long run, but would also be very important if there was a disaster in
which the stores ran out of food. Eating healthy is all the rage these
days. In grocery stores you will see the regular fruits and vegetables
then you have the organic ones. I feel that the only way to really know
what is truly organic or not is if you plant the food or kill the animal
yourself. So, starting a survival garden with heirloom seeds is the
best way to really know what fruits and vegetables you are getting,
while also having a renewable and reliable food source.
About Heirloom Seeds
The
next question to answer is: what are heirloom seeds? Heirloom seeds,
also called heritage seeds, are seeds that are generally 50 years old
and older. These heirloom seeds are valuable for a few different
reasons. One reason is that the vegetables taste much better than what
you buy at the store. Also, there is a much larger selection of
vegetables and fruits than what can be found at the grocery store and,
the reason that they are popular among preppers or survivalists, they
produce seeds that can be harvested and used in the next planting
season.
If you are going to start a survival garden able enough to
produce vegetables and fruits long after a disaster, you will want a
garden that produces a variety of delicious produce. At the grocery
store, the variety of produce you will find is quite small. Usually you
will only find 1 type of each vegetable which really limit the flavors
you will get. The selection of heirloom seeds for your survival garden
is almost ridiculous. You can normally find 30 – 50 different types of
each vegetable and fruit. If you don’t like orange carrots, you can try a
white or yellow carrot. Having a variety is always great, but even more
so when a disaster strikes and no food is left in the grocery store.
The
produce that comes from your survival garden will also taste better
than what you normally buy. The produce will probably not look the same
and can even have a different shape than what you may think of for a
certain vegetable. The flavor can also be somewhat different, but will
give you different flavors to keep you from getting bored with what you
grow.
The most important aspect of your survival garden is that it
should be sustainable. The standard seed packets you can buy are hybrid
seeds. Hybrid seeds have been genetically modified to provide much
larger harvests that look more uniform and can produce larger
vegetables. The down side to these seeds is that most of the harvest
does not produce more seeds, and/or the seeds will not produce
vegetables if planted. An heirloom seed may not produce the largest
harvest, but they are more valuable than a hybrid harvest as the seeds
can be saved the next year to replant your crop.
As you can see,
with a survival garden, heirloom seeds would be mandatory if you plan to
have crops every single year. Heirloom seeds can really lead to
self-sufficiency and can even lead to profit by selling some of your
harvest and/or the seeds. When there is a disaster, and the main source
of commerce is the barter system, your survival garden may save your
life and allow you to stock up on supplies. The price of heirloom seeds
may be a little higher than standard seeds, but the benefits are so
great that there is no reason these seeds should not be added to your
survival stockpile.