Home Brewing for SHTF, by C.K.

(Preface by HJL: SurvivalBlog neither condones nor condemns alcohol consumption. However, we stand by a biblical perspective that takes a strong stance against drunkenness. There are serious issues that must be weighed in regards to alcohol consumption and commerce, and each reader should measure them carefully to know whether home brewing is for you or not.)

What is home brewing? I am not talking about brewing your favorite cup of coffee or tea; I am referring to the growing hobby of brewing beer, wine, and other spirits at home. There are many advantages of brewing in SHTF. However, like other skills, you need to practice now so that you do not make costly mistakes when all the cards are on the table. For this article I will cover the advantages of home brewing and a basic introduction to complete your first brew. Home brew can also be converted into spirits (hard alcohol) through distillation, but this is not something that should be done by beginners, and it is illegal in some areas. I would recommend you start with beer, wine, and hard cider; then, once you have a better handle on the process, consider making the harder stuff IF it is legal in your area. Also, distribution of your home brew is a touchy subject. While it should be okay for you to give it away to friends, it is definitely illegal to sell it. I am NOT responsible for any legal trouble you encounter during your home brewing adventures.

Why home brew in SHTF?

I have broken down the potential advantages of home brewing into four categories– food, medical, fuel, and barter. There is also the added benefit, before SHTF, of saving money, meeting new people in brewing clubs, and having a great time.

Food. There is a great documentary available online called “How Beer Saved the World” that goes into great detail about the history of fermented beverages. In a nut shell, back in the day, water was not always safe to drink, so in larger cities (especially in Europe), people drank fermented beverages in place of water. In these United States, most of the apple trees that were planted during the expansion west were used for making hard cider rather than for baking pies. In fact, hard cider was a common breakfast drink up through the early 20th century.

We can go well beyond just turning malted barley into beer. You can make wine from grapes and other fruits, or my fall favorite is turning apples (or apples and pears) into hard cider. What better way to preserve the abundance of fallen apples than to crush them into cider that is then fermented and can last all winter? You can also take the hard cider you just brewed and expose it to oxygen again to make apple cider vinegar. I have unfortunately learned the hard way what happens when a batch of hard cider is exposed to oxygen after fermentation and “goes bad”; your wife gets five gallons of the best apple cider vinegar she has ever had. As I mentioned before, you can also harvest the yeast from your batch of beer for making bread, so home brewing it not just a means of making a beverage to escape the reality that is now before you but also a means of improving your life in a SHTF situation. Fermenting fruits and grains is an easy way to preserve the nutrients throughout the winter with many heath benefits that will be discussed in the medical section. For those of you thinking you don’t want to give your kids an alcoholic beverage, in the tutorial on making your first home brew, I will also discuss how to stop fermentation short to produce a carbonated drink with virtually no alcohol (less than ~0.5 %) a.k.a. soda. The favorites in my house are our honey ginger ale and good old fashion root beer, which are both packed with more nutrients then the “soda” from the store that is made with high fructose corn syrup and carbonated water.

Medical. Consumption of alcohol (in moderation) has been shown in dozens of studies to decreases chance of stroke, heart attack, or heart disease. Specifically related to home brewed and other unfiltered beers, they are full of B vitamins, trace minerals, and phytonutrients (a.k.a. antioxidants.). These are all nutrients that can be hard to find in a SHTF diet. When we consider home brewed wine and ciders, they also contain the nutrients from the original fruit used in the fermentation process. There are also beneficial bacteria, yeast, and fiber that aid in digestion to help keep you regular. Just ask anyone who has ever had a few too many home brewed beers how well they keep you regular.

Through distillation you can produce higher-alcohol-content liquids for cleaning wounds and sterilizing instruments. A common method some people use to increase the alcohol content of hard cider is to put it in the freezer and skim off the ice. While this method can bump up the ABV (alcohol by volume), since you are not distilling, you risk concentrating the methanol (a cousin to the ethanol you want). Methanol has the same initial effects of ethanol, but it is lethal. Somewhere around 10 mL of pure methanol will kill the average size adult, and smaller amounts can destroy the optic nerve resulting in blindness. However, if you are not drinking the byproduct, then you do not have to worry about methanol, which can be used externally just like ethanol.

Fuel. Any fermented, alcohol-containing beverage can be distilled into a higher-alcohol-content liquid to burn in lamps or engines. As stated previously, this is a very dangerous process that requires a still and knowledge of distillation in order to prevent injuring yourself or others, and I DO NOT recommend people go build stills in their back yard. That said, the alcohol that is produced, when done right, is over 80% alcohol. I know an old timer who makes small batches of moonshine for fun, and he has produced batches in excess of 95% alcohol, which is close enough to be considered pure by most people. The moonshine that is produced can be burned as fuel in alcohol stoves, lamps, or even mixed into gas and used in your car in the right proportion. Assuming you have a Ford Ranger that can run on E85 (a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline). I probably would not go more then 50-50, but this would allow you to stretch that gas you have in storage and nearly double how far you are able to drive.

Barter. Whether good or bad, there is always a need of alcohol for consumption. Being able to brew beer, wine, or other spirits in the first weeks of a SHTF scenario might not be worthwhile, but what about six months to a year after, when the stores are empty and liquor cabinets are dry? Aside from bartering alcohol intended for consumption, there is also the need for higher proof of distilled alcohol for fuel and in medicine to clean wounds and sterilize equipment. You can also barter some of the other good associated from home brewing; I have even used harvested yeast from a batch of beer to make bread. The resulting loaf was just as fluffy and great tasting as any loaf we have baked with regular store-bought baker’s yeast. There are also all the other goods that can be made and bartered that I mentioned in the other categories.

Making Home Brew Basics

At a minimum, there are some basic pieces of equipment you will need for your first batch. I have found that hard cider is a really easy first brew, so I will be using that as an example. For a five gallon batch, the basic equipment (at a minimum) is:

  • Five gallon Carboy or bucket with tight fitting lid that is air tight,
  • Airlock,
  • Fermentables (five gallons of apple cider or apples to turn into cider),
  • Yeast,
  • Hydrometer (not 100% necessary but highly recommended to calculate ABV– alcohol by volume), and
  • Bottles, supplied for final product.

The carboy can be as fancy as a 5-gallon glass carboy made specifically for brewing, a 5-gallon plastic water jug like you can get at the store or have delivered, or even a plastic bucket. Just make sure whatever you use is FOOD GRADE and that you have a tight fitting lid that is airtight.

The airlock is a device to let carbon dioxide out, while not letting air back in. A good airlock is crucial, because once fermentation begins if you let oxygen back into the system you will begin producing acid and making vinegar. You can buy an airlock for a couple of dollars off amazon or your local home brew supply shop, or you can make one. In a pinch, I have used a rubber hose and an old milk jug. Just drill a hole in the lid of your carboy just big enough for the hose to fit and seal around it with caulking or something to prevent leaks. Then put the other end in the milk jug and fill the jug about 1/3 the way up with water so the end of the hose is under water. Now, when the carbon dioxide is produced during fermentation the gas will flow through the hose out the end under water so no oxygen can get back through.

The fermentables in this case will be five gallons of apple cider. The best cider to use is fresh and unfiltered or unpasteurized. If you have to use store bought cider, make sure there is nothing added, since a preservative like sorbate kills yeast. Some people like to use fresh cider that they beat to a simmer to kill off the wild yeast before adding in their yeast. Of all of the batches I have done, I simply took cider directly from the orchard into my carboy, then I pitched my yeast and a few secret spices. I have never had a batch go bad, except the one that I forgot to reattach the airlock to when I checked it after two weeks.

The yeast can be as fancy as you like. I have ordered some rare strains over the Internet and bought some at the local home brew supply for less then $3. I have even known people who have used store-bought bread yeast. If you want your hard cider to turn out as good as it possibly can, then you have to buy cider yeast. Believe me or not, each yeast imparts different sublet flavors in the finished product. I have used ale yeast to make hard cider, and everyone noticed it had a distinctive beer-like smell to it that my other batches did not have. If you are worried about the cost, there are great tutorials on YouTube about how to harvest yeast from your brew to use again. I have done this, and it is easy to do.

The hydrometer is used to measure the specific gravity of the initial cider (before fermentation) and the final hard cider (after fermentation). You can use this to calculate how much alcohol has been produced and to determine when fermentation has actually stopped. They are easy to use and will cost in the area of $10 to $20.

When fermentation is done, you are now ready to transfer it to the final bottle or keg, if you have one. I do both kegging in 5-gallon corney kegs to for carbonate as well as in bottles to naturally carbonate. For bottling you have a decision to make– do you want sparkling hard cider (like a beer) or still hard cider (like a wine). For the sparkling hard cider, I bottle in a used pop top beer bottle, usually the 22 oz. size but the more common 12 oz. also works. For this you will also need new caps and a capper, both available online or at brew stores. You could also use plastic soda bottles with lids, if you wanted; those have the advantage of the squeeze test to see if they are carbonated. If you want still hard cider (which is also good and great for cooking) I use old wine bottles and new “corks” that I buy online.

Making the Home Brew

Making the hard cider is easier then most people think. The first step is making sure everything is clean and sterile. I always wash my carboys with hot soppy water first, followed by a bleach solution, and then several good rinses. Now is also the time to follow the directions on the yeast to get it started; some packs tell you to add the yeast to warm water while some instruct you to smack it to activate it. Next we can focus on the cider. Pour one gallon into a large cooking pot and set it on the stove to heat up, but DO NOT BOIL. Pour the remaining four gallons into the carboy. Put on the cap and set it aside for now. Return the gallon that is on the stove; now is the time to add any seasoning or spices you may like. I will usually add some cinnamon sticks and maybe even a few cloves. You can also add some brown sugar or honey, if you want to add another flavor profile, or you can keep it all natural. Once the cider is heated to a mild simmer, pour it into the carboy with the other four gallons. The main goal here was to increase the temperature of the cider to give the yeast a jumpstart in the cider. Now is a good time to tack your first reading with the hydrometer. Follow the directions that came with your specific hydrometer, and record both the specific gravity (this will be the original gravity– OG) and the potential ABV. Pitch the yeast as long as the temperature of the cider is in the 80 to 90 degree F range. Put on the cap with the airlock, and move the carboy to a dark place. Just a warning– Sometimes fermentation can lead to foaming that will overflow from the airlock, so I always put the carboy in the bath tub for the first 24 hours.

Over the next few days, check on the carboy to make sure your cider is fermenting. There should be bubbles coming up through the airlock at a fairly rapid pace. You can also give the carboy a shake if you want to keep everything well mixed, but it is not necessary. Depending on how much sugar is available for the yeast, fermentation will begin to slow down in anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. The best way is to wait until few if any bubbles are coming up from the airlock; this is a sign no more carbon dioxide is being produced. Now, take another reading with the hydrometer and record the value. DO this again every day for the next two days. If the reading does not change, then fermentation is complete. Keep in mind that anytime you open your carboy to take out a sample air has the potential to get in, so be quick, and above all else, make sure everything is clean to prevent contaminating your cider. Once your specific gravity has stabilized you can calculate the ABV of the final product. On most hydrometers, there are two scales– the specific gravity and the ABV. To determine your ABV, take the first reading minus the second reading, and that is your final ABV. Typically for most hard ciders I have done, they end up in the 8 to 10% ABV. Ciders, like wine, typically have a higher ABV than beer, because fruit has a lot more sugar for the yeast than grain, like barley, will have.

Now comes the time to decided what you want the final product to be. If you put the cider as-is in wine bottles with corks, you will have a great still hard cider, like an apple wine. You can also add a priming sugar and bottle in beer bottles or plastic soda bottles to get a carbonated beer-like hard cider. Depending on the temperature of the cider, how much you are making, and the kind of sugar you are using to carbonate the cider, you will add different amounts. I recommend using the calculator on the website http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/. They are a great resource, and I have used their blog on numerous occasions, as well. The goal of the priming sugar is only to add the carbonation; too little sugar will result in it being flat but too much sugar can make the bottles blow their tops. I usually have good results using 1/3 cup plain white sugar to five gallons of hard cider. Finally, you can also pour the cider into mason jars or other wide mouth jars and cover with cheesecloth or other air permeable material. This will introduce oxygen back into the hard cider; the alcohol will be converted into acetic acid to create apple cider vinegar.

To actually pour the cider from the carboy into the bottles, I prefer to use a hose and then syphon the cider out. Syphoning causes less agitation, so there is less chances of adding in oxygen and disturbing the sediment at the bottom of the tank. The final step, after all of the wonderful cider has been bottled for its intended uses, is to harvest the sediment in the bottom of the carboy. This sediment is a combination of live and dead yeast, pectin from the apples, and other bits of stuff that were in the cider.

Harvesting/washing the yeast is an easy process that will result in collecting live yeast that can be used again. For this, you will need a large 1-gallon glass jar. I use an old pickle jar, with 2/3 to ¾ a gallon of boiled and cooled water. Pour the water from the jar into the carboy and swirl it around until it is all mixed up. Let it sit, so all of the heavy stuff sinks to the bottom– about 10 to 15 minutes. Then pour the liquid into the 1-gallon glass jar, trying to keep all the sediment that has settled out in the carboy. Now let the 1-gallon glass jar rest for another 10 to 15 minutes, until even more of the heavier sediment settles out. The liquid above should be a creamy white color. Pour this creamy colored liquid into sterile pint jars and cap. Put these jars in the fridge over night. In the morning you should have a clear liquid on top that looks a lot like the cider and a creamy white layer on the bottom, which is the live yeast. Leave the yeast as-is in the fridge and it will stay viable for at least a year. I have used yeast that was 13 months old with no problem, but others have told me after 1 year the reliability of the yeast is decreased.

“Non-alcoholic” Options (aka soda). Follow the same steps as before, except that the fermentation is limited to just one or two days to achieve carbonation. At that point, you cold crash the soda to stop continued fermentation. Generally soda will need to be kept cold and consumed with one to two weeks to keep the ABV below 0.5 to 1%. I usually make soda in small batches (one gallon) at a time to prevent the soda from turning to beer in the fridge. Cold temperatures only slows the yeast; it does not stop them 100%. Alton Brown, on his show Good Eats, does a great tutorial for making ginger ale. I even tried his recipe, which was really good. I would highly recommend watching it to anyone who wants to make homemade sodas.

Remember home brewing is about having fun; I have used my brewing as an opportunity to bring together family and friends at brewing BBQs. I invite friends and family for a BBQ and demonstrate how to make homemade beer. It usually helps if you have a batch ready for them to drink as well. I have also taught my son about bacteria, yeast, and contamination through the brewing process, and he has started making his own soda when I brew my beer and cider.

Letter Re: Storage Without a Basement

I’m writing in response to the discussion about how to keep food in the Southeastern United States in the heat of the summer. My mother-in-law is in her 80s. I asked her how her parents and grandparents kept their food. For things like apples, potatoes, tomatoes, they would just store it above ground, sometimes packed in sawdust, usually in open air. For canned food, her mother had a little room off the house with shelves in it. It didn’t have a window, but it also got just as hot as the house. They would keep the canned food in jars for maybe three years. It would have kept longer, but that’s about the most that they ever got stocked up. Since it was an agriculturally based society then, they were constantly producing more food, so it was never necessary to keep more than two years’ worth of food. It would get so hot in the summertime that the morning milk would sour by the end of the day, if they didn’t keep it in the spring. So, they put it in a half gallon jar with a rope around it, and set it down in the spring to keep cool. She said that they never even had electricity until after she was in college, so they certainly never had A/C to keep the canned goods cool. In her later years, her mother got a pressure canner, and started pressure canning things like green beans and meat. However, before that, they would pack the meat down in salt in a barrel. They had been doing that for generations. One day, her mom ran in and said, “Our meat has bugs in it!!” The next batch got bugs in it, too, so they stopped packing it in salt. We still don’t know why it changed, because they knew how to pack it properly, because they had been doing it since time began. I don’t know if the salt changed or the wood, or maybe the bugs mutated, or what, but it isn’t practical to pack meat in salt anymore. My mother-in-law grew up in this area, as did her dad, her grandpa, and her great-grandpa. She lived right next to her grandparents, who lived in the house that was her great-grandpa’s. She very well knows the ways of doing things back 200 years ago. When I asked her if the canned jars had to be kept cold, she gave me the oddest look and said, “No, what do you think they did back before there was air conditioning? We didn’t have a way to keep them cold. They just stayed warm.”

My own pantry is a separate building, just out of necessity. It is much larger than a garden shed. The windows stay open in the summertime to allow air circulation, and I keep a fan going, though that would go away in the absence of electricity. In the wintertime, I keep a heater going. The shelves have sheet curtains over them to keep the light away from the food. That is exactly what the old timers did. Our experience is real life experience, not from a book. We store all kinds of canned food in the building at room temperature, from dry sealed cereal to pressure canned meat and beans. It keeps for many, many years. My husband’s former wife canned up some turkey she bought on sale one year after Christmas. I married my husband about 10 years later, and we opened the jars she’d canned, and they were still good after being stored in a dark room without any special treatment of temperature. None of the walls in our house or the pantry building are insulated. We are on an old homestead, built before anyone thought of insulating anything. Our house stays hot, minus the few rooms that have window A/C units. It’s just how life is. Our potatoes that we buy at the store are best kept in the kitchen where we keep an air conditioner going. They don’t do well in the hot storage. I would love to have a root cellar, but as was mentioned, the water table is way too high to make it happen. Even though the heat is a force to be dealt with, we actually prefer this climate because it tends to get more rain, which makes it much easier to grow everything necessary for living. Also, the growing season is longer than up north and the cold season is shorter. We happen to be right on the edge of the growing zones, where we can grow both the colder season crops like apples, peaches, and pears, but also can dabble in the tropical plants such as bananas and cannas. We are able to grow cold weather grasses in the wintertime for our cows to graze. We can also grow cold climate crops in the wintertime, such as collards, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and turnips. We don’t have to build huge barns for our animals to live in over the winter. We don’t even have barns for our animals to go into. Our only barns are for hay and equipment storage. My mother-in-law’s grandparents on the other side moved from Illinois to Mississippi after fighting for the Union Army in Mississippi. He came down here in the wintertime and saw the cows out in the field eating grass and realized how silly it was that his cows at home were shut up in the barn and he was having to feed them every bite they ate. So he sold out and moved to Mississippi because he could survive easier. – M.M.

Odds ‘n Sods:

A disturbing proposed rule change that would give the POTUS a kill switch on communications in the name of “sending an alert” nationwide. New alert system gives president special code for emergency messages. – E.A.

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A SurvivalBlog reader sent in this amusing note:

“Today I swung my front door wide open and placed my Remington 30/06 right in my doorway. I left six shells beside it, then left it alone and went about my business.

“While I was gone, the mailman delivered my mail, the neighbor boy across the street mowed the yard, a girl walked her dog down the street, and cars stopped at the stop sign near the front of our house. After about an hour, I checked on the gun. It was still sitting there, right where I had left it. It hadn’t moved itself outside. It certainly hadn’t killed anyone, even with the numerous opportunities it had been presented to do so. In fact, it hadn’t even loaded itself.

“Well you can imagine my surprise, with all the media hype about how dangerous guns are and how they kill people. Either the media is wrong or I’m in possession of the laziest gun in the world. The United States is 3rd in murders throughout the world. But if you take out Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC, and New Orleans, the United States is 4th from the bottom for murders. These four cities also have the toughest Gun Control Laws in the United States. All four are controlled by Democrats. It would be absurd to draw any conclusions from this data — right?

“Well, I’m off to check on my spoons. I hear they’re making people fat.” – M.R.

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Facebook ‘Friends’ Its City, Pays for Officer. – T.P.

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New CNN Host: Firearms should have GPS Chips, it’s not big brother. – G.L.

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NO common sense. Families should avoid Ohio. When I was a kid in the 50’s on the CT farm, parents said “don’t go in the woods”, when I went across the rural road to play with a girl friend. I, of course, being a “child of the woods”, ignored them and explored acres and acres, and played in streams way back in the woods. I built forts, ate wintergreen leaves, caught minnows, et cetera. I never got caught and learned a lot, like how to depend on myself! Kids need to be kids-– FREE RANGE! Yes, there are risks, but there are MORE risks growing up with overbearing parents who want to put kids in bubbles! Most children today have a very sanitized, BLAND, BLAAAAA childhood with no risks, no fun, and no rewards! No wonder they grow up scared of most things. There can be too much safety; it is NOT good for the SOUL or the MIND! Son Skips Church, Father Arrested for Child Endangerment. – H.L.

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“To progress, man must re-make himself, and he cannot re-make himself without suffering. For he is both the marble and the sculptor.” – Albert Einstein

Book Review: Ankara Fever: Homecomings

  • Author: Brian S. Vinson
  • Copyright Date: 2014
  • Publisher: Left Brain / Right Brain Publishing
  • ISBN: 978-1500242114
  • Amazon Link: Ankara Fever: Homecomings
  • Suitable for children? Late teens and older

This is the second installment in the Ankara Fever series, which appears to be scheduled as a trilogy. After reading book two, I’m really looking forward to book three!

The first book– Ankara Fever: Journeys– was about Roger Westover trying to get himself, his new girlfriend, and his son to safety at a bug-out location. In book two– Ankara Fever: Homecomings– we get to see what is happening at the bug-out location. If Roger knew what was going on, he might have just stayed where he was!

I won’t give away spoilers, but book two introduces the rest of the group that has planned to bug-out to DARE Ranch, and it shows some of what can go wrong when you don’t stay current with your planning and don’t follow your procedures. I mean, these people had a nice set up, but just a couple of mistakes can bring all of that down around your ears.

The story is told from several different perspectives and includes a lot of characters, who are trying to work together but who have their own individual goals– just like in the real world. I’m not usually a fan of a lot of characters, as many authors seem to be unable to keep them straight or make them too similar to one another. That’s not so here. Brian Vinson fleshes out characters as individuals– some you’ll really like and some you just won’t want to see hurt. Either way, you’ll care about what happens and may even see something that will help you in your preparations as well.

The epilogue has a great tie-in to book one and leaves you really looking forward to book three. So, if you’re just looking for a good read, looking to learn something about prepping, or maybe just need a good reminder of why we plan for things, I highly recommend Ankara Fever: Homecomings.

Thanks,

L.H.

Scot’s Product Review: SimGar The Simple Garden

I have wanted to review a self-watering/fertilizing container gardening system ever since I started writing for SurvivalBlog. I was thrilled when SimGar contacted me and offered to let me borrow one of their SimGar Plus kits. It goes for about $150.00. SimGar stands for The Simple Garden, and it has only been on the market for about a month.

I’ve gardened off and on for thirty plus years and have had both great and rotten results. While I’m lucky enough to have some decent space for a garden where we live now, my soil isn’t very good for vegetables without a lot of amendments. I also chose the site poorly when we arrived here, and it has since become shaded. Because of this, I had to move it a few weeks ago to the other side of the yard. I have issues with bugs, birds, and mammals. I’m hoping that something like the SimGar will prove an efficient supplement to my garden in the yard and help bridge this period while I’m reestablishing it. Additionally, it will be really nice to have some things located immediately next to the house, and I’m hoping that being that close will make it less attractive to critters.

As well as loaning me a kit, I got a chance to visit VizCO-US– the company that makes the SimGar. It is a new firm launched this year by longtime Florida resident Christopher R. Cantolino. He is a man with a clear passion for both his product and gardening. He worries that very few people know how to garden these days and made the point that before WWI, most people in the United States had gardens. When the call came for Victory Gardens during both world wars, there was no problem producing them. Since WWII, however, home vegetable gardening has fallen from favor, and few people have the knowledge to grow a tomato or carrot. He hopes his product will help change that by making it easy for people to be successful.

The basic idea is that you have a system that recirculates water and nutrients through plant containers. I’ve seen a couple of approaches to this idea, but I really like SimGar’s scheme, which has a 30 gallon water tank that can be mounted on castors. There is a small pump that circulates water through the bottoms of two containers that sit on the top of the tank. The pump is powered by a solar panel, so you don’t have to mess with batteries or a power connection. This is a bit like a hydroponic system, where the plants grow in circulating fertilized water, though it also resembles growing plants in pots using soil.

One of SimGar’s claims is that their containers accelerate plant growth, since they can be kept well fed and properly watered. That makes sense to me as surely a consistent, rich supply of food and water will allow them to grow rather than just survive. Cantolino says that with the water and fertilizer circulating it is “almost like an IV to the roots” and adds that it is hard to overfeed plants with his system.

Another feature of this system is that the containers are elevated a bit on the top of the tank. As I get older and feebler by the second, it is very nice to not have to bend as much.

A big part of the appeal to this type of system, as opposed to regular containers, is that it waters the plants for you whenever there is enough light to power the pump. I’m not good at remembering to water containers, so you can see why that excites me. SimGar says you can go up to 30 days before needing to replenish the tank. They also say that the water flow helps keep the soil cool, which I think answers a problem I’ve had with container plants not doing as well as they should over the summer.

This type of system is excellent for those with limited space, particularly if they cannot have a regular garden in the ground. You could even use it inside with grow lamps. I could see it being rolled inside to protect young plants from a cold snap as well as being used as a nursery to start plants that will then be moved to an in-the-ground garden. Cantolino has had a lot of success growing from cuttings with the SimGar, since it maintains a moist soil. I see a lot of uses for this thing.

When the kit arrived and I picked it up, I told the young lady at the UPS store that it was plastic, so it would be very light. Oops. It is made of very heavy-weight plastic, thank you very much, and there are some steel reinforcing tubes in the platform it sits on. Further, it has heavy-duty castors. Heavy duty means heavy in weight, and then you add in the solar panel, which isn’t a flimsy piece of junk, either. In other words, old and feeble here had to actually use some energy to get it to the car. The box is pretty bulky but easily made it into the back seat.

It took me about an hour to put it together, but had I followed the instructions better (I’m a guy, you know what that means) I think it would have shaved off five or ten minutes. The only thing that was a little hard was getting the two plant containers apart. It took a minute or two of patient prying. A bit of packing between them might have made it easier to get them apart, but it looked as if something heavy had been put on top of the box in shipping, so they might have been squashed together. I found the great assembly video after I put it together. It would have made it go a bit faster as well as guaranteed that I got everything right the first time.

The tank, as mentioned above, sits on an optional mobility kit, which has some serious castors. I have often gotten things on castors that couldn’t handle much weight, but these are going to be fine. They do need a hard surface to roll on. Inside the tank is a box that holds a pump and some filtering elements in three separate compartments. The first holds a washable filter. The second gets some rocks and a charcoal filter that can be replaced, and the third gets the pump. There is also some tubing to connect the pump to the two containers and the wire that connects the solar panel to the pump.

The rocks and charcoal are intended to add filtration to the water. The rocks also help keep the pump on the bottom of the tank. The filtration will help keep the water clean enough to go through the pump. I can imagine that things could grow in there, particularly since fertilizer is going to get into the water. Even if you don’t use a liquid fertilizer, there will be nutrients in the soil and the water flow will pick some of them up and carry them into the tank.

I was impressed with the quality of the components, particularly the wiring connections to the solar panel. It screwed on tightly, and I’m pretty certain will keep moisture out. Everything felt as if it will hold up sitting outside in the sun and weather. SimGar confirmed that the plastic parts are UV resistant, which cheered me up. I’ve had a number of things just not last long in the sun here. The hardware is stainless steel, which also provides longevity.

The whole thing was now about four feet wide, thirty inches deep and two feet tall to where the top of the soil resides. The solar panel came to about four feet high, and it resides on the top of a tube that projects from the tank. Most of the parts are a pleasant tan color, and the lid of the tank is a nice brown, so it should blend in attractively in most settings.

I was intrigued by the ribbing in the various parts of the unit and particularly in the growing compartments. I assumed some were for structural strength while others were to help lock components together in the right position. There seemed more, however, than were needed for those purposes. Cantolino explained that they play a role in directing water through the system. Although the company is new, Cantolino has spent years working on how to make sure the water would flow through the containers without eroding the soil. Erosion was something I had wondered about, and it impressed me that it had been taken care of. Ridges are molded into the containers that create a capillary action to make water climb the walls, which speeds its distribution to the plants. Very neat.

Once we have picked our location, which should be relatively level, SimGar says we should put some water in and make sure the pump works and everything is properly connected. Mine worked just fine. I was very a bit surprised with how much water began flowing. Not only that; it flowed pretty well even when it got cloudy, which surprised me even more. It didn’t pump much during a thunderstorm with very dark, heavy clouds, but I didn’t see that as a problem. I have often been disappointed with solar gadgets but not this one. I didn’t fill the tank all the way until later, when I put in the soil, just in case I had to change something.

Speaking of rain, Cantolino said that one of the design features of the SimGar is that it catches most of the rain that falls on it and directs it into the tank for use later. That struck me as a good thing, too.

While talking about water, I should mention that Cantolino says that the pH (the measure of acidity or alkalinity) of the water is important, more important than that of the soil even. Since the water is continually working through the soil, the soil will take on the pH of the water. The containers are small, closed systems and can be quickly affected by whatever is going on in the water. I’m going to use a pool chemistry kit to keep tabs on the SimGar. Those are good things to have, by the way, as they also check chlorine levels when you use it to sterilize water for domestic use.

If you need to lower the pH (make it more acid), Cantolino suggests vinegar or sulfuric acid. Potassium hydroxide is a chemical frequently suggested to raise pH levels in hydroponic gardens. I also saw a number of products intended to raise and lower pH in a local store that carries organic and hydroponic gardening supplies.

Cantolino also suggests a couple of other things that can be added to the water. The first is Epsom salts, which contains magnesium and sulfates that plants require. The second is hydrogen peroxide, which does a couple of things. It adds oxygen to the water, which promotes plant growth and kills some of the harmful bacteria that can grow in the water tank. As I researched hydrogen peroxide, I noticed there is some controversy about using drugstore varieties, which have extra chemicals to stabilize the peroxide. You can get stronger solutions intended for gardening without those stabilizers at some hydroponic stores.

Okay. Everything went together. It all works, and it looks solid and durable. I found a place on our patio that catches a lot of sun. Now what? Thankfully, SimGar offers a lot of information on their website. The first thing we need to do is add some soil. Hmm. Dirt. It is, as serious gardeners know, pretty critical stuff and needs to be suited for what we intend to grow and the conditions in which we are working. SimGar Soils and Potting Mixes webpage gives us guidance as to what we need in the conditions of the SimGar containers. The most important elements appear to be a soil that allows water and air to flow through it. It can come from your yard or from a bag, purchased at the garden store. My dirt is not a good thing for the SimGar. I live on a lake, and the top layer is fine silt, while the layers below are a hard reddish clay based mixture. Neither meets the needs of growing things in the SimGar, so I had to go to the store. I chose one of the suggested organic potting soil mixes and found that a two cubic foot bag nicely filled both containers.

The soil was rather dry when I put it in, but I was pleased to note that moisture worked up to the top in about ten minutes, which meant that those ribs must be doing their job as this went faster than I thought it could move up by simple absorption. I was also happy that it was fairly easy to move around on the paver patio where we plan to keep it. At this point, with water and soil, it has to weigh over 200 pounds, so that’s some serious weight to push about.

After we get water and dirt, we need to consider fertilizer. While the soil we start with probably has nutrients in it, it will need to be replenished. As mentioned above, the SimGar folks like liquid fertilizer. It can be a commercial one or if you have access to manure or compost, you could make a tea with it and add it to the tank. I don’t think it would be smart to add anything to the tank that isn’t water soluble, though. Cantolino likes Miracle Grow, which has a widely available line of fertilizers. I’m probably going to go back to the organic garden shop and buy one of their liquids for the time being. I do plan to make some teas from chicken manure, as I want to be able to run this without store-bought fertilizer. I also don’t see any reason you can’t add solid fertilizers to the soil, but you won’t obtain the quick results you can get with liquids fed directly to the roots.

One very nice advantage of this system is that if you add fertilizer, it is going to stay in the system until the plants eat it up. The water flow may take some with it on the way back to the tank, but it will just get pumped back through over and over so the plants get another crack at it.

So what are we growing anyway? Well, most anything, though we do need to consider acidity and test the pH before we plant. While you can grow ornamentals in the SimGar, I suspect most of my readers will be using it for vegetables or herbs, like I am. Most vegetables need slightly acidic conditions. Be prepared to make changes as needed. It will be a lot easier to change it in the SimGar than in your in ground garden.

SimGar provides a nice planting guide on their website. It doesn’t cover everything, but it is a good starting point. I like the inclusion of what plants are good to plant together and what should be avoided in the same container.

I decided to plant black-eye peas (cowpeas to Yankees) in one container and green peppers in the other. It is very hot here now and not a good time to plant most things, but these two should be ok. Green pepper can be grown as a perennial if you can protect it in the winter, so they are a great plant for a container. I am pretty sure, short of my letting the tank run dry, that they are going to do well, and I plan to provide updates on how they are going through the growing year. At this point, I’m very encouraged and have high expectations.

The routine maintenance of the SimGar will mainly consist of making sure the tank doesn’t run dry. If it does, you might get an airlock in the pump, but Cantolino says it will clear up if you power cycle it by unplugging it from the solar panel. The other maintenance will be cleaning the sponge filter every couple of months. He does say that folks who use organic fertilizers may need to pay closer attention, as more stuff can grow in an organic solution. They might benefit a lot from the hydrogen peroxide mentioned above. The charcoal filter will probably need to be replaced every year or so.

Cantolino promises continued improvements in his products and is very interested in suggestions from users. There will also be upgrades to the website. He has some additional products coming to market, including indoor kits with reflective covers to maximize the grow lights as well as screens to use outdoors. Besides protecting your plants from bugs and critters, the screens can help with temperature control. Cantolino says that it gets too hot to garden normally in Florida summers, but the white screen combined with the cooling effect of the circulating water will change that. There are also some neat little clips that allow you to attach tomato cages to the plant containers. He is working on some other exciting ideas he isn’t ready to market yet. If you are a gardener and this approach interests you, it might be a good idea to keep tabs on SimGar. – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor, Scot Frank Erie

Recipe of the Week: Easy Meatloaf, by M.J.

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs 80% ground beef
  • 2 cups Progresso Italian Style Bread Crumbs
  • 2 cans Campbells tomato soup
  • 2 lbs onions (3 lbs, if you love onions)
  • butter flavored spray

Directions:

Combine beef, bread crumbs, and soup, thoroughly. Spray baking pan. (This is for the dish washer so the pan is easier to clean.) Put mixed ingredients in approximately 10 X 10 X 8 Pyrex or Corelle baking pan. (I don’t like metal baking pans, so this is a personal preference.) Cut larger onions in quarters and small onions in half. Place the onions in the outermost part of the baking pan so they cook first. Cover and bake for 2 hours at 400 degrees. Your oven may be hotter or cooler than mine so, pay attention to make sure it doesn’t burn.

This goes really well when served with vegetables of your choice and applesauce.

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!

Two Letters Re: So You Think Starting a Garden Will Be Easy After TEOTWAWKI

Onions are a winter crop, which speaks to planting for three seasons or even four. I am working on soil quality, as that would be hard for a looter to carry off, and I am working on it in more than one place with double digging and nitrogen-fixing cover crops like clover, black-eyed peas, buckwheat, and vetch.

He mentioned 100 jars of food. I figured out that I need 400 jars (pint) for my family of six (grandma, husband, wife, and three children). I am using pints, because you can always open two; keeping half of a larger jar is not convenient without power. That gets me through winter with some margin for error in Zone 8, if a crop fails to germinate. (You can’t live on radishes forever.)

I am also practicing the harvesting of seeds. I have handed out a third generation batch of heirloom spinach to my sister and nephew just last week. My current challenge is the carrot. I got a couple of second year plants with lots of flowers, but they are being coy. – R.V.

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HJL

I find it frustrating to read any article on growing any plant without the climate information. I understand if the person doesn’t want to give their city and state, but they could give a zone number from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map You could publish one of these maps on your site and everybody could use it as a reference. Without this information any gardening article is much less useful.

Odds ‘n Sods:

The Office Of Refugee Resettlement – Facilitators For A ‘Manufactured Human Crisis’. – B.B.

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An example of just how “out of touch” with reality the average person is. Steven Spielberg Slammed Online For ‘Killing’ Triceratops. – T.P.

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Man Finds FBI Tracking Device on Car, Posts Photos Online, Gets Visit From FBI . – G.L.

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Poor ATF. Too many guns… not enough “capacity” to track them all… Report: Government Agency Doesn’t Have Capacity to Track Illegal Gun Sales

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Downloading Tor could have landed you on an NSA watch-list. – D.S.

Notes for Sunday – July 13, 2014

Today we present another entry for Round 53 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  5. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  6. A $300 gift certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  7. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  8. A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com, (currently valued at around $180 postpaid),
  9. Both VPN tunnel and DigitalSafe annual subscriptions from Privacy Abroad (a combined value of $195),
  10. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304,
  11. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit, and
  12. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate.

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. Acorn Supplies is donating a Deluxe Food Storage Survival Kit with a retail value of $350,
  4. The Ark Instituteis donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package–enough for two families of four, seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate– a $325 retail value,
  5. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P),
  6. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  7. Twenty Five books, of the winners choice, of any books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  8. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  9. Dri-Harvestfoods.com in Bozeman, Montana is providing a prize bundle with Beans, Buttermilk Powder, Montana Hard Red Wheat, Drink Mixes, and White Rice, valued at $333,
  10. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate,
  11. Organized Prepper is providing a $500 gift certificate, and
  12. RepackBoxis providing a $300 gift certificate to their site.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security,
  5. A MURS Dakota Alert Base Station Kit with a retail value of $240 from JRH Enterprises,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Ambra Le Roy Medical Products in North Carolina is donating a bundle of their traditional wound care and first aid supplies, with a value of $208, and
  8. SurvivalBased.com is donating a $500 gift certificate to their store.

Round 53 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.