SCP Survival

Best Survival Gear and Supplies

How To Grow Black Cap Raspberries (Easy DIY)

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Blackcap Berries

When I was a little girl, a yearly ritual was when my Mother took us all out to hunt for blackcaps. Blackcaps are those delicious little wild raspberries that pop up everywhere.

Blackcaps like sun and usually grow on the edge of the woods. Horses and cattle eat berry plants, so they usually aren’t in the pasture.

We always took the dogs because it could be dangerous if you ran into rattlesnakes – which it seemed we always did. The dogs would usually spot them before we got near and a few barks would chase them off. But if you found a nice patch and got separated from Mom and the dogs, well, you better look down.

I’ve had ever-bearing raspberries for many years. I even dug up some of my plants when I was forced to move over here. And there is a little patch of blackcaps on a wayward part of this property.

Blackcaps and raspberries don’t mix, so when you’re making your layout, remember that you’ll need to keep them at least 300′ apart. That said, you will probably get them in your raspberry patch anyway, because the birds like to eat both and will transplant the blackcap seeds to your raspberry patch.

I am a lazy gardener; there is always lots to do on a homestead. On my homestead I planted them in an out of the way spot with sun, harvested the berries throughout the season (usually one large crop in late June and sporadically thereafter) and then just mowed them down in the fall.

Raspberries come in different colors!

The lady who had this place before me had raspberries too, but she got old and the grandkids just mowed over her whole garden every year trying to kill them and everything else. Well, I planted mine along her fence line and also planted hers that I could salvage.

Now I have a fence line of raspberries that I have to mess with – but this place is way smaller and I have more time now. But somehow time seems to be going faster – or I am going slower. The thought behind putting them by is fence is that you can tie them up and put bird netting over them if desired. I have found that to be too much work.

Raspberries are technically biennials. However, everbearing raspberries are a bit different.

Everbearers fruit twice on the same cane. These canes will fruit at the tip during the fall and then bear again the following spring farther down the canes. If one large crop is desired, cut the canes back to the ground after the fall crop. This will result in a single, large crop the following fall.

Not what I have found to be true with my berries, but what the experts say.

This year in Minnesota we seemed to have gone from winter to summer in 2 weeks! So into the raspberry patch I go.

How To Prune Raspberries

They are just beginning to leaf out and many haven’t yet, but I wanted to get some of the young ones back in line so that I don’t run over them with my garden tractor.

So here is the down and dirty of raspberries:

  • They spread on runners. With a bad winter they will often not leaf out totally, but come back from the root stock like many roses did this year.
  • Move the babies back in line and cut out the old dead canes.
  • Watering in good and mulching will really help your survival rate.
  • Don’t get the bright idea (I tried already and it didn’t work.) to lay plastic down in the aisle to keep the berries in place. You’ll just lose your babies and have a much thinner patch of berries.
  • You can tell blackcaps from raspberries as they grow. Blackcaps will have more arching canes that will touch the ground, root and make more blackcaps. The canes are also slightly reddish compared to the everbearing canes. PULL THEM OUT!

Mine have already started to blossom in this heat. It only takes 4-6 weeks from blossoming to the first berries.

Plastic Soda Bottle Green House

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I ran across an idea to make a soda bottle green house for gardening. If you cut the bottom off, and remove the screw on top (but save it) you can put it over your young seedlings and have a mini-greenhouse.

  1. After danger of frost is past, drill a hole in each of the 2-liter soda bottle lids (the smallest drill bit you have).
  2. Screw them back on the bottles
  3. Dig down into the soil next to your plant, and bury your bottle at least half way with the top down.
  4. Fill the bottle with water and you have a trickle waterer down into the root area that should save water and eliminate the need for extra watering during hot summer days.

I haven’t tried this myself yet, but plan to as it makes sense to me. Hope it helps someone else. I think we all need to get out and plant something now and and get proficient in gardening before the bottom falls out.

This may not help a farmer with a layout of acres and acres, but maybe a senior doing container gardening will find it useful.

Remember, the best insurance for disasters large and small is to be prepared. Think about the 5 wise virgins from the Bible story!

Composting: Tumble Method

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I believe that composting must be both an art and a science because there are so many conflicting viewpoints. So, you all know that I bought this barrel composter essentially for what it would have cost me to build it. I thought you might benefit from some of my research into this method of composting.

Since they all have finer points, I’ll tell you what I got out of my research:

  1. Tumble composting is faster (Usually 30 days start to finish.) than bin composting. Smaller batches, but less work and somewhat more reliable. It is odorless and effectively eliminates the potential for varmints like rats and mice to be drawn to your compost site.
  2. Use 1/2 “brown” material (Think dry leaves, sawdust, and stems.) and 1/2 “green” material (Think kitchen scraps, egg shells, garden refuse – no meat or dairy products.). Add water, tumble, if it wrings out like a damp mop you have it right.
  3. Turn it once a week or daily anyway you can to get it to mix.
  4. You can make it in one batch or add to it daily or whenever.
  5. If it smells bad – not earthy – add more brown material.
  6. New barrel? Until you get it broke in and have some start up microbes add some compost or beer to it to start the process.

FYI Mine has been going for less than a week and is very warm, so I know it is cooking!

HERE is a link to a pdf from a nursery about tumble composting.

I just added stubs of wood to mine as handles to make it easier to turn. What you don’t see are all of the holes drilled in it and inside there are some cleats to help turn the compost.

I see no reason why a five gallon bucket with a tight fitting lid with holes drilled around it could not be used for a small kitchen scrap composter by the back door. I’m thinking about trying it.

Stinging Nettle as a Companion Planting

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I can honestly say that I never truly realized the benefits of Stinging Nettle before. I can tell you that I have a pasture fence that borders my garden and the vegetables near that stand of Stinging Nettle always do seem to grow better.

“It is to be hoped in this enlightened age that gardeners will invite this wonderful herb into their garden and not regard it as a weed.

Recent tests in organic gardening have confirmed that nettles make excellent companion plants, helping to produce healthy vegetables such as broccoli and conferring keeping qualities on tomatoes by impeding the fermentation process in the plant’s juices.

Nettles will increase the production of essential oil in peppermint and boost the potency of all nearby herbs. Nettles in your compost heap will not only add nutrients, but also accelerate the breakdown of matter into robust humus.”

On another note, if any of you are cultivating cannabis for its health properties alleviating arthritis, etc., Stinging Nettle is known as being a wonderful companion plant for that crop as well. Lots to be said about it on the internet.

Plus, you can actually steam and eat Stinging Nettle, and it’s pretty tasty! (yes, you read that right)

Is Stinging Nettle Really Edible?

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Is Stinging Nettle Actually Edible?

I decided that this is the year that I would try some wild edibles that I haven’t tried before. Stinging Nettle is a pain – literally – but it was brought to this country by the colonists as a medicinal herb and has gone wild and is currently considered an invasive species. Nearly any roadside, farmsite, or disturbed plot of land will have a stand of stinging nettles growing – Free Food!

I started by putting on rubber handed gloves as some of my just cloth garden gloves will still allow the nettles to sting (FYI a baking soda paste will alleviate the stinging). Then I just went out and pulled a few.

Next I stripped the leaves into a steamer. I have eaten them before stalks and all just boiled, but I wanted to give the steamed method a try this time.

You want to steam them long enough to really wilt or your tongue will feel it – 4-7 minutes. I added a dab of butter, salt, pepper, with some garlic sprinkled over it as having eaten it before I thought the garlic would add a flavorful punch and it did. I did throw some leaves into the rest of the water and let them steep a bit for a tea.

My Honest Thoughts after Eating Stinging Nettle

So how was it? Excellent! But I think I almost prefer it boiled with the stalks. Tastes akin to spinach and is one of the first plants up in the spring for a fresh vegetable.

The tea has a unique flavor, but not at all bad. Actually, it is better than a lot of the teas I have purchased. A dollop of honey would make it even more pleasing if you like sweet.

Food Storage: Here’s What Works For Us

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I try to not be afraid to admit that I need to try new things or different ways of doing things when a particular tactic is showing less than stellar results. To that end, our food storage has evolved over the years into a loose plan that, hopefully, will meet our needs and the needs of our family and close friends should it be necessary.

In the last years of the last century, Y2K was on everyone’s minds. For those with a ‘prepping’ mentality, Y2K gave us an opportunity to get our feet wet in what, for many, became a lifestyle of choice. It served to awaken within me that desire to be as pro-active, as prepared as I could be in every way.

Like some of you, before we had a really solid survival food list, we made purchases of buckets of wheat, soy, popcorn, rice, beans, you name it. Most of it suited our lifestyle. Some of it didn’t. I’ve mentioned before that soy doesn’t suit my palate, but on a homestead very little goes to waste. Chickens will eat nearly anything.

But it’s hard to eat 5 gallons of popcorn because after a few years, it just won’t pop. The wheat we did well with, since we grind our own for bread and wheat lasts almost forever. We finished up the last of the Y2K hard red wheat in 2013 and couldn’t tell that it was the worse for sitting in a five gallon bucket for 14 years without any special treatment. We had originally nitrogen packed it in the buckets ourselves, but once opened, it was exposed to ordinary air.

We had virtually no problems with bugs in wheat, barley or rice and bugs don’t seem to like pinto beans, but they get a bit hard to cook after a while.

I’m the prepper in the family and feel like I have to be prepared for this family of 19 people, 42 chickens and 3 cocker spaniels.

We actually eat from our preps. Our day to day pantry and prepping pantry are one and the same so we have overcome the issue of having stored food that is cheap and easy to keep, but not on your everyday menu. We have no freeze dried, no MREs, Mountain House meals or dehydrated strawberries.

We do have several cases of strawberry jam, purchased in 2010 at a very good sale price. I opened another jar this week and it is as good as when I bought it. Last year several local supermarkets had sales of name brand canned vegetables, products that we normally use, at 2 cans for $1.00. Too good to pass up and so we have perhaps 3 dozen cases of corn, green beans, whole and sliced potatoes and carrots.

Another time we got Wolf Brand chili without beans for $0.59 and laid in at least a 5 year supply. My daughter refuses to serve her family from a can or a box with an expired date, but properly canned foods have been found to maintain their nutrition for years longer than we’ve been led to believe, and my personal experience bears that out.

What we have stopped doing is buying our beans of various kinds, wheat, barley, corn meal, rice and several additional items either in large bags from supermarkets or in 5 gallon pails from the suppliers we all know so well. While those are economical ways to prepare, we have decided that, for the two of us, those are quantities that are likely to deteriorate to some degree before we can use the entire large bag or 5 gallon pail. We still have some beans and wheat in 5 gallon pails, unopened, so they’ll last until we need them, and if a disaster ever happens and we have to feed more than the 2 of us they’ll come in handy.

The major change in our method has been to purchase what is available in #10 cans and we are storing and using from these cans for the above mentioned items, as well as pasta, rolled oats, noodles and granola. I know that the cost to purchase in this size containers is a bit more expensive, especially compared to buying your pinto beans at Walmart, but we take comfort in knowing that the things we need are here and will last indefinitely and that comfort and security is part of what you pay for.

Our diet is supplemented extensively with the regular canned vegetables in our stockpile, as well as canned hams, salmon, chicken, tuna and some other meat products for protein. Again, all a part of our everyday diet. And, all things considered, since I purchase most of our supermarket food ONLY when it is on sale, my overall cost, even when purchasing rice in a #10 can, is lower.

We are on sort of a paleo diet, and we’re not big consumers of wheat, especially, and use almost no processed products, most of which are not packaged for long term storage. Our meals also rely heavily on our garden during our long growing season. We end up eating most of what we grow and share with friends and family so we don’t do a lot of canning or freezing.

So, the rest of the story? Finally, after 30 years of prepping, the last 20 of which have been ‘serious’ prepping, we’ve all but eliminated the waste from our food storage. The advantage I feel we enjoy is switching to #10 cans for the mainstays, and buying in bulk at the local supermarket when they have a crazy sale (and don’t worry too much about those expiration dates).