I started writing the following post over 4 months ago.  Then I got interrupted.  Some might say that was just a coincidence… But there had already been so many negative coincidences, all of them disrupting this project, and over so many months…

As I persisted in my intended direction, despite the feeling I was dragging my feet across quicksand trying to suck me down, with plenty of obstacles still coming at me, fast and furious, there was a moment when I questioned the presence, not of random events accidentally arising, but of some deliberate, intentional force blocking my progress…  Either that force was my own subconscious (just lazy or actually self-sabotaging), or…

Not to be paranoid about it, but already, a few years ago, I became convinced, in a reconnection with things I was taught in childhood, but then rejected as a young adult, that there is, indeed, a force for evil in the world, as well as a force for good…  Something, in the last few years, seems to have stirred the former up.  Today, this force even seems to be operating openly, all around us in society, and even in our own private lives…  I am aware of the suffering of others others who have been touched much more dramatically than I.  And I don’t know many who would really not understand what I’m talking about…  The whole world seems to be going to the devil, and in ways we never anticipated.  The question is, do you resist it and struggle to go forward on a positive path?  Or do you submit, stay put, keep quiet and stagnate?

In any case, after these four months of recently being sidelined, through no fault of my own, and another month of getting myself back on track, which means, as well as advancing my internet competence and renewing my commitment to all the considerations that motivated me to begin this adventure in the first place, here am I, taking the gauntlet up once again.

In the interim, our geo-political landscape has continued to change, transforming our world, in rhythm with the effects of the seasons on Nature around us.  Whatever people once thought about the warnings of coming want and restrictions, our present reality, whatever and whomever you want to blame it on, is that we are very likely going to have to face serious challenges to our basic survival, and in a probably quite near future…  And not the least of these challenges will be how to feed not only ourselves, but also those we love…

In my own case, I now find myself in an even more rural environment than five months ago.  The whole family is thrilled.   Instead of living in a rural town, we’re now in a village where there are no shops (although there is a church), and where the nearest grocery store is a 45 minute walk away, in the next village.

But, I do now have land of my own to cultivate, if I want.  So, I put my energy, in the last five weeks to creating a small vegetable patch outdoors.  I had to neglect ‘settling in’ in the house, or miss the last opportunity to plant outdoors this growing season, which would have been a regrettable waste…   So, I planted the squash seeds I had been collecting for months, from organic store-bought squash, sowing them around the roots of our olive trees, where the soil has lain fallow for years, becoming enriched by the fallen olives and their leaves, composting down naturally.  And, nearby, I put in a small raised-bed patch for other vegetables :  organic potatoes, some lettuce, some zuchini, some French-style green beans, and turnips.  I was going to plant peas, but I ended up leaving that row empty, for the moment, as the packet of pea seeds indicated they are a cool-weather crop (my neighbors are almost finished harvesting theirs now), so clearly I was too late for that, and the peas will have to wait…  I laid out two organic sweet potatoes, to grow slips from, to plant, but so far they have produced nothing…  And now, with all that done, I can turn once again to my indoor farming project…

Hereafter is what I wrote five months ago, before unfortunate circumstances intervened, totally disrupting my family, my life and all my projects :

I started my Indoor Farming adventure with an evening of brainstorming (that was in October of 2020)…  And I came up with a list of things I needed to find out about (like indoor lighting, and proper growing containers…) as well as a list of the veggies and fruits I wanted to grow, mainly because they are the veggies and fruits I eat regularly, and want to keep on eating.  For me, this was an excellent exercise to start with, and I have referred back to my brainstorming lists many times…

Veggies I Want to Grow

Your list may be different than mine (after all, I’m a vegetarian who loves vegetables!), but maybe you’ll be curious, both to compare my ideas with yours, or if you’re not such a big fan of vegetables, maybe my list will give you some impetus to choose…  Not only are my choices made on the basis of taste, but also, and concurrently, they are based on the density of nutrients these vegetables pack.  It’s a little like playing that childhood game of Robinson Crusoe stuck on a desert island, and what limited things would you choose to bring along with you (IF you could choose…).  And choosing our crops to grow, with survival in the face of want in mind, means focusing on the nutrition we will get back from the effort we make when we grow.

It seems to me important to point out (once again, as already previously done elsewhere on this site) that the Mini Ice Age our project is to provide leverage over, is nothing new.  Our species has weathered this same challenge already, and many times in the past, since the phenomenon repeats in cycles every four hundred years or so…  While previous experiences with Grand Solar Minimums did indeed pose challenges and claim victims, Humanity, as a species, survived each time, and did so (let’s not forget) without forwarnings, or the help of today’s technology, to soften the blows…  So, let’s gather up our courage and go out to meet this challenge with confidence!  Our ancesters managed, and so will we!

Here are the vegetables I want to cultivate indoors for year-round harvesting :

Vertical Veggies (grown in containers, with or without trellises) :   beans (for drying), green beans to eat fresh (as a vegetable, not a legume), peas (same as beans, both to eat fresh and to dry, for winter), zuchini, cucumbers, tomatoes (actually, a fruit), strawberries, lettuce, spinach, watercress, microgreens and sprouts.

Root vegetables (grown in extra deep soil containers) :  potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, onions, garlic

Other vegetables needing deep soil containers : leeks (We don’t eat onions out of consideration for our dogs and our cat, two species for which onions are on the danger list)

Vegetables needing soil containers and grown in the dark :  endive, mushrooms

‘Crawling’ vegetables (too heavy to grow vertically) :  pumpkin, butternut squash, hokaido squash (also known as potimarron)

Herbs (for flavoring dishes, but also for home-made medicinal remedies) :   parsley, sage, rosemary and (you guessed it…) thyme.  But add in, as well: oregano, a great anti-virus remedy (see our Helpful Tips), and maybe some basil (good for detoxing the liver as well as for making pesto…).

Spices :  ginger, curcuma

Seeds :  sesame, sunflower, buckwheat, amarante

Small Trees and Bushes (given enough room, perhaps on a terrace, enclosed or not) :  avocados, olives, apples, oranges, lemons, pears, grapes, berries, kiwis

Now, picking this subject up again, five months on, and unexpectedly blessed with land to cultivate, if I want, I am reminded that indoor veggies, even in such a lucious variety, are not all I want to eat and provide for my loved ones to eat.  Potatoes and sweet potatoes are bulky with fiber that satisfies, but there are other choices, too, in this category, that I can now hope to include in my crops…  The first of which would be buckwheat.  Not a grain, but a seed, like millet, quinoa, and amarante, buckwheat is rich in nutients and protein, and particularly good for keeping the body warm in cold weather.  Also, it has a short turnover time, so several harvests can be had in one growing season.  By the way, it is a wonderful food for people with allergies (being gluten free).  So, I’m working on getting the supplies I’ll need to try for a harvest or two this year…  More on this in a future post…

The question I then needed to decide was, how am I going to grow indoors.  Those automatic, electronic grow-tanks I reported on in the last post are tempting, being easy, neat, and quick solutions.  But on the other hand, they are relatively expensive, and the harvests are small.  If you have a family to feed, you would need several tanks, and the costs would add up.  Besides which, as I am not torn between an office job and my home life, since I am here, most of the time, and can tend to my crops, without automatic systems to replace me.

The next question was, what medium am I going to grow in : water or soil?  Doing some thinking about each, I finally decided to stick to soil, which, while it too requires initial equipment, will not later regularly require accessories, like grow cups, liquid nutrients (suppose they became unavailable?) and other paraphenalia.  That decision taken, I then had to decide on a growing plan.  I found many good ones on the internet, especially on YouTube, and so will you, when you do your research…  The one I chose is simple and inexpensive, while promising massive harvests…  I’ll be talking about it in an upcoming post…