Hamming it up

[oakfarm]

Thought, how are you preparing for the hard times? Well, I know the US doesn’t have the same energy problems we have. We had the greens putting our nuclear plants out of business and for better or worse we don't have a fracking industry. Still there are other things. Back in the days the settlers in Lapland were forced to mix Iceland lichen (Cetraria islandica) in their barley porridge and barley bread. (The summers in the north are too short for wheat, it’s barley country.) Is that what we are supposed to start doing again? No, I guess I’m exaggerating. But as an alternative I looked to see if the lupins - that are an invasive species here - are edible. If the settlers back in the day had an edible lupins invasion on their hand, they might have complimented their barley with that, not lichen. But no, there was no easy answer as to if they are edible or not. (Different species and different cooking methods apparently make a difference.) On the other hand snakeheads - the other invasive species I have mentioned - are edible. So that’s good.

I know, it might not be that bad. Still english speaking media used to have hyperbole headlines about covid. Comparing it to the black death or the fictional viruses in dystopias like The maddaddam trilogy or Station 11. Now when we have a food crisis coming, the same media take it easy with the headlines. But here I compared with those very poor settlers 

That said, because of the cost of living crisis and a lot because of my curiosity, I have checked the Asian stores for frozen tilapia. If that could be a good cheap protein. But no, not that cheap. Perhaps I have to farm my own tilapia. I wonder if they eat lichen and lupins?

Btw, since I mentioned Bofors artillery. There are rumours that their artillery already is in the Ukraine. It’s just a secret.