I just sent the following email to my family. Context: I have 5 older siblings, 17 nieces and nephews, too many to count great-nieces and nephews and a dad in a nursing home (with Influenza A present) who is 97. None are vegan.
Emma JC
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good morning dear family
As many of you know I follow the news very closely including many US political websites, not sites that have conspiracy theories but sites that are mainstream. It is what helped me to know, back in late February, that the situation that we now find ourselves in was coming and I started then to stock up on food and hehe toilet paper although in retrospect I maybe should have bought more TP and cleaning supplies like antibacterial wipes etc.
Yesterday I read two articles (on politico.com) that pointed to the fact that supply chains are being disrupted and the cost and availability of food is about to change. A lot of food is being thrown away because with restaurants, sporting events, cruise lines, airlines etc being shut down there is no way for the suppliers to get the food to stores. Milk is being thrown away by the millions of gallons, vegetables are being discarded…. the list goes on. Because the airlines are not flying the berries, and other produce from the south, Mexico and from South American are not able to hitch a ride north anymore. Places like Indian and Thailand and Vietnam are major supplies of rice and they are cutting back on what they send out also. This is going to lead to higher prices and eventually shortages. If anyone would like a link to the actual articles please let me know.
We do not have the ability to grow anything on our North East facing balcony and if we lived on a property, of any kind, we would be planting a garden. Back in the World Wars they called them Victory Gardens.
This is my encouragement to those of you that are able to consider planting a garden in whatever space you have and encouraging your neighbours to do the same. Save the seeds from the tomatoes and peppers and save those potatoes that are starting to sprout. Tops of onions can be planted, bulbs of garlic can be sprouted to grow more, seeds from squash etc. There are a ton of amazing videos on YouTube that can help you to figure out the best way to do all these things. I have found that saving tiny seeds like cherry tomatoes etc is easiest done on a paper towel, let them dry on there and then when the time is right you can just put the paper towel in the ground or in a sprouting area. (google it)
I am going out again tomorrow to buy more groceries, do our monthly banking etc and know that after that we likely won’t be going out for 3 weeks or more.
Most important thing to plant, in my opinion, is potatoes as one can live a long time on just potatoes (ask the Irish) and vitamin C producing things like tomatoes and any greens that you can. It may still be possible to buy seeds at the grocery store so do check that out on your next trip.
Meanwhile I encourage you to stock up on a bag or two of rice, lots of oatmeal, dry (navy, great northern, pinto) and canned beans (chick peas, lentils, kidney beans, black beans), canned tomatoes. I envy those of you with a freezer as I would pack it with frozen berries and frozen vegetables. Flour and yeast are starting to be very hard to come by and so if you can find yeast, buy it, and a few pounds of flour would be good. Any other obscure grains you can find in the natural food sections or at bulk stores can be ground into flour including oatmeal. Baking soda is also a good thing to buy as it can be used for cleaning also. Shelf stable milk (preferably plant milks) can be found in the natural food sections and they are good for months. Peanut butters, maple syrup, sugar and lemon juice in the bottles (I have two large and buying more if I can). Pastas, noodles, olives, vinegars, and of course as many potatoes, carrots, fresh veggies that you can store without out them going bad. Cabbage is amazing and can last a long time in the fridge!
You are welcome to think I am an alarmist, I won’t be offended, I just would not be able to live with myself if I didn’t pass on what I learned. My hope is that I am completely wrong and that you laugh at this email in a few months.
I am thankful that ___ is still working and we have enough food (and will after Tuesday) to last for a while. I will be wearing as mask when I go out, and gloves. I ordered a small sewing machine through amazon and some sheets and tshirts and thread to make more masks (it is arriving today) as my hand sewn mask is very uncomfortable.
Stay safe and well everyone! love you.
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