Garden, lest ye die
Grow or Die: The Good Guide to Survival Gardening is different than most books for preppers and other survivalists, because it's not concerned with surviving the first few months of a post-apocalypse, but the next few years. It contains a wealth of data on what sort of things you will need to provide food for your family, instructions on how to use them, and a small encyclopedia of vegetables with instructions on how to grow them as well as a summary of their characteristics... although if you're a fan of zucchini, it appears you will be out of luck should the world go the way of Fallout 4. There will be no zucchini in the post-apocalypse.
The good news is that between this book and the aforementioned game, you will surely be able to put yourself in the "survival mindset" that our military experts informed us is so vital at the Brainstorm event this weekend. The book is written in the same easy, amusing style as its predecessor, and even those who have no interest in gardening and believe Paul Krugman's assertion that the federal government will be able to avert all ills by further inflating the currency will find it both informative and enjoyable.
The book has apparently struck a nerve of some sort, as even prior to this announcement, it had already hit #1 bestseller in Gardening, marking Castalia House's third straight #1 category bestseller.
Grow or Die: The Good Guide to Survival Gardening is 142 pages, DRM-free, and retails for $2.99 at Amazon and at Castalia House.
So, congratulations to David the Good for his second category bestseller; with three of the top 30 books, he practically owns the Gardening & Horticulture Vegetables category. I'd also like to thank Brian Niemeier, who graciously offered his science fiction novel, Nethereal (Soul Cycle Book 1), as a bonus offer to the Castalia New Release subscribers who bought Grow or Die. Have a look at it, particularly if you're a John C. Wright fan.As always, we are absolutely fine with whatever retail option you happen to prefer. Whether you buy Castalia books from Amazon, from the CH store, or get them "free" via Kindle Unlimited, we are just happy that you have decided to support Castalia House and we hope you find our books to be good values.
Labels: books, Castalia House
108 Comments:
No zucchini? !
Egads, there can be no civilization without zucchini!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DROkQJc_F0
The winds of a food revolution, they howl. Thanks, David the Good!
Oh, and this pesky question again - will there be a hard copy/paperback? I do much better with "reference-type" reads that I can hold in my hands. If not, I'll buy the e-book. Thanks.
It should be good, the author actually made reading about compost entertaining while being informative.
"will there be a hard copy/paperback?"
Yes. Just like last time, we launched the e-book first and followed it later with paperback. For a prepping book, hard copies are always a good idea. Unless you have your Kindle in a Faraday cage.
I bought this to find out the fate of zucchini.
It shot straight to number #1:
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Horticulture > Vegetables
Congrats on hitting #1 in it's category. This book is very timely as more people are starting to think about more natural alternatives to frankenfoods. Of course Monsanto claims all their GMOproducts are organic .
Just picked up my copy. After reading Compost Everything, I couldn't miss it.
A post-apocalyptic world without zucchini is not a post-apocalyptic world I want to live in.
The only reason to have zucchini is zucchini bread, and now that we know bread is bad for you., there is no reason to have zucchini.
Congratulations to David, Vox, and the whole Castalia House team.
I have had it for several days and am about 50% done. Early on it paid for itself. I purchased from Amazon in order to do a verified purchase review. Of course, it will be 5 star.
I wonder if we can get the special offering by sending Castalia a copy of the Amazon receipt?
And, sooner is better on the print version. The dead tree version of composting already as its place on the bookshelve. Besides, my wife does not do ebook readers so, with things like this, I'm double buying though, having the print version would be quite useful come the emp.
I suggest you work on your social skills if you hope to survive the Zombie Apocalypse, Clint. This is not the place for that.
Bought it, despite the lack if zucchini. How will the Paleo dieters survive post-apocalypse without their zoodles??
I too am disturbed by the idea of a zucchini-free hellhole of an apocalypse.
I'll pick up the book this afternoon to learn more of this nightmare scenario.
Clint must be the type of guy that would go into a wedding and tell everybody a more fun wedding is going on down the street. Or he goes to a book signing and bring's another author's book. Or he moves from California to any other place and tells everybody how they did things in Calif. so much better.
@AmyJ That is the only thing I'll miss about zucchini. But since I made it two years before we discovered them, I think I'll live. by the way small butternuts work well too and I'm sure they have more nutrients. Now if he nuked patty pan, we gonna talk.
Don't be too hard on Clint - he's my homeboy.
And SuperDuperPrepper77 is hilarious.
Thanks, folks.
If you like zucchini, well..
We don't care.
Wow. Never had a comment deleted before. I feel special.
Anyway, I did buy the book yesterday and hope to read it soon. I loved David's Composting book.
Mostly, I was just messing with him in the spammed comment.
In August I went back to the old neighborhood in Vermont to visit a friend. We went out to the general store one morning and as we got out of the car I noted that he was very careful to lock the doors.
"Why are you locking the doors," I asked. "Have things gotten that bad around here out in the sticks?"
"No," he replied. "If I don't lock the doors, when we come back the thing will be full of fucking zucchini."
" . . . a small encyclopedia of vegetables with instructions on how to grow them . . ."
You will also want animals. Lots of them. Don't count on being able to hunt them, it takes too much time and everyone else bent on survival will have the same idea.
In the first and recovery stages though, you will be able to use your vegetable patch as bait. Don't think of the rabbits and woodchucks as enemies. Welcome them - with traps and lead.
There will be no zucchini in the post-apocalypse.
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition! Bring on the apocalypse, the devil's vegetable must be eradicated no matter the cost. Hopefully eggplant can be a casualty of the just war of the children of light as well.
But zucchini is always my most prolific crop. Damn all the cucurbitaphobes!
I was just messing with him in the spammed comment.
That's fine, but a) no one else knows that, and b) it looks exactly like what other people have done seriously in the past.
I only deleted it, it wasn't spammed.
Things that divide the minions:
- Whether some northern states adequately disliked Abraham Lincoln.
- WWII: Either Japan or America's decision not to invade the other's mainland.
- Guns used by Nate's wife.
- The lack of oblong foodstuffs in the event of an apocalypse.
A single zucchini plant can feed India.
Why do people in Montana lock their cars during August?
So they don't return to discover a bag of zucchini in the front seat!
The reason I grow zucchini (which should be battered and deep-fried, not used to desecrate bread) is because bugs, ants, mice, rabbits, and deer all leave it alone.... come to mention it, if even the pests won't eat it, what makes me think it's edible??!
"if even the pests won't eat it, what makes me think it's edible??!"
Ha, ha! Only serious.
I've been enjoying this all morning. I really want a copy of this in paperback as well. Now, to figure out how to transfer some techniques from this and the compost book into indoor/outdoor marijuana cultivation, this being Oregon and all, lol. Loved the dig about glocks and Billy Joel music, heh. Homerun for the author, all the way around.
Obviously none of you fight the dreaded squash bugs or borers. Here we have to fight for our zucchini.
Purchased from Amazon. Look forward to reading it. I hope it somewhat covers tropical zones.
"You will also want animals. Lots of them."
Agreed. We'll probably cover that in a future book.
Vegetables aren't always going to get stolen, though. Here on my property, I've got hundreds of pounds of roots growing in the ground that no one local recognizes as edible. Malanga, arrowroot, yacon, African yams, cassava, boniato, taro, eddoes. It makes sense to grow a wide range of edibles just in case some get ripped off. Bonus points if your edibles look similar to something toxic.
@Were-Puppy
Some tropical crops are covered. I cover them more regularly at The Survival Gardener. There's a pop-up there for the newsletter - sign up and you also get a free survival crop comic I created with a full page on cassava.
" . . . no one local recognizes as edible."
We haaaaaave a winner! The same goes for animals as well:
Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. -Leviticus 11:22
Love the cover art.
Hah. I have seen three zucchini plants throw off over a hundred pounds of gourd at one picking. I just waded through the foliage, letting my feet tell me when they struck one of the beasts, then tossed it to someone outside the danger zone. Most of it went to the goats, who had a few bites, then gave me suspicious looks as I kept throwing more at them. They did not know that the secret is to saute it in thumb-sized pieces and then add the result to spaghetti sauce. They also didn't know that it goes well, prepared similarly, in a nice spicy goat curry.
David knows his stuff. I will have to read the book before deciding if this zuke heresy is serious or tragic.
Funny.
Zucchini just doesn't count as "food" in my book.
Literally.
No zuchinni, that's OK, have Okra.
@Gordon
Drizzled with olive oil, tossed with Cajun seasoning, and roasted with squash, potatoes, and andouille sausage is a good way to eat zucchini, too
@D the G:
I thought African yams were toxic - unless properly prepared.
Bonus points if your edibles look similar to something toxic.
Well, if you're not careful with the zuchinni, it could be toxic.
@CarpeOro
Most are not. Dioscorea alata, D. cayenensis, D. batatas and many others are safe without special prep. Some wild ones, such as D. bulbifera can be toxic, though. You may be thinking of cassava, AKA Manihot escuelenta.
Okay, Amy...the last of the zukes and yellow squash is sitting on the counter awaiting an idea. You have provided one. I wonder, would chorizo work with perhaps some of the hotter salsa I put up this year?
Welcome to Vox's Recipe Thread!
@43 is correct. Some of those zukes I picked this year, if dropped on your head, would toxic you right up.
Obviously none of you fight the dreaded squash bugs or borers.
We learned to avoid those by planting squash later in the year, around late June (zone 5b). The bugs just don't seem to get started that late. Works great for winter squash that you just want to mature before frost in time for storage anyway. Not so great for the summer ones that you'd like to have earlier, but rotating to a different plot each year helps with those.
Zucchini... Once, in a fit of what can only be called madness, my maternal grandfather planted 4 ACRES of zucchini. That summer and fall I had zucchini in every way possible, and a few that shouldn't be (zucchini stuffing anyone?).
We then pickled and canned enough that we ran out jars, and so did the neighbors. Grandpa didn't plant any next year, but the devil spawn green veggie self seeded (didn't know they did that). When they moved off the farm 12 years ago, that patch was still going strong. The new owners are trying to adjust to life on a zucchini diet.
"Drizzled with olive oil, tossed with Cajun seasoning, and roasted with squash, potatoes, and andouille sausage is a good way to eat zucchini, too"
It's also a good way to eat sawdust, but why would you want to?
Bought it. Those of you who haven't been to David's blog or seen his videos, go. I was mesmerized by a 45 minute video of David wandering around his back yard pointing at plants. It is that funny.
I make faux apple pie filling, candied zuke rings and pickled zukes as a part of a larger veg mix out of some of the excess. It tastes pretty good. The rest we dehydrate and use as a part of a veg powder mix or throw by handfuls into pots of soup for color and filler.
"The rest we dehydrate and use as a part of a veg powder mix or throw by handfuls into pots of soup for color and filler."
Q.E.D.
@51 Michelle: Would you consider sharing some of those zuke recipes? Everything you listed sounds useful. There's time for you to gather it all together and put it in an e-book before next year's crop starts ripening.
RE: Surviving...David posted a recipe for jalapeno pickles on his Survival Gardener blog. We had done some freezing before, but the recipe got me to invest $40 for a canning kit and some jars. Some became a whole bunch, and I fully expect a nice boxed set of various flavored almonds from the Ball Canning Jar company at the holidays this year. Next year, a pressure canner so I can do some of the more complicated stuff like stews.
@6
ETA on the hardcopy?
Got the composting one a month ago. Was great, you're my kind of crazy.
You right wing haters are so raciss. Why are you so intolerant of an innocent vegetable that is working so diligently to peacefully assimilate?
What has this vegetable ever done to you? It's just wants a better life for itself and it's family. Why don't you give it some magic dirt that you give all the other vegetables? You don't have green thumbs yours are red for raciss
Gordon: I tried these recipes this year and found them to be delicious. http://www.self-reliance.com/zucchini-the-most-versatile-fruit-in-your-garden/
"Why are you so intolerant of an innocent vegetable that is working so diligently to peacefully assimilate?"
That would be Day Lilies, which at least have the advantage of actually being edible.
ETA on the hardcopy?
No idea. We have at least four others to do first.
Also, there are lots of pickled zuke/veg recipes online, along with making squash relish. Now THAT'S really delicious, kinda like a chutney. For the powder, I use the method here: http://nourishedkitchen.com/green-veggie-powder/
I make a few kinds of powder, one of which is a kitchen sink variety that includes the squashes. Just don't use broccoli and such except as apart of a stand alone powder or a green powder as the taste overpowers everything else. I add the powder to juice, soups, sauces to get in more veg and to enhance flavor.
What kind of sick bastard doesn't want zucchini?
Not wanting cauliflower, or italian eggplant, I understand. Zucchini? You can take my zucchini when you pry it from my cold, dead, flour coated fingers.
Purchased, read, enjoyed, review put on Amazon. No mention of the nutritious and hardy parsnip, but that evens out with his treatment of zucchini. Scintan, you can have all the zucchini my neighbors grow. All of it.
There will be no zucchini in the post-apocalypse
A piece of me just died inside.
I understand the backlog on hard copy, but for my two cents, I'd say there is a good David's books going to paperback getting a priority. My reasoning is that while they are only one branch of the tools to equip yourself for the future problems, they are also the most accessible to people that haven't got the mindset of preparing for them. The books can work as an opening to plant a "seed" as it were. I know plenty of people that would look as if I had sprouted two heads were I to expound on much of what I have noted and learned from the Ilk and the site. If I were to present them with some of David's books they may get drawn in for entertainment and gardening value at first, giving an opening to other non-MSM approved ideas and concerns. Personally, I'm thinking about purchasing a few copies of Compost Everything for Christmas gifts.
I am grateful for the wisdom of the many minions, ilk, and others here. As I fully embrace my old-fartedness, I am really enjoying learning to cook well, to grow food, and to preserve it so that I can taste September all winter long.
Obviously none of you fight the dreaded squash bugs or borers. Here we have to fight for our zucchini.
I have a notorious black thumb. I kill everything that needs tending in a garden. My thriving plants are ignored plants.
I like few veggies, but zuke is one. Made the mistake of letting that be my intro to gardening....
Too bad Kudzu is not edible.
Bonus points if your edibles look similar to something toxic.
Makes me think of my mycology professor's anecdote about his grad program hosting a mushroom roast where they accidentally poisoned a bunch of people.
Makes me think of my mycology professor's anecdote about his grad program hosting a mushroom roast where they accidentally poisoned a bunch of people.
Was it a tragic poisoning or a fun, psychadelic poisoning?
I understand the backlog on hard copy, but for my two cents, I'd say there is a good David's books going to paperback getting a priority.
We have commitments to our other authors, who are considerably more interested in seeing their own books in print than anyone else's. So, no, we are not going to move it forward. We're not moving Cuckservative forward either. Right now the order is: TWBW Vols I and II, Equality, Riding the Red Horse, Cuckservative, City Beyond Time, Grow or Die.
" . . . flour coated fingers."
I'm a celiac, you insensitive clod. If you want your sawdust held together with library paste, you can have it. More food for me.
"Too bad Kudzu is not edible."
There really are advantages to being a Yank, now and then, around the edges.
Full speed ahead, and damn the zucchini!
#CeliacLivesMatter
Was it a tragic poisoning or a fun, psychedelic poisoning?
The story was probably 15 years old when I heard it 35 years ago, so I'm only guessing...probably just the gastritis/ER visit kind.
The guy's best story (not confirmed) was what people in Siberia used in place of a 6-pk of beer when socializing. He claimed they used an hallucinogenic, non-poisonous variety of Amanita, and that the punchline was that unlike ethanol, Amanita's hallucinogen was excreted renally, essentially unchanged...such that "recycling" was the norm at parties....
I've heard since then that this was the origin of the idea for Mountain Dew.
(jk)
Grabbed the Ebook, will get the hardcopy as soon as it's available, loved the compost book, looks like this one is of the same quality.
Hey David.
this latest book is very timely. Why? I'm building, now, a raised bed per the system used by Len Pense of Pensaroda Farm out there in Mo. Its a pricy thing but if it works as well as advertised I will put in 2 or 3 more. His site is at gardenrevolution.com
Old Len is over 80 and a retired professional engineer. I want to go out there and see his operation. If I do more beds will probably fly out, rent a uhaul to bring back 3 beds worth of material [thats 1200 pounds a copy, so, that strategy should be a cost saver over freight]. You two would probably get along well.
@34 David The Good
@Were-Puppy
Some tropical crops are covered. I cover them more regularly at The Survival Gardener. There's a pop-up there for the newsletter - sign up and you also get a free survival crop comic I created with a full page on cassava.
---
Thanks. Was checking the website, and that's exactly what I was thinking of, northern Florida.
@63. CM
"There will be no zucchini in the post-apocalypse"
A piece of me just died inside
Too bad for thee and me. First they came for the zucchini lovers, but I was not a zucchini lover.
"There will be no zucchini in the post-apocalypse."
Bloody hell. Is this a squash bug apocalypse??
"Too bad Kudzu is not edible."
It's perfectly edible.
* Harvest the kudzu
* vermicompost the kudzu
* plant zucchni in the compost
* feed the worms to the fish
PROFIT!!!
@9 Of course Monsanto claims all their GMOproducts are organic .
Naturally. They're still carbon-based after all. /sarc
I have been reading here since 05. I never would have imagined a zucchini thread. I am going to buy his book out of curiosity.
Kudzu is edible.
http://www.thekitchn.com/did-you-know-you-can-eat-kudzu-92488
What am I miissing with the zucinnis? Sounds like home grown weapons ... weaponize the zuchinnis!
I
I am pretty sure kudzu is edible, unless you mean flavor wise, in which case I do not know.
@83 JimR
Kudzu is edible.
http://www.thekitchn.com/did-you-know-you-can-eat-kudzu-92488
----
All these years of battling it and I had no idea. It definitely smells like grapes when those blooms are out. We would always flip the tendrils back into itself to keep it from spreading, but that's an almost daily chore. I would say maybe every foot or so is a potato like thing in the ground underneath all that foliage.
Oh yeah, and from what i've seen, those Kudzu tendrils easily grow a foot or more a day. At least near a lake.
Anyway, like I was sayin', zucchini is the fruit of Italy. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, zucchini-kabobs, zucchini creole, zucchini gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple zucchini, lemon zucchini, coconut zucchini, pepper zucchini, zucchini soup, zucchini stew, zucchini salad, zucchini and potatoes, zucchini burger, zucchini sandwich.
That- that's about it.
Kudzu is edible and reputedly lowers cravings for alcohol.
Nate? Nate?
Incidentally, you can shoot zucchini out of the potato gun which is diagrammed in the book.
@Jack Ward
Thanks - I'll look that up.
Engineers and gardening go well together. See: Mel Bartholomew.
@48. Red Jack
Once, in a fit of what can only be called madness, my maternal grandfather planted 4 ACRES of zucchini. ... the devil spawn green veggie self seeded .. When they moved off the farm 12 years ago, that patch was still going strong. The new owners are trying to adjust to life on a zucchini diet.
+
@84. JaimeInTexas
What am I miissing with the zucinnis? Sounds like home grown weapons ... weaponize the zuchinnis!
+
@90. David The Good
Incidentally, you can shoot zucchini out of the potato gun which is diagrammed in the book.
= Bwaa haa haa
"What am I miissing with the zucinnis? Sounds like home grown weapons ... weaponize the zuchinnis!"
From those who like it, I have simply heard you have to harvest it before it grows too big. At that point it is really only good for seeds. Sort of like rhubarb.
Ah. Just like Okra.
Same for pumpkins. I you want to eat them as a dinner vegetable, get 'em about softball size.
Not if you grow the right kind of pumpkins. Tan Cheese and Seminole pumpkins are tasty at any size, although you want to leave them sit around for awhile to really get ripe.
Yes - you need to let summer squash mature to harvest the seeds. They're an immature fruit at the time they're harvested and the embryos in the seeds aren't "done" yet.
Not that I advocate growing or saving the seeds of zucchini.
I have lived in Mexico for several years. At one point a high school student from a small village came and asked for English classes. Her science project won her an all expenses paid trip to Atlanta to the International Science Fair.
Her project was to squeeze the juices out of guajillo peppers and spray it on zucchini, which is a dietary basic in Mexico. It costs almost nothing to make and her experiments showed it killed the White Flies (the common Mexican zucchini nemesis) better than the toxic commercial stuff.
She used a 'still' version, with ethanol and then boiling out the ethanol. But, just use more peppers and don't bother with the still. In normal times, pop a bunch of guajillo peppers in an Osterizer and grind away, then squeeze away. But, when there is no electricity, run them through your hand corn grinder and then squeeze them. You might have to use your ingenuity. Protect your skin from the Peppers. They can badly burn you. But, they won't kill you like organophosphates can.
Let me add this posting is totally serious. There are some excellent jokes on this thread. I haven't laughed that hard in many days. So, you might think this is another. It is not.
As far as my i.d. Anonymous age nn, i Have used it since Anonymous age 64, and many people know me by that name.
Purchased from Castalia House because the newsletter deals are too good to pass up. My free book library from CH is rapidly growing.
I'm eagerly reading now, hoping I can put my small acreage to good use.
@Anonymous age 73
Thanks for the story. Yes - the peppers are awesome for insect control. I actually cover some of that in the book, and also how to make nicotine insecticide.
@IncoherentM
Thanks. May your plans prosper.
The book just got linked to by Instapundit. What's a referral like that worth for book sales?
I know I've bought Scalzi's book and Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors based on his blog pimpage ...
" . . . zucchini, which is a dietary basic in Mexico."
Thank God I lived in a fishing village.
The zucchini are fine.
How many No. 1s do you think Castalia will have to publish before the rabbits stop referring to it as "an obscure Finnish publisher"?
David, any coverage of sub-arctic gardening?
How many No. 1s do you think Castalia will have to publish before the rabbits stop referring to it as "an obscure Finnish publisher"?
Oh, they've already resorted to the "there are tons of categories so it's no big deal" line. So, I expect they'll do it indefinitely. What has been more surprising is the total failure of the conservative media to pay any attention whatsoever. They'd rather complain again about Lena Dunham.
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