What Some "Preppers" Do Wrong - Seed Vaults

My wife and I were looking on her Instagram, a page she follows keeps advertising "Seed Vaults".

I'm sure we've all seen these floating around the internet. "30,000 seeds to plant your own survival garden when the SHTF". Some have more than that, boasting over 300,000 seeds at some staggering prices (nearly $1,000 but it does come in a nice ammo tin!). 

Some of these boxes talk a lot of sense, they come with a growing manual and state that all seeds are open pollinated. 

But if you think for a second that having a big box of seeds is the secret to growing enough food to feed your family then you are very much mistaken! 

Anyone that gardens at all will tell you how hard it is to be a consistent producer, if it came to a time when it really mattered it would be even harder. 

Having the seeds is such a small piece of the jigsaw that is growing your own food. 

• You need to have the space, although I guess you could find somewhere and guerrilla garden them. 
• The right soil to grow in (which can and does take years to build up), 
• The knowledge and skills to be able to nurture these seeds into growth, 
• The knowledge to be able to save the seeds from the plants you're growing. 
• The ability to produce and store you harvest.

But that's almost besides the point I was getting at, when you look at what some of these seed vaults contain they'd never feed you anyway. One I looked at had 3000 celery seeds and only 15-20 bean seeds! I'd want a lot more beans than that in my larder, but I guess I could make celery soup or something! 

You need to look at growing carbs and protein to keep you going and then other veggies to keep you healthy. 

Then there's the viability issue, having a seed vault in storage doesn't mean they're all going to grow. Some seed lasts much longer than others, the only way to really guarantee that you can grow everything is to grow it every year and either buy new seed or save seed. I don't even do this myself, I take the risk and use seed that is a few years old, most of the time it works but then sometimes it doesn't and in a situation where you're relying on your harvest that could have some serious consequences! 

Also you want to grow from seeds that are suitable to your area, like the melon I posted earlier in the week, it would be no good planting crops where the seed has been adapted to grow in a much hotter and drier climate than your own or took too long to mature before frosts set in again. 

My seed bank! 

I for one like to garden every year and improve my skills, who knows one day that set of skills might be very useful! 

What do you think? 

Am I wrong and storing a seed vault is a good idea? 

Minnesota Midget Melon

I harvested our first melon of the year yesterday - a little late! 

I don't grow melons very often but I chucked these seeds in last minute, then didn't plant them on quick enough and in the end they got chucked in a planting bucket and left in the corner of the greenhouse.

For their neglect they've rewarded me with a few miniature melons. I could smell this one was ripe as soon as I went in the greenhouse. 

They're only tiny, about the size of a cricket balls but the perfume coming from it is really strong.

the variety is bred to be small and early to ripen in a short season. I think this was probably a day or two over ripe but still really tasty, the girls ate it straight away, with big dribbles down chins! 

I'll certainly be growing this type again and maybe even try them outside next year or under a row cover. I've saved the seeds so I'll probably be giving some away to friends and in the seed swap as well.

Do you grow melons? What variety do you grow?

Do You Forage For Mushrooms?

It's certainly mushroom time of year around here and they seem to be popping up everywhere. 

But I must confess to being a wimp when it comes to foraging mushroom. 

A bracket fungus on the "fairy tree"

I've been on a foraging course many years ago as it's something I'd love to have more confidence in, I probably own 6 or 7 mushroom identification books and yet I just feel it's not worth the risk.

I have plans to grow mushrooms in the future for my own consumption but in doing so I should easily be able to tell which ones they are but when it comes to wild ones I'm sure we've all read horror stories of misidentification and sometimes from people who claim to be experts. 

So aside from field mushrooms do you forage for these wild treats yourself?

Or do you think it's not worth the risk?

To Autumn

To Autumn by John Keats

I love this season.

Shared Meals

My bricklayer, Dill, has been working hard on our extension and it feels that we're making progress now that we're out of the ground. I've even got the scaffold booked for a weeks time! 

The other day he was going to work late as he had to start late, so I offered him a evening meal with the family (he often has lunch with us when he's working here).

Focaccia from the other night

I like our girls (and boy) to eat with as many friends and family as possible, sat around the table I think it's really good for them and helps improve their manners. My youngest daughter is a little bit besotted with Dill anyway and has named one of her Duplo figures "Dill" who goes on lots adventures building towers. 

"Dillster" working hard! 

I also think it's essential that they treat people working for us how they want to be treated, a Polish friend of mine says that in Poland if you have builders working for you then they eat with you each lunch time. 

A really strong memory I have growing up is lots of people eating with us as a family, kind of like a stereotypical image of a farm kitchen. Anyone working or helping us on the farm on a Saturday used to have chips with us on a night time and dad even does this for his workers on a Friday lunch time now, my mum also does a big meal around Christmas for everyone that works for them (a great fun evening!) as well as a cooked breakfast on a Saturday. These memories are all noisy, fun meals filled with laughter, part of the reason I've always wanted a big family. 

I'd like to have more people eat with us, not for showy meals but for everyday run of the mill meals, and hopefully with a bigger house we should be able to do it more often. 

Do you like to have people round to eat?

Do you enjoy big noisy meals?