Gardens for an emergency

I have participated in disaster planning events and the role of gardens in an emergency. Clatskanie and Wahkiakum County have had a lot of practice between the 1996 and 2007 floods, the 2008 Christmas eve snowstorm, and various serious wind events. The earthquake is yet to come but could be very damaging. An active gardening community can’t be expected to provide food for all but can be a significant resource for the kinds of foods such as vegetables and fruit that won’t be shipped into an area in the initial recovery process. The following are some of my thoughts:

Food may be in short supply in a major emergency like an earthquake, forest fire situation, heavy winter flood, wind, or snowstorm, etc. Food that you have grown, collected, and/or hunted and fished and prepared for longer term storage can play an important role in the quality of your diet and your health during the emergency.

Many vegetables can be started as early as January/February (in a greenhouse or cold frame) and continue to be planted until late August for later harvest through the winter and into the following spring. Fruit trees and small fruits like blueberries, blackberry types, grapes, and currants/gooseberries can be a great addition to any emergency food planning.

In an emergency in the summer, there is plenty of sunlight and warm temperatures but little or no rain, so water sources and thoughtful management of what water you have is important for a summer garden (and for drinking) when electricity and pumping infrastructures are damaged. If you develop a garden that has been enriched with lots of compost over the years, it will hold more water in the top and sub soil. It also encourages deeper rooting, allowing you to grow some vegetables with far less water than normal. Active weed control (weeds remove soil moisture and shade desirable seedlings) and mulching will also help your vegetables to survive on far less water.

Plants suited to summer gardening with little or no water after they get established (this doesn’t always work – temperatures make a big difference) include tomatoes, peppers, some winter squash, and possibly some lettuce varieties, kale, and arugula.

Irrigation water is not an issue in a Lower Columbia winter; but, cold, cloudy, short days that have less light slows plant growth. Winter gardens have to be planted by mid-August and well established by late September to be productive in the depths of winter.

Plants well suited to winter gardens, including Swiss chard, kale, arugula, leeks, and some other cabbage family greens, can be grown outside with only a little protection with row covers on the coldest days. Lettuce, in particular, can be grown in a cold frame or greenhouse most of the winter and outside through the first 28-degree frost of autumn. Carrots, turnips, parsnips, beets, and rutabagas can be stored in the ground until needed through about February (some turn bitter and degrade rapidly in quality in the ground after that) if you have no field mice that would eat them. If you do, these crops need to be harvested and stored in an unheated garage or shed in sawdust in bins.

Crops for winter fresh storage are the root crops noted above plus winter squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, apples, pears, and quince. Check periodically for decay.

Crops for drying are tomatoes, peppers, kale, shell beans, apples, pears, cherries, etc. You will need a food dehydrator to get the food quite dry, so it won’t mold in plastic storage bags on a shelf in your pantry or freezer.

Crops for water bath (high acid) canning are tomatoes (without other vegetables in the mix), cucumber pickles, pickled green beans, fruit preserves, fruit jams, and sauces. Filled jars should be packed back in the boxes they came in with the cardboard dividers to keep them from breaking in an earthquake. Some people store these boxes under their beds.

If you pressure can, there are a lot more foods that can be kept in good condition for years. Be sure to follow all the up-to-date pressure canning recommendations and have your pressure gauge tested periodically. Check with your Extension office for options.

There are staples that you probably can’t grow/hunt/forage or catch enough of (or are cheaper to buy) but which you need to have at least a 30-day supply on hand, which include protein sources like canned tuna fish and dry beans, some oils for cooking and salads, and carbohydrate sources like sugar, honey, flour and, finally, salt and brown rice. You will need extra water to cook the rice and beans. It never hurts to have some chocolate. Many herbs like rosemary, bay leaves, sage, and thyme can be grown with little or no water in the summer and can be harvested directly from the plant all winter long. You can dry all these herbs as well. You can best capture the flavors of some herbs in vinegar (tarragon is an example of an herb that loses most of its flavor dried but makes a nice, flavored vinegar). Other staples might include tea or coffee and perhaps some wine or beer (home brewers might find themselves very popular in a food emergency).

Final notes

Take excess produce to the food bank, senior centers, or community meals programs. Cash donations to buy food for the food banks are also greatly appreciated.

Very helpful information sources are your local Extension offices: Columbia County Extension 503 397-3462; and Wahkiakum County Extension 360 795-3278. The Extension service offices offer their programs and materials equally to all people. They will all know where you can get your pressure gauge tested.

Advice on future garden topics is welcome by emailing chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu.