Summary

The article provides guidance on surviving a societal collapse by focusing on sustainable food systems, foraging, agroforestry, mycoculture, and permaculture principles.

Abstract

In the third installment of the "How to survive the oncoming storm" series, the author emphasizes the importance of sustainable and discreet food systems in the event of a societal collapse. The article suggests that conventional agriculture will be too obvious a target for hungry masses, advocating instead for food sources that mimic natural ecosystems. It encourages readers to become knowledgeable foragers, familiar with local plants and their uses, and to practice agroforestry with nut-bearing trees and perennial vegetables. The author also discusses the benefits of mycoculture for producing food in a manner that appears natural. Permaculture principles are recommended for designing food production systems that integrate closely with living spaces for efficiency and security. The article concludes by stressing the necessity of practical experience over mere theoretical knowledge.

Opinions

The author believes that in a collapse scenario, relying on conventional agriculture will not only be unsustainable but also dangerous due to the visibility of crops.
The article conveys a strong opinion against the use of violence or guns for food protection, suggesting that hiding food and oneself is a more viable strategy.
It is suggested that creating food systems that resemble wilderness will be more sustainable and less likely to attract attention.
The author is an advocate for learning and utilizing local wild plants for food, recommending the use of a pocket guide and the Plants For A Future database.
There is an emphasis on the importance of foraging and the need to avoid planting in straight lines to prevent drawing attention to food sources.
The author expresses that becoming an expert forager is a key survival skill and can be achieved with a year of dedicated learning.
Agroforestry, particularly with sweet acorn-bearing oaks and other nut and fruit trees, is recommended for long-term food sustainability.
Mycoculture is presented as a relatively easy and discreet way to grow food, with specific instructions on growing various mushroom species.
The article promotes permaculture as a foundational approach to food production, suggesting that the most frequently used items should be grown closest to the living space.
The author adds a final note on the importance of practical learning and doing, rather than relying solely on internet research.

How to survive the oncoming storm part 3

Image by author on Stable Diffusion 2.1 (I put humans as a negative prompt but it kept putting African people in until I specified humans of any colour. Racist machines!)

Please scroll to right to the bottom of the page when you finish as the new algorithm won’t mark the article as read unless you do and I won’t get paid

The previous articles in this series are here: Part 1 Part 2

Food:

Everyone needs to eat. The probem, in a collapse scenario, is that hungry people pouring out of cities in search of food will almost certainly find you and your stores and take the lot.

I’m not an advocate of guns or fighting. In my opinion, if it gets to that point then you’ve already lost. You can’t fight the millions who will come from the cities in the first few months after a rapid collapse. You will need to hide both yourselves and your food.

Conventional agriculture is not only unsustainable, it is also perfectly obvious as edible, even to untrained eyes, and it’s likely that you’ll not only lose your crops but also any hope of recreating your food supplies after they’ve gone.

You’d be a lot better off creating food systems that look like wilderness. That sort of system is also more likely to be sustainable in the long term.

Foraging systems:

I mentioned in one of the previous articles in this series that you should educate yourselves in all the plants in your local area. Carry a pocket guide with you and go for many walks. Learn the most common plants in your immediate vicinity first.

Each time you go out identify every single plant you don’t recognise.

There’s a wonderful resource called Plants For A Future it’s a database of around 7000 edible and medicinal plants from all over the world. Check what you learn against their database to find out their uses. You used to be able to buy a copy of their database, it would be a very good idea to do just that. Otherwise do your learning there while the internet still exists.

Local wild plants are what will grow best in your immediate area. Learn them, try them and spread the ones you like best widely all around where you live.

NO STRAIGHT LINES! Never plant anything you grow in straight lines. Straight lines don’t exist in nature and will draw the eye of anyone looking at what you’ve grown straight to your food.

Clusters of plants are fine as long as they’re irregularly shaped.

Collect seeds from your favourites and in addition to deliberate plantings, scatter them on your walks.

While foraging, only take a few from any particular place. If there’re just one or two, leave them. Come back when they seed and take a few of the seeds (around a quarter), if it’s something you like, and grow them closer to your home.

Brambles are lifesavers. They protect young trees from grazers and provide fruit. They also make excellent security fences. dense plantations of brambles around your home will deter casual visits from strangers if your home isn’t easily visible. Sloes are also good for this purpose. Every ecosystem will have similar, thorny, fast growing, fruit providing plants. Find out the ones local to you and use them extensively.

If you turn yourself into an expert forager you have a decent chance of coming through this thing. It isn’t that hard to do. You can learn the basics in a year with application. There are many foraging groups on social media. Find one that covers your own area.

Agroforestry:

Oaks that bear sweet acorns can provide huge amounts of storable food once they get past twenty years old or so. Very few people will know that you can eat the acorns if you don’t tell them. Even ordinary acorns can be eaten if you leach the tannins from them. Most city dwellers can’t tell a willow from a walnut tree so plant nut bearing trees everywhere. Fruit bearing trees too. Wild cherries are good to eat (if you can protect them from the birds which will strip a cherry tree in a few days) and the trees are much more vigourous than cultivated ones.

Interplant the trees with perennial vegetables. You can even get perennial grains.

Think in ecosytems. The wilder it looks the less likely it is to be recognised as food and the more sustainable it’s likely to be in the long term.

Mycoculture:

Mushrooms of assorted species are relatively easy to grow. If you have a shady, damp spot, then a shiitake garden looks just like a pile of old logs. Several species can be grown this way. A cool dark enclosed space can be used to grow oyster mushrooms in bales of straw or bags of sawdust. With mushrooms the trick is sterility before inocculation. Steam your bales or sawdust before inocculation and if growing mushroom in logs the logs need to be recently cut. Not too fresh though or the tree’s immune system will still be active and kill your mushroom spawn. The spawn will come with instructions.

Permaculture:

I won’t go into much detail on this as it’s a vast subject but all your thinking about food production should be based around this. The things you use most should be grown closest to the kitchen. Herbs by the kitchen door. frequently used vegetables in intensive raised beds next closest within your hidden area. Chickens and any other animals next. Tethered goats make great strimmers to clear areas but remember that animals make noise and could deliver trouble to you.

I’ll leave it there for this time. All the resources you need to learn this stuff are easy to find on the internet. Becoming an expert in these fields will make you someone to be valued once the collapse has become obvious to all.

Good luck with it all.

Joe

Following a response by Auntiegrav, thought I’d add another sentence or two.

You must learn by doing. Abstract “research” on the Internet won’t cut it. You must have your hands on that plant guidebook every time you walk. You must grow those plants. You can even grow a kitchen garden in containers in a city.

You can try to adapt but you must have the skills to succeed.

Part 4 is here