David The Good - The Survival Gardeners Guide to Growing Your Own Caffeine: Coffee, Tea, and the Black Drink (Survival Gardener Guides Book 2)

The Survival Gardener's Guide to Growing Your Own Caffeine: Coffee, Tea, and the Black Drink

by David The Good

Published by Florida Food Forests, Inc.

Florida, USA

Contact the author at:

david@floridafoodforests.com

Royalty-free cover image provided by The Graphics Fairy: http://www.thegraphics fairy.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States copyright law.

Copyright 2016 by David Goodman.

All rights reserved.

Visit The Survival Gardener website at http://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/

Introduction

If everything collapsed, would you still be able to get a cup of coffee or tea? For how long? Much like nicotine, caffeine is an addicting substance that helps improve concentration and our ability to deal with life. Unlike tobacco, however, researchers have had a hard time pinning caffeine into the bad addiction camp. Tea and coffee are both good for you and contain antioxidants. Theyre also excellent when youre trying to write. Other sources of caffeine, such as Diet Coke and Red Bull, will not be covered in this book since I quit soda long ago and also dont wish to delve into what it would take to make those things from scratch. Imagine making your own high-fructose corn syrup and Red #40 at home! No. Also, if you did manage to manufacture Diet Coke in your garage, there is a non-negligible chance of you getting busted for having a meth lab. I swear I was just trying to make Coke, officer!

That wont go over very well.

Also, Im a gardener, not a chemist, so what Ill share in this booklet will be based on the caffeine that you can grow in your yard or in containers, getting a healthy backyard buzz like the Good Lord intended when He invented this magical molecule.

Sure, theres some sense to giving up addictive substances that may become unavailable during a crisis. There are also plenty of people hanging on to negative and harmful addictions they should shed regardless of potential apocalyptic futures. But caffeine? Thats our friend! You wouldnt want to kick a friend to the curb just because the supermarket shelves are bare and your last can of espresso is almost empty would you? Is that how much friendship means to you?

Why Grow Your Own Caffeine?

Reason #1: Caffeine Gives You Powers

Ever pull an all-nighter in college? I did once, through the power of a 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew. (Maybe thats why I dont drink the stuff anymore: it reminds me of a sub-par English project.) Truly, though, the power of caffeine to control your energy levels and give you a burst when you need it can really help with productivity. Gotta get your garage cleaned out? Double-shot of espresso! Need to finish a report for work? Chai latte! Need to keep on top of a work crew after a hurricane? Hot black coffee! Just dont burn yourself out by overindulging and you can really kick tail with a bit of caffeine power.

Reason #2: Caffeine Will Be High Value in a Collapse

If shipping is shut down or were at war, coffee or tea will be hard to find and its value as a luxury good will soar. People will kill or at least hand over some valuables for a good cup of coffee or a glass of sweet tea. Be the person with caffeine and rule the wasteland.

Reason #3: Self-Sufficiency

I enjoy growing caffeine because I like producing much of what I consume. Growing staple root crops, grains, vegetables and fruits is cool but what if you also grew your morning cup of coffee? Thats seriously cool and puts more of your daily diet under control. Caffeine is a food group, right? The gardener, unlike the stockpiler, doesnt need to rely on far-away nations to provide himself with a supply of coffee or tea; he can grow his own.

Reason #4: Control Over Safety

You may have read that coffee is one of the most pesticide-heavy crops in the world. This is obviously not good if you drink a lot of coffee. Tea may not be much better.

One source reports:

According to Peter Goggi, a spokesman for The Tea Association of the USA, the amount of commercial pesticide in your cup is a very low amount, but recent research into some samples taken of various tea brands says that is far from true.

For example, dangerously high levels of pesticides were recently found in Celestial Seasonings tea, and the company has refused to release a report about the pesticides they use to grow their teas. (Can you say boycott!?)

It isnt just tea grown in the US, either. A recent report released by Greenpeace that tested tea from China and India found copious chemicals, too. In 49 Indian tea samples tested, nearly 60 percent contained at least one pesticide above the safety limits set by the European Union. Chinas teas werent any better with nearly 67 percent of samples (18 total) containing pesticides that were previously banned under the Stockholm Convention.(1)

Grow your own tea and coffee and youll know exactly what went into growing them. Caffeine is nice pesticides arent.

Reason #5: Bragging Rights

This isnt super important unless you have Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but presenting someone with a cup of tea or coffee and telling them I grew this is pretty amazing. When our pastor visited our homestead for the first time to say hi, we were able to share some homegrown tea with him, which he enjoyed. That made me feel pretty awesome. In retrospect, though, I probably should have listened to more sermons on the evils of pride.