Bibliographic entries (nonfiction):

Greene, Hertzberg & Vaughn, Putting Food By, 4th ed.

Ball Blue Book

12 Months Harvest, Ortho Books

Mike & Nancy Bubel, Root Cellaring

Elliott Coleman, Four-Season Gardening

Stevens, Making the Best of Basics

Depending upon how the Y2K scenario unfolds, the disruptions to the food supply chain could range from trivial to catastrophic. However, even if the food supply itself ends up in relatively good shape, that does not mean that everybody will be out of the woods yet. If there is a serious recession (and economist Ed. Yardeni has been predicting at least a 70% chance of a recession at least as bad as 1973/74), then it will be economic hard times for a lot of people. Even if there is food in the stores, it might be beneficial for some people to become less dependent upon the cash economy for a while. During the great depression and both world wars, many people had gardens, and it wasn't because there was no food in the stores either.

The above titles are a good place to start for learning how to become less dependent upon the retail food industry. Any number of gardening books will tell you how to put in a garden. Extending the harvest not just through, but past the growing season is a more challenging task. Preserving the harvest once it is in is also essential, yet once common skills like canning, dehydrating, or root cellaring are becoming lost and forgotten arts. These books will go far toward reviving them. Stevens's Making the Best of Basics is particularly good for information on the bulk purchase and storage of grains, legumes, etc.

-- Stefan Stackhouse (stefans@mindspring.com), August 16, 1999

Answers

The victory gardens ,remember, why not this time to. I am a greenhouse farmer up in Quebec you know where it's cold ,very cold in the winter's when it's time to starts the seed,what would be fun to discust it's the day by day life of people in nov 2000 when they just learns the hard way of the nature. The big problem is not the will but the knowledge and experience it take to live by yourself an produce your own crop. What can be the climax in those time.

-- Sylvain Gregoire (sgregoir@rocler.qc.ca), August 16, 1999.

So very, very true, Sylnvain. And this is one among many reasons why this Y2K thing is going to be a lot worse than it seems at first glance.

How nice of the PTB (Powers That Be) to neglect to wake up the people. Perhaps they think that they can spare themselves some misery by this selfish (non) action. Well, won't they be surprised?

Hallyx

"IF the corporations only can be stopped by human die off, THEN the corporations will be stopped by human die off."--- Jay's Theorem (Jay Hanson)

-- (Hallyx@aol.com), August 16, 1999.