Wednesday, May 20, 2009

You might want to consider storing more...

Seeds, that is. I was thinking about just having enough to plant one year's garden/crops until I found out what a person who is basically an expert on emergency preparedness in our area thought about it:

"If purchasing seeds, consider only those plants that can mature in our local zone (high altitude and ~90 day growing season). Purchase enough organically grown, open-pollinated garden seeds for 2 years of planting in the event the 1st planting is ruined by frost/hail, or seeds become scarce or unavailable the following year."

Basically, I see this as preparing for an emergency that could happen during an emergency. And situations unfortunately do occur where emergencies don't happen one at a time and few and far between. For example, there is what is going on in Uganda, which you can read about in this article. If I have my facts straight, in 2007 the regions written about had damage by floods. The floods were followed by drought. There have been delays in planting. In 2008 disease hit an important crop. Available food has become more and more expensive. And there is more--low crop yield, stolen food--it's a dire situation. I recommend reading the article in its entirety, because it is sobering, thought-provoking, and may give you more ideas on how you should prepare. It's certainly given me some.

Some may think such conditions would never happen here, wherever here may be when you are talking about a worldwide web. I think that it wouldn't matter where you were sitting, standing, working, or living if you didn't have food to eat. It's something that we all have in common--the need to eat-- and while our climates, viewpoints, material wealth, etc., may differ, we also all have the personal responsibility to do the best we can to prepare for difficult situations that may come. You/I/we all need to do what we can within our means to prepare, and sometimes there may be multiple emergencies that hit at once or one after the other--hopefully you/I/we will think as far ahead as we may need to in order to make it through such situations in the best way possible.

Oh, and about the seeds---if you end up not needing them, it's better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them... Just think, you may be providing yourself a second chance at a garden ahead of time if you get enough seeds in storage before there's a problem. And in addition to that, it gives you options. I love options.... :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seeds are very important, I need to get mine ordered.

matthiasj
Kentucky Preppers Network

Marie said...

MatthiasJ--I have started getting seeds, but still have a ways to go in getting what I need--I couldn't agree more that they are very important. Thanks for your comment!

Lorrie said...

Never thought of adding seeds to my year supply of storage. It's a good idea. Thanks.

Marie said...

Lorrie--What I like about seeds is that they help you perpetuate your food storage--makes me feel better when I know that if the garden goes well that I can replace some of the food that seems to disappear so quickly...thanks for your comment!