Cold Times — How to Prepare for the Mini Ice Age

by Dr. Anita Bailey

  Native groups treated their whole corn kernels by soaking for a week or two in a solution of “lime”; this altered the corn and made the B vitamins available to human digestion. This is called “masa harina”, and is currently available corn flour in supermarkets.

  “Lime” is calcium hydroxide, to be sure, not the citrus juice, and not the same as agricultural lime. Lime starts out as calcium carbonate, from limestones, coral, chalk or from the shells of oysters or clams. The product is heated, burned really, until the carbon dioxide has been driven out – which leaves Calcium Oxide. Calcium Oxide is also known as “quicklime”, which is highly corrosive when wet – it used to be used in cemeteries to aid the decomposition of bodies. Even the smallest amount of moisture on skin combined with Calcium Oxide can cause terrible skin burns; handle with extreme caution!

  Calcium Oxide can be converted to Calcium Hydroxide by adding a small amount to water until the water heats up and evaporates. Do not breathe the fumes. A white powder is left behind, and that is the Calcium Hydroxide. When that powder is mixed with more water, it becomes a non-acidic highly alkaline solution.

  That’s the “lime” which corn is soaked in. Kernels are soaked until the husk comes loose, which can take a week or two. Then the corn is removed and rinsed to remove the lime and the husks. The lime water can be reused several times. The kernels are then sun dried, and when dry can be ground and used in any cooked product. It has a characteristic flavor that is well-known in Mexican cooking. DISCLAIMER: I have never made this and cannot give you safety pointers – this is for information only.

  You can purchase the equivalent right now, called Pickling Lime, anywhere that sells home canning and preserving supplies. Buy in quantity if you plan to lime your corn.

  Alternative Grains and Seeds

  During the Maunder Minimum, many lives were lost to starvation when grain crops failed, principally wheat, barley, and rye. In France, the failure of the wheat crops left nearly no food, since bread was the primary food of the poor. In countries where underground crops like potatoes, parsnips, and rutabagas were significant generally because grains were already unreliable, crop losses didn’t play as heavily into famines.

  The most familiar alternative grains are: oats, barley, and rye, with buckwheat running a distant cousin. Rye has some ability to tolerate cold growing seasons, and it used to be a common grain crop in Scandinavia. Oats were initially grown as horse feed in the British Isles – the saying was that one could tell when they got to Scotland, because they stopped feeding oats to the horses and ate it themselves. Barley, too, has some potential as a cool weather grain. Buckwheat is still a major crop in China, and a very minor one in the U.S. Just try to find a bag of pure buckwheat at the supermarket. Organic growers consider buckwheat a good “cover crop” that gets plowed under to enrich the soil, and the flowers attract bees. Buckwheat has a harsher flavor than wheat.

  Although these are familiar grains, none of them have the gluten content of wheat, so breads made from these lack the stretchy component that gives wheat breads their texture. These grains will make good quick breads (see recipes) though, and are tasty and filling meal additions.

  The challenge with each of these grains is that they are a bit harder to separate the grain kernels from the papery husks, so there’s more labor involved. Productivity per acre is likely to be lower than wheat, too. Furthermore, we don’t know how they’ll do in variable soils and hard weather. It might be worth your while to plant several “test plots” 10’x 10’ each, and experiment with these grains in your region.

  Some growers have turned toward ancient grains and seeds as an alternative to wheat and corn. There’s some question about whether these will be commercial successes or not – the public is accustomed to eating a certain way, and it takes quite a bit of prodding to make a change if one doesn’t have to. Of course, we may have to. At this writing, these are minor, niche, specialized items in modern diets.

  Sunflowers

  One of the most familiar is the sunflower seed. It is high in protein and oil, tasty raw or roasted, and can also be used in breads and cooking. The challenge is that it has to be shelled first. Shelling by hand is so time consuming as to be unlikely in all but the most dire situations. Shelling machines, which partially crush the shells and allow the softer seed to come lose, are available online from multiple sources. Most originate in China. Homemade shellers could conceivably be made utilizing a hand crank, rollers, and gravity feed.

  The sunflower heads are ready to harvest when the back of the flower has turned yellow and the petals are browning. If you wait too long after this, birds will get the seeds or they will fall to the ground. Cut each head off leaving a stem “handle”, and bring under cover to finish drying. Heads are dry when you can brush seeds loose easily.

  You can feed the sunflowers to livestock, or consume them yourself as “raw” seeds. Or, soak the seeds in salty water, 1 cup salt to 1 gallon water, for 6-8 hours. Remove seeds and air dry. Roast in a warm 300oF oven for a half hour or so. Cool. Ready to eat.

  After shelling, the seeds separate from the shells by dunking all in water. The shell bits float and can be readily swept off. The seeds alone can then be quickly dried, soaked in salt water and toasted – and there’s a snack that’s tasty and good for you. Or, merely dried and utilized later.

  Livestock can eat sunflower seeds and their shells without any issues, if they are introduced to them over several days. A typical yield might be anywhere from 1200 to 1800 pounds of seed per acre. They are easy to grow on moderately fertile soil.

  Quinoa and Amaranth

  Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) and amaranth are Central and South American grains, grown by the ancient major civilizations as a high protein food source. Both are relatively easy to grow and productive, with each plant providing around a pound or two of grain. Both quinoa and amaranth can substitute for rice and are cooked in a similar fashion. It’s possible to pop quinoa in a heated skillet like popcorn, but the grains are slightly smaller than a mustard seed so they are not quite like what you’d get at a theater while watching a movie.

  Quinoa is related to amaranth, and both are undemanding plants. Quinoa that can grow in temperatures ranging from 25oF to 95 oF, as long as not in overly wet ground and the freezing doesn’t happen when they are flowering. Leaves are edible but bitter from saponin content, so generally are not eaten. Plants grow from about 4 to 6 feet tall, and form a large flower head on top, with smaller heads from sprouts near where leaves form. Each flowering part ripens at a slightly different time, so they need to be monitored. When the heads ripen, they need to be cut and hung to dry because they will drop their seeds if left on the plant. Once they are dry, the seed heads are threshed like wheat, winnowed to remove chaff, then dried for storage. Each seed still has a coating that can make it taste bitter from saponins, so before cooking they need to be washed and rubbed until the coating comes off. It doesn’t take much effort. Then, cook like rice.

  Amaranth is related to the common edible weed lamb’s quarters, too, and to the invasive spiny pigweed indigenous to south central and south eastern US. Pigweed appears where ever the soil is disturbed, as when plowing a garden. It’s a huge nuisance plant. The good news is that wherever pigweed grows, grain amaranth will also thrive.

  Amaranth leaves are edible and tasty when young, tough when older. Different species of amaranth have different uses, including producing edible leaves and seeds, using the roots as dye, and growing for a flowering ornamental. Love Lies Bleeding is an amaranth. Like quinoa, it is undemanding and can grow on relatively poor soil. The seed varieties form a large seed head on the top, weighing up to about 2 pounds with a half million teeny seeds present. If high winds are an issue, you may have to stake the plants so they don’t fall over and lose their seeds. Harvest like quinoa before the seed heads shatter. Cooking improves the flavor. Black amaranth seed has a stronger “mousie” flavor, while white seeds are milder and nuttier. It may cross with wild plan
ts.

  Both amaranth and quinoa are free of gluten. Both lend themselves to harvesting by hand and a small garden spot 4’x8’ can easily produce 20 pounds, perhaps 1500 pounds per acre.

  Fast and Long Producers

  Plants have been developed that are, generally, of two types: those that come to harvest quickly for a “group” harvest (such as for commercial canning); and those that will stand in the garden throughout the season and produce for daily or weekly fresh consumption.

  One example of fast vs. long is the two varieties of beans, bush beans versus pole beans. Bush beans grow into a small plant rapidly and then flower and produce a large harvest of pods. These can all be picked at about the same time, processed and preserved for use throughout winter. You can leave bush beans in the garden, and sometimes you’ll get a second but much smaller harvest – and then the plants really decline. Typically, after the first big crop, bush bean plants are pulled and something else is planted in the row.

  Pole beans, on the other hand, grow more slowly and require a tall arbor or fence to grow up and over. They flower intermittently and form pods over the entire growing season, never really giving a huge single crop. My favorite pole bean is Missouri Wonder, available from Baker Seeds (see references). This is a true old-style “string” bean, one with fibrous strings at the pod seams that need to be removed before cooking or fresh eating – the flavor is boldly beany, and the dried seeds can be used is soups, chili, or for refried beans. Best of all, the plants are tolerant of rough growing conditions. I’ve had “volunteer” beans for several years from pods missed during harvest, enough that I didn’t have to plant my saved seeds. Japanese beetles, which decimate most other bean leaves, hardly bother these at all, which assures you get a harvest.

  In a garden aimed toward storage food AND fresh eating, both bush beans and pole beans have a place. Always let some of the plants remain and go to seed – that’s next year’s beans.

  If you like dried beans used in soups and chili, many of these are the bush-bean type. Plant these and harvest when the pods are drying on the plant. Should Cold come unseasonably, pull the entire plants, tie together in bunches, and hang them upside down in a cool garage or shed. Shell out the bean seeds when the pods and the entire plant are dry.

  The same division is true in tomato plants: there are fast “determinate” and long “indeterminate” varieties. Determinate tomatoes typically grow few side sprouts, reach full size, produce the main crop of fruit, and like bush beans are then pulled and something else is planted in the row. They will continue to fruit intermittently if left in the ground, but you won’t get a big second crop.

  Indeterminate tomatoes, on the other hand, will form many side sprouts and keep growing as long as the conditions are suitable. When I lived in Southern California, I had a very large and bushy indeterminate cherry tomato that just kept growing and producing for three years – through all seasons. It never got below freezing there then. It probably would have kept on indefinitely, but we needed the space for something else, so it was removed.

  So, read the plant descriptions when you select seeds – get fast (bush/determinate) and long (pole/vining/indeterminate) producers of everything you really enjoy. You will have a large garden space, anyway, and the more edibles you can grow the better off you and yours will be.

  A Little More About Tomatoes

  When you’re shopping for seeds, look for varieties that are “short season” or “early”. There are tomatoes that produce small fruit as early as 7 to 9 weeks after planting, and have some tolerance to cool but not freezing weather. If your season is unusually short, you may still be able to get a harvest from one of these varieties. Plant names include Ildi (53 days), Stupice (52 days), Oregon Spring (60 days), and 42 Days (42 days).

  Most folks tend to grow large size tomatoes. I suppose if you like large whole or chunk tomatoes in soups or stewed or to have slicing tomatoes for sandwiches or burgers, you’d require these -- at least a few plants. Each plant can give you 5 to 7 pounds of tomatoes, on average; it takes 2-3 pounds to fill a quart jar as sauce. However, I’ve found that cherry tomatoes are just as good sauced and a LOT easier to prepare, plus super productive over the entire season. Instead of blanching and removing the skins from big tomatoes, I just throw handfuls of cherry tomatoes into the blender – then cook the slurry down by about a third. Then I can them in a water bath with a teaspoon of salt and vinegar per quart. The end result is a delicious pure tomato sauce that can be spiced any way we want and used for soup base, pasta sauce, chili, pizza sauce, salsa, whatever.

  If you have to, you can cover tomato plants during a freeze spell – use lots of straw or hay thickly over everything, and then put a tarp or plastic cover over that and tie or weight it down so it doesn’t blow during the freeze; blankets will do in a pinch. If the weather warms up within a week or so and doesn’t get terribly cold below about 28oF for an extended period, your plants can survive and come back. They will look wilted and unhappy after being covered, but they’ll perk right up and continue to grow as long as the weather is warm enough.

  Should it look like it’s going to be too cold to continue growing tomatoes, pick all your green fruit, even the tiny ones. Full size tomatoes will ripen to red if left on a countertop and checked daily for soft spots. Use those first. Use right away, or cook down for fresh sauces. You can also make green tomato salsa, or even green tomato pasta sauce – the flavor is not as rich as red tomatoes, and perhaps even has a more fruity quality. Green tomatoes can also be sliced, breaded and fried. It’s all edible, however prepared. Tomato leaves and stems, however, are inedible and can make you sick.

  Starting Seeds

  If you have not already done so, it’s time to buy seeds. Don’t just get the “survival seed packs,” because it might not be what you want, the type of plants you want, or enough of a given variety. It may not have enough cold-weather type plants, either. Instead, check out the seed displays at groceries and hardware and home improvement stores. Buy catalogs from multiple sources – just type “seeds for sale” in any search engine, and you’ll get thousands of sources. Companies I have used and had good open pollinated seeds from include: Baker Seeds, Territorial Seed, Seed Saver’s Exchange, Park Seed, Gurney’s, Jung, Totally Tomatoes, and Burpee.

  Types of seeds: OP, Hybrid, and GMOs

  Look for ONLY “open pollinated” (OP) seed – by law, it must say on the seed package or plant description if a variety is hybrid. If it does not say “hybrid”, it may be OP. Because OP is more desirable now, many sellers will identify OP plants on packages or descriptions. Open pollinated seed will breed “true”, producing the same type of plant year after year, with predictable characteristics.

  Many, but not all, open pollinated seeds are also “heirloom” – technically, an older type of vegetable or fruit. The word “heirloom” is often used interchangeably with “open-pollinated”, although there are heirloom type plants that are actually hybrids. Some tomatoes great grandpa grew were commercial hybrids, for example. Many heirlooms have a richer flavor than more modern produce.

  Heirlooms were originally developed during hardier times and often have natural strengths that are missing in modern varieties. OP heirlooms may not have some other characteristic such as long “hold” time, or tolerance to bruising that make modern varieties acceptable for shipping and sitting on supermarket shelves.

  Hybrids are actually “cross bred” seeds, produced by taking plants from different family lines and crossing them together, rather like taking a collie dog and crossing it with a beagle. The resulting puppy is still get a “dog”, and being a crossbred it will have improved characteristics over both parents, something known as hybrid vigor.

  The same is true in hybrid plants. They might be stronger, have thicker stems, produce earlier or have tastier fruit than either parent. BUT, if you save seeds from your hybrid veggies, you don’t know what it will produce: the seeds might be sterile, like a mule, or might produce som
ething like one or the other parent, or might revert to an earlier ancestor. If you plant seed from commercial tomatoes, which are hybrids, the offspring are almost always a cherry-type. Still edible, but unpredictable.

  GMOs are “genetically modified organisms.” The term is usually applied to plants, but can also apply to an animal whose embryonic cells have been subject to laboratory gene-splicing technology. These are NOT the products of crossbreeding, such as occurs with hybrids; these are actually plants or animals that have had some other genes added to their cells by laboratory manipulation. Pigs, for example, have had human genes added during the embryo stage of fetal development; the resulting animals are used for studies of certain human medications. Or corn that has bacteria added to give it resistance to corn ear worms. Or grain that has had so many different genetics added for resistance to herbicides that it barely resembles what our ancestors grew.

  GMOs are typically patented and some have “terminator” genes that prevent the offspring plants’ seeds from growing – hence, the patent holder can charge whatever they want for the next generation’s seeds; they’ve even brought patent lawsuits against people who unknowingly grew the seeds without a license. No long term testing on the safety of these foods in human diets has ever been done. Depending on who you talk to, animal tests indicate GMOs interfere with digestion, metabolism, fertility, and neural development – or are perfectly harmless.

  There’s so much biologically, historically, and morally wrong with this picture, that entire books have been written on the GMO controversy. Suffice it to say here that GMO seeds are not a viable option for sustaining oneself in the future. Please do note that GMO genetics have escaped into the wild, especially for wind-pollinated plants such as corn, so that finding seeds that are tested as free of GMOs is difficult – and such seeds are higher priced than untested seeds. However, if you have no other sources, eating GMO is better than starving. Just get away from it as soon as you can.