Wake up North Kohala HOME FOOD storage and PRODUCTION IS CRITICAL
As an elder said at the recent food workshop…. “When the ships don’t come … have 72 days of food stored well in the house or do it right with a great garden but do one or the other and do it now !!!!!! the next year or two is very scary at the global level.”
If you google earth North Kohala on a computer you can immediately see from the aerial view that …less than ten per cent of the land is in active farm production of any kind. Then if you subtract the Kohala nursery since it grows unedible office plants …well it seems to me we are looking at a district where around five per cent aina is cultivated land. Yes there are many pastures and some of them have a certain amount of cattle on them. Then there are wild pigs and goats and turkeys and a few pheasant. But food at home is still very very necessary.
People should review their food source options:
How many days food would you have in the kitchen during normal times?
How many days food do you have coming from a subscription farmer?
How many days food have you sealed in storage containers?
How many days food do you have frozen in the freezer?
How many days food would you be able to buy at the grocery at the last minute?
For most people we have surveyed this would add up to less than a months supply of food on hand. The secret here is to have 72 days of food stored in the house in containers like 5 Gallon paint buckets. Or have a producing garden that really has the soil worked up and enough seeds in the bin. Then you avoid the nasty reality at the end of the first month if the shipping stops.
Those who aren’t ready will have a rough couple of months while all the other gardens are started. Putting in some bananas right away is also a good idea.
Yes things used to be different. Every plantation homes had two pigs, eight chickens, some fruit trees and a working garden. But that is over.
If you look at the off shore fishing. We have about thirty per cent of the fishing boats that used to operate. There are still fish but the amount is reported to be much lower than 20 years ago. Not enough. The crawfish farm is down and other inland fish production isn’t really there. Lance the crawfish farmer must wait till his system is linked in on the ditch improvements. We used to have a respectable talapia operation run by Dave Barkley. So the know how is here but the fish are not at the moment.
We need to take action at home.
If you examine the current situation with Ag water namely the ditch. We hear than there are several larger customers that are close to getting their water back, but the majority of people who need ditch water are waiting for
another phase of work and they must arrange financing to get help. Some current spill areas have appeared since the pre earthquake days and must still be fixed the to get the smaller players in the game. There is a team at work but we are talking years not months till the smaller farmers can get what they need. Thanks to some steady pushing this water source will come back but not in time. Get ready at home is the advice.
There is also a likelihood that an Ag park of sorts is underway in conjunction with the wind generators now down by hydro plant which doesn’t yet get the end of the ditch water it used to. The wind generator owner hopes to transfer power from his windmill to a series of small enterprises on the same land that include a possible dehydrator and other needed general support services for more farmers to get active.
This property is close to the new transfer station site above Upulo airport so that the 62 % of the waste stream that includes green waste, food waste, and cardboard could possibly be ground up for soil emollients … if there was a grinder in the nearby ag park. But there isn’t! So much more could be done and that might happen in three to five years. This could be the beginning of a small ag park for Kohala. But the next two years are going to be without these resources.
There are a dozen willing farmers here that have a mixed Ag approach. A great propagation example for all to see is being offered by Tom and Shannon on Uluwelo farms. Their willingness to train permaculture students is also much appreciated. Some other larger land owners have a mix of cattle and specialized trees and small orchards underway. The mac nut orchards at the bond and elsewhere are not profitable enough to harvest the bulk of the crop. Noeau Day and Pii Kalama have a dry land Taro operation waiting to see if they could occupy a place in the ag park and use a dehydration system that could serve many other farmers. But we don’t have a mature farming community on hand … it will take years.
Approximately ten percent of the other ag homesteads have small survival gardens and an array of composters, firewood, water catchment, and a necessary stash of seeds to make it through the rough times. Two people have begun a modest seed bank effort for Kohala, but by and large most of the people are not in the game …they are just talking about it. As the guest speaker of several weeks ago said at the transition towns movie …most of inhabitants of his town were useless or better said “not in the game” in any real way. And obviously if the ships hits the fan they will be coming for a handout.
The grocery stores say they have four to ten days of food on hand. If the ships stopped they would bundle all the rice and grains and other canned goods like refried beans and sell them in one package per family. They had to do that about twenty-five years ago when the long shoreman strike in California was on for forty days. California is scheduled for the worst drought this year than ever before. We will feel that in the fall and the oil shortage is increasing by the day. Do you see the handwriting on the wall?
There was a time when the Mormon community here and some others stocked food at home but that very solid idea has just been sluffed off along with most of the elders in Kohala who used to have gardens, pigs, and chickens in the back yard. Most people have not been putting a stock of survivable foodstuffs in their homes in case of emergency. We recommend 3 months minimum. Rice, grains, and canned goods and think about some fresh water and toilet paper, along with candles, matches. The phone book has a list of other emergency items. Talk to your neighbors and some elders who have been through this before.
People could get way better at catching fresh water. Some of the simple tools that help out are tubs, troughs, five gallon paint buckets with tops, and some clean tarps to put in the back of the pick ups. The ditch can be mined
with simple tools and the fire dept. could create a pumping station but that wouldn’t do much for the crops. Our seven water systems in Kohala are operated by diesel fuel ….so no shipping…no oil…no water. K-mart baby pools are cheap enough and you can get them out when you need them. But many of the roof tops in Kohala are not really set up for catchment.
There are fifteen restaurants in Kohala so if we get in trouble we can get by on beef, pig, and some other game that comes from our highland pastures while we catch up on freshly planted heavy greens that could be ready in five to six weeks if people had the seeds. The number of people who know how to slaughter beef is not large. A large field kitchen may be needed and there are experienced cooks in the mix to help out. But the system is not well thought out. We are not serious enough about the problem and time is not on our side.
The fundamental aloha in this community is traditionally strong and is really up now with the mixing that goes on at Lukes, Banboo, and our other community events. This bodes well for operating as a team during an emergency. Its just that so many people no longer have many reserves.
The gulches would be picked clean in days. They could easily be restocked with some thinking. Everyone should be thinking of a stand of bananas, some avocado trees, and some breadfruit. If you get the bananas in the ground soon you could create some serious food in a year. Eventually we need to restock many public areas with fruit trees. Individuals could also get some of the mac nut harvest to get a source of oils for their diet …if you have a hammer.
Some of the old timers can tell you about off shore fishing, and limu collecting, and some wild berries but the quantity of those items is very small. There are some survival crops that should go in everywhere. People can eat Keawe beans, tapioca, and some other things that usually are fed to animals. Mary Winter is a great source of information about such things.
Another basic need is firewood. Because the hills are so rich with cattle but the power system is vulnerable people will need a fireplace and some firewood at home. Yes we have it to trim our trees but most of the stuff we haul to the dump could be left to dry and provide not only the logs but the kindling needed to cook regularly without gas and power. Keep some firewood on hand.
In short the situation in Kohala will be very precarious for about another three years till the ditch, the ag park, and a seed bank are established.
There is way more to know than how to get a small victory garden and a compost bed together. A small garden is not enough. I mean that! The next three years will be critical …we should all get in the game… now.
I am not a professional in all the finer points of food production. I have provided just the bare bones of information and we should all know about more. But I am an expert on the world situation and we are about to pass through a very difficult couple of years and we can be way more ready than we are.
My accounting of how many days of food kohala has to turn to without help from outside is between 50 qne 70 days days …but that is a starvtion level of eating and just barely enough to get a great range of food plants in the ground for a first harvest. It means eating a lot of cows. All hunters and fishermen will be activated, foraging will be the norm. If there is another drought this summer recognize everything from then on will be at survival level for several years. It isn’t necessary that we risk this hard time if people will wake up to the possibility of being sustainable.
You could improve your position seriously in a very few weeks if you had a mind to. Start by stocking the emergency rations in your home, next get the seeds you need for heavy greens and til the soil into a garden (back-hoe’s will be in demand during the push). Nourish your soil and practice some planting …there is more to it than you think. Leave some soil conditioned for future planting. Get your neighborhoods together for a shakedown on who’s got what it only takes a two hour meeting in each neighborhood.
The world is headed to self-sufficiency and local food production …might as well get on board before the fit hits the shan. In the end you will have taken the first step tp living in the garden again …which might be the best thing that ever happened to us in our crazy modern society. There are many who believe we have lost our souls and that this is the way to get them back. Get green now! We need your help
Jim Channon strategic designer.
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