Well, one of my suppliers has come through, and finally has a couple of carob trees - I was feeling a bit meh, and they've brightened my day. I shouldn't feel as low as I am, we've had plenty of rain the last couple of weeks - everything is green, plants are growing, and my hayfever is working its magic.
Not that I should use the term retail therapy... Let us call it... Prepping Therapy.
Carob is one of those trees that any prepper with land in a suitable climate should consider. The pods are reasonably nutritious, the trees are drought resistant, and are long lived - we talking decades. I'm reading mixed things as to their nitrogen fixing abilities, though; if they can host the bacteria, that means less fertilising.
Personally, I prefer carob to chocolate. Many reasons - used as a chocolate substitute, it's not as oily, and doesn't irritate my gastro-intestinal tract the way chocolate does... Yes, it does taste different, but... I can grow it where I am. I have found that it gets too cold here during winter for cacao trees to survive. In a PSHTF-world, I don't think anyone would complain for too long if I gave them a choice between having carob, and not having chocolate.
Thinking about it - that's an important lesson that many survivalists, preppers, and sheeple would have to learn PSHTF - you have to come to terms with what is at your disposal.
Or, in the words of a favourite author of mine: "We are here, and this is now."
Now I have to go outside, and finish getting rid of that tree stump that is exactly where I want to put one of these saplings.