John F Dean wrote:My experiences have led me to believe there is a huge difference in perspectives between those on small farms and people living in metropolitan areas I regard to preparing for a crisis …especially one that is long term. Even more surprising to me is how similar the thinking is between the mega farmers and city dwellers. My experience has been that people operating huge farms (1000+ acres) seldom have a vegetable garden.
........... Our biggest frustration is grains. Growing, harvesting, and processing them has been difficult for us. I am trying sunflowers and corn again this year. Maybe I can be more successful.
I would think both corn and wheat (certain types) would grow well in your area, but dried corn would be the easiest to recover as a grind-ready grain. Threshing of small grains can be an impediment to wide adoption unless the time and/or resources exist to do so. We are in a historical bread basket of wheat and barley production, but getting a good crop and finally cleaned grain is not an easy endeavor. But I'm a bread and pasta addict like many and it's hard to reduce that in the diet.
Also, I agree with the observation that many operating huge farms seldom have a garden. The difference between them and the myriad city dwellers is the knowledge of what to do if one *needs* to grow their own food. Most big growers could still do this fine. That said, my cousins who were born into a moderately large farm in the 1960s an 1970s certainly knew how to utilize a garden, but just seemed to want to join in with the rest of the nation in indulging in the convenience of store-bought food. Fortunately, they already some years back started gardening again just on the realization of the food quality they were missing.
For my wife and I, we've been fortunate to interact with several of the local farmer's market producers here on the North Dakota-Minnesota border. Occasionally we are gifted with extra produce they have at the end of the fall and this excess typically goes into the root cellar.....where harvest can be observed regarding who stores well and who doesn't. I've been impressed and surprised at times to discover that some items we deliberately planted for storage do not store as well as some of what we freely obtained from a local producer. So that allows us to learn from them just what varieties or landrace selections they are using towards that end. This year we hope to add more cabbage, beets, and carrots to supplement the annual staples of potatoes, chard, kale, peppers, tomatoes, onions/garlic, squash, green beans (this year, maybe plant dry cranberry beans again), and eggplant. Hoping for good dehydrating weather when the time comes as well and grateful that the chest freezers don't need powering (much) when winter up here arrives.
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