Where in the world would you go?
Hi everyone, very new to all this. found this page after I saw an interview with Margorie Wildcraft on TheIceAgeFarmer. now I am in a panic to start growing/raising my own food!! However I live with my family (husband and 2 kids) in Manitoba Canada, which is already very cold all winter... it regularly gets down to -30 degrees celcius. Now I'm starting to learn about the Grand Solar Minimum, so I am wondering how much harder it will be to start a little homestead here? Should we move somewhere warmer if we can?? Wish I had known about all this 5 years ago!! Thanks for your help
Comments
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Welcome! I think you can make it work in Canada! I live in the midwest and we only have a few months to grow ... It's totally possible to grow a years worth of food in a short amount of time.
My best advice is to study up on your particular zone and learn about food preservation!
Good luck, and welcome to our community!
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Welcome to the TGN forum @laurnie59! Hey, you are in my province. Cool. Once you figure out how to pm, send one my way. I will get one sent off to you, actually. I have some questions for you. 😉
You can homestead here. It is just a bit different & you have to plan with more purpose (for longer, colder winters) than if you were further south. I am in zone 3 here. You are most likely not in a whole lot different zone.
A tip about hashtags...they aren't needed here. Just type in the tag word. ;)
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@laurnie59 Welcome to TGN's forum! I'm sure you are going to find answers to all your questions here. Lots of Canadians here. Maybe even right in your area. There are challenges to homesteading no matter where you live but they can be overcome. I live in Central BC, where temperatures can get very cold (below -40 last winter). We have a large garden and grow much of our own produce or purchase it from other local growers. All our meat is local and we have a variety of value added products available from the local area including fresh organic apple juice (which we keep frozen for the winter), apple cider vinegar, sauerkraut, jams & jellies, homegrown or wildcrafted teas, dried herbs & spices, wool & leather products and herbal medicines. I am a herbalist and wildcraft or grow most of my own medicines. Its rose hip season in many areas right now so maybe that is something easy tor you to start foraging. Go to a local farmers market and see what is being done in your area for food production. I think you will be amazed at what you will find. Supporting a local farmers market is a good way to get started with your own food security before you decide what to garden or raise for livestock yourself. Talk to all these producers at the markets and find out what their challenges are and where they have had good successes.
Start slowly or you will overwhelm yourself. Take some of the TGN courses in the Academy to help you get started with producing your own food. There are courses from saving seeds to raising livestock and everything in between, including how to preserve your produce. Once you get established with food you can move on to becoming more self sufficient with your health care as there are courses in Herbal Medicine and making your own medicines.
The forum has members who are experts in individual fields and you will get lots of advice if you pose questions. You will also find posts about online workshops or courses that some of our favourite instructors or schools are offering. Many times these are free. Take advantage of all the free courses you can find. Then you will know which direction you might like to go in for further paid education.
Good luck with your new endeavours and your path to self sufficiency! Keep us posted on how it goes.
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I should have added to pop in here:
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Thanks so much everyone for the comments! I will definitely be doing some more research. So much to learn!!
@LaurieLovesLearning I will try to figure out how to pm you!!
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I wouldn't worry about the Grand Solar Minimum as it appears to only lower the temperature by 1 degree or so, plus they happen every 11ish years. You've already been through several. The one we're in now started in April.
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@frogvalley yes you're right, from what I've read, the minimums and maximums cycle every 11 years. however there is a larger 400 year cycle starting, which is why it is called the GRAND minimum now. The last one was called the Maunder minimum in the 1600's and there were very severe weather changes, huge famines and lots of people died. that is about as much as I know about it, trying to learn more. right now I'm reading on supergsminfo.com
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My first impression from reading your comment and then the other comments from our Canadian group... don't make this harder than it has to be.
I don't care where you live hot/cold, wet or dry, it is possible to grow food anywhere. The differences are just you do have to learn how to pick and choose what crops are right for your area.
And since I know we have several Canadians in the colder climates in this group. you have picked the perfect place to get answers for your questions.
So whatever the grand solar minimum is, for now, put it in the back of your mind and work and worry about the basics instead. Once you start you will learn more and more every single year which means within no time you will be the one answering other newbies questions.
Good luck with your journey!
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@laurnie59 hey there, welcome to TGN. It's a great community of like minded people and you've already got some great advice. I live in Australia and while it's no where near as cold as you, we do have some challenges. If I were you I'd investigate the courses available on TGN, work out what you want to achieve. Maybe building a greenhouse to prolong your growing season could be an idea. Only grow what your family likes to eat and remember to always nurture your soil, compost, mulch, water. Mother nature is a wonderful gift to us all, she'll help you along. Good luck, don't be afraid to ask questions, you got this.
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thank you so much! @jodienancarrow @greyfurball
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Check historical documents. Our world has been through many ages... some so hot and tropical that giant lizards roamed the earth... others so cold, they were ice ages. We are certainly in an age of climate change... we always have been... the climate is always changing. is it man-caused? Maybe. Will the sun be the major influence? Maybe. Here is the constant... it is always around 55 degrees around 6 ft deep underground. If you are concerned with warming or cooling, if you dig your home at least 6 ft deep, you will have a constant temp that can be easily warmed or cooled. If you build a Mike Oehler "underground greenhouse", you can grow food year round regardless. You can use livestock with greenhouses for warmth, use their manure to feed plants and use the plants to feed them. If it gets hot... honestly, we could all just live off the land. "Summer time and the livin' is easy, fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high". No worries, friend. Here at TGN, we don't freak out. We adapt.
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Oh, BTW, check out Jean Martin Fortier, "The Market Gardener". He grows more food in a cold Canadian climate than we do in the warm, bright, sunny south!
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@judsoncarroll4 thanks so much, great advice!! An underground house and greenhouse sounds amazing. I will have to check into that. We live in a city now, so much to think about!
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Here you go http://undergroundhousing.com/
Cob and straw bail houses houses are also very well insulated. If you have high ground, building underground is a great option - obviously, not if you are in an area that could flood.
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@laurnie59 You have to watch the underground dwelling idea in MB due to the concern of radon. Keep in mind that this gas is found all over in many places in North America. There are things that you can do, systems that can be installed. It is just one of those things to be aware of. It was all over the news in 2014 or so.
Many people have built houses with walkout basements/into a hillside to get much the same effect as what @judsoncarroll4 mentioned.
If you do straw bale, you will need to treat the bales before closing them in. There are a few of these in MB. Someone in the city put together a cob hut at the Discovery Center a couple years back. I think that it had to do with a university project.
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If I ever build and underground house, I plan "encapsulate" it... line all the earth with vapor seal plastic. We have a big radon issue here in the Appalachians, too. I have a friend whose specialty is building cob houses. Let me know if anyone ever wants to hire her. She is an actual Gypsy matriarch from Hungary, and a remarkable artist, based in the US now.... has a whole big group that travels with her and helps.
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hi there! You might want to check Eliot Coleman's Four Season Farm website and/ or books. He is in Maine and grows veggies all year round in polytunnesl (hoop houses) and such. Amazing resource. A little engineering can go a long way in extending your growing season (-:
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Totally possible to do in Canada, but I was caught by the title so I'm going to answer that. If you're in a different situation and looking to relocate; Portugal has a very attractive residency program, cheap old farms (some with bonuses like old olive grooves & orchards) and a good climate (which is likely to get warmer & dryer but I'm an arid ecosystem grower already so that seems easier to me). Growing organic /permaculture movement there so might be an option for some folks.
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Portugal? I'll have to look into that.
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@judsoncarroll4 Does your friend that builds cob houses have a web site? I would love more info on this..
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I don't think so... she's an actual Gypsy. But, does do email via her phone. Let me know if you want me to put y'all in touch.
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@laurnie59 From what I read, the Ice Age was only 2 degrees Celsius or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. I prefer not to panic or spend what little brain/energy reserves I have left on something that isn't going to start today and could go on for over 50 years. I very much appreciate @judsoncarroll4 's approach to methodical/logical alternatives to a do nothing plan. I considered all types of "alternative" house construction when we built our house taking into consideration many of the issues of the day so we were considered on the cutting/bleeding edge at the time. Forty years later, it would be nice if.....is more the predominant mindset in my house as we don't have the financial resources we once did and there are many other pressing issues/emergencies that take our thoughts.
Please forgive me if I offend you, it's not my goal. I'm just old and tired of being in panic mode.
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I'm sure no one should take offense. The main thing that defines us here at TGN is that we don't all have to believe the same things or get all worked up about the crisis of the day. We embrace tradition and strive for resiliency ... most of us are like, "okay, that is cool"... now what are you going to do about it?
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@laurnie59 The main thing about growing your own food in cooler climates like Canada or Vermont is to realize that your growing season is short. This has three big implications:
1) You can't have fresh food year round. However, that's not a problem. Plan to can, freeze, dehydrate, and use a cold cellar.
2) You need to select vegetable and fruit types, and varieties within those types, that can either produce in cool weather, or in a short warm season. For examples, focus on paste tomatoes and small early tomatoes, not beefsteaks. Grow potatoes, not sweet potatoes. Etc., etc.
3) You need to research season extenders such as row covers, cold frames, mini-hoop houses, and possible greenhouses.
Remember that cool northern climates were settled during times in history that were quite cool and suffered very cold winters.
I suspect you can grow just about anything in Manitoba that I can in Vermont. I second the recommendation of Eliot Coleman's books _Four Season Harvest_ and _The Winter Harvest Handbook_, where he describes how he grows commercial quantities of vegetables year round in Maine.
Also check out Niki Jabbour's _The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener_. She lives in Canada (Nova Scotia) and grows her own veggies all year. The book is full of pictures of harvesting fresh vegetables from cold frames and mini-hoop houses with lots of snow on the ground, and describes in detail how to plan and execute your year-ground garden. (Yes, this is a way around my rule #1 above, but I still recommend using those canning, freezing, dehydrating, etc. techniques.)
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@laurnie59 Its getting late for any kind of gardening now, except for maybe planting garlic, but you can get started on your own food security right away with sprouts. That will supplement your greens in the winter. You could try growing under lights. There are all sorts of mini greenhouses on the market that are completely self contained and suitable for indoor growing. It will give you a bit of experience now and you will have your greenhouse for starting tender plants in the spring.
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@VermontCathy I have one of the books. Something to keep in mind is that Nova Scotia & Maine have much different growing conditions & winters than what we have here due to the proximity to the Atlantic.
I have one if the books mentioned. It has good ideas, but they would have to be altered to suit our climate, and some ideas would not be possible if I remember correctly, but work perfectly fine there.
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is that the same concept as a walipini?
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Not really. Oehler houses are a specific design. But, the concept is the same. Read Paul Wheaton's article on WOFATI https://richsoil.com/wofati.jsp
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@LaurieLovesLearning Absolutely, any garden ideas may have to be modified to suit the climate. Even the difference between Nova Scotia and Vermont is a full zone, and that's enough to matter.
I'm still learning and experimenting with extending the season. I find that stretching the growing season into fall past first frost is much easier and, for me, more productive than trying to get plants started earlier in spring. But I will keep experimenting and hopefully find better solutions.
We may move away in the next year or two, depending on how life works out. If so, some techniques will probably change depending on where we go.
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Wow, and I was worried about the growing season of zone 5b.
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