I ate some tomato, and liked it, due to the coming collapse of civilization.

[darxus]

Also, I flew a two string kite (cathijosephine's) for the first time. It was awesome.

It's funny how trying to plan to provide yourself with complete nutrition during a protracted emergency situation can make you realize you should have died of malnutrition long ago.

Comments

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

details?

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Of which?

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

scenario for collapse? and why does it make you eat tomatoes?

[darxus.livejournal.com]

The term to search for is "peak oil". Fossil fuels are a finite resource and therefore will not last forever. In fact, the production of oil, the most important, may be peaking right around now, reducing supply as demand has been steadily increasing. This brings cost up, which brings demand down, which brings cost down, etc. etc., until eventually all of industrial civilization, which is heavily dependent upon cheap oil, comes crashing down. There are options of course, but they need to be developed. And this issue makes most people stick their head in the sand, so nothing is being done. There are a couple countries which have made significant progress. And the US Congress even has a committee on peak oil, but they haven't been able to get anybody else to listen either. The subject has been distracting me a lot lately. I believe there is a possibility that the current recession is entirely related, and will not end before we have adjusted to life without fossil fuels. There are predictions that on this planet we do not have the resources to support more than about 1/3rd of the current population in that manner.

The USDA has this Extension program. They have an office in every county in NH, and something similar in every state. These are the experts on local farming / gardening. They have free phone numbers to ask questions. They say their classes on growing your own food / victory gardens / raising chickens have had overwhelming attendance lately. I'm going to a class on Monday with cathijosephine. They recommended a few easy things to start vegetable gardening with. One of them was tomatoes.

USDA Extension thingies by state: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/qlinks/partners/state_partners.html

And even if this is all crap, vegetable gardening is a healthy hobby.

http://rareseeds.com/ is the best place to get seeds (with the exception of a neighbor who has been selectively collecting seeds for 10 years). You want open pollinated (as opposed to hybrid) seeds so you can collect seeds from them. Heirloom seeds are good.

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

ah. Good. Right there with ya. The passage in Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" about the Haber process was particularly chilling (our fertilizer is made from petroleum!). I get my open-pollinated heirloom seeds from Fedco, but thanks for the pointers, esp. the classes. Personally i think we'll all be raising mealworms for protein by the time this is over. FWIW, you are one of the people i'd like to have around in an apocalypse :)

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[beowabbit]

OK, now I’m really worried. Not about the coming collapse of civilization, but about the increasingly aggressive inroads tomatoes are making into my world. (Which, come to think of it, might as well be the same thing.)

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

Of course if you grow good varieties of tomatoes and let them ripen naturally, they are a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THING from the pink plastic travesties you find in a supermarket.

[beowabbit]

Of course if you grow good varieties of tomatoes and let them ripen naturally, they are a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THING from the pink plastic travesties you find in a supermarket.

I know. They’re even worse, because they’re more like tomatoes!

(By the way, do I know you outside of LJ? I see you comment a lot but I don’t know what offline human this username corresponds to. I’m Jay, cathijosephine’s housemate.)

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

hello! polyboston and such. :)
http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=klingonlandlady