Carol send a few thoughts onone of my survival of the fittest gardening video :
“ First , thank you , well done . Also , I ’ve never heard anyone really address the issue of nutrient dense foods . Only calories . Frankly , the Brobdingnagian majority of people would do far better if they are less gram calorie . A LOT less calories . Three meals a day is a marketing campaign , not goodly advice . 2d , animals produce the fat soluble vitamins we take , so some sort of brute should be in your programme ( even if you simply maintain a near ecosystem on your property so that pigeons , squirrel , etc . are usable if needed.)I have heavy animals , but I also maintain a small ruck of guinea fuzz . They ’re fundamentally ego sustaining , and have enough fat to nutrify people and pet both ( wait up “ rabbit starvation”.)Even folks in an flat could keep something like quail . Eggs are a perfect intellectual nourishment . Plus , do n’t forget to take a second look at those “ sens ” you pull out each year to make way for non- native fruits and veggies . Some of the weeds are far more nutritive than they institute you ’re replace them with ! And they are almost insure to thrive in your garden ! Plantain , mallow , lamb ’s quarter , amaranth , purslane , lady ’s thumb , clotbur root , Irish bull thistle , chicory , dandelion , unfounded violet , and poke weed are all eatable on my small property . ”
She makes some in effect suggestions , and there are a few points I trust are worth making as well .
The nutrient density of intellectual nourishment is quite crucial . It ’s one of the reasons we originate our own , as we can reap directly from the garden , know what we fed to the soil , and get maximal goodness by having food so fresh it sometimes only takes minute to go from the garden to the kitchen to the table .
Steve Solomon and I have discussed the grandness of nutrient denseness as well , and he avail mecreate a nourishing mix to boost mineral content in our gardens .
However , gram calorie are central in a survival situation . It does n’t matter if you have the most nutrient - dense cabbage in the world , it wo n’t occupy you up in an exigency .
The video Carol is point out on was focused primarily on survival of the fittest , and I always urge people to get calories first to stay on full , followed by a less amount of nutrient - dense veg . As for mass exhaust too much and three meals a daylight being unneeded – indisputable . That ’s rightful . But it ’s not what we ’re worried about in a social prostration . People will get fragile and athirst fast . Also , small calorie are not just small calorie . I ’ve eaten a large amount of calories on a carnivore diet and it made me thin and fit . I ’ve also eaten a large amount of calories that were pasta and chips and tall mallow dip and got too fertile .
The content of the gram calorie really weigh . Pasta ≠ Steak
On the selection front , Carol ’s recommendation to impart animal foods is very dead on target . We ’ve not evoke guinea pigs for food for thought , but we have raised goats , pigs , sheep , dairy cows , rabbits , poulet , duck and greaseball fowl with vary levels of success . If you could grow enough vegetable food to feed your animals and let them concentrate it into fat and protein , you ’ll be in great bod . But the main focus in the telecasting was on natural selection horticulture , not a complete homesteading authorities . Carol is right , however : you really can raise some good nutrient in a small space . I just find guinea pigs rather cute and might find them hard to slaughter . I could n’t handle less about chickens , though . We butchered five roosters just this last week . You do necessitate that good fat , too , and we get it from cooking with home - rendered lard and tallow .
bollock are indeed a perfect nutrient . Definitely raise some breed of fowl for eggs if you could .
As for the weeds , this brings up another in effect point , and that is :
You may not even demand to grow your own common for nutrition
If you do n’t have animal food , greens ( and other foraged foods ) will help oneself you get the micronutrients you might be drop in a dieting of staple grains and root . Many of them are free for the picking .
We eat wild onions , dandelion , Bidens alba , blueberry bush , sparkleberries , blackberries , groundless amaranth , mouse ear , Lamium amplexicaule , cleavers , wild violets , purslane , wild grape leaves and grapes , Asparagus asparagoides shoots , chanterelle mushroomsand whatever else we can forage .
Why nark to grow lucre when we can cull much more nutritionally dull “ weed ” around the front lawn ?
However , I must make one point on the “ non - aboriginal ” slant in Carol ’s gossip : many of the non - native food we grow are incredibly important for keeping people fed . In our gardens , we would lack cassava starch , potatoes , sweet potato and true yam plant , all of which bring forth copiously for us .
As with everything , there is a certain symmetry . We need that nutrient - dim food , and a dieting of empty calorie wo n’t make us healthy recollective condition . Yet on the other manus , I would be really happy for a bowl of romance casava on an empty tum instead of a pipe bowl of blowball green .
Let ’s meet in the centre and feed both .
occur conjoin the new Survival Gardener community for answers to all your horticulture questions –
