I live in a place that is incredibly susceptible to the crash of transportation. There are no actual, profitable family farms here--vegetable, meat, dairy, grain, or otherwise. People often talk about food security and our dependance on the barge bringing loads of food and goods to town. "Plant a garden," they say, "Raise chickens," they say. But are either of those things actually making you independent of the transportation system?
Let's take a look at the garden:
How do you make your garden beds? Do you buy lumber from the store? Did you fill them with bagged potting soil, peat moss, and perlite? Yes, one-time investments, but still dependent. Plastic sheeting for hoop houses is almost unavoidable in Juneau....
Where did your seeds come from? Some far-away farm. Instead of buying kale all summer long, you buy a packet of seeds. That's a great start, but it's still dependent. What happens if no seeds come? You have gardening skills but no way to garden.....
How do you fertilize your garden? Bone meal, blood meal, steer manure? Well, where did those things come from? Some far-away processing facility dependent on the large-scale cattle industry. Scary in itself, and dependent.....
A look at chickens:
Where do you purchase your chicks? If you buy them locally at Swampy Acres, guess what? She orders them from the same California hatchery you could if you wanted 15 or more birds.
How do you feed your chickens? Do you grow the corn and soybeans they need to eat? Do you gather an alchemy of trace minerals for them? Buying chicken feed from Outside isn't any more "secure" then buying eggs.
It's doom and gloom, I know. It's very drastic, yes. But that's the reality of it. So, are we supposed to just eat fish that we catch with a bone barbed wooden hook? No. It's just a reality check. From that point, you can step back and try to gradually find ways out of the system. These are all things that I am trying to work on for myself. Trying to make and procure things second hand or from nature are great starts.
Here are a few ways I do or am trying to get out of the barge loop in terms of food security:
Pasturing Chickens
My chickens have lots of space to roam and forrage plants and bugs for themselves. I also feed them kitchen and garden scraps. Occasionally they get brewers grain. In the summer they eat about half as much pelleted feed as in the winter. I also keep a small bin of beach sand and ground shells in the barn.
Calcium and gizzard grit in one. Why buy ground oyster shells?
Other feed ideas up my sleeve are alder catkins and plantain seeds, which both pack the protein.
Barn bedding
I buy straw and sawdust pellets, and I hate that I do that. I bought a paper shredder but it's slow and meticulous. There has to be an office somewhere full of shredded paper...Maybe dried alder leaves could work. In a dryer fall I'd like to head out in the boat and cut some beach grass into hay/straw. I could also try contacting the lumber mill in Hoonah for their sawdust. Local sand (Agpro extracts it from Juneau rivers) would work for people who only have a few chickens...it'd be like a kitty box you'd have to scoop. The down side would be that you'd be missing the browns to compost the poo with.
Saving Seed
This fall I am going to give this a try for the first time. I plan on keeping nasturium, kale, and lettuce seeds. I've let lettuce reseed itself before, which worked great. Violas are out of control in that respect--I love it!
Fertilizer
Compost, compost, compost! It's really a shame more people don't do it. It makes the best fertilizer and straight-out growing medium. Plants love growing in a compost and sand mixture. The best thing is that all the inputs are free!
Seaweed - Ever see kelp meal at the store? Oyster shell? Visit a beach and haul your own. Great for the garden and chickens!
Alder leaves - If you don't have any, someone does. Their leaves are great mixed in the garden for nitrogen and organic matter. When matted down as a winter mulch, they'll lure tons of worms to your bed in the spring. Leave the worms there or feed them to the chickens!
Spagnum moss - I don't quite understand why people here put this in their gardens. It retains moisture, which we certainly don't need. It's acidic and almost devoid of nutrients, so why add it? It provides organic matter for macro- and microorganisms to feed on, creating humus, and it improves soil texture. Why not use compost and get some fertility into your bed to boot? Anyway, if you're a believer in the spag, harvest some locally!
Bone meal - I recently read an article in
Countryside Magazine about making homemade bonemeal. It was written by someone in Petersburg, Ak who steams deer bones to oblivion in a pressure canner then runs them through a grinder like grain. When we start bringing home some game this fall I'll give it a try and report back on it.
One of the books I just read is
Indian Fishing, Early Methods on the Northwest Coast, by Hilary Stewart. It's an amazing compilation of photos and sketches of old fishing methods and gear. The craftiness blows me away with every page. I think I'm going to try my hand at that wood and bone fishing hook. First you put a stick inside a piece of bull whip kelp, then bury it in the ashes of a dying fire. The wood gets steamed, then you bend it into shape using a handmade mold. Rub deer tallow on it, file some bone down and wrap your parts together using spruce root......it sounds like quite the elaborate craft project that could land me some trout this winter.
Keep your gears turning and find more ways to edge yourself into true self-sufficiency!
