Sowing the Seeds of Self-Reliance
A View from The Ark
.....ongoing musings....
by Geri Guidetti, Director, The Ark Institute
Copyright 2010 by Geri Guidetti. All rights reserved.
Grow food indoors or out. See our new "Big Food From Small Spaces" Package, below, or click on our Non Hybrid & Non GMO Seed button, above, for all of our money-saving heirloom seed collections.
Yes! Our New Supplies of Potassium Iodate Are Coming In!
Shocked by the price of garden seed in 2011 catalogs? So are we, but that makes us more determined than ever to offer our customers the best Non-hybrid, Non-GMO, heirloom seed value available anywhere in the U.S.! Our envelopes are generously packed, hoping that you will have enough seed to share with others, especially in these challenging times. Spread some kindness--spread the seed--spread the word!...Geri Guidetti, Director
A Developing Story: Food Crisis 2011
Mideast unrest continues to expand, and global food supply is closely linked to the uprisings. Mainstream media mention the link occasionally, but political chess games take center stage in most reports. The view from the Ark is clear: these revolts originated from the failure of dictatorial governments to meet the fundamental needs of their people. The most important of these needs is food. Unrest among young people tired of having no jobs, no money to pay for food, no freedom or future has finally boiled over. They are tired of being beaten into fear-induced compliance by iron-fisted dictators and their goons. First it was Tunisia and Egypt, now Syria, Libya, Bahrain and Yemen are in turmoil wrought by the collision of those rendered desperate for the basics of life with the violence of those insistent on enforcing more of the same. Times may have changed, but human needs have not. Desperate people will align themselves with any leader, religious or secular, who will credibly promise to provide the essentials of life-- water, food, clothing, shelter, education and freedom. Remember, the original trigger in Tunisia was rising food prices and the inability of the masses to buy it. Hunger hurts, and hungry minds become both focused and more maleable. Make no mistake, these are history changing revolts, and the future of the U.S. is being reshaped right along with the shifting sands of power in the Middle East. The common denominator for all countries, all states and all peoples is the need for these basics and, unfortunately, most populations in developed countries such as ours and other industrialized countries are dependent on large corporations and corporate farms to plant, water, fertilize, weed, harvest, and distribute every bite we eat, every drop we drink. Others are dependent on their dictators. As growing numbers of hungry, disgruntled populations clamor for their share of the shrinking global food pie and new leaders to guarantee it, prices will soar everywhere in direct proportion to shrinking supplies. It is time to become less dependent and more food self-sufficient. Whether you live in an apartment with a sunny window, a condo with a deck, a suburban home with a lawn-turned-garden, or on acreage, The Ark Institute has a balanced, self-reliance package of Non-hybrid, Non-GMO, chemical-free garden seed to meet your needs. Check below, then hit the Non-Hybrid, Non-GMO Seed button above for more money-saving packages for greater food self-sufficiency.Be sure to get a copy of our Seed Sowing and Saving book or other great "helpers" if you have not saved your own seed before. It is easy, healthy and fun!
God Bless.......Geri Guidetti, Director, The Ark Institute
New Money-Saving Package from The Ark Institute
Containers, Patios, Decks, RVs, Community Gardens,
Micro-plots, Countertops
Now you can raise and preserve lots of fresh food, even if you live in an apartment! The Ark Institute is pleased to introduce this new, much-needed, food self-reliance and preparedness package for folks who live on small lots, in RVs and in apartments . A collection of three excellent, easy-to-read and follow books will show you how to raise food wherever you are, and 20 generous packets of The Ark Institute’s famous non hybrid, non GMO, heirloom vegetable garden seeds, will get you started on the road to robust health and greater food security the very day you receive it! You don’t even need to wait for summer to get started! And, as always, The Ark Institute’s seed can be saved from your own vegetables to grow next year’s crops, year after year. No need to buy new seed ever! Now that’s real food security! What’s more, you can store your seed for long term survival with the instructions included in every package.
Each Big Food from Small Spaces Gardening Package contains:
All Non Hybrid, Non GMO, container appropriate Carrots, Beets, Broccoli, Cabbage, Basil, Tender Butterhead Lettuce, Kale, Mesclun Mix (Eight Heirloom varieties of lettuces and endives), Ruby Red Lettuce, Eggplant, Italian Flat Leaf Parsley, Anaheim Chili Pepper, Green/Red Bell Pepper, Bush Zucchini, Green Bush Bean, Yellow Bush Bean, Container Tomato, Roma Tomato, Green Onions and Snap Peas.
Your 20 seed packets will contain a total of 28 varieties of outstanding vegetables and herbs (8 varieties in the Mesclun Mix alone) that are well suited to container and small space gardens in your gardening area. There are literally thousands of seeds in each Big Food from Small Spaces Package and, if well grown and their seed harvested, they could provide you and your family with fresh food for many years to come. Collect seed from all 28 varieties and you could have free seed and food for sharing, even selling!
What’s more, three books will tell you how to grow them and how to preserve your food without freezing or canning! Has there ever been a time when it was more important to learn these simple skills that could mean the difference in surviving—or not?
You’ll also receive three of the best how-to resources available:
Fresh Foods From Small SpacesThe Square Inch Gardener’s Guide to Year Round Growing, Fermenting and Sprouting, by RJ Ruppenthal. 178 pages.
Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation by The Gardeners and Farmers of Terre Vivante, with Forewords by Eliot Coleman and Deborah Madison. 197 pages.
Bountiful Container Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers by Rose Marie Nichols McGee (Author), Maggie Stuckey. Excerpt from the front cover: “Discover a world far beyond the expected cherry tomato in a flowerpot. A world with virtually no weeds, no soil-born diseases….With few exceptions, everything edible that’s grown in the traditional garden can be successfully raised in a container….”452 pages. This is an excellent, fun, how-to book you will use over and over and over again as you raise your own delicious food.
All of this for $129 (delivered)!!
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Are You Worried about 2012?
There has been a lot written about potential problems in 2012, but most are are not based on hard scientific facts but on ancient cultures and respected prophets. Yet, there is one scientific reality that bears watching in 2011-2012. Our own sun is awakening from a deep slumber and is expected to reach Solar Max as early as late 2011 and as late as 2013. Why don't you bookmark www.spaceweather.com and keep an eye on things. Scientists don't have it all figured out yet, but they are learning and reporting on solar activity every day. Will there be EMP effects? Unknown, but a massive CME could end electronic life as we know it. Ask the Department of Homeland Security. Check out their report on our ability to handle a solar event comparable to the one that hit us in 1859--before cell phones, weather satellites, television, cars, air travel, etc. Before John Deere combines to harvest massive crops. When experts start talking going back to the Dark Ages in a few hours, even I have to listen. Wow, that's a long time to recovery. How many of us would make it? Got seeds? Water? Water filters? How-to books?
We share many of the concerns of those who write us, and so do many, if not most, biologists, climatologists, agronomists, physicians and other folks working on the front lines of human survival. The Ark Institute is dedicated to helping people improve their self-reliance knowledge and skills. We have lots of educational "helpers" among our good books, articles, Q&As, and a real live person to answer technical questions by email. If you are among the tens of thousands of customers, many now long-time friends whom we have helped become more self-reliant and more food self-sufficient with our unique non hybrid seeds and non GMO seeds over the years, welcome back. If your garden of our healthy, non GM vegetables is now helping you survive these leaner times, or to restore your good health, congratulations on your foresight and good eating!If you are new to our growing community of friends intent on building greater food security and greater independence from dwindling global food supplies, from genetically modified (GM) seeds and foods, from foods alarmingly laced with melamine from China, or tainted with E. coli bacteria from contaminated water and fields, welcome to a saner, smarter, greener way to eat and stay healthy. Through the resources you will find on this site, by email or by phone, we will do all we can to help you build your Ark, an "ark" full of fresh, healthy, toxin-free, self-preserved foods to carry you and your loved ones through good times and bad. You will even find an excellent, yet economical, water purifier. British Berkefeld Water Filtersare the best way to ensure safe drinking water.We have heard from thousands of you over the past 14 years, many letters and emails sent in response to articles and newsletters I have written (see Food Supply Updates archived and linked in the left column). You are right to be concerned about the growing threats to global, and even our own, national food supply. Most people are unaware of how vulnerable commercial agriculture really is in this age of unpredictable climate extremes; epidemic Ug99 wheat and barley rust that now threatens to wipe out 80% of global wheat and barley crops; depleted, even disappearing aquifers used to water essential crops; epic, expanding droughts of biblical proportions around the world; the nearly total reliance of commercial agriculture on expensive, patented, legally restricted GM seeds and the fossil fuel-dependent toxic chemicals needed to grow them. Then there is the future influenza pandemic that will infect 30 to 50 percent of the global population, gravely interrupting the production and distribution of food here and abroad. The list is endless, the threat is real. The ark concept has always made sense to me. The more complex our systems for food and water production and delivery, the more dependent we are on others to bring these essentials of life to us. The less control we have over our personal food production and processing, the more vulnerable we are to losing our food to unforeseen disruptions, natural or manmade. Heaven knows the probability of unforeseen disruptions seems to increase every day in this dangerous world.One last comment: The current national and global economy has brought hard times for millions. Many people have lost their homes or are living in much smaller ones, in apartments, even in garages of friends and family. We understand that building an ark of self-sufficiency is tough under many of these circumstances so, among our offerings at this site, you will find money saving packages and even a new one called Big Food From Small Spaces. (scroll down for more.) Now you can grow food indoors, outdoors in small patches, in containers and on kitchen counters, winter, spring, summer or fall. We have the resources that will show you how. Click on our Non hybrid Seed button, our Helpers and How-to and Ark Store buttons (great money saving packages here!), above. There's also lots more information, below. Let us know by email or phone how we can help…….Geri Guidetti, Founder and Director, The Ark Institute Geri's Email: arkinstitute@charter.net Phone: 1-800-255-1912
For product information or order questions, email arkinstitute@ aol.com
For Telephone orders or questions: 1-800-255-1912
Mailing address: The Ark Institute, PO Box 293, Westlake, OR 97493______________________________________
Copyright 2011 | The Ark Institute | All Rights Reserved.
The Ark Institute - Your Source for Non Hybrid Seeds
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