It is nice to not have a bazillion sub forums.

I like the dedicated forum so storage,recipes,weeds,etc.....you can find a bunch of gems that may otherwise get lost.

Food is a really important topic.

OT,one thing that really appealed to me here was the lack of shoot em up,kill em all,keyboard commando stuff found on other forums.Plenty of gun fighting/end of world zombie forums to address that at any level you like.

I like your mindset, it is a positive take on things,I was thinking food as a positive subject matter.

I don't think that a food forum is neither required nor is there a real need for it. Overall, this is a low volume forum and with the 4 main forums listed, any discussion on food is very low in those forums as compared to general survival topics which is the main focus of ETS.

Last year there was a similar thread on re-organzing the forum and the overall consensus was not to fix something that is not broken. In that thread, I mentioned that I would like to see a general camping forum and Hikemor made a very good observation that I have quoted below. His thoughts why there should not be separate camping forum, IMHO, can easily be applied to why ETS should not have a food forum.



Lastly, if we ever did have a food forum, I can see thread locks when the discussion inevitably degenerates on which company makes the best tactical mixing bowls or do muffins turn out and taste better in a stainless muffin pan as compared to a titanium muffin pan....

Wherever it appears, I would like to see some of Blast's recipes for the stuff he finds in the woods.

Some lightly grilled salmon steak and wasabi, with a side of wild onion, miners lettuce and a balsamic vinaigrette?

I have repeated a gazillion times my wish for some dedicated forums ( medical, gardening, prep gear ..etc.) and want to add that there are two ofrums in teh bottom that do not get much traffic ( Lending Library and The Market place ) . These two can be served by stikies in the (Around the campfire ) forum, and the space can be better used - IMHO - for something better. There is a 3rd low traffic forum ( photo gallery ) which I personally would prefer to re-purpose to soemthing else like (survival stories) with positive or negative outcomes.


FWIW,
Just my 2¢

I think around the campfire is fine. Here's why.

This is not a "survivalist" site - the basic tone and mission here assumes that the situations encountered are short-term for the most part (stuck on a mountain, ditched in the tundra), longer term for natural disasters (weather emergencies) and there's a bit of entertaining the "collapse of society" scenarios in the Urban forum.

Food applies in all of those situations, and differently. The food I pack in a briefcase for "surviving" in an airport for 3 days is different than the food I keep in the house for "surviving" a winter storm vs the food I bring on a road trip. Similarly, my ongoing pathetic attempts at meaningful harvests from gardening are interesting (did you know Tomatoes can have a calcium deficiency?), but discussing ways of attempting to be wholly "self-sufficient" in food you grow and eat has this interesting tendency to steer into TEOTWAWKI territory.

Finally, there's the structure of the site itself. We've been reticent to add sections because the more sections you have, the less community you get. Being "forced" into a place like Around the Campfire for all of the "other" topics actually increases the value of this site, by accidentally exposing you to topics that you didn't know you wanted to know about or maybe wouldn't have thought to discuss.

In conclusion, I think that Around The Campfire is perfectly suited to this topic.

And for those still reading - any neat soil prep tricks to prevent bloom-end rot? About 25% of my tomatoes were lost to it this year. I have basically no limits to the things I am willing to do to prevent it next year, up to and including buying soil for a 30'x30' garden, but simple would be better.

I see why you dont want to add more sections,I like the setup you have now too,it DOES work.I was only thinking a lot might get lost otherwise.

So a pantry,a year or 2 supply like everyone did until just in time delivery became norm wouldnt work here? I do have lots of interest in that as it just seems normal to me,how to do it therefore seems normal too? How to can would work here,wouldnt it,or is it only 3-14 day food type stuff you'd rather see?

See,I see this as economic survival in our journey thru life,we wont have this great income vrs what we will have in retirement,to do up food cheaply is an issue for us,not end of world thing on our end,so thats how I see it.

Just clarify so I dont mess up with inappropriate posts that arent your focus or desire.

But what you have is good,no doubt about it,keep up the good work,its a winner.Small and nice,thats a good thing in a preparedness forum.Everything doesnt need to begin at the survivalblog level then more extreme levels,in fact some of that gets pretty out there/overwhelming real fast for many folks,me included.

Nice forum,thank you.

About tomatoes? All I know is our season very short and the chicken poo level was finally right,we will get some winners this year,but still wind up with too many greenies.We are learning ways to prepare the greens though.

FWIW,we try to use no chems at all (what if we cant get em? Doesnt have to be end of world,could just be end of disposable income),a personal choice on many different levels (NOT greenie extremists by any reach),so chick poo/mulch/compost is about as far as we go gardening wise.We plan on losing a third anyhow to nature.

Martin,

I grow my tomatoes in pots. I started with pure compost. This worked well except for Roma tomatoes--they got blossom end-rot. After I found that it was due to a calcium deficiency, I just added some lime and all was well.

Ack!! More pressure to finish my book!
At this point it's still going to be years. I figure not until my daughters have become surly, parent-hating teenagers.
-Blast

It'll stay on my shopping list until then adn we can review it together in parental therapy!!