Sowing the Seeds of Survival

Sowing seeds is generative. It's life giving. Plus some Hot Pants Farming Club news!

Oct 11, 2023

Editor’s Note: I’m sharing some garden planning worksheet photos in this post. I got several of them from someone else, but made others myself. I’m happy to send you files of the basic worksheets, if interested.

We’ve started our autumn planting! Depending on where you live, you might have started yours two weeks ago, or more. We’re direct sowing some of our crops and planting seedlings for others. I hope you’ve taken that plunge and planted at least one thing this season.

Whether that’s herbs in pots on an apartment balcony, or larger crops on your porch or in the ground, it’s incredibly empowering. And everyone needs to practice activities that build fortitude, confidence, and self-sufficiency, especially in these tenuous times.

If you don’t have access to several acres of land, you can’t really raise goats, cattle, or other animals that could provide you and your family with meat supply that’s unadulterated, healthy, and nutritious. And, soon, you won’t be able to just grab a couple of steaks at the local grocery store. That is, you won’t, if you would rather remain unvaxxed.

Check out the spinach we planted this past spring. It looks all happy and healthy now, but it will be no more once we get our first frost.

Growing some vegetables and herbs and even raising chickens, if you can, will go a long way to helping you survive over the long haul.

The Killing Machines Keep on Grinding

The World Health Organization (WHO) claims that the next pandemic will arise out of our meat supply. How convenient. The super-duper qualified “experts” at the WHO have been waging a war on agriculture and livestock for quite some time now, claiming that meat and your favorite gourmet cheese contributes to the ongoing climate emergency [insert eye roll].

So is beef (and meat derived from other varieties of livestock) really a major factor in so-called climate change? Welp, according to a new study, led by (actual) scientists at the Department of Food Science and Technology at University of California, the “carbon footprint of lab-grown meat could be ‘orders of magnitude higher’ as the industry grows.” The study found that the potential “global warming” caused by lab-grown meat is up to 25 times greater than that supposedly caused by the activities of the retail beef industry.

They’ve been lying to you about the ethical and carbon footprint reduction potential lab-grown meat. Lying like a cheap Wayfair.com rug.

Not only that, there are plans to include mRNA ~~contaminated~~ vaccinated meat to our food supply. Beware of shrimp because it’s the most recent food source slated to receive blanket mRNA vaccines. Just saying.

How to Plan Your Seasonal Growing

We’ve been growing almost all of our own produce since about 2010, but our operation has grown significantly since then and we needed a better way to plan and keep track of everything. Here’s the worksheet we used to plan out what we’re planting this autumn (I like using ‘autumn’ rather than ‘fall.’ The former has such a rich etymology).

This sheet shows our initial planning. It’s really just a categorized listing of everything we’re planning to grow this season.

We got this sheet and the two others I’m sharing from Melissa K. Norris, but I also created many others myself. Her worksheets aren’t free (you have to buy her book), but there are free options online.

The next step is to figure out how much of each crop you need to plant so you can feed your entire family. This worksheet helps you calculate how much of each plant you’ll need so you have enough of that food for an entire year. Obviously, we aren’t planting a year’s worth of each and every crop listed above. We’ll do that in Idaho, once we move to our 70 acres. But, for now, we’ll choose maybe two or three items for a full year supply.

This next sheet is simply enough and I’ve given an example of cauliflower. So the worksheet shows a calculation of how many cups of cauliflower we’d need to feed each family member for a year.

You’ll calculate your annual need by calculating how many meals each week (in a month) you plan to serve cauliflower. Then you multiply that by 52 weeks. Easy peasy!

The third sheet helps you calculate how many cauliflower plants you’ll need to achieve your supply goals.

For this sheet, you take the desired annual yield calculated on the previous worksheet. Then you’ll need to look up how many plants you’ll need to yield that many cups (bushels, pecks, etc.).

We have a fairly exhaustive printed listing, which includes most of the things we grow, but you can find a digital version by going here.

As you can see, these worksheets are simple and anyone can make them. We have worksheets for soil amendments, canning and other preserving methods, pruning schedules, fruit planting, and many more. If you have questions, please feel free to ask me.

We must take action to help ourselves because the troubles are coming at us at a rapid pace. Please don’t take this as a doomy message. It’s actually a message of hope. Grow what you can and make friends with people who also grow things. You can find them at farmer’s markets, places of worship, and maybe even your workplace. I know there are online groups with various chapters all over the country. You might consider joining one.

News From the Hot Pants Farming Club

I’ve been making herbal salves and tinctures as well as other herbal remedies and will be selling them at church fall festivals and farmer’s markets. Below is a picture of the comfrey salve I’ve made. Each jar sells for $12.

I haven’t gotten a website functioning with a shopping cart, but would happily send one of these to you for the $12 plus shipping. You could just use the Buy Me a Coffee link below. Please leave a note and a way I can contact you.

Even if you don’t want any comfrey salve, I could definitely use your support via Buy Me a Coffee. The big secret is that it’s not really for coffee, it helps us keep the homestead running, arrange things in Idaho, and continue educating others about personal food security.

Meanwhile, my chickens have been very busy. Below is a picture of eggs gathered over about two days. Yes, that’s a LOT of clucking eggs!

We sell our eggs to people at church and also at farmer’s markets, etc. DS is going to start selling them at his work also. Cluck cluck GLUCK!

Here’s my strong farm girl look…

I’m looking very serious in this picture. People best recognize! Haha!

Finally, a picture of DS and I at a place called The Angry Elephant. We had some fun there and did a lot of shopping before and after. He has been on this mission to buy new pans and baking dishes for us, so we went all over finding just what we needed.

I think I’m going to switch gears and write about another topic next time — one that’s been on my heart and mind a lot lately. Thank you all for your support.

Keep growing!

+Ad majorem Dei gloriam+