8
in other words
june16
2016
Diggin’ in the Dirt: Gardens in an Emergency
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Vernonia
Dental
an
FOR TOWING EMERGENCIES
IN AND AROUND THE
VERNONIA AREA
e rm
Polife and County personnel are required
to use a rotation of available providers,
UNLESS YOU SPECIFICALLY ASK
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REQUEST TOWING SERVICE FROM
D
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. r C
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 emer-
gency).
Food Safety or Food Preservation
Questions? OSU Extension Service
Has Answers.
Are you planning to preserve food from
your garden or purchased from a farm
this summer? If so, call or visit the OSU
Extension Service office before you
start canning, freezing, or drying. Cost-
ly and potentially harmful mistakes can
be made by using outdated canning reci-
pes and instructions. You can find free
publications at the Columbia County
Extension office located at 505 N. Co-
lumbia River Highway in St. Helens
(across from the Legacy Clinic). If you
have questions, phone the office at (503)
397-3462. You can download for free
all our food preservation publications
at http://extension.oregonstate.edu/fch/
food-preservation. An additional great
resource is the National Center for home
Food Preservation at http://www.uga.
edu/nchfp/.
Take excess produce to the food bank,
senior centers, or community meals
programs. Cash donations to buy food
are also greatly appreciated.
The Extension Service offers its pro-
grams and materials equally to all
people.
Free newsletter
The Oregon State University
Extension office in Columbia County
publishes a monthly newsletter on gar-
dening and farming topics (called Coun-
ty Living) written/edited by yours truly.
All you need to do is ask for it and it will
be mailed to you. Call 503 397-3462 to
be put on the list. Alternatively, you can
sign up for email notification of when to
find the latest edition on the web at
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/colum-
bia/.
Contact information for the Extension
office
Oregon State University Extension Ser-
vice – Columbia County
505 N. Columbia River Highway (across
from the Legacy clinic)
St. Helens, OR 97051
503 397-3462
Email: chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu
r
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p
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is t
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er
.
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S c
eu
622 Bridge Street Vernonia, OR 97064
phone (503) 429-0880 -- fax (503) 429-0881
For fast
cash!
010412
Gardens in an Emergency
I recently participated in a disas-
ter planning event in St. Helens. Verno-
nia has had a lot of practice in this regard
between the 1996 and 2007 floods, the
2008 Christmas Eve snow storm, and
various wind events. An active garden-
ing community can’t be expected to
provide food for all but can be a sig-
nificant resource for the kinds of foods
that won’t be shipped into an area, such
as vegetables and fruit, in the initial re-
covery process. I prepared the following
piece for distribution at the Extension
office booth that we staffed at the Emer-
gency Preparedness Fair:
Food may be in short supply in
a major emergency like an earthquake,
forest fire situation, heavy winter flood,
wind, or snow storm, 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 dur-
ing the emergency.
Many vegetables can be start-
and some other cabbage family greens
can be grown outside with only a little
protection with row covers on the cold-
est days. Lettuce, in particular can be
grown in a cold frame or greenhouse
most of the winter and outside until
the first autumn 28 degree frost. Car-
rots, turnips, parsnips, beets, and ruta-
bagas can be stored in the ground until
needed through about February (some
turn bitter and degrade rapidly in qual-
ity 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:
The root crops noted above plus winter
squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions,
garlic, apples, pears, and quince. Check
periodically for decay.
Crops for drying: Tomatoes,
peppers, kale, shell beans, apples, pears,
cherries, etc. You will need a food de-
hydrator 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: Tomatoes only (without other
vegetables in the mix), cucumber pick-
les, pickled green beans, fruit preserves,
jams, and sauces. Filled jars should be
packed back in the boxes they came in
with the cardboard dividers to keep them
from breaking. 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 recom-
mendations (see below) and have your
pressure gauge tested periodically. We
do that here at the Extension office.
There are staples that you prob-
ably 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 include protein sources
like canned tuna fish and dry beans,
some oils for cooking and salads, and
carbohydrate sources like sugar, honey,
and flour, and finally, salt, and brown
rice. It never hurts to have some choc-
olate. 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 (tarra-
gon is an example of an herb that loses
most of its flavor dried but makes a nice
D
Beginning beekeeping class
There will be a class for people
interested in beekeeping or novice bee-
keepers on Wednesday, June 22nd from
6:30pm-8:30pm at the OSU Extension
office in St. Helens. The class is free and
open to all. Space is limited to 40 people.
Please call us if you have any questions:
(503) 397-3462.
ed as early as February 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 blue berries, 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 wa-
ter sources and thoughtful management
of what water you have is important for
a summer garden 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 veg-
etables with far less water than normal.
Active weed control (weeds remove soil
moisture and shade desirable seedlings)
and mulching will also help your veg-
etables to survive on far less water.
Plants suited to summer garden-
ing with little or no water after they get
established (this doesn’t always work):
tomatoes, peppers, some winter squash,
and possibly some lettuce varieties, kale,
and arugula.
Irrigation water is not an issue in
a Vernonia winter. But cold, short days
with far less light slows plant growth.
Winter gardens have to be plant-
ed by mid-August and well established
by late September to be productive in the
depths of winter.
Plants well suited to winter gar-
dens: Swiss chard, kale, arugula, leeks,
DM
By Chip Bubl
Oregon State University
Extension Service - Columbia County
2245 Baseline St., Cornelius
(Across from Fred Meyer)
503-530-8119
State Licensed PB-0388
Open
everyday
at 9 a.m.
