So. I may have cursed my entire growing season unknowingly, which could explain why my seedlings were plagued with whatever those random grassy invaders were (and still are since I’m still plucking them diligently).

Sigh.

I guess the universe was speaking to me when the moon caught my eye the other night before bedtime. I tried to get some good shots of it but it was such a teeny, tiny sliver there wasn’t much there to photograph.

Still, it looked amazing!

It actually reminded me that I wanted to try to plant my seeds using the moon phase schedule because I had read about it awhile back (and then forgot, like most everything) but once I remembered I ran over to the Farmer’s Almanac and looked up my zip code and…

I found out I missed it by two days!

I was *supposed* to plant them on the day the moon looked like this…

Urrgghh.

So yeah, that explains everything. I might as well just give up now. 😄

Okay, not really, but it is interesting that supposedly by following the moon phases you can get a better harvest. If you aren’t familiar with this concept, here’s an explanation from the Farmer’s Almanac:

Simply put, Planting by the Moon (also called Gardening by the Moon or Moon Phase Gardening) is the idea that the lunar cycle affects plant growth. Just as the Moon’s gravitational pull creates the tides of the oceans, it also creates more moisture in the soil, which encourages growth.

The technique goes as follows:

Plant your annual flowers and fruit and vegetables that bear crops above ground (corn, tomatoes, zucchini, etc.) during the light, or waxing of the Moon—from the day the Moon is new to the day it is full.

Plant flowering bulbs, biennial and perennial flowers, and vegetables that bear crops below ground (onions, carrots, potatoes, etc.) during the dark, or waning, of the Moon—from the day after it is full to the day before it is new again.

https://www.almanac.com/video/gardening-moon

I’m not so sure about that but hey, if it works, then I should be able to get pretty darn close to getting the best harvest possible.

I mean, just two days shouldn’t make that big of a difference, right? 🤔

Let’s hope not because this harvest may be the most important one for me yet. With everything else going on in the world, I just want to be able to grow as much of my “safe” foods as possible to put up because it’s probably going to be difficult in the near future to source the brands I can eat and if I can’t find them, well, I can’t eat!

I mean, I can still eat, but my limited diet will get even more limited and as it stands, I can only eat a few things now compared to most people. So if I can grow enough things like carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, plus all my spices (thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary) etc. to get me through an entire year this time, that would be a huge accomplishment for me.

We did pretty good last year but most of the things we grew didn’t last me an entire year so that’s my lofty goal this time around.

I’m sure we can do it if we plan better. And if I remember to let the moon guide me. 🤨

Next time I plant, it should be during the full moon, which won’t be hard to remember because I’m a bit obsessed with photographing it.

While I don’t know any other preppers with mast cell disease, I’m sure I’m not the only one facing this issue when it comes to putting up enough food that we are medically required to eat.

So many of us have dietary restrictions and while mine are a bit different than someone with celiac or diabetes (heck, mine are different from the next person with mastocytosis and can change for no reason whatsoever because that’s the nature of this disease!), it’s still a struggle I can relate to.

I can also relate to the fear of not having enough of the medicines we need or access to them. For me personally, if I run out of Gastrocrom, my food list shrinks dramatically.

I also worry about having access to EpiPens because I need to have at least four, preferably six on hand at all times. I already went through the shortage of those a couple of years ago and it was awful.

So yeah. It’s a bit scary. Some things are completely out of my control so I give that over to God and let him shoulder some of the burden for me. It’s all I can do.

Oh and hey, if you’re a special needs prepper, like I am?

Big hugs.

We can do this! 💪💪💪