pandemic.
1 person likes this