Have plenty of booze for barter but people who imbibe are fewer than what use to be. Now that a younger generation has become of age they are smoking pot rather than drink. Pot has been legalized here in Oregon along with small amounts of meth and heroin. We have a governor who is a complete nut job and signed these bills into law. She wants people stoned so she can pass more tax legislation.

[quote="fern"]After my poor turnout with the seeds I planted from heirloomseeds.com, I am second guessing all the seeds I have put away for bartering. I am not sure I could trade these seeds for others' goods and sleep with myself. I am not even sure if I want to waste my garden space next year planting any. Everything I planted this year was an heirloom seed but much healthier seeds than from that particular supplier.[/quote]


I had seeds put back from heirloomseeds as well, I'd say 5-6 years in cool dry original packaged and tried to germinate last spring. I would guess I netted maybe 15-20%. It was a little disappointing, but perhaps there was something I did wrong. I have another batch that I ordered about the same time I will be trying this spring. We will see if I can get them to grow.

Seeds are hope

After my poor turnout with the seeds I planted from heirloomseeds.com, I am second guessing all the seeds I have put away for bartering. I am not sure I could trade these seeds for others' goods and sleep with myself. I am not even sure if I want to waste my garden space next year planting any. Everything I planted this year was an heirloom seed but much healthier seeds than from that particular supplier.

Haven't been seeing any bees anywhere so I can't comment on if anything has happened to them.
I've been looking at the various offerings of retailers for seeds and regardless of what you get, they'll be a barterable commodity.
I have been looking for the "heirloom" type but many seed packets are not labeled as such, they're not labeled as "hybrids" either so, it seems to be a bit of roulette.
With the perennial type seeds, heirlooms, your crops will provide all the seeds you need for planting next season, food sources and some for exchange as well.
Hybrid seeds, no telling how they'll do after a generation or two of planting/growing/harvesting.
Still, seeds can be a form of currency in a PAW, everyone's got to eat and hopefully most who barter for or with seeds will be honorable.

I would guess that seeds might become extremely valuable as a barter commodity during a SHTF scenario, as long as you are dealing with reasonable people that you know and not a band of armed urbanites who will just shoot you and take your seeds. Even regular hybrid seeds will become worth their weight in gold, don't you think? The oldest Indian tribes in this country, the Hopi and Zuni, considered corn to be the most valuable grown food crop because it is so versatile, could be pounded and ground by hand into flour to bake cornbread and this could be carried and eaten on the trail while out hunting for deer.
No loss of bee population here either.

With the gmo takeover, the weather cycles causing crop damage or loss, water being turned off in CA, and SHTF nearly arriving, are seeds going to be one of the best and most inexpensive bartering items? Which seeds would hold the highest value? Should certain hybrids be put away too? I have not seen the loss of bees in this area. What are the areas that are experiencing the death or migration of bees?