Subsistence in the age of COVID

Peter Bird | May 06, 2020

There are so many reports and opinions in the media causing confusion as to whether there will be an upcoming food shortage and rising costs after the COVID 19 pandemic is over. Many people have decided to take matters into their own hands and create their own form of subsistence living by planting vegetable gardens. Some have even added the raising of cattle and poultry.

In the Perth Road Village area, Karen and Stephen Bach started out by wanting to know where their food came from. “The more I read,” explains Karen, “and learned about the pesticides and herbicides used in the production of fruits and vegetables, the more I wanted to have some control over that.”

They have been subsistence farming in this area since 2012 and started by rejuvenating an acre from an old pasture on their property, dedicating it to an organic vegetable garden. It’s now surrounded by electric fencing to keep out deer, and integrated with snow fencing to keep out ground hogs and rabbits. “The one thing I’m doing battle with is crows,” says Karen, “it’s hard to contain them. I have to put a tent of row cover around my tomatoes and I had to tent the corn last year otherwise the crows would have got that too. There’s always challenges, each year is different. It’s always an experience.”

“I also wanted to put in fruit trees, so we made room for a small orchard. I’ve got two pear and six apple trees. We’ve added an elderberry tree, 2 mulberry bushes, strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, and blackcurrant and blueberry bushes. As for vegetables, we’ve planted potatoes, tomatoes, sweet potatoes. asparagus, peas, beans, peppers, carrots, beets, parsnips, cucumber, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard, kale, spinach, onion, garlic, leeks, squash, and rhubarb.”

“We freeze most of our produce and use it mainly for cooking. If we need something fresh like a salad, I’ll buy fresh greens. We don’t grow mushrooms so we have to purchase them. I always try to buy locally and always aim for organic foods, when possible.”

“I’m lactose intolerant,” explains Karen, “so I go for organic butter, goat’s milk, yoghurt and cheese. We don’t grow wheat or grains, so when I make gluten free baked goods, I use rice flour.”

“I get cow manure from a local farmer that is uncontaminated by pesticides and we compost all garden waste. We take it up to the house in winter then in spring, Stephen takes it back to the garden and works it into the soil. I do companion planting, so I’ll plant different kinds of species together that are good for each other and I plant a lot of marigolds and other blossoming plants that attract things like aphids. And then for things like tomato worms and potato beetles I just go around and pick them off. We use straw mulch between the rows to help keep down the weeds.”

For irrigation the Bach’s built a pond in the middle of the garden which gets filled up with water over the winter. Stephen also bought a large plastic container which he fills from a spring on their neighbour’s property.

They have 2 bee hives coming this year. Although it’s a side-line, the bees are an important aspect of gardening especially for pollination. “We used to keep them in the vegetable garden,” says Karen,” but now we keep them by the house, because the bears got at them the first year.”

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Vera and Ken Shepherd operate a small farm. “We grow what we eat,” says Vera, “it’s basically a subsistence garden. We have peas, beans, potatoes and onions and the like. We also have apple trees, grapes, raspberries and blackberries and a couple of haskap bushes.”

They raise their own beef which is enough for their whole family. They have chickens to provide eggs. They also make maple syrup which is used, and sold, at the annual Maple Syrup Festival in Perth Road Village.

“You could say we work within a cycle,” says Vera. ”We have honey bees for pollination and honey. Ken has a saw-mill so he harvests dead and dying trees, from which he makes rough cut lumber, with the waste used to burn in the production of maple syrup. The cows produce manure for the garden.”

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“I’m starting with a small vegetable garden, about 10 meters square,” says Sharon Kellar, a single senior. “If it goes well, I can manage it physically. I don’t have any equipment, so it could be an expensive start-up. Hopefully it will start to pay for itself within a year.”

“I have to remove the grass first, then rototill the soil, then mix in the cow manure before planting. I’ll probably start with potatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, onions and beets and radishes. I’m also thinking of adding broccoli, lettuce, kale and Swiss chard. I already have three tomato plants. I also have a small raspberry patch and three good producing apple trees. Because of this current environment, it’s been difficult to get everything organised - for example I want to fence in the vegetable garden and I’m waiting on an estimate for fencing.”

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Lois Johnson has been growing food most of her life, but this year she says she is downsizing her lot, but will plant the basics. Potatoes, beans and peas and so on. One thing she tried over the last few years was Cucamelons which are a grape-size, green striped fruit with a unique tasty flavour.

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So advice for beginners. Some of the challenges you might meet this year is the shortage of seeds so you may have to shop around. Check with friends who are already growing food, as they may have kept seeds from previous years.

Just go ahead and “do it”. Plant planters on your back deck. Pick the sunniest spot in the yard and start digging. Fence around your plot. Ensure you have a good source of water. There is so much advice available in books and on the internet today, you shouldn’t go wrong. Many of the people involved in subsistence farming usually end up giving produce away to friends and family, or donating it to worthy causes such as food banks.

This final word from Karen Bach: For those of you who do start to grow your own produce, you may develop a taste for fresh food in a way you’ve not yet experienced.