Hey, I LIKE preachers (IF they know what they are talking about, and you have proven time and again you do). Preach it brother!

I think that discussions like this are what brings folks together, gets folks to thinking about different "Lifestyles" and ways of doing things.

Before You came on the scene here, I wasn't really trying to prepare for anything! But now, I am trying, albeit in my bumbling stumbling slow way. It is fun.

I know it will sound like I am blowing my own horn, but I am glad I started the nutrition thread. It has brought forth some good stuff and I think it maybe spawned this thread. THIS is a GOOD thread. When folks talk about survival they often concentrate (as you said) on the weapon, kill them all, aspect and totally neglect the most important of the survival mindset, FOOD. Most folks who talk survival talk about freeze dried, MRE, or long term "Kits" which I feel do have their place, but for true long term survival you MUST be able to grow your own food and so many foods today must be grown from hybrid or non reproducing seeds which create a whole set of problems.

Randy,
I just read this whole thread to my wife, and she mentioned "seeds must be open pollinated for seed saving. Heirloom means the species is at least 50 years old. Seeds must be open pollinated and non-GMO".

I'm glad we're straying into other areas of discussion, and happy to be a part of helping people help themselves.

I need to post in your nutrition thread...I've lost five pounds this week.

Randy, you've committed to sustainable self preservation and that is wonderful. It's never too early to start!

We're growing an earth box garden. My hands are cramping from typing all of this on my iPhone ...will post more about it later. Plan on a special thread showing our progress.

COOL on the posting and new thread. I REALLY enjoyed your "Green Acres" thread/posts.

Just looked up Earth Box Gardens. Nice concept, but you (THEY say) only plant two tomato plants per box. Heck, we would need two or three just for the maters! Then there would be the green beans and the corn and...

OK, we MAYBE could get by with two boxes for tomatoes but I don't know if one box (8 plants) would be enough for the beans (conventional green beans I am guessing according to their planting guide) and one would probably work for pole beans and MAYBE corn. This would maybe allow for having enough produce to actually put up some corn, but I am not sure about the beans and it for sure wouldn't allow for enough tomatoes to make in to juice.

Have you found out if you can plant (successfully) more than two tomato plants per box?

My wife ordered six Earthbox last night. We were going to go "bigger" but decided to start slow and work up. We've made the mistake of going huge before.

The yield from an Earth Box is apparently many times the yield from a ground planted specimen. We'll find out!

We're buying our organic soil from a Menard's.

We have been vacuum packing everything for about 3 years. (Best investment ever) I will have to double check and make sure we don't have any hybrids.

Grease, how does vacuum packing compare to canning? (longevity looks of the products etc. also do you then freeze them)?