The New Reclaimers Almanac

Thank you for picking up the sixteenth annual New Reclaimers Almanac: your personal guide to land and soil repair. We will help you navigate through the changes to the environment that have occurred since The Great Extinction: atmospheric composition and temperature, soil pH, and pest control, among many others, of course. You too can tame and reclaim your land, rediscovering its growth and harvesting potential! This edition has collected and curated dozens of new tips and tricks with that healthy dose of reclaimer humor and wit that you’ve grown to expect from your friends at the Almanac.

If you’ve only been able to secure your homestead this year, you’ll want to take extra care to read the little boxes in each chapter about the Basics of Reclamation. You will recognize the information as it is noted with a gardening spade icon. You can find a chart of the best trees to plant for initial desert greening in your area based on the new climate guidelines on page 7, categorized by region and pest density. For those landless or more adventurous Reclaimers, you can refer to the opposite page for nomadic restoration, marked with a hatchet icon and colloquially known as “Greening on the Go.” This volume includes a chapter devoted to the grandfather of nomadic restoration, John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman thanks to Chapman historian and restorer, Tanisha Jordan, based over at Fort Hope. Tanisha set out to find Chapman’s original trees along the Potomac River to recreate his cider recipes. You can find it all on page 72.

In our fourteenth edition, we put out a request for submissions for your favorite Reclaimed Recipes, and boy, did you all answer the call. We’ve had over seventy-five entries, enough to create a new section for the almanac that we hope you will enjoy and find practical. From newly reclaimed ingredients like wall-fruit paste and potted found-meat to classics like detoxified acorn powder and macerated mint jam, along with suggested methods for processing without knives as well as a variety of fire-making techniques, we hope you enjoy reproducing and adapting the recipes as much as we did.

   Pest control has been a quickly and ever-evolving study since The Great Extinction. In our inaugural edition of the New Reclaimers Almanac, we shored up ways to protect your home and hearth from Swarming using tools available at the time. With the drop in nation-wide munitions production, it has been up to Reclaimers to take a stronger hand in Pest Control and find more primitive approaches. Please turn to page 65 for a comprehensive look at preparing your tools for Pest Control, from refashioning metal teeth out of bicycle chains to creating SkullSwatters from everyday homestead items, including broom handles, reclaimed bed posts, and curtain rods. We also take you step-by-step through how to dispose of Pests with the cleanest way to burn refuse with odor mitigation and a variety of fertilizers made from pest remains.

   It is also with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our first editor, Bertram Silva. Bertram led the Hollow Point Homestead until a Swarming claimed his life and 23 of the 50 homesteaders on the property. Surviving members cleared away the resulting pests, burning 3 burial cairns before filling the pits with concrete to ensure no future pest problems. We will always remember him fondly at the Almanac for his knowledge and expertise of weave warping and coming up with the Silva irrigation system for cave aeroponics. In honor of Bertram, please find below his favorite savory shelf biscuit recipe, “Bait and Tack-all.” Bur first, a note from Kate Choudary, Bertram’s long-time friend and cofounder of the Hollow Point Homestead: 

“I met Bertram at the start of the Great Extinction. We had been in line together at that truck stop outside Philadelphia, strangers at the time, when a swarm of zombies took it over. His family got swarmed while waiting in their sedan, while my fiancé succumbed on day 4 of the standoff. We fought our way out together with just about 16 others and escaped in the big rigs gassing up outside. Bertie took the whole thing in stride; he told us he had been an actuary in his former life and had estimated the likelihood of this event often, even factoring in the pandemic, the ecological die-off and the civil war! He was the smartest man I knew, and died as he had lived: protecting those around him with everything he had. When he got swarmed, we made sure to brain him so the infection wouldn’t change him. I want to remember his grit, his perseverance, and the kindness he showed to the new reclaimers we met on the road. We’re glad to be alive for now, and set on finding and fighting for a new homestead.”

Thanks for the words, Kate, and we wish you the best. 

Bait ‘n Tack-all

Ingredients for Hardtack

• 4 cups flour + bench flour, whichever you have at home. (Note: Nut flours are a 1:1 replacement.)
• 1.5 liquid measure cups water
• 3 spoons salt 

Optional:

• 5 dried earthworms, 7–12 inches in length, finely ground, or
• 0.5 cup any dried protein source, finely ground or processed 

Method:

If you have access to oven, preheat to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, otherwise build a mid-heat baking area, Mix flour, water, and salt to a dry dough. Fold in protein. Roll out and cut dough onto floured surface to 0.5 inch thick squares. Poke holes using dowel, chopstick, or clean hammering nails. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely, and it should last for fifteen months in a dry, dark place, unrefrigerated. Interested in longer lasting hardtack? Leave out the protein. To eat, just soak in a liquid meal (stew, sauce, soup, beer, nut or animal milk, etc) for 15 minutes to soften and enjoy.

Once again, thanks for picking up this edition of The New Reclaimers Almanac. We wish you and your fellow survivors healthy growing seasons and happy survival! 

With solidarity and spades,

Editorial staff, The New Reclaimers Almanac