Sometimes I wonder if I’m crazy. Most of my friends and family don’t do what I do. They keep spending money on “fun” stuff, like vacations, new cars and phones. My more affluent friends even continue to invest in the stock market and things like that. It’s as if either I’m “the only one” who sees the freight train coming or there is no freight train. If this were any other situation, then the answer would be obvious: I’m the crazy one!
But I just don’t see how that’s possible given everything I’ve witnessed, not only the past few years, but decades since I’ve started prepping. There are simply too many signs that say PREPARE NOW to me that I refuse to accept that I’m wrong.
And that makes me sad because it means one of two things: (1) many of my friends and even family are going to have things really hard for quite some time or (2) they’re all going to show up to my house when SHTF, which is arguably much, much worse. 😉
I’ll get off my soapbox about other people in my life and say this: Food shortages are coming! I’ve seen so many people point out that there are shortages of wheat, vegetable prices are up 80% over the same time last year, eggs (if they can even be found) and dairy prices are up–I still remember purchasing a quart of store-brand heavy cream for $7.99 two weeks ago–and that’s to say nothing of meat prices, shrinkflation, fertilizer costs, and (I suspect) returning higher fuel costs now that election season is over.
Does any of that sound like a recipe for lower food prices in 2023?
I don’t think so.
What are normal people, like you and I, supposed to do when we still need to eat but prices double? Of course you can stockpile food, and I absolutely suggest you do so while prices are relatively low, but you can also purchase vegetable seeds and grow your own.
I know my family and I are making a concerned effort to grow more of our own food this coming year, not only to save money but to foster better health, too.
And with our greenhouse nearing completion, we anticipate getting a head start on the growing season very soon:
Even a smaller greenhouse, like the one we’re building, is better than nothing. We have two full fourteen-foot-long beds like this, which is plenty for seed-starting and growing greens over winter:
We added a large fan (photo not shown) and vents to remove hot air in the summer as well as a good greenhouse heater for winter:
What I like about this Bio Green Heater is that it has a separate thermostat which can be adjusted to keep the greenhouse slightly above freezing, something that a typical electric house heater can’t do because most can’t be set below sixty degrees (or maybe it’s fifty-five degrees).
Regardless, with any sunlight at all the greenhouse tends to stay above freezing, so this heater would only be necessary on bitterly cold-days or at night. But you don’t even need a fancy greenhouse like we have. You can build a hoop house from PVC and grow vegetables almost anywhere, and for a lot less!
Now, back to vegetable seeds. Like I’ve explained elsewhere, this country is going to shit. I try not to curse here, but there’s no other way around it. You need to know the truth. Although there are plenty of items to grab before the U.S. Dollar vanishes, I can’t think of anything more necessary right now than anything food-related, especially heirloom seeds because you can save their seeds to plant the following year. There are other advantages, but that’s the biggest, IMO.
There are plenty of places to buy heirloom seeds, but I recently purchased some vegetable seeds, berries, and herbs from Amazon as a “just in case” option and then placed them in the freezer:
Don’t ask me if they’re any good, I haven’t planted them yet! And let’s hope I won’t have to because we actually buy our garden seeds elsewhere, but these seemed like a good enough option for a SHTF scenario considering the price.
The good news is that you can keep vegetable seeds good for years with a little foresight (hint: the freeze works wonders):
Ultimately, I need to learn how to save my own seeds. I know it’s possible, and it’s certainly less expensive than purchasing them each year, but I only have so much bandwidth these days, lol.
In any case, you simply MUST have the seeds in the first place now matter what you plan is. And if it comes to a point where food prices have skyrocketed (to much higher than they are even now) and people become desperate to get their hands on food, my guess is that vegetable seeds will also skyrocket along traditional supermarket foods. It could even be that vegetable seeds will overtake gold and silver as our U.S. Dollar continues its demise.
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