Eating for the Apocalypse: Because you know food is gonna be scarce!

Spring is probably the best time to start integrating planting in your lifestyle. The frost is over. And the apocalypse is impending. Like we say over and over again, the key to surviving the apocalypse will most likely include finding reliable and healthy food sources! So where do we start? Start with growing your own because a grocery may not be your safest option if it's an option at all. It may take some time but it's fresher and cheaper to grow your own veggies, many times over. Below are some of the greens that are taking over our front yard! By the way, we're urban gardeners so don't let city living stop you.










And below are few of the herbs we are growing: mint and rosemary. I think that means we're having a mojito and rosemary bread summer.










A few weeks ago, Gender Fatigue had another amazing guest. Gail Taylor, a farmer at a community supported agricultural farm in Upper Marlboro, Maryland called Clagett, came into the studio to talk about spring planting. For those who don't know, a CSA is a membership supported farm. So basically folks can buy a share and they are guaranteed a portion of that year's harvest every week for a certain amount of months.

If you're a novice, what do you need to start growing:

1. good seeds--we can go into the politics of seeds...like genetic modification and patenting of seeds. But for right now, we're just looking to get any seeds that will allow us to grow something like lettuce or kale--greens are perfect to start with.
2. good soil--we've been composting for a couple of years so we have some really good soil but just go to a garden store or any place with soil to sell. Or you can contact us and we will share with you...maybe
3. water
4. A tool for digging

Okay, here's an inspirational video:

that's what i'm talking about!

Surviving the Apocalypse Task # 1: Learn How To Use a Gun

For our loyal blog readers, you know that Gender Fatigue spends a lot of time talking about the apocalypse and how we're getting ready for it. Some would argue that we are in the apocalypse right now but that's another post for another day...

Part of our journey of preparation is learning how to shoot a gun properly and safely. The only time Bent shot a gun was as a child and mothershiester has shot guns in her dreams. But a couple of weekends ago, we made it to the gun range at the Virginia based National Rifle Association Headquarters.


Bent had been in contact with the Pink Pistols, a gay gun rights and shooting group that organizes shooting get togethers. They organized an outing to the NRA range. One of the members said he would provide the guns and the bullets so there we went.

We needed a bit of food fuel to get through a morning of shooting several rounds so we went to this greek family owned diner near the NRA. We almost passed up the Have A Bite eatery, but thankfully we didn't because they served the tastiest potatoes. Potatoes with lemon are very tasty!


Thanks to milmo, we were able to make it to the gun range full and without incident. We were were one of the first cars of the morning. "Early to bed, Early to rise"...Actually, just kidding, we went to sleep super late but we still woke up super early for this moment.


The gun range is located in the lower level. It kind of set the mood for Mothershiester who was starting to regret coming. Images of accidentally shooting herself or other folks at the range bombarded her mind while Bent walks giddily.

We definitely didn't know what to expect when we got there. Both of us are just excited to demystify the gun. Below is us 'excited'!











Once you enter, you can't take photos. Since we'd never been there, we had to read through a gun safety and NRA rules manual plus take an open book test before we could set foot onto the live fire part of the range. After taking the test, you buy some targets, and pick up a set of eye goggles and ear muffs--and you definitely need those. Once you walk into the range, it's pretty surreal. It's set up like a bowling alley because each shooter is in their own lane. In front of you is this huge empty space with walls riddled with bullets and each lane has a target at different distances from each other depending on how far you want to shoot.

The sounds of the guns firing scared the hell out of mothershiester. It was much louder than she expected and it seemed like the shooting would never stop. At one point mothershiester wanted to run out before she could even hold a gun. Bent handled things much better. Some of the loudest guns that were being shot were shotguns and assault rifles.

Our pink pistols contact gave us a mini practice session before using the real things. We started out with a .22. Bent graduated to a 9 mm and a colt .45 with a type of precision that should make any person scared.

5 things that surprised us from our gun range visit:

1. Gun enthusiasts/users are not gun wielding vigilantes that want to shoot first
and ask questions later.
2. You should not focus on the target to shoot the target accurately. Instead the
target and the back of your gun should be blurry while the front of your gun
should be clear.
3. Guns are fucking LOUD.
4. Limp wristing is not just a joke on the gun range. It can apparently happen.
5. BENT and MOTHERSHIESTER are obsessed with shooting! We will be back!!!

The Price of Rice

Oh snap! Two posts in one day~ we are on a roll!

One clear sign to us at Radio Hybrid of the impending/existing apocalypse is the phenomenal increase in food prices. This has led to riots around the world, as well as rationing in various countries, and even here in the US, o land of plenty, Costco and Sam's Club have been limiting the number of bags of rice you can purchase. Ironically, while 88% of rice consumed in the US is grown here, the US also is one of the biggest rice exporters in the world - representing 13% of global rice exports (both according to the USA Rice Federation). Talk about capitalism at work!!! India and Vietnam each export a bit more rice than the US, and Thailand, biggest rice exporter of all, sells about three times as much as the United States.

Rice is a really important food staple for many people, and we have discussed its significance and what's going on with it and other food on our show over the past few months. While some people have said that rice production needs to be increased by developing new strains with higher yield, our friend dj starbane disagrees, and some facts support him. Starbane says it's a lot more complicated than manipulating rice plants to produce more, and that we should all put more emphasis on growing our own food. On the other hand, starbane notes that as some have observed, growth of the middle class in China and India is also a factor in the increase. "The answer is to destroy the middle class altogether and keep 99% of people poor," says starbane, "therefor nothing really needs to change."

At Radio Hybrid we do support class war, against the rich and middle class that is, but we also like eating food we grow ourselves. On wednesday we had a nice salad of the tiniest lettuce that we had thinned from front yard plot and roof-top boxes, delicious with some added cherry tomatoes, pickle and vinaigrette dressing. We've also been eating kale and collards from a roof box, and plenty of garlic scapes. We are excited about the growth of plants that bent and starbane planted in the front yard of a neighbor a couple doors down - including collards, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant!

Of course rice is not the only food rising in price - so is corn, wheat (even as its price falls on commodity markets, gotta love capitalism), dairy products and meat. And that is rough stuff for those of us who love to eat a piece of meat - like mothershiester, bent and Adesh Samaroo, who has a great song, "Eating Meat" (until we figure out this blogging thing and can stream here, you'll have to follow the links, sorry!)