Good afternoon, subscribers,
Following this greeting is the April newsletter article.  For those of you who are new subscribers, this single article format began this year to make it more convenient for you to read the information I consider most important, and allow me to continue providing you with Healthier Solutions at no cost to you.  Please continue to visit my website, www.healthiersolutionsbymarie.com to see the ongoing updates and take advantage of the great deals that I offer you through my affiliate links, and the dozens of informational articles (especially on the newsletter link page) available there for you.
This month, my article is has to do with being prepared to take care of yourself and your family. Many of my mentors and clients agree that hard times may well be ahead for most of us, and I feel compelled to share some thoughts with you.  As always, I ask that you share your thoughts and opinions with me, whether they be pro or con.
Have a beautiful spring month, everyone.
Marie 

Are You Prepared?  Part I: Food

What comes to your mind when I ask this question?  Prepared? Prepared for what?
As I write this, communities and cities all over the world are dealing with natural and man-made disasters (nuclear meltdowns, revolutions, wars, etc).  We are lucky that here in East TN, we have few of these to deal with.  Still, April is the month in which our risk of tornadoes is highest.  Weather and climate patterns are changing, and already this year we have had several episodes of extreme weather.
A last minute addition here is the current severe storm warning that coincides with my sending this out to you.
We usually are warned about severe weather, but my experience with earthquakes in Costa Rica showed me that disaster can strike with absolutely no warning whatsoever.  Most of you don’t know it, but we are within range of a fault bigger than that of the San Andreas-- the New Madrid fault.  The Japanese, with all their earthquake knowledge, were still unprepared.
I also want to you consider the growing disorganization of our political, economic, and environmental situations.  Couple these issues with major climate changes, and we do have the realistic potential for disasters such as those we have never encountered.
I am not an extremist, nor do I wish to spout lots of doom and gloom.  I am beginning to experience moments of panic, though, in which I feel that not only am I not prepared to deal with what may come, but I have not done my job to warn you about what you might want to think about as well.
My great-grandmother reportedly never forgave my great-grandfather for selling his dry goods store and nice brick home, moving them to a larger clapboard house, and investing more time and money in the small farm they owned outside of town.  This was in 1927-1928, mind you!!
What was going through his mind?  What higher sensory perceptions was he picking up on?  Needless to say, when grown children and their families had to move in with them in 1929, and the farm fed them all, these unpopular decisions proved to be examples of incredible wisdom and foresight. (The dear man was still never allowed back into her bedroom!—I come by my stubborn character honestly!)
When my husband and I built our home a few years ago, I didn’t plan to be doing much significant vegetable gardening.  I was busy finishing the house, finishing my studies, building my new business, and planned to frequent the farmer’s markets rather than devote much time and effort to growing my own. Within the first year, however, I realized that my deck container garden idea was not going to cut it.
I can’t explain when or why I suddenly became focused on growing more edibles, and digging up half of my front yard (the only really sunny spot), to put in an increasing number of regular and raised beds for growing vegetables. 
Fruit trees, berry bushes, and asparagus are some of the perennials that I have finally established, but they are still very young and vulnerable.  It makes me feel uneasy, and regret that I didn’t put more thought into this earlier. In fact, some of the reasons they are not as developed as they should be include critter pressure (damage from foraging deer) and weather—we experienced a historic late season freeze the first spring, and extreme heat and drought conditions for 2 years following that.  My trees & bushes need another 3 years to really start providing me with significant amounts of fruit on a regular basis.  My veggie beds have been mostly successful, but my learning curve with East TN seasons, weather variations, clay soil, and pests of the 4 legged and multi-legged kind, has been erratic.  Just when I think I have something down pat, pow!  Something unexpected happens.
I have been offering nutraceutical and veggie gardening workshops to my clients; not because I am an expert, but because I have seen what I can grow with my limited skills and space.  If I can do it, you can do it.
Why am I harping on growing your own food?
Did you know that unless grocery stores are regularly restocked, the average city runs out of food within 3 days?  Time and time again we have seen what happens when our area is warned of a snow storm—people buy out the milk, bread, and other perishables. The aftermath of hurricanes and earthquakes that we are witnessing via CNN should make it clear that food is a major issue in times of natural disasters. Imagining the impact of the manmade disasters on top of these is often unfathomable.
Virtually all experts agree that the two weakest components in surviving or waiting out a disaster of any type are food and water.
What if we were without power for long periods of time?  What if roads were impassable? What if the gas stopped flowing from the pumps due to power loss or Middle East calamity? What if there was a disease pandemic that kept people from their jobs? What if significant crop failures around the world resulted in major shortages of certain foods?
I don’t want to sound extreme, but know that these things are already happening in many parts of the world right now as you read this.  The people who are least affected by these events are the ones who already grow much of their food or who live in a community where the food supply is a locally managed one. 
The biggest lesson that I have learned in the last 5 years is that growing your own food is not quickly and easily learned.  It’s one thing to have fresh basil and tomatoes for the summer, and quite another to have winter squash, onions, cabbage, and potatoes stored for the winter. After losing pounds of tomatoes to a single groundhog one year, it made me wonder  how it would have felt if I had been depending on those tomatoes to feed my family.  What if the apple and peach blossoms that the hail destroyed were to have been my fruit supply for the coming year? If the tea or coffee that I love became so expensive I could no longer afford to buy them, I would be sad, but what if basic fruits and vegetables became unavailable or unaffordable? What if, what if, what if…….
I often make the comment that Americans are very naïve.  We have lived in the land of plenty all our lives.  We have always managed with minimal impact, our government protected us, etc, etc. We refuse to believe that our lives could change in a heartbeat.
Let me be blunt—I think there is an elephant in the room and we are pretending it isn’t there. I think most of us agree that we need to watch out for ourselves. Our community needs to be self-sufficient, if we aren’t, and that simply isn’t true.
I want to beg you to take some first steps this spring and summer toward learning how to grow your own food.  Herbs are an easy way to start.  They require little space, attention, or care.  The monetary savings alone is impressive, and you’ll love the fresh flavors. Try your hand at growing vegetables you never tried growing before, like potatoes and winter squash.  Put in a few apple trees whose fruit is great fresh and can also be stored or dried for long term keeping. Vegetables grow and produce in a single season, but it takes several years for most fruit bearers to produce.  I wish I had started sooner, or planted more mature trees.
Learn the basics of food preservation such as canning, dehydrating, or root cellaring, so that if the power fails, you won’t lose everything.  At the very least, add some specific “how to” books to your home library. Examine your family’s food requirements and determine what you might need and how much of it.  There are many good books to help you with this.
How about accumulating a supply of grains such as dried corn, rice and beans?  Correctly stored, these keep well for many months and can feed many people over time.  Be sure to learn how to rotate these supplies so that they are kept fresh.
I have even found resources for vegetable and grain seeds that are specially packed to remain viable for several years. I have already seen shortages of some heirloom & organic seeds, and this is partially due to the contamination of crops by genetically modified plants whose seeds are sterile and will not grow. Plus, it appears that many of us are stocking up on heirloom seeds, “just in case.” I don’t think it is unreasonable to think that quality seeds could soon become difficult to find and expensive to purchase. Learn how to save your own seeds.
Over the years, many Americans have ridiculed or dismissed the survivalist groups that have been preparing for some unknown future disaster.  Maybe we should take another look at some of the things they have been doing and consider the old saying, “just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you.”
I am not talking fear or panic.  I am promoting intelligent, practical, thoughtful preparation.  I don’t know what is around the corner, but I must admit to a growing need to learn all that I can and adjust my outlook to one of greater self-sufficiency and resilience.  If it turns out that my worries were totally unfounded, I will have lost nothing while gaining valuable, money-saving skills.  If something does happen, and I am better prepared as a result of forethought, the benefits will be priceless.
 
Next month:  Are You Prepared? Part II: Your Holistic Medicine Kit
 
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From the Kingsport Times-News Health & Wellness Supplement
Earth Day 2011: Another Opportunity for Change