Permaculture for when the SHTF

[Britesea]

Occurs to me that a thick patch of nettles around your borders would not only give you food, but might even discourage some invaders... Same with blackberries, hawthorn, gooseberries, roses, and beaver tail cactus. These are ways to turn your house into a fortress without it being apparent. Also installing beefed up doors and door frames so they can't be easily kicked in, and there is a treatment for glass that can make your glass windows shatter-proof ( http://www.shattergard.com/home.html )
Lots of ways to protect your home without making it obvious.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Good ideas- I need to check out the shatter guard. Might not need to board windows for hurricane prep.

 

[baymule]

Plant berries, grapes, fruit and nut trees and they will bear at different times of the spring/summer/fall. If you have a basement, root vegetables store well in the winter. Also some apples store well. And don't forget the winter squash and pumpkins. If you live in the south, basements are uncommon, so I guess we are SOL. LOL.

 

[lcertuche]

I love all these ideas. I watch YouTube videos on foraging plants. Many, many edible plants out there. Not necessarily tasty but if your family was starving it would probably taste better.

 

[Mini Horses]

Not necessarily tasty but if your family was starving it would probably taste better.

You got it! I rarely eat some tuna because I do NOT like fish, in general. That "fishy" taste. But I would learn to like it if hungry and needed to fish for food. Luckily, I am near a lot of both fresh & salt water fishing areas. Plus many farmers here raise a huge amount of crops which are edible...wheat, corn, soybeans, peanuts, milo, etc. all around me. Because of this there are plenty of well-fed deer, rabbit, etc., available for kill.

I never really was concerned with "all out" survival food concerns but, with the weather, bad community crime & safety, & political issues around the country of late, it is more of a consideration. Living in close proximity to one of the largest Naval facilities in the world, plus only a 3 hr drive to DC, it would be an area that any attacking country would consider a target. That said, I also feel that the very best of the best in advanced detection technology is protecting these same areas of government assets.

 

[baymule]

Green briar tips are good to eat, tastes like asparagus. I snack on them all the time. The edible ones are the ones that have the tendrils. I read a post once by a man who dug up the green briar bulbs and planted them in a row. He then put up a trellis for them, harvesting the tips for food. At the end of the season, he cut off the vines, letting them dry on the trellis. Then he cut the vines off and used them for kindling for his wood burning heater.

The bulbs can be used for food too. You wash them good, slice them up and soak in water 24 hours. The starch in them will leach out in the water and you can drink it or use it for a soup base.

Yaupon leaves, dried and toasted, makes a good tea.

 

[Hinotori]

Cattails are quite good. Pull on the stem until it snaps off peel off outer leaves until you get to non-fibrous center. Slice and eat. It tastes like cucumber. I snack on it sometimes here. Really young cattail heads can be cooked and eaten. Roosts as well but they are fibrous. I was told best way is to pound the starch out in water then use the starch. Cattail pollen can be added to flours. It's easy to collect a lot of it.

I was thinking that my silkies might be the safest chicken choice. They are small and the black skin, meat, bones turn people off of them. We eat cockerels. One does a meal just fine for two of us. Used in soup they can feed more easily

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Yea - I'd have trouble eating black chicken I think....however if I was really hungry I could probably close my eyes and scarf it up, lol!

 

[lcertuche]

More great ideas. Keep em' coming.

 

[lcertuche]

I'm thinking that some sort of hedge cherries would be good. Also, a bush we call shoemake, actually a sumac plant (not the poisonous kind) has vitamin C and makes a good lemonade substitute.