Thread: BASIC LIST / SUGGESTED ITEMS FOR LONG TERM SURVIVAL

Looks great ... thanks Kathyet

Monday, February 14, 2011

10 Tips to Simplify or Survive During Hard Times

Many of us are caught in the precarious position of being intellectually aware that we are heading into a worsening economy with signs of a looming global food crisis, and feel as though we must simplify or streamline our lifestyle to prepare for possible disruptions in our standard of living. In a world where consumption has become a sport, you may actually find it more satisfying to shed some material weight. Even if your financial situation is not too dire, it is still a sensible idea to keep preparedness in mind.

An increasing segment of the population is already feeling the pinch from losing a job, while the cost of living continues to increase. This group has no choice but to get creative in the way they manage their limited resources for optimal survival. The key to becoming a content minimalist/survivalist is to develop the most efficient ways to provide for basic necessities. The goal is simple: reduce your daily, weekly, and monthly expenses without giving up items that keep you sane.

We can look at the extreme examples like The Moneyless Man, Mark Boyle, for inspiration. His book is an essential guide into the techniques, as well as the lifestyle that has enabled him to live completely and happily off the grid, without money, for more than 2 years. His radical path is not one that many people would choose, however he proves that you can survive with very little money if that is your goal.

Outlined below are some relatively painless and often rewarding tips to survive hard times on a shoestring, or to free up additional funds for discretionary spending.

Turn Off the TV: Why does anyone with an Internet connection still pay for TV service? You can get your news and sports fix, and find all of your favorite movies and shows online. The rest is just expensive noise. Join the growing trend and cut out your paid TV service. You'll find the financial savings is just a minor part of the benefits to unplugging. If you absolutely need to watch your favorite team's important games, you may have to get to know your neighbors or socialize at a friend's house.

Make Your Own: With the TV now turned off, we'll have plenty of time to produce things we would normally purchase. Our modern world of conveniences has stripped much of our knowledge of how to support ourselves. One of the costliest and least healthy areas of our daily lives are cleaning and personal care products. Using very basic ingredients you can minimize most toxic chemicals in your household, as well as save money for items that help optimize your simplicity. Personal care products such as soap, shampoo, and deodorant are simple and cheap to make at home. Three ingredients to keep on hand; baking soda, distilled vinegar, and Dr. Bronners.

Minimize Transportation: Cars are one the most expensive items we think we need to be functional or happy. They've also become one of those staple luxury items that shows your status in society. Let this illusion go; it's far more important to have your simplicity and the extra savings. Understandably, personal vehicles are necessary in many areas that have inadequate or no public transportation, and cars also represent a tool of trade, as well as personal freedom. But if your family has multiple cars, consider if it is feasible to eliminate one of them. If not, budget and plan wisely for limiting all costs related to the car; fuel, insurance, maintenance, etc.

Reduce Household Energy Use: Conserving energy is one of the most obvious ways to reduce monthly bills. The topic has been written about and promoted for years. You already know the easy stuff like turning off lights, turning the hot-water heater down or off when not in use. But now it's finally time to get conscious of your precise energy use and begin to turn the meter back using all tactics. Look into supplementing with solar power or other alternative sources to become as self-sufficient as possible.


Produce Your Own Food: The most important step that anyone can take, immediately, is to design a simple garden. With 15% to 20% of the average household budget spent on food, and prices skyrocketing everyday, discovering ways to prepare for food inflation is vital to survival. A low-cost way of producing food off-the-grid is always a great investment no matter the economic conditions. Nearly everyone can engage in some level of food production to save money and increase independence.

Boycott Big Box Stores: There's a belief that big box stores like Wal-Mart provide the only option available to those on a tight budget who need to get cheap items. Although Wal-Mart does indeed sell many items at low prices, a recent study shows that Wal-Mart stores have repeatedly destabilized the economy of local communities where they are located. Therefore, we should consider the larger picture and support small, local businesses in our quest for simplicity. We also should do our best to avoid frivolous boredom shopping altogether, which big box stores encourage, and resist our culture's tendency to to make unnecessary impulse purchases based solely on an item's "special" price.

Buy Local: If we hope to restore prosperity to our communities, and ourselves, we can start by supporting truly local producers instead of mega-corporations. In many cases you'll find that essential items like food, used tools, and other items can be found far cheaper than at big box stores -- if not free. You can begin giving true support to your local community, while obtaining healthier food, by searching for farmers markets and family farms close to where you live. Local Harvest has a database that can be searched by zip code. By connecting with a local farmer, you can obtain healthier produce, often at a much lower cost, while strengthening your local economy.

Foraging: We should re-learn the ability to forage. There is no shame in foraging and many items can be found in our throw-away culture. Even if you can afford to buy something new, discovering a vintage used item for less, or perhaps free, is something to be extremely proud of. This isn't middle school anymore where you must have shiny new brand name items to be accepted. Your current friends won't disown you for being more frugal. In fact, when they see your pride of accomplishment on an amazing deal or find, they will likely be envious. As they say, one person's trash is another person's treasure. Happy hunting!

Freecycle Bartering: Beyond the "green" trappings of the Freecycle Movement lies the heart of the best survival technique of all: cooperation. According to Recycling Group Finder, there are nearly 5,000 groups with over 8 million members in 85 countries looking to trade or give away items that are otherwise may be destined for the landfill. On Mark Boyle's website, Just For The Love of It, he has a wealth of resources to live within what he has termed the Freeconomy. Here you can meet people, learn skills, trade tools and survival items, and even write about your own experiences to help educate others.

Do it Yourself: If you absolutely must have your nails manicured or get frequent haircuts, why not do them yourself? Is it that important to have a "professionally" groomed hairdo? Determine what services that you pay for that can be done yourself. Mow your own lawn, wash your own car and change your own oil; hand wash your dishes instead of piling them into the dishwasher; and learn other new skills for increased self-sufficiency.

We are eager to hear your ideas about what has worked in your own life. Please leave a comment, or submit your own article that can help others to gain independence.

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/02/...ve-during.html

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Conversion Charts

Conversion Charts:Easy Conversions Common Kitchen Equivalents Oven Temperatures Some Formulas Capacity of Round Pans Linear Measure Equivalents Square Measure Equivalents Cubic Measure Equivalents Liquid or Fluid Measure Equivalents Metric Equivalents for Liquid or Fluid Measure Weight Equivalents Paper Equivalents Weight of Water Equivalents Mesh Measure Equivalents Metric Units	Calculators: (These calculators utilize simple JavaScript.) Temperature Converter Lengths Converter Weights Converter Liquid Converter Time Converter Calorie Counter Body Mass Index Related Pages: -Electronic Recipe Calculators and Magnetic Conversion Charts -Fantes.com Main Page
Accuracy and Consistency are the two most useful tools of good cooking. We hope that these free charts and calculators will assist you in your cooking, whether in translating metric to imperial measures in recipes, or in helping you get the right oven temperature for your baking. Use the additional, non-cooking-related information for other everyday calculations.

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Easy Conversions Multiply By To Get Millimeters x 0.0394 = Inches Centimeters x 0.3937 = Inches Inches x 25.4 = Millimeters Inches x 2.54 = Centimeters Feet x 30.48 = Centimeters Meters x 3.281 = Feet Square Inches x 6.45 = Square Centimeters Square Centimeters x 155 = Square Inches Square Meters x 10.76 = Square Feet Cubic Centimeters x .0610 = Cubic Inches Cubic Centimeters x 0.0011 = Quarts Cubic Feet x 1728 = Cubic Inches Cubic Feet x 28.32 = Liters Cubic Inches x 0.004329 = Gallons Drams x .0625 = Ounces Drams x 1.7718 = Grams Liters x 0.2642 = U.S. Gallons Fluid Ounces x 29.57 = Milliliters Fluid Ounces x .02957 = Liters Milliliters x 0.03382 = Fluid Ounces Gallons of Water x 8.35 = Pounds of Water Pounds of Water x 27.65 = Cubic Inches Gallons x 231 = Cubic Inches Grams x 0.0353 = Ounces Ounces x 28.35 = Grams Pounds x .45359 = Kilograms Kilograms x 2.2046 = Pounds Grams x 15.43 = Grains Watts x 0.001341 = Horsepower Amps x Volts = Watts Atmospheres x 14.7 = Lbs per square inch Horsepower x .7457 = Kilowatts British Thermal Units x 3.927 x 10-4 = Horsepower-hours British Thermal Units x 2.928 x 10-4 = Kilowatt-hours Or... divide the Right column by the Middle column to get the value in the Left column. Top Common Kitchen Equivalents Standard Equivalent Equivalent One pinch or dash 1/16 teaspoon 1 teaspoon 5 ml 1/6 ounce 1 tablespoon 3 teaspoons 1/2 ounce 1/4 cup 4 tablespoons 2 ounces 1/3 cup 5 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon 3 ounces 1/2 cup 8 tablespoons 4 ounces 1 gill 1/2 cup 4 ounces 1 cup 16 tablespoons 8 ounces 1 pint 2 cups 16 ounces 1 quart 4 cups 32 ounces 1 quart 2 pints 32 ounces 1 gallon 4 quarts 128 ounces 1 peck 8 quarts 1 bushel 4 pecks 1 pound dry measure 16 ounces tsp = teaspoon t = tablespoon oz = ounce c = cup pt = pint qt = quart bu = bushel lb = pound Top Oven Temperatures 225°F 110°C Gas Mark 1/4 Very slow / Very cool 250 120 Gas Mark 1/2 Very slow / Very cool 275 140 Gas Mark 1 Slow / Cool 300 150 Gas Mark 2 Slow / Cool 325 160 Gas Mark 3 Warm / Very Moderate 350 180 Gas Mark 4 Moderate 375 190 Gas Mark 5 Moderately hot / Fairly hot 400 200 Gas Mark 6 Moderately hot / Fairly hot 425 220 Gas Mark 7 Hot 450 230 Gas Mark 8 Very hot 475 240 Gas Mark 9 Very hot - Temperature equivalents are not exact - only a guide. Consult your oven's manual for its particular settings. - Settings for convection ovens should be about 50°F (c. 25°C) less than the above. - Remember to use an oven thermometer to check the actual temperature of your oven, as they do occasionally need to be re-calibrated. Top Some Formulas Area of Square Side Squared Area of Circle 3.1415927 x Radius Square Area of Sphere 4 x 3.1415927 x Radius Squared Area of Parallelogram Base x Height Circumference of Circle 2 x 3.1415927 x Radius Volume of Rectangular Box Length x Width x Height Volume of Cone 1/3 x 3.1415927 x Radius Squared x Height Volume of Cylinder 3.1415927 x Radius Squared x Height Volume of Sphere 4 x 3.1415927 x Radius Cubed ÷ 3 Volume of Cube Side Cubed a = area c = circumference v = volume sq = square cu = cubic r = radius d = diameter l = length w = width h = height s = side Pi = 3.1415927 (approx) Top How to figure out the capacity of a round (cylindrical) container Learn ahead of cooking or baking... ...How much batter to put in a cake pan, or ...How much liquid a non-marked sauce pan will hold, for example. The formula is intended for straight-sided pans, however you can also get a good approximation of capacity First take these measurements: For the Radius: Measure across the inside of the pan, and divide by two. (Multiply this figure by itself to get the Radius Squared for the formula.) For the Height: Measure from the inside bottom up to the fill line. (Measure up to the lip of the pan if you're filling it to the brim.) 3-part formula: (1) Pi x r² x h = volume (in cubic inches) (2) volume / 231 = percentage of gallon (3) percentage of gallon x 128 = capacity (in ounces) Pi = 3.1415927 231 = Cubic Inches in a Gallon of Liquid 128 = Ounces in a gallon r = Radius = one half the Diameter r² = Radius Squared = Radius x Radius h = Height x = times / = divided by Therefore, using your calculator: (1) 3.1415927 times Radius Squared times Height = Volume (2) Volume divided by 231 = Percentage of 1 Gallon (3) Percentage of 1 Gallon times 128 = Capacity in Liquid Ounces Top Linear Measure Equivalents 1 micron 0.001 mm 1 in 2.54 cm 1 hand 4 in 1/3 ft 1 span 9 in 1 ft 12 in 30.48 cm 0.3 m 1 yd 3 ft 1 m 3.28 ft 39.37 in 1 fathom 6 ft 1 rod, pole or perch 16.5 ft 5.5 yd 1 furlong 660 ft 220 yd 40 poles 1 km 0.62 mi 1 mi 5,280 ft 1,760 yd 8 furlongs 1 mi 320 rods 1.61 km 1 league 3 mi in = inch ft = foot yd = yard mi = mile cm = centimeter m = meter km = kilometer Top Square Measure Equivalents 144 square inches 1 square foot 9 square feet 1 square yard 30.25 square yards 1 square rod 160 square rods 1 acre 640 acres 1 square mile Top Cubic Measure Equivalents 1728 cubic inches 1 cubic foot 27 cubic feet 1 cubic yard Top Liquid (Fluid) Measure Equivalents 0.125 oz 1 fl dram 60 minims 1 oz 8 fl drams 4 oz 1 gill 8 oz 1 c 16 oz 2 c 1 pt 32 oz 4 c 2 pt 1 qt 33.8 oz 4.23 c 2.1134 pt 1.0567 qt 0.264 gal 1 l 128 oz 16 c 8 pt 4 qt 1 gal 3.7853 l 4032 oz 1 bbl 3.94 pt 7.875 qt 31.5 gal 8064 oz 1 hhd 7.875 pt 15.75 qt 63 gal fl = fluid oz = ounce c = cup pt = pint qt = quart gal = gallon bbl = barrel hhd = hogshead l = liter Top Metric Equivalents, Liquid or Fluid Measure Or Dry Liquid 1 centiliter 0.6102 cubic inches 0.338 ounces 1 deciliter 10 centiliters 6.102 cubic inches .0845 gill 1 liter 10 deciliters 0.908 quart 1.0567 quarts 1 decaliter 10 liters 9.08 quarts 2.64 gallons cl = centiliter dl = deciliter l = liter dal = decaliter cu in = cubic inch oz = ounce qt = quart gal = gallon Top Weight Equivalents Avoirdupois 16 drams 437.5 grains 1 ounce 28.35 grams 16 ounces 7000 grains 1 pound 453.59 grams 1 pound 0.45 kilograms 1 kilogram 2.2 pounds 100 pounds 1 central 1 hundredweight 2000 pounds 1 short ton 2204.6 pounds 1 metric ton 1000 kilograms 2240 pounds 1 long ton or gross ton Also (in Great Britain) 14 pounds 1 stone 2 stones 1 quarter 4 quarters 112 pounds 1 hundredweight 20 hundredweight 1 long ton Troy (Precious Metals) 24 grains 1 pennyweight 20 pennyweights 480 grains 1 ounce 12 ounces 5760 grains 1 pound Apothecaries' Weight 20 grains 1scruple 3 scruples 1 dram 8 drams 1 ounce 12 ounces 5760 grains 1 pound Top Paper 24 sheets 1 quire 20 quires 1 short ream 480 sheets 500 sheets 1 ream 10 reams 1 bale Top Weight of Water 1 cubic inch .0360 pound 1 cubic foot 62.3 pounds 1 cubic foot 7.48052 U.S. gallons 1 Imperial gallon 10.0 pounds 1 U.S. gallon 8.33 pounds Top Mesh Equivalents U.S. MESH INCHES MICRONS MILLIMETERS 3 0.2650 6730 6.730 4 0.1870 4760 4.760 5 0.1570 4000 4.000 6 0.1320 3360 3.360 7 0.1110 2830 2.830 8 0.0937 2380 2.380 10 0.0787 2000 2.000 12 0.0661 1680 1.680 14 0.0555 1410 1.410 16 0.0469 1190 1.190 18 0.0394 1000 1.000 20 0.0331 841 0.841 25 0.0280 707 0.707 30 0.0232 595 0.595 35 0.0197 500 0.500 40 0.0165 400 0.400 45 0.0138 354 0.354 50 0.0117 297 0.297 60 0.0098 250 0.250 70 0.0083 210 0.210 80 0.0070 177 0.177 100 0.0059 149 0.149 120 0.0049 125 0.125 140 0.0041 105 0.105 170 0.0035 88 0.088 200 0.0029 74 0.074 230 0.0024 63 0.063 270 0.0021 53 0.053 325 0.0017 44 0.044 400 0.0015 37 0.037 625 0.0008 20 0.020 1250 0.0004 10 0.010 2500 0.0002 5 0.005 Top Metric Units Linear Measure 1 centimeter 10 millimeters 1 decimeter 10 centimeters 100 millimeters 1 meter 10 decimeters 100 centimeters 1000 millimeters 1 decameter 10 meters 100 decimeters 1000 centimeters 1 hectometer 10 decameters 100 meters 1000 decimeters 1 kilometer 10 hectometers 100 decameters 1000 meters mm = millimeter cm = centimeter dm = decimeter m = meter km = kilometer Square Measure 1 sq. cm. 100 sq. mm. 1 sq. dm. 100 sq. cm. 10,000 sq. mm. 1 sq. m. 100 sq. dm. 10,000 sq. cm. 1,000,000 sq. mm. Cubic Measure 1 cu. cm. 1,000 cu. mm. 1 cu. dm. 1,000 cu. cm. 1 cu. m. 1,000 cu. dm. Liquid Measure 1 centiliter 10 milliliters 1 deciliter 10 centiliters 1 liter 10 deciliters 1 decaliter 10 liters 1 hectoliter 10 decaliters 1 kiloliter 10 hectoliters Weights 1 centigram 10 milligrams 1 decigram 10 centigrams 100 milligrams 1 gram 10 decigrams 100 centigrams 1000 milligrams 1 decagram 10 grams 1 hectogram 10 decagrams 100 grams 1 kilogram 10 hectograms 100 decagrams 1000 grams 1 quintal 100 kilograms 1 ton 10 quintals 1000 kilograms mg = milligram cg = centigram dg = decigram g = gram kg = kilogram

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Convert From Convert To ccmloztsptbspcuppintquartlitergl ccmloztsptbspcuppintquartlitergl Liquid Volume To Convert Converted Liquid Volume

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Body Mass Index

Enter your weight in kilograms and your height in centimeters in the form below and press the "Let's see" button to get an "estimated" Body Mass Index and a snide comment. Your Weight (kg) Your Height (cm) Your BMI Comment

Lbs. & In. Calculate your Weight in Lbs divided by your Height in Inches Squared Multiply the result by 703Body Mass Index & Comment 18.5-24.9 Healthy 25-29.9 Overweight 30-39.9 Obese 40+ Morbidly obese

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Conversion tables / unit conversion online

Looking for a conversion chart? You've found the right place. Here you can make online conversions (e.g. metric conversions) for many measurement systems. We provide conversion tables for both common (U.S., metric, etc.) and quite exotic units like Ancient Greek and Roman. You can also ask your questions and discuss how to convert units on our Units Conversion Forum. Please start by choosing the conversion you need.

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Freeze Dried Food Update: Shortages Will Continue In 2011, Largest Manufacturer Suspends Distribution To Smaller Dealers

Mac Slavo
February 18th, 2011
Comments 32

In December of 2010 Oregon Freeze Dry, the manufacture of the popular Mountain House brand of freeze dried food products, advised that confirmed that an explosion in demand had led to supply shortages at their production facilities. Mountain House retail sales manager Melanie Cornutt advised SHTF Plan that larger distributors and dealers were receiving limited stocks of inventory, and that Mountain House was unable to provide freeze dried foods in #10 cans to smaller distributors due to significant global demand. “We anticipate this to continue through February/March of 2011. This timing may change, but as of today, this is the best estimate we have,” said Cormutt in a December 10th, 2010 correspondence.
A February 9, 2011 faxed letter from Mountain House to customers, and made available online by Steve Quayle, indicates that the supply issues have not abated, and Mountain House continues to experience high demand for their freeze dried food products, specifically the #10 cans, which are larger quantity containers that can hold up to 13 cups, or roughly six pounds, of food.

Oregon Freeze Dry Letter to Customers [pdf] via Steve Quayle:
This is an update on Oregon Freeze Dry’s #10 can situation. Because the demand for our #10 cans remains very high, we continue to be unable to meet all #10 can needs. OFD is allocating as much of our Production Capacity as possible to this market segment, while still allowing us to meet requirements in other markets.
Unfortunately, we cannot open sales to all previous dealers. We continue to sell allocated quantities to our long-time, largest customers/distributors.
We expect this situation to remain until at least this summer. At this point, we are not able to predict an actual date as to when we can open sales to all current dealers.
I wanted to share with you a recent company announcement to show that we are working on making improvements to be able to address these sudden increases in food storage demand. Our President, Jim Merryman, has signed off a multi-million dollar capital project to make some plant modifications that will increase our capacity. These modifications will start in May 2011 and we estimate the project to be complete by September 2011.
I know how difficult this situation is for each of you and your business. I truly feel your frustration and OFD is working incredibly hard to turn this situation around as quickly as possible.
Sincerely,
Oregon Freeze Dry, Inc.
Melanie Cornutt
Sales Manager, Retail

This supply crunch with the largest freeze dried manufacturer in the world should provide insight into the general sentiment of Americans with regards to the perception that hard times are coming, or are already here, and that many believe things can get much worse.
As we pointed out in our December 2010 report, both Mountain House and several of their largest distributors, advised us that the primary reasons cited for growing demand were fears of a collapsing US dollar due to monetary expansion, loss of confidence in in our government to control the economic crisis, and rising food costs worldwide.
It’s obvious based on the difficulty Mountain House is having in keeping up with demand that end consumer purchasing is not a result of more Americans requiring freeze dried food for camping trips.
People are stocking up – just in case.
While freeze dried food may not be readily available, we recommend to those of our readers concerned with rising food prices and the possibility of disruptions to US food supply inventories resulting from a collapsing currency or other disasters, that they focus instead on reserve and long-term storage utilizing non-freeze dried food products.

• Dehydrated food, which are simply processed via a dehydrator by removing the majority of its liquid. They will store for extended periods of time, especially if packaged properly utilizing vacuum sealing techniques and/or oxygen absorbers. Dehydrated carrots, apples and milk, for example, have a shell life of over 15 years if dehydrated and sealed properly.
• Dry Goods such as wheat, rice, beans, pastas and instant oats if stored properly utilizing #10 canning, large buckets with mylar bags and oxygen absorber packets, or vacuum sealed bags and oxygen absorber packets, can store upwards of 20 years. For the time being, these goods are readily available at grocery stores, though some large bulk suppliers have advised supply problems have been developing for several months as crops around the world have been damaged due to drought and freezing weather.
• Meals Ready to Eat. MRE’s are an excellent substitute for freeze dried food and can be used as a simple 30 – 60 day reserve food supply. Depending on the temperatures in the environment in which they are stored, MRE’s can last from 5 – 7 years, and anecdotal evidence suggests it is even longer than that. MRE’s are still available from preparedness product distributors for the time being.

In general, freeze dried food is only part of a complete food preparedness plan which should include a variety of foods, as well as sugar, salt, dry soups, jams, dried fruit drinks and cooking essentials like oil, baking soda and yeast.
The freeze dried food supply crunch is a significant indicator of a developing trend. Higher food prices and less supply is going mainstream already. Buyers of freeze dried food, often people who are “in the know” in terms of non-mainstream news, are the first adopters. The rest of the populace will eventually catch on, at which point we may very well see Oregon Freeze Dry’s problems hit larger, traditional distributors, especially if we happen across a currency crisis that forces people to exchange their dollars for hard goods or face a complete loss of purchasing power.
We maintain, as we wrote in Wealth Preservation, Investing, and Prepping For Hard Times, that purchasing commodities (food) now, can only benefit you and your family in the long run:

“If you are a prepper, for example, who is already stocking essentials foods and goods, you’re way ahead of the game. As commodity prices continue to rise for a variety of reasons, your “investment� is paying off in real terms. Buy 10 pounds of rice today for $10, and when that same bag of rice goes to $20 a year or two from now, you can say you earned a 100% return on your investment! And the great thing about your investment, is you don’t have any counter party risk, for the most part, meaning that you own the physical good and it is in your possession — you take delivery at any time!�

Those who took our advice a year ago have have made double digit percentage gains on their “hard asset” investments to date, but more importantly, have peace of mind knowing that if the worst were to occur they won’t go hungry.

http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-pr...ution_02182011

A Pocket Guide To Cultivating Heirloom Natural Tobacco

By Bill Drake

I’ve written this little guide for anyone who wants to know all the basics needed to cultivate and cure a personal crop of heirloom tobacco without the having to buy my full-length Cultivators Handbook of Natural Tobacco. Being able to grow a personal crop, whether for yourself or for someone in your family or circle of friends who smokes commercial cigarettes, is a powerful step toward independence from the death-grip of the tobacco industry, and I want to encourage you to take that step.

Of course I would love for you to choose to read my entire Cultivators Handbook because I’ve put a lot of love and hard work into making it the most useful and interesting book I could write, but there’s no reason why you have to buy my book in order to know the basic steps you need to take to grow your personal crop of heirloom tobacco.

So, let’s get started.

The Growing Environment

It’s a fact that tobacco can be grown anywhere in the world. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a city or in the countryside; it also doesn’t matter whether you live in a tropical environment, in an area with moderate weather, in a desert environment, or even in an environment of extremes of heat or cold. Of course the growing method you choose will have to correspond to the realities of your environment, but that’s easy, and we’ll discuss your options shortly.

The first decision affected by your growing environment is whether you’re going to raise your plants to maturity in pots, or start them in pots and then set them out in a garden. If you live in an area with mild springs and warm summers them you can start your seedlings indoors in pots in early spring and set them out when all chances of frost are gone. If you live in an area with more extreme weather – either very cold or very hot – then you will probably decide to raise your plants all the way in containers. And if you live in an urban area without access to a garden space, you will choose to raise your plants all the way in pots. This can be done as easily on an apartment balcony as in a garage.

Selecting Your Seed Varieties

There are so many different varieties to choose from. Here are a couple of excellent web sites where you can buy unusual as well as conventional tobacco seed varieties. http://www.superseeds.com, http://www.newhopeseed.com and http://www.crosscreekseed.com. For container growing my personal favorite in N. Shirazi. It is an easy, fairly compact little plant and it cures to a mild, tasty smoke. As the name implies its origin is ancient Persia in the province of Shiraz.

Starting Your Seedlings

In either case you will probably want to start your seedlings in little peat pots, or growing trays. You can start your seedlings indoors under lights if the days are cloudy and the nights are cold, or you can start them in peat pots or trays outdoors if the weather is mild.

In either case, you simply fill the little pots with a good potting mixture, water the mixture a little to get it to settle down, and then top off your pots to being the soil up to the rim.

Next you take a small amount of tobacco seeds and mix them with an equal amount of clean sand. For example, a teaspoonful of seeds, and a teaspoonful of sand. You need to do this because the seeds are so tiny that you don’t want to put too many of them into a single little pot. Then just take a pinch of the seed/sand mixture and disperse it over the top of the soil in your pots. Don’t bury the seeds – just pat them gently into the top of the soil.

Nurturing Your Seedlings

Depending upon conditions, your little plants will begin to emerge in 3-7 days. Keep the soil moist but not wet. It is better to water from the bottom than from the top because the little seedlings are very delicate at this stage. If you are using a good potting soil you will not have to start applying fertilizer yet. If you are growing under fluorescent lights the fixture should be 6” above the plants. Rig your lights so that they can be raised as the plants grow.

If you are using High Intensity Discharge lights the fixtures should be 6 feet above the plants at this point, and you should be able to either raise the lights or lower the surface where your plants are resting to maintain this distance.

If you are sprouting outdoors the trays should be covered with a clear cover to prevent drying out by the sun or wind.

Thinning Your Seedlings

Depending upon the variety of tobacco you’re growing, by about week 5-6 the little plants will be several inches tall and getting very crowded in their small pots. To thin them out without damaging the ones you will be leaving it’s best to use a pointed object like a bamboo skewer to tease out the seedings that you want to thin. Try not to disturb the roots of the ones you are planning to leave. As an alternative you can snip the discards off at the soil line with a thin pair of scissors. You want to end up with two or three of the most viable seedlings per pot.

Preparing For Transplanting

At this point you are going to have decided whether you are going to be raising your plants in a garden or in pots.

If you are going for pots, prepare as many 10 gallon pots ( or bigger) as you will have plants. Again, a good quality potting soil is sufficient, although feel free to use more exotic soil mixes. Know where you are going to place the pots – somewhere where your plants can get sun and breezes, and where they can be protected from extreme weather by putting them under cover or bringing them indoors easily.

If you are going to plant in a garden, you should have been working the soil for the past several weeks, especially including well-aged manure and compost if you have access to it. The garden soil should be loose, free of stones and debris, and free of weeds. Obviously, by free of weeds I mean that you should have pulled, raked or hoed out any visible weeds, not used an herbicide.

Choose your location so that your growing plants will have exposure to full sun throughout the day if you live in a moderate climate – if you live in an extremely hot environment, a little afternoon shade is a good idea. This can be provided by natural cover ( trees etc) or by erecting panels of shadecloth.
Transplanting

By approximately 8 weeks your plants will be ready for either planting out in your garden or planting into their final container home. By this time you should have thinned down to one plant per peat pot or tray slot.

If you have started them in peat pots, simply take each peat pot and remove the bottom and score the sides so that it will break up easily as your plants grow. If you have been using sprouting trays simply lift each root ball carefully out of its tray.

If you are planting into a garden, mound up a small hill of dirt where you are going to place each plant and make a depression just the size of the plant’s root ball or peat pot. Water the mound in the morning and plant out your seedlings in the evening. Your mounds should be 2-3 feet apart, and if you are making rows they should be 3 feet apart at least.

Same with containers – water the soil in the container, add more soil to bring up the level, make a small depression, and plant in the evening. You can keep your containers next to each other at first but as your plants grow you’ll have to separate them to gives the plants room to breathe.

Cultivating Your Plants

If you are growing in containers there won’t be much in the way of cultivating – just keep a sharp eye out for weeds that may sneak in on the wind.

If you are growing in a garden, you can simply walk the rows regularly and remove the weeds by hand or with a small trowel or how – making sure not to damage the tobacco plant’s roots.

Fertilizing

Whether you are growing in containers or in a garden, a once-a-week fertilizing with a 20-20-20 will do the job. You do not want to go too heavy on nitrogen because this can lead to leaves that are ‘hot’ to smoke. If you are using an organic fertilizer avoid high nitrogen things like ‘manure tea’ and stick with a balanced formula. Be sure that any fertilizer you are using includes trace elements – or add them by making a ‘seaweed tea’ and watering with it once a week.

Controlling Insect Damage

There are basically two kinds of insects that are the most likely to cause damage to young tobacco plants. There is the classic “tobacco Hawk” moth, which deposits its eggs on the underside of tobacco leaves. When these tiny, almost invisible eggs hatch they become a voracious green horned worm that can eat through a plant in a matter of days. The best way to control this predator is to go through your plants checking the underside of any leaves that appear to have tiny holes – that’s where you’ll find Mr. Worm. Pick him off and smash him underfoot. Old-time growers used to turn turkeys loose in their tobacco patch – these birds LOVE to flip leaves up with their heads and gobble the tobacco worms. DO NOT USE CHICKENS – they will uproot your plants digging for grubs, or just out of plain meanness.

Speaking of grubs, if you are growing in a garden you already know all about grubs like cutworms. They are as destructive of tobacco as of other garden plants, and you control them the same way. Rake up the soil between the rows and step on them as you find them. I don’t recommend using chemicals at any point for any reason – remember you or somebody else is going to be smoking these leaves.

Other insect pests, depending upon where you life, can include whiteflies and aphids. There are several excellent natural repellants and treatments on the market – basically anything that you would use on a food plant can be used on a tobacco plant.

Suckering Your Plants

As your plants grow beyond 2-3 feet tall they will begin to put out suckers – small buds that appear where the leaves join the stem. If left alone these suckers will develop into secondary leaves that will sap the plants energy from the main leaves. Just pinch these buds off as soon as you spot them, and keep doing it because they will keep trying to grow throughout your plants’ life.

Topping Your Plants

At some point around 12-16 weeks, depending upon your growing conditions and the variety of tobacco you are growing, the plant will start to send up a flowering spike. It will be obvious when this starts to happen, and the trick is to cut it off with a sharp blade like a clean utility knife blade ( be sure to wipe off the oil that is on new blades). The plant will continue to try to send up flowering spikes from this point on – sometimes straight up from the top of the plant, sometimes out to the side. Except for plants that you want to go to seed so that you can have seed for next year, these must all be removed. By the way, a mature tobacco plant produces 300,000 to 500,000 seeds, so one plant going to seed for each variety is plenty.

Priming Your Leaves

At some point around 14-16 weeks or so, again depending upon variety, the bottom leaves on your plants will begin to turn yellow. The yellowing will begin around the side veins and mid-rib of the lower leaves and gradually the whole leaf will turn a yellow-green, and then a yellow-brown. When most of the green is gone it is time to pick the leaf. Again, use a sharp, clean knife. Every couple of days the next set of leaves up the plant will reach the picking stage. The whole process can take 4-6 weeks until you are working on the very top leaves.

Curing Your Leaves

Most home growers use a simple method of continuing the drying process to allow the leaves to air-cure naturally. Take the freshly picked leaves to a low-light area – either a shed, or a barn, or a garage, or a room in your home, and using a needle and some fishing line simply thread the leaves up by piercing through the stems with the needle and line. Be sure that they don’t touch each other when they are hung up like washing on the line. If you are hanging them up in an outdoors shady location like a shed or bard, be sure that they have plenty of air circulation. If you are drying them indoors without access to a breeze, create one by having a circulating fan in the drying room.

Many home growers like to mist their drying leaves from time to time to prevent them from drying out too rapidly. They are actually still alive while they are hanging there curing, and while gradually dying they are going through a process of converting starches into sugars, which is essential to the quality of the final product, so you don’t want to cut this process of prematurely by having them dry out too soon.

Depending upon conditions, your leaves will eventually turn a golden brown. Because you have been priming them over the course of several weeks, you will have several lines of leaves each at a different stage of curing.

Once leaves are fully cured there are so many options for flavoring and processing them that I can’t go into those details here, so I’ll stick with the simplest, most natural method of making your cured leaves into smoking tobacco.

Making Smoking Tobacco

As you take your fully cured leaves down from the line, lay then out on a surface like a table and use a sharp, clean knife to remove the big mid-rib and side veins, leaving yourself with a pile of roughly rectangular leaf tissue. If you like you can assemble these pieces into little stacks about three inches high and press them between clean boards with a weight on top for a week or so – this enhances the final flavor but isn’t a necessary step. Or you can take each little stack of leaf and a very sharp, clean knife – not a utility knife this time but a long-bladed knife – and slice fine little threads of tobacco off the end of the stack while holding the stack firmly with one hand, moving your fingers back from the end you’re cutting after each cut or two. The objective here is to wind up with thin little curls of tobacco that will be suitable for rolling in cigarette papers or packing into a pipe bowl.

After you’ve cut your tobacco you can put it into something like a cigar humidor, or a canning jar with a lid – anything that will keep it from drying out and crumbling into tobacco dust. People add all kinds of things to their tobacco storage jars, both to humidify and to flavor the tobacco – orange or lemon peel, licorice, various herbs like lemon grass, flowers like rose petals – the list is literally endless, and you can find lots of ideas in the internet. Whatever you decide to do, the main thing is not to add too much moisture and to watch carefully for mold.

The End

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this quickie tour of the process of growing and preparing your own personal crop of natural heirloom tobacco. If you would like to learn more about each of these steps in greater detail, and would enjoy knowing more about the wonderful history of this remarkable plant, and be treated to detailed descriptions of methods used by tobacco-growing masters of the past, including details on a variety of Native American methods of growing and using what they consider a sacred gift from the Great Spirit, then please go to www.cultivatorshandbook.com where you’ll find The Cultivators Handbook of Natural Tobacco available for purchase, along with my other Handbooks on growing Marijuana, a connoisseur’s history of Marijuana, medicinal Marijuana, and cooking with Marijuana, and some other more exotic “gardening on the edge” ideas.

Best wishes and happy gardening!

Bill Drake

http://www.cultivatorshandbook.com/c...ree_Guide.html