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Music.

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Hey, and welcome back to another episode of the Own Guard Solutions podcast.

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Thanks for listening. Hello and welcome back. Today, I have my very special

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guest, Marjory Wildcraft of The Grow Network.

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Marjorie is the female leader of the survival and preparedness movement.

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And in 2009, she founded The Grow Network, which is a community of people focused

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on modern self-sufficient living.

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She’s best known for her DVD series, Grow Your Own Groceries,

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which has over a million copies in use by all sorts of people.

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Today, we welcome Marjory. Marjory, hi, how are you?

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Hi, I’m doing great. Yeah, really looking forward to the conversation today.

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Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

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So to get started, you want to tell us a little bit about you?

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This is your time to tell us everything you want us to know.

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It’d be great. Well, yeah, you know, I, you know, really I’m the founder of

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the Grow Network and I teach people who have no experience, maybe they’re older, they’re out of shape,

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take them from being able to having nothing to being able to grow a lot of food

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in a backyard size space or an apartment or condominium if that’s what you got.

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So that’s been my passion.

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You had a huge awakening a while ago. And then I was like, God kind of picked

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me up and shook me and said, you’re going to do this now. And I’m like, okay.

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And so that’s what I do. It’s kind of humble, but honestly, it’s a solution

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to so many problems in the world right now.

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And so how did you get into it? What made you, I assume there was a point where

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you weren’t doing this sort of thing in this space.

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What was kind of your wake up or your aha?

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Yeah. Well, my first degree is in electrical engineering. Oh, really?

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And I had always wanted to live and travel overseas, and I managed to get a

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job with Motorola, and I was managing a cellular telecommunications network

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in Hong Kong. I was based in Hong Kong. Okay.

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Now, I also grew up, I was a little poor, and our family wasn’t that well off,

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and I was always interested in money.

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And Hong Kong happens to be a place full of the Hong Kong Chinese are very interested

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in money, and then some of them said, hey, Mark, you’ve got to go do this class

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with this guy named Robert.

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And I’m like, okay. And so this guy, Robert, just blew my mind with stuff you’re

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never going to learn in school.

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And it ultimately inspired me to leave engineering and create a real estate

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investment business in Austin, Texas, that was so successful that Robert said,

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hey, Marjorie, would you be on my infomercials?

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And that’s how I was for four years on a couple of different infomercials with

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Robert Kiyosaki selling Rich Dad, More Dad products. Really? Yeah.

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Yeah, I actually made my first million before I was 40 years old.

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And I was like, I mean, that’s what I that’s the way I thought the world war.

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I mean, I was going to play that game and I was winning at it and I was loving it.

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And I thought that’s what you did with life. Right. I mean, that’s kind of the

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way the American dream is or supposed to be.

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And and it was while we were just really crushing it

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that i was volunteering on a project to get

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locally grown food into an elementary school which seems

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like you know duh just an easy you know volunteer project

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yeah i had no idea that the failure of that project

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would completely utterly totally devastate and change my life and that that

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project failed for one very very simple reason is that there was not enough

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organic farming going on in all of Bastrop County to provide vegetables for

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one small rural elementary school.

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And I began to look around when you drive out in the countryside,

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there’s really not any food growing out there.

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The next time you go on a trip, there’s really not.

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And I knew that there’s only four days worth of food supply in grocery stores.

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I knew that food traveled an average of 1,500 miles.

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And that at that point in time, I was surrounded by 20 million Texans who were armed to the teeth.

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And I later would become armed to the teeth, but at that point I wasn’t.

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And I just realized that there are scenarios where no amount of money,

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no amount of wealth will do you any good.

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Now, I’m totally an advocate of

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having precious metals and being an astute person with your money. Sure.

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But that just shook me. Like I said, it just shook me to the core.

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I ended up selling the real estate business and we moved out to the countryside

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and went full blown prepper. And.

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I didn’t know anything. I started taking every class and workshop and anything

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you could do to learn to grow food and make medicine and all the preparedness skills.

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I had two small kids, and we were doing a whole homesteading thing.

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Very quickly, early on, when you start growing your own food,

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you realize you can’t do it alone.

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You need community. and so I started teaching

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other people and ended up creating a

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video and then we were we were having classes that

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people would like someone would call me up this is and if

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you’ve ever organized events you know how extraordinary this is somebody called

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me up and say hey I got 20 friends can we come over on Saturday and you teach

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us and I’m like yeah sure why not yeah so anyway out of that evolved the the

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whole grow network but that’s how I got into it so if If you right now,

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whoops, sorry, I’ve got some noise going by on the road.

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If you right now, you are totally freaked out and you’re panicked.

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If you are wise enough and able enough to see what’s going on in the world and

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you’re scared shitless, which you should be, I’ve been there.

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And I can tell you that there is a path out and that you can make it through

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this whole thing. And I know it sounds so simple and so humble,

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but growing your own food will heal you in incredible ways. All sorts of ways.

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So, yeah, I guess that was one of the first questions, you know,

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that I had at the top of my mind.

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Why consider growing your own food or raising your own, you know,

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your own livestock and having your own food supply? I think that’s.

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Well, right now, and I guess I’ll talk about this a little bit.

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It’s not yet public, but I’m actually, the Maha movement, the Make America Healthy

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group is starting to talk to me a little bit about like.

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Working together or whatever. I don’t know. It’s a kind of a political thing. So that’s not my thing.

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But right now, honestly, the food supply is completely toxic.

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Yeah. It’s full of GMOs. It’s full of chemicals.

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You used to be a perimeter shopper and there’s nothing. There’s no nutrition in it. Yeah.

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It’s horrible. You are not going to be a healthy human being if you’re eating

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from the grocery store and the restaurants.

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That’s just the truth. Yeah. And we’re seeing that. We’re seeing that more and

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more skyrocketing rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, CO2, the whole thing.

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And it’s, it’s fundamental.

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It’s nutrition and toxicity with malnutrition and over toxicity.

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So at this, I mean, really, it’s been essential for you to grow your own food for quite a long time.

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But I think people now, especially we’re having more and more young people join

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the network and they’re like, you know, I’m 24 years old and I had a heart attack.

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You know, I’m, I’m 28 years old and I’ve got colitis and my colon is messed up.

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I’m, I’m 29 and I’ve got cancer, but this should not be happening. No. Right.

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Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s been a long time coming and it’s like,

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you know, they’re starting to talk about food coloring being bad for you.

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And I’m like, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, you know? For real.

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I know that’s one reason I think the Maha thing is kind of, you know,

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I don’t know. I’m like, you guys, first of all, whatever agreement we get into,

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I’m not going to be beholden to you. I’m going to say what I’m going to say.

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And you’re talking about food die red is complete bullshit.

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Right now, they were like, what is your, they’re kind of doing some background

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on me. And they’re like, what is your take on right now?

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There’s a political maneuvering about whether people on the SNAP program should

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be getting allowed to buy soft drinks and junk food. And I’m like.

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It doesn’t make a rat’s ass what they can buy or what they can’t buy.

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They shouldn’t be eating that.

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It doesn’t matter what you legislate. If they’re smart, they’re not buying that stuff, you know?

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So, yeah. Well, I think a large part of the problem, too, is that our food that

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we have available to us in the grocery stores is promoted and advertised to children.

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And they’re getting it early on in life, which in part at least explains why

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cancer is occurring younger and younger and all this other bad illnesses that

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I suspect at a point in time in history never had to deal with.

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And we’ve seen those spikes in recent decades, right?

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And it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.

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And it’s directly because of our food supply.

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So, yes, that is cause enough to consider doing our own thing.

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How can folks yeah sorry go ahead well

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i was gonna say there’s some other very good reasons and one is we

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know the dollar is dying right it like

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a dollar is now worth about one cent of what

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it was back when it was created and you know i is it can happen this week next

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month i believe it’ll happen sometime this year but it’s we’re done we’re done

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it’s done right and hopefully yeah you’ve made some strategies you know hopefully

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you’ve got the defense and the backup food and

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some precious metals and, you know, tradable items.

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And hopefully you’re set up like that. But the bottom line is,

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is there are going to be massive disruptions in your ability to buy stuff,

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you know, like food, you know, so or anything, really.

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So, I mean, dollar collapse means the credit card doesn’t work anymore.

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The grocery stores don’t have any, the drug stores don’t have anything.

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They all get sold out or looted or whatever.

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So you know i mean that’s one of many and the other you know like with the tariff

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wars and that are going on right now and it’s not just the u.s slapping tariffs it’s,

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Russia and China are slapping tariffs here and there. Everybody’s slapping tariffs on everybody.

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And what that’s just going to do is put more and more pressure on prices.

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So we’re looking at inflation and hyperinflation.

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I can give you another quick little scenario, which to me is like a canary in a coal mine pipe.

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If you’re looking for flags to indicate how close we are, in Weimar,

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Germany in January of 1922, a dozen eggs cost three marks.

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And people were complaining because the price of eggs had tripled in the last couple of years.

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By October of that year, a dozen eggs cost a billion marks.

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So they didn’t have smartphones. I mean, it happens really fast when it happens.

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Now, we all know the price of eggs has tripled in the last few years.

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Well, I think groceries are as a whole, right?

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Like every time I go to grocery store in my area, like I walk out and I’ve spent

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it, you know, it just seems to be getting worse and worse and worse.

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And I don’t buy necessarily cheap stuff because I do go the perimeter route

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and I stay away from the processed and the cheap, convenient garbage that’s

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in there. But the grocery bill that I have just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.

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So we’re already seeing that and have been for a little bit of time.

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And I don’t think, for whatever the reasons, I don’t think that’s going to, you know, relief.

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There’s not going to be any relief anytime soon.

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Prices don’t normally go down.

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So, yeah, you’re going to want to keep a real close eye on that.

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And when you see prices starting to spike up quickly, you know,

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more noticeable and you’re like, okay, we’re on this trajectory and this is what’s going to happen.

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And then you need to make some very, very significant life decisions at that point in time.

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Like that is extraordinary from what you might be thinking and saying,

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look, this is what I see coming because we’re so close to that trajectory now. Is it?

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Is it, you know, going to roll out in this next month or the next few months?

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But it’s going to happen one way or the other.

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So really for you, it’s – and honestly, you know, growing food and learning

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to grow food, the best time is a year ago.

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Right now, yeah. The next best time is right now. Right, yeah.

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So, you know, for economic or health reasons, we should all be considering doing

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something different, Something for ourselves and something that I’m sure you

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would say is easy to get started with.

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So for someone that’s unsure where to go, how to get started, or for those that are,

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you know, have traded the system that we have for food, you know,

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whether it’s meats or vegetables or whatever for convenience.

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And therefore, you know, they’re not on a healthy path or maybe they’re just

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generally unhealthy, but they have an interest.

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They see for economic reasons alone that they should maybe consider doing something for themselves.

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How do folks get started? What’s.

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Yeah, well, I will give you the outline. So I’ve spent years,

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decades, actually teaching people how to grow food.

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And I have cherry picked the three easiest ways to produce a lot of calories

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and a lot of nutrition in a very small space. And that with,

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you know, materials and things that are accessible to the average American.

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And then how to do it in a very simple way that like, because a lot of people,

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quite frankly, aren’t healthy.

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But how do you do it if you’re out of shape and maybe older?

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Right. And I put all of it goes into more depth in this free webinar at backyardfoodproduction.com.

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But I will give you the thumbnail sketch of it here so you can get a picture of it.

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And people are going to be a little surprised at this because everybody thinks

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of me as like, Marjorie, you know, the lady with the gardens, right?

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I got written up in Who’s Who in America for having inspired hundreds of thousands of gardens.

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I’m like, no, chickens, a small backyard flock of laying hens is actually way

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more efficient calorie and nutrition and time-wise than gardens.

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And the three-part system has chickens, some small gardens, and a small rabbit

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tree. And I’ll get into those pieces.

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But let me just give you the outline of why chickens are so good and why you

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need to get this going right now.

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Because the price of a laying hen now is still really reasonable,

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$20 to $25 now in most markets in the U.S.

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And in 2020, when we had this last big scare, you couldn’t buy a laying hen

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anywhere. So, you know, get this going.

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So I recommend six laying hens to start one, a minimum amount because they’re

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flocking birds and they liked, you know, one having one chicken by itself is,

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is, is a lonely creature. They don’t do well.

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They like to hang out together. I know they, they do. And they actually depend

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on each other for protection. Like somebody is always looking.

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And if it’s only one of you, then, you know, you’ve got an erotic bird.

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And they know, they know that everybody loves chicken.

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Who doesn’t love a tasty yard bird? I mean, it’s not only humans,

00:15:32.998 –> 00:15:38.518
it’s dogs, raccoons, skunks, feral, everything. Everything comes after them.

00:15:38.918 –> 00:15:42.218
Everything comes after them. And they know it. And boy, do they really get nervous

00:15:42.218 –> 00:15:44.438
when some old guy with a white beard comes.

00:15:46.678 –> 00:15:50.358
Anyway, six of them is a good start because you don’t want too many because

00:15:50.358 –> 00:15:51.698
you’re just learning something, right?

00:15:51.898 –> 00:15:57.878
And if you build a small coop and a small run for them, be less than the size

00:15:57.878 –> 00:16:01.078
of a parking spot, right? Maybe 120 square feet.

00:16:02.058 –> 00:16:05.498
You know, you need a little house to coop is where they’re going to stay cool

00:16:05.498 –> 00:16:08.798
in the summer and warm in the winter and, you know, out of the rain and all that.

00:16:08.858 –> 00:16:11.758
And then a little run is a covered, protected area where they get out in the

00:16:11.758 –> 00:16:15.278
sun and scratching the dirt. Every now and then you’ll let them out in the yard.

00:16:16.158 –> 00:16:21.778
A laying hen, an average laying hen will lay about 250 eggs a year.

00:16:21.898 –> 00:16:25.458
They do take a little time off if it gets too hot or too cold,

00:16:25.478 –> 00:16:29.118
and then they have a process called molting where they change out their feathers.

00:16:29.398 –> 00:16:32.698
So it’s not 365 eggs. It’s 250.

00:16:33.018 –> 00:16:38.818
But if you have six laying hens, on average, you’re going to get about 1,500 eggs a year.

00:16:39.258 –> 00:16:47.498
And that translates into three egg omelets for you for breakfast for the rest

00:16:47.498 –> 00:16:51.958
of your life. Like you have breakfast handled for the rest of your life.

00:16:52.138 –> 00:16:58.378
Like, like, like that’s good. That’s at least one real. And an egg is a really complete food.

00:16:58.918 –> 00:17:03.018
If you want to go down the caloric route, and I do, I lay this out in that,

00:17:03.038 –> 00:17:06.378
in the, in that, in that webinar back there at foodproduction.com,

00:17:06.538 –> 00:17:13.278
but it’s an average of 62 calories per egg ends up being about 94,000 calories

00:17:13.278 –> 00:17:16.318
in a year, which is a huge amount of production.

00:17:16.478 –> 00:17:20.898
It’s a lot. But really, the way to think about it is breakfast every morning,

00:17:20.898 –> 00:17:25.918
plus 33 dozen eggs to give away or share or use in other recipes. Barter.

00:17:27.238 –> 00:17:32.438
Yes, and you can get this going. If you’re handy, you could build.

00:17:32.678 –> 00:17:36.918
There are also at that webinar just examples of what the coop and run looks

00:17:36.918 –> 00:17:40.578
like. And then there’s some resources for plans.

00:17:40.718 –> 00:17:43.458
And if you’re at all handy, you can build one of these. If not,

00:17:43.618 –> 00:17:47.458
you can get somebody else to build it. Or there’s kits you can buy.

00:17:47.478 –> 00:17:49.478
It depends on what your resource level is.

00:17:49.578 –> 00:17:54.558
But you can basically have a coop up in, you know, two weekends, three weekends and,

00:17:55.206 –> 00:18:00.406
Make sure you get the feed and the water set up, go to Craigslist and buy some

00:18:00.406 –> 00:18:05.746
laying hens or, or, you know, a local feed store, buy some laying hens and,

00:18:05.866 –> 00:18:09.126
you know, take them a few days to a week to settle in and start laying again.

00:18:09.486 –> 00:18:14.626
And bam, like in just, you know, two to four weeks, you have got breakfast.

00:18:14.886 –> 00:18:19.466
Like that’s the fastest, you know, like how fast is that? And then they’re delightful.

00:18:19.706 –> 00:18:20.886
They’re just so delightful.

00:18:21.206 –> 00:18:24.766
Yeah. And it’s not just breakfast, right? You’ve got stuff throughout the day,

00:18:24.946 –> 00:18:29.466
not to mention baking and everything else you can do and, you know, talk about calories.

00:18:29.466 –> 00:18:34.166
I was looking recently, a large egg, whatever that’s defined by,

00:18:34.366 –> 00:18:37.686
has six to seven grams of protein in it.

00:18:38.426 –> 00:18:41.606
So, yeah, it’s a wonderful food source.

00:18:41.906 –> 00:18:47.046
It’s great. Yeah, here’s another way to look at it is that slimy clear stuff

00:18:47.046 –> 00:18:52.826
called the album and then the slimy yellow stuff called the yolk turns into

00:18:52.826 –> 00:18:55.766
a fully formed chick with feet and

00:18:55.766 –> 00:19:01.446
eyes and a beak and legs and heart and everything that a creature needs.

00:19:01.446 –> 00:19:09.026
And the yolk is the nutritional sack with all of the nutrients needed to create that body.

00:19:09.206 –> 00:19:13.246
So, you know, there’s some really good nutrition in there, you know,

00:19:13.646 –> 00:19:17.326
you know, it’s all in there and it’s complete. So it’s a wonderful food.

00:19:17.546 –> 00:19:21.866
Yeah. And I don’t think everyone knows except for maybe some country folk that

00:19:21.866 –> 00:19:26.226
raise chickens and do this. But when an egg is.

00:19:26.777 –> 00:19:33.377
Is made available, let’s say, is birthed, it has a coating on that eggshell

00:19:33.377 –> 00:19:35.697
that keeps that egg preserved.

00:19:35.877 –> 00:19:40.117
Like how long can you keep a fresh farm egg for that hasn’t been washed off?

00:19:40.197 –> 00:19:43.357
Because the key is never to wash that egg, which is what happens in the grocery

00:19:43.357 –> 00:19:48.717
stores, but you can keep it like for several weeks or is it like a few months?

00:19:48.717 –> 00:19:51.457
I forget exactly, but it’s like you got

00:19:51.457 –> 00:19:54.237
a shelf life of an egg once fresh egg has

00:19:54.237 –> 00:19:57.537
a significant shelf life several weeks

00:19:57.537 –> 00:20:00.417
yeah just keep it cool and dark and i think

00:20:00.417 –> 00:20:03.677
several months would be pushing it but there’s lots of ways to preserve eggs

00:20:03.677 –> 00:20:06.617
yeah everywhere else in the world that i travel

00:20:06.617 –> 00:20:09.377
to the eggs are in a stack in the

00:20:09.377 –> 00:20:12.417
at the end of the aisle in the grocery store the united states is

00:20:12.417 –> 00:20:16.277
the only place that i’ve ever seen refrigerate eggs everywhere else

00:20:16.277 –> 00:20:19.757
in the world they’re unrefrigerated and actually

00:20:19.757 –> 00:20:22.577
if you refrigerate your eggs you you’re reducing the

00:20:22.577 –> 00:20:25.697
lifespan of the storage of them so yeah

00:20:25.697 –> 00:20:28.817
absolutely well most of the eggs in stores are washed and

00:20:28.817 –> 00:20:31.737
that’s why they have to go to the refrigeration is because they’ve

00:20:31.737 –> 00:20:36.677
lost that thin coating that’s on the outside of the shell is what preserves

00:20:36.677 –> 00:20:40.857
them so once they get washed they don’t have that preservative so to speak anymore

00:20:40.857 –> 00:20:45.477
another thing that people might not know about but you don’t need a rooster

00:20:45.477 –> 00:20:49.157
those hens will lay eggs without a rooster just fine.

00:20:49.397 –> 00:20:53.837
And I live in Puerto Rico and they’re like, you cannot find a place around here

00:20:53.837 –> 00:20:57.857
where there’s roosters not crowing, but in most places in the world.

00:20:58.417 –> 00:21:02.877
Certainly on the mainland, you know, having a rooster is a little bit annoying

00:21:02.877 –> 00:21:08.837
to everyone around you, but you don’t want people to know you got chickens. Right. So there is that,

00:21:09.403 –> 00:21:13.663
that prepper angle going on. So you touched upon something that I wanted,

00:21:13.843 –> 00:21:18.383
I did want to ask because luckily for me, I don’t have an HOA,

00:21:18.483 –> 00:21:22.443
but we still have county ordinances here and they have,

00:21:22.603 –> 00:21:26.063
and I don’t have them in front of me, but they have, I have read them in the

00:21:26.063 –> 00:21:28.883
past and they have some specific call outs for,

00:21:29.103 –> 00:21:32.443
Hey, if you’re going to have chickens on your property, you’ve got to have X

00:21:32.443 –> 00:21:33.823
number of square footage.

00:21:34.103 –> 00:21:40.103
You can only have X number of birds, but what advice, advice would you give

00:21:40.103 –> 00:21:45.343
to people that might be living in these, what we call postage stamp neighborhoods,

00:21:45.503 –> 00:21:49.523
you know, where the houses are 10 feet apart, or you’ve just got this ridiculously.

00:21:50.943 –> 00:21:53.763
Overbearing HOA that’s all up in your stuff all the time?

00:21:53.763 –> 00:21:56.683
How do you, how do you work around that or do you?

00:21:57.063 –> 00:22:01.103
Well, first of all, I have no problem doing something technically what,

00:22:01.223 –> 00:22:02.863
what they would consider as illegal.

00:22:03.163 –> 00:22:05.863
You know, my right to produce food is my right to

00:22:05.863 –> 00:22:08.903
produce food and I do it as respectfully as possible by

00:22:08.903 –> 00:22:12.163
not having roosters or whatever there’s also

00:22:12.163 –> 00:22:15.263
ways to get around it sometimes they outline chicken specifically but

00:22:15.263 –> 00:22:18.483
they don’t say anything about ducks you know or

00:22:18.483 –> 00:22:24.583
quail or you know so you know and actually quail are very very quiet and you

00:22:24.583 –> 00:22:28.923
can absolutely have them without anybody knowing the other thing is is i i think

00:22:28.923 –> 00:22:33.403
we’re headed into a time here where we are going to see the collapse of all

00:22:33.403 –> 00:22:36.283
these different governmental systems and especially your HOA.

00:22:37.063 –> 00:22:41.223
You know, certainly with hyperinflation, your government’s gone, right?

00:22:41.403 –> 00:22:46.183
Like how long is a government worker going to stay on the job when their month’s

00:22:46.183 –> 00:22:49.163
paycheck doesn’t buy them a day’s worth of food, right? That,

00:22:49.483 –> 00:22:50.523
you know what I mean? Yeah.

00:22:50.903 –> 00:22:57.983
So I think we should be preparing for what the real likely scenario of the future is,

00:22:58.709 –> 00:23:01.549
while navigating today, which is a little bit of a challenge.

00:23:01.849 –> 00:23:05.509
But yeah, so I mean, if you think you can get away with it and not upset anybody,

00:23:05.729 –> 00:23:07.009
you don’t have your chickens in your backyard.

00:23:07.149 –> 00:23:09.229
And again, just hens, they don’t make a lot of noise.

00:23:09.869 –> 00:23:14.249
And if that doesn’t work, you know, ducks are also prolific egg layers.

00:23:14.949 –> 00:23:18.849
Quail are another really good option. You need a different cage set up for them.

00:23:19.469 –> 00:23:23.109
Actually, people who live in apartments and condominiums, I have a girlfriend,

00:23:23.109 –> 00:23:24.909
I helped set her up with a quail cage.

00:23:25.289 –> 00:23:28.409
It’s got a footprint of like three feet by two and a half feet.

00:23:28.409 –> 00:23:31.609
And there’s like three cages stacked on each other and she’s got,

00:23:31.769 –> 00:23:32.989
I think, 10 quail in there.

00:23:33.169 –> 00:23:37.309
And she’s getting about 10 quail eggs a day, which is the equivalent of three,

00:23:37.609 –> 00:23:39.649
maybe a little more than three chicken eggs.

00:23:39.749 –> 00:23:41.889
And for her, that’s a lot.

00:23:43.529 –> 00:23:48.929
Yeah. By the way, the, yeah, it’s, and they’re, they’re not songbirds,

00:23:49.089 –> 00:23:49.989
but they’re not unpleasant.

00:23:50.329 –> 00:23:54.649
And, you know, you got to keep up with the, with the, you know,

00:23:54.769 –> 00:23:58.469
changing out the trays, but there’s no real unpleasant smell or anything. Sure.

00:23:59.249 –> 00:24:02.529
All right. So we talked about yard bird and I don’t know any,

00:24:02.669 –> 00:24:06.849
well, I take that back. I do know people that don’t like chickens, but I’m a chicken.

00:24:07.089 –> 00:24:11.029
I’m a fan of the yard bird. What else, where else can people start out?

00:24:11.489 –> 00:24:16.529
Well, like I said, this three-part system, and I show people in this pre-webinar,

00:24:16.629 –> 00:24:19.909
I count up the calories because, I mean, we’re all used to doing that, right?

00:24:20.469 –> 00:24:24.629
By the way, the calorie is going to go from being a bad word to being a unit

00:24:24.629 –> 00:24:28.229
of currency, so, you know, don’t be afraid of calories, right?

00:24:28.821 –> 00:24:33.261
I do recommend a small garden, and again, a small one, two 50-square-foot beds.

00:24:33.261 –> 00:24:35.821
I recommend using cinder blocks.

00:24:35.981 –> 00:24:42.041
You stack two cinder blocks high, you’ll get like a 16- to 18-inch depth of soil there.

00:24:42.561 –> 00:24:47.221
And I was living in Colorado for a while where we only had one growing season.

00:24:47.461 –> 00:24:52.301
And in one growing season in that 100-square-foot system, I grew more than enough

00:24:52.301 –> 00:24:57.421
produce for myself pretty much for the whole year because you can freeze it or dry it or whatever.

00:24:57.421 –> 00:25:03.521
So you can grow a tremendous amount of vegetables in a very small space.

00:25:03.981 –> 00:25:08.201
And so I really recommend a small garden. Now, the reality of a garden is,

00:25:08.241 –> 00:25:12.321
is you’re not going to get the calories out of it that you will from,

00:25:12.501 –> 00:25:14.861
say, eggs or, you know, from egg production.

00:25:15.881 –> 00:25:19.741
And, you know, but I like to look at it as the colors of the rainbow.

00:25:19.921 –> 00:25:22.021
You’re looking more for also for a diversity.

00:25:22.581 –> 00:25:26.281
You’re looking for carbohydrates. You’re looking for fiber. You’re looking for

00:25:26.281 –> 00:25:30.361
diversity in taste. and flavor and freshness, you know, enzymes.

00:25:30.901 –> 00:25:37.081
The most calorically dense crop that you can grow is the Irish potato.

00:25:37.381 –> 00:25:43.321
And those do well in the temperate zones of North America.

00:25:43.481 –> 00:25:46.321
And if you live in the southern zones, like in Texas, Florida,

00:25:46.521 –> 00:25:51.501
Arizona, the sweet potato is going to be a better option for you.

00:25:51.701 –> 00:25:57.321
Similar caloric density. And a potato, I’d say maybe about a pound of potato

00:25:57.321 –> 00:26:03.661
per square foot, and you’re looking at a total of maybe about 50-something thousand

00:26:03.661 –> 00:26:05.761
calories from 100 square feet of potatoes.

00:26:06.748 –> 00:26:12.188
So, you know, we’re not really looking at the garden necessarily for caloric

00:26:12.188 –> 00:26:17.548
density, but, you know, a garden is a great thing. And I recommend people start

00:26:17.548 –> 00:26:20.848
with the chickens anytime because you can do that even in the winter.

00:26:21.128 –> 00:26:23.208
You know, you can get them going. They’re not going to produce as much,

00:26:23.308 –> 00:26:28.248
but you can get it going. And then when the timing is right, get your garden going.

00:26:29.608 –> 00:26:34.568
And, you know, a small garden, that’s also just a real delight to be out there.

00:26:34.568 –> 00:26:37.508
The other thing with those cinder blocks stacked too high is,

00:26:37.648 –> 00:26:43.128
if you have a bad back, you can just sit on the cinder blocks and reach into the garden bed. Yeah.

00:26:43.388 –> 00:26:49.128
Yeah, when I heard you say cinder blocks, I was like, yes, somebody finally gets it too.

00:26:49.268 –> 00:26:54.668
Because you see so many of these wooden framed raised gardens.

00:26:54.768 –> 00:26:59.928
And I did one a number of years ago when I was doing home brewing.

00:27:00.128 –> 00:27:07.668
I tried to grow my own hops. So I built this raised bed, this very small raised

00:27:07.668 –> 00:27:09.608
bed to start hops in the backyard.

00:27:09.688 –> 00:27:14.728
And I used a wooden wall kit, you know, I’m sure you’ve seen them.

00:27:14.868 –> 00:27:21.248
And that thing was rotten and falling apart, you know, within two seasons at most.

00:27:21.448 –> 00:27:24.428
And so then I went the way of the cinder block and, you know,

00:27:24.528 –> 00:27:27.108
they’ll eventually decay, but not anytime soon.

00:27:27.548 –> 00:27:31.988
Not anytime soon. And for a while there, I was working with a lot of military

00:27:31.988 –> 00:27:34.228
who have to move every two years.

00:27:34.968 –> 00:27:37.648
And, you know, it’s odd. They would take their soil with them.

00:27:37.788 –> 00:27:40.808
But, you know, a cinder block is, what, 88 cents a block.

00:27:41.028 –> 00:27:44.428
Yeah, it’s not bad at all. You don’t glue them together. You just stack them up.

00:27:44.908 –> 00:27:48.808
And, you know, you can have that thing built in in a few hours, you know. Yeah.

00:27:49.848 –> 00:27:54.928
And it’s just a great system. It’s also, I think the heaviest ones are only about 15 pounds.

00:27:55.068 –> 00:27:58.308
So that means that women and children can also do this work.

00:27:58.308 –> 00:28:02.168
This is not, you know, that’s another thing with most of the systems I’m looking

00:28:02.168 –> 00:28:07.988
at is, is how do we structure these for, you know, women or children to do family.

00:28:09.268 –> 00:28:13.348
And so all my systems are built, you know, with that in mind that you don’t

00:28:13.348 –> 00:28:15.968
have a lot of strength, you’re probably not in the best health.

00:28:16.188 –> 00:28:17.708
That’s great. Yeah. Yeah.

00:28:18.108 –> 00:28:22.248
And you’d make the argument too, that by building these raised gardens,

00:28:22.568 –> 00:28:26.668
you might get into a little bit of better shape. And then that may make you

00:28:26.668 –> 00:28:29.188
think to keep going and keep doing that sort of stuff.

00:28:29.328 –> 00:28:32.788
So it’s a good way to get outside and actually get some exercise,

00:28:32.788 –> 00:28:34.988
which I think a lot of people are missing out on.

00:28:35.348 –> 00:28:40.608
And sunlight and fresh air and, you know, your phone does not mix real well

00:28:40.608 –> 00:28:46.048
with soil and water and getting away from the electronics and whatever programming

00:28:46.048 –> 00:28:50.128
and whatever’s going on with that device and getting in touch with reality.

00:28:50.588 –> 00:28:52.528
There are so many benefits.

00:28:53.228 –> 00:29:00.648
I often tell people that eating the fresh, nutrient-dense, delicious produce

00:29:00.648 –> 00:29:06.128
is one thing, but your actual health benefits come from the process of growing food.

00:29:06.901 –> 00:29:12.901
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Just jumping out of order here with all this delicious

00:29:12.901 –> 00:29:18.721
food growing now in the gardens or with my yard bird, how do I preserve it?

00:29:18.801 –> 00:29:22.021
What’s the best way to go about keeping that sort of thing?

00:29:22.141 –> 00:29:26.341
And how long can I expect to keep fresh veggies? We’ve talked about eggs,

00:29:26.441 –> 00:29:30.501
but let’s say we’re growing some sweet potatoes and some tomatoes and,

00:29:30.501 –> 00:29:32.041
you know, things that I like, right?

00:29:32.141 –> 00:29:36.601
I don’t want to plant and grow things I don’t like, but, you know, calories in mind.

00:29:36.901 –> 00:29:41.341
Where we can, vitamins and minerals, but how do I keep this stuff? What’s the best way?

00:29:41.861 –> 00:29:46.161
Yeah, depending on the different product, you’re going to have a different preference

00:29:46.161 –> 00:29:48.941
for how to store it. So for example, you mentioned sweet potatoes.

00:29:49.601 –> 00:29:53.461
Usually they do well just stacked up in straw in a dark place.

00:29:53.841 –> 00:29:57.941
In Texas where I lived, I had an older gentleman who was my neighbor and I talked

00:29:57.941 –> 00:29:59.501
to Bill about how did they do it.

00:29:59.581 –> 00:30:02.701
And he said, well, we would stack them underneath the house

00:30:02.701 –> 00:30:05.381
in hay or bury them in a

00:30:05.381 –> 00:30:08.241
pit in layers and he said

00:30:08.241 –> 00:30:11.381
we’d eat out of that all the time because you

00:30:11.381 –> 00:30:14.721
know it was below the we didn’t they didn’t have that much of a frost line in

00:30:14.721 –> 00:30:19.081
texas but it got cold but it would be below that so they’d be safe and he said

00:30:19.081 –> 00:30:23.061
and by the time you got down to that bottom layer of them it was usually springtime

00:30:23.061 –> 00:30:28.041
and they were sprouting and then you would just plant them so you know sweet

00:30:28.041 –> 00:30:29.821
potatoes and things like that potato to,

00:30:30.281 –> 00:30:34.381
you know, you’re going to want to store them if you have a basement or some cool area.

00:30:34.881 –> 00:30:38.641
Now, you know, the canning is a very simple process to learn.

00:30:40.041 –> 00:30:43.941
Honestly, my favorite way is a freezer. I just love freezers.

00:30:44.221 –> 00:30:49.241
I get, I have three little seven cubic foot freezers there. They’re not the

00:30:49.241 –> 00:30:51.261
tiniest ones, but they’re not the biggest ones.

00:30:51.721 –> 00:30:57.341
And first of all, they’re super energy efficient these days i also put a cover

00:30:57.341 –> 00:30:59.841
on top of it which helps with the energy efficiency,

00:31:00.841 –> 00:31:05.821
it doesn’t take much of a little tiny backup solar system to be able to to power them,

00:31:06.421 –> 00:31:09.501
i live in puerto rico it’s not when it’s not

00:31:09.501 –> 00:31:14.181
if the grid goes down like when is going down next the next time yeah every

00:31:14.181 –> 00:31:17.421
month every every month at least for a couple of days we have the power out

00:31:17.421 –> 00:31:22.881
right so we’re a little ahead of you but and and for me i i love those women

00:31:22.881 –> 00:31:25.461
that are so organized and they label everything and date it.

00:31:25.581 –> 00:31:27.001
I have never been able to do that.

00:31:27.401 –> 00:31:31.321
What I do is I fill up one of these small freezers with stuff.

00:31:31.561 –> 00:31:35.581
I fill up the other one with stuff and then I go to the first one and I eat out of that, right?

00:31:35.681 –> 00:31:40.121
So I’m always rotating just by this one’s full and that one’s full.

00:31:40.281 –> 00:31:44.701
And actually, it’s what I did in Colorado, you know, just put it all in freezers.

00:31:45.101 –> 00:31:50.161
And right now, so for example, I really recommend stocking up on food right

00:31:50.161 –> 00:31:52.861
now. And there’s a lot of ways to do it for almost free.

00:31:53.121 –> 00:31:55.941
A friend of mine, there’s a tree here called the breadfruit tree,

00:31:55.981 –> 00:32:02.401
which makes this almost the equivalent of potatoes. It’s like a starch and produces

00:32:02.401 –> 00:32:04.621
like most trees, you know, produces a huge amount.

00:32:05.660 –> 00:32:09.920
That you can’t deal with at the time. So what we’re doing is we’re just chopping

00:32:09.920 –> 00:32:13.260
it up and tossing it into Ziploc bags and putting it in the freezer.

00:32:14.680 –> 00:32:17.660
And, you know, it’s just the two of us. We’re having a good time.

00:32:17.660 –> 00:32:20.600
We’re catching up on news. We’re chop, chop, chopping.

00:32:21.480 –> 00:32:25.000
Sandy has the tree. I’ve got an extra freezer. I’m like, hey,

00:32:25.000 –> 00:32:27.260
Sandy, why don’t we just collaborate on this, you know?

00:32:28.440 –> 00:32:31.860
And it’s a really wholesome, wonderful way.

00:32:32.060 –> 00:32:36.820
And say the world doesn’t come to an end. want. We got some really great fresh

00:32:36.820 –> 00:32:38.560
food. You know, we got really good food.

00:32:38.760 –> 00:32:42.280
And if we don’t eat it all, we can give it away or just compost it, you know.

00:32:42.620 –> 00:32:48.520
But if the inevitable, you know, the craziness happens and we’re into hyperinflation

00:32:48.520 –> 00:32:49.780
or whatever, we’ve got food.

00:32:49.960 –> 00:32:54.880
We’re not going to be worried about all the shelves being empty in the grocery store, you know.

00:32:55.020 –> 00:32:59.100
So there’s a lot you can do already right now, just like that.

00:32:59.360 –> 00:33:02.500
And I do love freezers. There’s, you know, dehydrators, there’s

00:33:02.500 –> 00:33:06.580
smoke houses there’s a lot of different ways for

00:33:06.580 –> 00:33:09.480
me freezing is one of the easiest ways and one of the best ways for

00:33:09.480 –> 00:33:12.220
somebody to get started very simply and then

00:33:12.220 –> 00:33:16.460
I you know canning is not hard to do the especially the hot water bath canning

00:33:16.460 –> 00:33:22.260
these are all skills that you know your grandparents great-grandparents maybe

00:33:22.260 –> 00:33:27.360
great-great-grandparents did yeah and you know they didn’t have google some

00:33:27.360 –> 00:33:32.160
of them couldn’t read so I mean I promise you you can do this I remember when I was a kid,

00:33:32.320 –> 00:33:34.480
my grandma on my dad’s side,

00:33:34.660 –> 00:33:40.580
her basement had shelves and she had jars upon jars upon jars of fruits and

00:33:40.580 –> 00:33:44.480
veggies and everything preserved down there that she could go jellies,

00:33:44.620 –> 00:33:50.860
go down there and grab an instant, you know, and have food available in any

00:33:50.860 –> 00:33:53.200
given time. And I mean, she didn’t have just a few jars.

00:33:53.360 –> 00:33:57.600
It was shelves of jarred all kinds of foods.

00:33:58.100 –> 00:34:01.220
We did a we did a quiz on the grow network members a

00:34:01.220 –> 00:34:04.280
little while ago the people were teasing me because i love quart-sized mason

00:34:04.280 –> 00:34:07.040
jars the wide mouth ones in there how many

00:34:07.040 –> 00:34:10.680
quart-sized mason jars do you have and i’m a couple hundred and

00:34:10.680 –> 00:34:13.960
it turns out most of the people in the grow network also and

00:34:13.960 –> 00:34:16.820
they’re like that’s ridiculous and i said no let’s stop

00:34:16.820 –> 00:34:22.180
for a minute here let’s say i grow a crop of green beans right and i want to

00:34:22.180 –> 00:34:26.540
have like a side dish of green beans a short-sized jar of green beans is a good

00:34:26.540 –> 00:34:31.220
side dish for a family of four and we want to do that like you know once a week

00:34:31.220 –> 00:34:36.700
that’s 52 jars i need for one year supply right that’s 52 jars.

00:34:37.620 –> 00:34:42.280
So yeah so that’s another thing by the way they that disappeared just go back

00:34:42.280 –> 00:34:47.120
into your mind and what happened in 2020 and you know you’ll know how to prepare

00:34:47.120 –> 00:34:51.400
for what’s coming next and you know You can also find them a lot of times at

00:34:51.400 –> 00:34:55.240
garage sales or estate sales or things like that.

00:34:55.480 –> 00:34:59.440
So there’s also lots of really great cost-effective ways to,

00:34:59.980 –> 00:35:03.040
to get, you know, to accumulate things and to accumulate food.

00:35:03.440 –> 00:35:06.540
And again, the skills are actually surprisingly easy.

00:35:07.060 –> 00:35:12.140
Yeah. And, you know, everybody has a freezer. Well, I hope this point in time,

00:35:12.360 –> 00:35:13.780
most everyone has a freezer.

00:35:13.980 –> 00:35:19.700
So it doesn’t take a lot of new skill or all the acquiring new skills is always

00:35:19.700 –> 00:35:21.340
great. Learning’s always great.

00:35:21.740 –> 00:35:25.380
You know, it doesn’t take a lot, right? We’ve all got freezers to get started.

00:35:25.560 –> 00:35:30.080
And just a point that pops into my mind too, that we saw with COVID And I’m

00:35:30.080 –> 00:35:34.720
sure maybe with some weathers, some bad weather in different places,

00:35:35.140 –> 00:35:39.400
you know, everyone flocks to the grocery stores when bad things happen.

00:35:39.580 –> 00:35:42.820
And then there’s hoarding and then, you know, the shelves become empty.

00:35:42.980 –> 00:35:47.000
The key with getting started with some of this stuff, too, is to get started

00:35:47.000 –> 00:35:50.220
and get your stash going before the bad things happen.

00:35:50.260 –> 00:35:53.780
So you’re not scrambling. So you don’t get caught with your pants down.

00:35:54.260 –> 00:35:55.760
All those sorts of things.

00:35:56.360 –> 00:36:01.600
Do it while there’s a lull in bad things going on so that you have the opportunity

00:36:01.600 –> 00:36:07.220
to learn, you have the opportunity to get started, and you can grow your yard bird in your garden.

00:36:07.520 –> 00:36:12.520
The thing that comes to my mind about the gardening that I’m always curious

00:36:12.520 –> 00:36:16.400
of, because the one thing I can’t stand, and there’s not a lot we can do about

00:36:16.400 –> 00:36:18.660
it at this point, generally speaking,

00:36:18.920 –> 00:36:24.760
is how do I find, how do I get good seeds and not just.

00:36:25.400 –> 00:36:29.300
Whatever gets sold in the seed stores that might be GMO.

00:36:29.440 –> 00:36:33.820
How can I get good seeds for various things?

00:36:34.080 –> 00:36:38.260
There still are some reputable seed dealers, and yeah, you do need to look for them.

00:36:38.740 –> 00:36:41.660
Rare seeds, the guy out of Missouri, I’m trying to remember,

00:36:41.820 –> 00:36:45.900
Jared Gettle, I think he also calls it, oh, I’m trying to remember the name of it.

00:36:46.040 –> 00:36:50.260
But there still are some very reputable seed dealerships.

00:36:50.460 –> 00:36:54.080
You know the other place to get, there’s actually two places I really recommend.

00:36:54.760 –> 00:37:01.760
One is go to your local gardening club and talk to people, you know,

00:37:02.060 –> 00:37:05.060
and, and if you’re at all a gardener and you’re saving seed,

00:37:05.060 –> 00:37:08.160
you probably got way more seeds than you need.

00:37:08.380 –> 00:37:13.300
Like, what do I need for tomato seeds? I only need a dozen. I only need a dozen tomato plants.

00:37:13.800 –> 00:37:18.580
One tomato will give you 50 or a hundred seeds. Right. So almost everybody has extra seeds.

00:37:19.140 –> 00:37:22.040
Another thing I do, I had somebody who’s talking to Marjorie.

00:37:22.180 –> 00:37:24.900
So I’m currently renting a plate. I don’t know why it is.

00:37:25.000 –> 00:37:27.280
I’ve just had a hard time finding a homestead here.

00:37:27.760 –> 00:37:31.260
And so I’ve been renting and I don’t currently, I’m doing like container gardening.

00:37:31.540 –> 00:37:34.120
And then people talk about what do I do? And I’m like, well, I’m doing it.

00:37:34.720 –> 00:37:36.980
And they’re like, well, what are you going to do about genetics?

00:37:36.980 –> 00:37:37.840
And you’re getting your stuff.

00:37:37.940 –> 00:37:43.100
And I said, well, I tell you what, every other month I host a plant and seed swap party.

00:37:44.208 –> 00:37:47.808
And I, you know, you put out the flyers and make a little flyer and put it up

00:37:47.808 –> 00:37:50.948
on local businesses and the post office and the banks and that kind of thing.

00:37:51.208 –> 00:37:54.888
And we put it out, you know, there’s some Facebook groups that people check into.

00:37:55.228 –> 00:37:58.588
And I’ve got a little email list for local stuff. And just say,

00:37:58.688 –> 00:38:02.508
hey, the third Saturday, every other month, January, March, May,

00:38:02.888 –> 00:38:06.548
July, right, from 9 to 11 over at Simple Greens Cafe.

00:38:07.008 –> 00:38:11.348
And I promise you there’s going to be a local business that would love to host

00:38:11.348 –> 00:38:14.428
this because what it means to them is traffic.

00:38:15.048 –> 00:38:20.288
And every business needs traffic. So Natalia over there has a lovely coffee shop.

00:38:20.488 –> 00:38:23.168
And I’m like, hey, Natalia, would you mind if I have a bunch of people over

00:38:23.168 –> 00:38:25.788
here and, you know, we’ll all buy coffee and trade our seeds?

00:38:25.908 –> 00:38:27.108
And she’s like, yes, please.

00:38:27.428 –> 00:38:31.668
You know, so, and people come and they bring plants and they bring seeds.

00:38:31.768 –> 00:38:34.488
We say, look, If you don’t have anything, just come. It doesn’t matter.

00:38:34.868 –> 00:38:39.688
And usually there’s an abundance of plants and seeds. And every other month,

00:38:39.688 –> 00:38:42.248
it’s always different. It’s very interesting what shows up.

00:38:42.428 –> 00:38:47.768
You know, and somebody, this last one, somebody had a whole bunch of these little

00:38:47.768 –> 00:38:51.908
tree seedlings for Canapas, which is a tree that grows. It makes this nice little fruit.

00:38:52.728 –> 00:38:57.068
And so we traded a bunch. And then I end up always with extra because I’m an

00:38:57.068 –> 00:39:02.788
organizer. And so I give some away to local farmers and neighbors that I know that weren’t making it.

00:39:02.828 –> 00:39:07.008
And then I plant out a bunch of them, just wildscaping it out on land where

00:39:07.008 –> 00:39:08.128
I don’t think they’ll be bothered.

00:39:09.428 –> 00:39:14.268
And, you know, all kinds of seeds show up. So the best seeds you’re going to

00:39:14.268 –> 00:39:19.588
get are going to be the ones that local gardeners have been developing because

00:39:19.588 –> 00:39:21.108
they’re adapted to your region.

00:39:21.508 –> 00:39:24.208
So, yeah, so check into some of the some of the more.

00:39:24.862 –> 00:39:29.742
Bigger seed dealers, but also your local gardening clubs and,

00:39:29.742 –> 00:39:33.942
and, and start your own plant and seed swap party. And you’ll end up with a lot of great ones.

00:39:34.202 –> 00:39:37.922
No, I really like that idea. I mean, there’s all kinds of little local farmers

00:39:37.922 –> 00:39:39.902
markets, even around where I’m at.

00:39:40.102 –> 00:39:43.242
And, you know, the, the thing that keeps popping in my mind,

00:39:43.302 –> 00:39:46.782
I mean, that’s to your earlier point, it’s about community.

00:39:46.942 –> 00:39:49.922
What, what, right. And so what better way to build

00:39:49.922 –> 00:39:52.982
community and to support other small businesses if

00:39:52.982 –> 00:39:56.222
that’s your thing you know there’s so many different positives that

00:39:56.222 –> 00:39:59.382
can come out of that sort of thing you know out of a basic

00:39:59.382 –> 00:40:02.222
seed swap you know yeah i get a lot just

00:40:02.222 –> 00:40:06.482
out of the farmer’s market you know like i’m just just this morning i’m eating

00:40:06.482 –> 00:40:09.702
these really delicious little they’re called ajay dulci they’re these little

00:40:09.702 –> 00:40:14.582
sweet peppers and i’m like yeah there’s a whole bunch of seeds you know or i’ve

00:40:14.582 –> 00:40:18.382
started a little cherry tomatoes from seeds i’d gotten from there I actually

00:40:18.382 –> 00:40:20.622
have these little bushes called petonga,

00:40:20.802 –> 00:40:23.762
which I had gotten from the seeds from when I got the fruit,

00:40:23.902 –> 00:40:26.782
curry bushes, all kind of scallions.

00:40:26.962 –> 00:40:29.922
You know, I buy scallions from the guy and I just take the roots and put them

00:40:29.922 –> 00:40:31.802
in the ground and it regrows scallions.

00:40:32.682 –> 00:40:36.682
You know, so there’s there when you start working with nature,

00:40:36.822 –> 00:40:42.222
there really is a whole abundance and you can really shift into this abundance

00:40:42.222 –> 00:40:44.282
mentality when you start getting into this.

00:40:44.382 –> 00:40:47.302
It’s really amazing and fabulous and wonderful.

00:40:47.982 –> 00:40:52.942
I know we’re coming up on time here. I wanted to ask, and we kind of,

00:40:53.102 –> 00:40:58.262
or I should say you touched upon this in our initial phone call we did before this today.

00:40:59.182 –> 00:41:05.242
What do you think it’s going to take to get people more interested in doing

00:41:05.242 –> 00:41:07.402
the sorts of things we’re talking about here today?

00:41:08.262 –> 00:41:11.662
This is a little bit of a hard reality, a little bit of a hard truth,

00:41:11.682 –> 00:41:15.482
but I’ve been trying to get people to grow food for 20 years because I’ve seen

00:41:15.482 –> 00:41:19.582
the system deteriorate, the food get more and more toxic.

00:41:21.202 –> 00:41:26.102
What it’s going to take is a crisis. I mean, really, people just don’t want

00:41:26.102 –> 00:41:32.082
to make that lifestyle change or do something until they absolutely have no other choice.

00:41:32.762 –> 00:41:37.142
And that’s part of the reason that I developed these systems for somebody who has no experience.

00:41:37.542 –> 00:41:41.482
They’re older, they’re out of shape, and they need to get producing very, very quickly.

00:41:42.362 –> 00:41:46.202
So, yeah, it’s going to take a crisis. And, you know, we’re there.

00:41:46.782 –> 00:41:51.502
We’re just about there. And if you’re listening to this, please get started right now.

00:41:51.602 –> 00:41:55.062
Because, you know, when the crisis starts to get full blown,

00:41:55.302 –> 00:41:58.442
it’s just going to be infinitely harder, right?

00:41:58.542 –> 00:42:01.782
So right now you can buy laying hens. It’s easy to build a chicken coop.

00:42:02.082 –> 00:42:05.762
We didn’t get into the rabbits, by the way. I really recommend watching that

00:42:05.762 –> 00:42:10.622
webinar at backyardfoodproduction.com because you can grow the protein requirements

00:42:10.622 –> 00:42:13.662
for a family of four with a small rabbit tree in your backyard.

00:42:16.202 –> 00:42:22.942
It gets infinitely harder as the crisis unfolds. Right. And we’re still one step further.

00:42:23.467 –> 00:42:27.327
Ahead of that now. Yeah, we got time. We’ve got a little bit of time,

00:42:27.587 –> 00:42:31.327
but not much. I mean, you really need to get this going now.

00:42:31.647 –> 00:42:33.987
Yeah. And I think, you know, we’ve gotten so.

00:42:36.267 –> 00:42:40.907
Comfortable with convenience of the grocery store and all that comes with it,

00:42:40.907 –> 00:42:47.027
or just laziness and cooking, you know, when it comes to losing my vocabulary.

00:42:47.647 –> 00:42:51.487
When it comes to processed foods, you know, the convenience and the quickness

00:42:51.487 –> 00:42:54.227
and the speed at which families and whoever can do that.

00:42:54.367 –> 00:42:59.947
Like, you know, there’s, there needs to be some sort of motivator to get us

00:42:59.947 –> 00:43:02.907
to move on our own away from that stuff.

00:43:03.027 –> 00:43:07.207
Like it’s not the grocery store’s job to feed us the right things.

00:43:07.347 –> 00:43:11.087
It’s our jobs to get the right things to feed ourselves and our families.

00:43:11.227 –> 00:43:14.427
At least that’s my view of it, right? We have a responsibility to ourselves,

00:43:14.487 –> 00:43:17.727
but it’s hard to get past the comfort level that we have today.

00:43:17.727 –> 00:43:24.227
But I think, you know, You’ve talked a lot about simplicity of getting started in an alternative path.

00:43:24.367 –> 00:43:28.367
And I think maybe the simplicity of doing it, once you start getting out there

00:43:28.367 –> 00:43:31.847
and you start reaping the benefits, whether it’s as simple as being in the sunshine

00:43:31.847 –> 00:43:38.067
more than once every six months, if you have an office job, maybe that the exercise or whatever.

00:43:38.207 –> 00:43:41.607
But the simplicity of getting started, some of this stuff is,

00:43:41.707 –> 00:43:43.287
I think, maybe a motivator.

00:43:43.827 –> 00:43:47.307
That convenience, we also lost a lot. like if

00:43:47.307 –> 00:43:50.447
you think about every one of our holidays it involves

00:43:50.447 –> 00:43:53.347
food and food preparation i’m actually going to have

00:43:53.347 –> 00:43:56.127
a big family reunion i was talking to my sister-in-law i’m

00:43:56.127 –> 00:43:59.327
like really excited to be in the kitchen with her cooking for

00:43:59.327 –> 00:44:04.307
a big household full of people you know like thanksgiving and christmas and

00:44:04.307 –> 00:44:08.667
easter and all the times we do that i mean the convenience we’ve lost all that

00:44:08.667 –> 00:44:12.807
we used to do the same thing harvesting things together or processing food together

00:44:12.807 –> 00:44:17.447
and we’ve you know Now everybody’s on their phone and doing whatever they do individually.

00:44:17.827 –> 00:44:22.267
So this will be a much, much healthier thing. I will also say when I got into

00:44:22.267 –> 00:44:23.607
this, I was absolutely…

00:44:24.908 –> 00:44:31.048
Out, terrified, afraid, scared. And it healed me on every single level you can imagine.

00:44:31.228 –> 00:44:36.668
On the physical level, I’ve had just reversals of all kinds of allergies and problems with my body.

00:44:36.948 –> 00:44:41.128
On the emotional level, I am not at all worried about grocery stores closing.

00:44:41.408 –> 00:44:45.388
On the mental level, people who eat higher quality food, nutrient-dense,

00:44:45.548 –> 00:44:47.908
rich, live food, they are more intelligent.

00:44:48.108 –> 00:44:50.888
There’s reams of studies with kids showing that when they eat

00:44:50.888 –> 00:44:54.588
better they score higher on intelligence tests and

00:44:54.588 –> 00:44:57.288
then spiritually yeah spiritually you know

00:44:57.288 –> 00:45:00.628
you’re using your hands and you’re working directly with forces

00:45:00.628 –> 00:45:03.408
of creation and we’re at the end here so

00:45:03.408 –> 00:45:08.588
i can’t talk about it but magic happens it’s unbelievable how you’ll just like

00:45:08.588 –> 00:45:14.928
oh my god you know turner because you’re working with nature and it’s it’s a

00:45:14.928 –> 00:45:22.708
living force an entity you know Whatever your spiritual or religious viewpoints hold it,

00:45:22.808 –> 00:45:27.588
it’s still there, and you’re connecting with it in a way that you haven’t maybe

00:45:27.588 –> 00:45:29.348
in all your life, and it’s magical.

00:45:29.608 –> 00:45:34.408
So it will heal you. Yeah, it’s very cathartic, too, as well.

00:45:34.568 –> 00:45:38.468
Okay, one last question, kind of off topic, but I’m fascinated.

00:45:38.708 –> 00:45:43.568
I know one of the things that you say you spend time doing is learning skills

00:45:43.568 –> 00:45:49.988
from the Paleolithic era. What is the number one or what is your favorite thing

00:45:49.988 –> 00:45:52.548
that you’ve done, experienced or learned?

00:45:53.616 –> 00:45:57.336
Whatever from all of that oh making fire

00:45:57.336 –> 00:46:01.236
by friction you know learning how to yeah you’re learning how to use a bow drill

00:46:01.236 –> 00:46:05.276
or a hand drill and i know everybody laughs at me my husband used to toss me

00:46:05.276 –> 00:46:08.996
a bic lighter and go hey there you go and i’m like you know what i tell you

00:46:08.996 –> 00:46:14.796
what when you when you when the first time you make that happen and then i try to do one at least,

00:46:15.296 –> 00:46:21.656
every year you know create a bow drill set and make a fire man there is i tell

00:46:21.656 –> 00:46:23.936
you what you have so much respect for humanity.

00:46:24.356 –> 00:46:31.516
And you realize, you know, prehistoric humans were extremely intelligent. Yeah.

00:46:31.976 –> 00:46:36.696
Just because they want, yeah, it’s unbelievable. So I love that.

00:46:36.856 –> 00:46:39.356
That’s one of my favorite, that’s my favorite skill ever, really.

00:46:39.596 –> 00:46:43.416
That’s awesome. I think that might actually, if it, if it didn’t involve making

00:46:43.416 –> 00:46:47.456
a, I’d love to make a blade like that, the old school slant,

00:46:47.456 –> 00:46:48.716
you know, slate, whatever.

00:46:48.976 –> 00:46:53.596
But I think next to that Spears, I think next to that fire would have to be

00:46:53.596 –> 00:46:55.056
at the top of my list as well.

00:46:55.536 –> 00:46:58.656
Marjorie, this is great. I know you’ve talked about one URL,

00:46:58.656 –> 00:47:03.076
but how can people learn more, get to you, all of that good stuff?

00:47:03.356 –> 00:47:07.456
You know, that really is the best way is to go to backyardfoodproduction.com

00:47:07.456 –> 00:47:10.376
and sign up for the webinar there. It’s free.

00:47:10.596 –> 00:47:14.836
We’ll also send you a whole bunch of free resources like how to make your own

00:47:14.836 –> 00:47:19.836
compost and fertilizers and how to make this off-food water for your livestock.

00:47:20.656 –> 00:47:23.076
And then we’ll introduce you to the rest of the Grow Network.

00:47:23.236 –> 00:47:25.296
But, you know, I’ve been doing this for, what, 15 years.

00:47:25.456 –> 00:47:29.296
So it can be really overwhelming for people. So we really recommend just start

00:47:29.296 –> 00:47:33.376
with that path, and then we’ll get you on boarded.

00:47:33.596 –> 00:47:39.256
But, you know, backyardfoodproduction.com, growing food is the most basic and

00:47:39.256 –> 00:47:41.436
most important thing that you can do right now.

00:47:42.016 –> 00:47:45.316
That’s awesome. Marjory, thanks so much. Appreciate you coming on.

00:47:45.316 –> 00:47:48.236
Thank you. Yeah, anytime. Talk to you soon.

00:47:50.000 –> 00:48:08.862
Music.