Learning wilderness survival skills?

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 06 Jul 2011, 17:22

MrG wrote:
It isn't about learning growing skills for when TSHTF is it coz I still use heat treated sets. I need to learn to grow from seed.. and save the seed. Haven't got round to doing that yet

I'm experimenting with that this year. I've let a load of radishes go to seed just to see what the next generation turn out like.

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 06 Jul 2011, 17:27

UndercoverElephant wrote:
DominicJ wrote:
Tomatoes would be, but I am incredibly lazy, and they sound like a lot of work....
Tomatoes don't have to be a lot of work. You have to make sure they get enough water, and you have to pinch out some sideshoots and tie the plants to a stake. You have to be incredibly lazy if you think that is a lot of work.

Cheap supermarket tomatoes also don't taste of anything. You have to buy on-the-vine tomatoes if they are to be anything like as nice as homegrown.

The only vegetables I have every grown were tomatoes on a plant given to me by a friend. Unfortunately it got covered in white fly before they were ripe

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 06 Jul 2011, 17:41

UndercoverElephant wrote:Cheap supermarket tomatoes also don't taste of anything. You have to buy on-the-vine tomatoes if they are to be anything like as nice as homegrown.

They can taste much better, but still not as good as home grown ones, if you pick our everyone else's rejects. They're the soft, really red ones that most people say are past it but people like me call ripe!!

I once had a woman ask me what I was looking for as I rummaged at the bottom of the pile of greeny red hard toms in Tesco. She looked at my very strangely when I showed her a nice soft, juicy, red, ripe one.

featherstick · Post by **featherstick** » 06 Jul 2011, 20:33

Ludwig wrote: The only vegetables I have every grown were tomatoes on a plant given to me by a friend. Unfortunately it got covered in white fly before they were ripe

All he ever does is wallow in self-pity....

Catweazle · Post by **Catweazle** » 07 Jul 2011, 00:02

Tomatoes must be the easiest things to grow, and there are loads of varieties to keep it interesting.

This year I have Tumbling Toms, Harbinger, Pomodoro and Country Taste ( F1

).

I'm really looking forward to the Pomodoro, they're a trad Italian variety apparently. I think pomodoro just means Tomato in Italian, so who knows what the correct variety name is, but the picture shows them half red and half green when ripe.

To complement the toms I have two varieties of Basil and chilli peppers, Habanero and Fresno. I should be able to make some wicked sauces and chilli jams this Autumn.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 07 Jul 2011, 01:27

Apparently our harsh advise has turned off the original poster of this thread. That was not my intent but really if you can't take a little pointed criticism through the distance and the anonymity of the Internet how does one expect to prevail with post peak reality up close and in person?

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 07 Jul 2011, 02:51

He's probably still trying to digest it all.

nexus · Post by **nexus** » 07 Jul 2011, 08:58

Ludwig wrote:

If I hadn't given myself headaches trying to understand pendulums and pulleys and electric circuits and the past historic tense and German adjective endings, I'd never have learned the discipline of sustained mental effort.

The only vegetables I have every grown were tomatoes on a plant given to me by a friend. Unfortunately it got covered in white fly before they were ripe Sad

I'm quoting what Ludwig wrote on a different thread about the importance of learning and sustained effort and I would say that exactly the same principle applies to food growing.

You analyse what you did right and/or what you did wrong, learn from your mistakes, figure out what to do differently and keep going. You also need to be incredibly attentive in the way a scientist is; noticing the small things that may have made a difference. Additionally you need to have bags of tenacity when things, inevitably, don't grow as you'd hoped.

I took lots of academic 'O' levels and I agree with what Ludwig wrote about sustained mental effort, having learned how to grow food I'd say that many of the same skills come into play: preparation, research, remembering facts, analysis and persistence.

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 07 Jul 2011, 18:16

featherstick wrote:
Ludwig wrote: The only vegetables I have every grown were tomatoes on a plant given to me by a friend. Unfortunately it got covered in white fly before they were ripe

All he ever does is wallow in self-pity....

While I'm flattered that my personality occupies so much of your thought time, you might want to get help regarding this petty and unhealthy obsession.

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 07 Jul 2011, 21:20

featherstick wrote: All he ever does is wallow in self-pity....

I've been saying this since he got here.

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 07 Jul 2011, 22:17

Kentucky Fried Panda wrote:
featherstick wrote: All he ever does is wallow in self-pity....
I've been saying this since he got here.

Since I got here, you've struck me as a brutal and sinister sociopath.

Bandidoz · Post by **Bandidoz** » 07 Jul 2011, 22:22

(finger is hovering over the "Lock" button).....

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 08 Jul 2011, 01:11

Well let's try to save the thread from lock down.
Consider the value of being obsessed with a topic.
People generally consider any obsession as being detrimental, as the obsessed individual usually devotes more time and effort to the subject then is warranted by the facts, and fails to allocate sufficient time and effort to other concrete concerns that merit time and attention.
But I take a different view on this. I have at different times in my life become interested in several different subjects to degrees that spouse and friends considered obsessive. There is something about an interesting topic that leads you to spend all your free time on it and more then a bit of time that should have been allocated elsewhere.
This all seems pointless until you consider the gardener that becomes obsessive about having a weed free garden and then you can see that it might be an evolutionary survival tool.

hardworkinghippy · Post by **hardworkinghippy** » 08 Jul 2011, 09:36

That's a fascinating subject vtsnowedin.

I too am obsessive to the extent that some people think I'm off my rocker. The obsession that I have is survival and self-sufficiency and it's been part of me for as long as I can remember.

A young person who lives with parents who divert their energy and possibly their money too into things he or she doesn't believe in is in the same situation as me who has friends who spend twenty grand on a new car yet they"can't afford" thermal solar. It drives you nuts.

I imagine that a lot of peakers live in similar family situations or work with people who don't share the same obsession and unless we want to cut the ties with people who hold us back from our preparations, then we need to take their perceived needs into consideration and find a way to work together.

I think that learning to do that is just as important as any other of the skills needed for survival.

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 08 Jul 2011, 13:07

Ludwig wrote:
Kentucky Fried Panda wrote:
featherstick wrote: All he ever does is wallow in self-pity....
I've been saying this since he got here.
Since I got here, you've struck me as a brutal and sinister sociopath.

It'll take more than compliments to win me over.