Toward Food Self-Sufficiency

[RadioRay]

Back when I was a young, tough, survival savvy fellow, my emergency planning revolved around two words: "Bye-Bye".  In short, I lived right on the edge of wild country and with my training and experience, I could take the walk into the wilderness and have a much better than average chance to survive 'out there' while the rest of the world burned.  I used to spend weeeks at a time out there, and that's a good start, considering that I had to scrounge most of my food and build my own shelters. Later in life, I still had knowledge, but my body began to fail, so I took-up long range sailing and my boat was my survival retreat...  Long story short; 'life happened' and now I'm living on dry-land & married, so honestly,  my odds of going 'survival-walk-about' using wilderness skills here in the dangerously overpopulated south/east is basically close to zero and my once Viking body now looks more like rusting hulk of a 1956 muscle-car of years gone-by. So - what's the plan now?

Mini-Farming!  Living with dirt under me for the first time in almost a decade, it's actually rather cool and has great potential.  My wife and I live on a remote, rural peninsula, among farms, woods and lots of open water.  We've begun to grow our garden (building-up some rather poor soil through composting), have a few laying hens for eggs and are ordering perrenial food plants like fruit, nuts and etc.  I'm too old for the 'running & gunning' "Rawles" survival novel scenario, though I still have a few good fights left in me - if provoked. However, the up side is that I do have a broad smile when I walk past the egg cartons in the market, knowing that we haven't bought any since August, because my four hens keep us in about 18 eggs per week, or the veggies, since tomatoes, peppers and others are also grown in our fenced, raised bed garden.  Next on the agenda is enhancing the soil through compost and fish meal,  perhaps a milking goat or two (still researching that), because I used to make goat cheese when I lived in Idaho, using locally available goat's milk and herbs. In short:  food storage is ONLY good for acting as a buffer until you can develop other methods to feed yourself, such as a combination of self-sufficiency, barter and work as available. If you can produce even HALF of your food, then you can feed yourself twice as well or twice as long.

So - how about this forum?  Anyone doing or planning: home growing, mini-farming, MAXI-farming?  fishing, hunting, cannibalism?  If so, what sort of crops, plants, fish,     ::) people  ::) do you think you're interested in eating?



>de RadioRay ..._ ._

[KC5OTL]

You have a good plan!

The wife and I have managed to store up a couple years of long-term non-perishable food.  But that is only a stop-gap, until either society would start coming back or, we learned and perfected those skills that we suck at - like gardening.  We do some gardening, but it's only things like Tomatoes, Corn, Bell Peppers, Squash, etc.

I would like to get rabbits for meat because they are rapid producers and we raised them when I was a kid.  But the issue is that, while food for them is plentiful now, they would still have to be fed, when the SHTF - as will Chickens.  But at least Chickens can free-range.

The macho type will tell you that they will hunt and fish and that they will do well.  That might be true, until all of the local game and fish are harvested.  Besides, a true survival scenario will dictate that snares and trout line be used and that will only ensure that the local game will disappear that much quicker.

My hope is that my skills will be in high demand, as I have a long relationship with hard-core electronics.  I'm qualified to repair many consumer and many industrial devices and control systems.  What I'm hoping for is that, what I lack in the more primal skills, I'll have the skills needed to help restore some sort of viable commerce.

[gil]

Well Ray, I'm right behind you, following in your footsteps, kinda... I am starting the sailboat phase. Actually, had one failed attempt:



Man I miss that boat.

I do not own any land, so my options are limited. I am also alone, hopefully not forever, so that simplifies my plans right now. Whomever think they can just live off the land and acquire the necessary skills after the SHTF event would probably starve before getting the hang of it. I was lucky that my Grandfather was a hunter and that he took me along and taught me some useful skills. Enough? I doubt it. I would love to spend a few weeks in the woods, and plan on doing so in the near future. For some reason, a little voice has been telling me to learn everything possible about self sufficiency since I have been a child. That little voice now is telling me to hurry... I think everyone should have "power-less" skills. I learned how to forge for that reason. Other things too... Medical skills are great as well. Anything that was done in the 1850s is worth learning, just in case. Modern skills, not so much. Electronics, sorry to say, may or may not be useful.. Especially in case of an EMP. The difficulty in my opinion would be surviving the first panic phase, then diseases and starvation. I would expect a couple months, after which the population would be reduced and the survivors would be mean and lean. Which way things go after that, who knows, but if we see a reconstruction effort, yes, modern skills will be useful, but what happens in the mean time?

I don't know if you guys read an article by a guy named Selco who survived one Year in a Bosnian town without law or food? He has very interesting remarks about what worked and what didn't. He said that unless you have a group of people, you won't make it.. Ask me for a copy via PM if you want it.. Anyway, you would have to be pretty isolated to survive in too small a group, and very discreet.. Where I live, forget it, most would die, and the survivors would not have a clean conscience. That's why I am thinking of moving, and even buy a horse instead of a car!

As far as farming or gardening, I plan on buying seeds, and carry them until the time comes, if I make it that far...

Gil.

[Quietus]

Growing food in a garden is not a skill learned overnight.  Try learning now, for next year.
 
Some people have a fair amount (several years worth) of dehydrated food from the various vendors.  If so, congrats, but think about how feeding times might be enhanced with the addition of the things that you're used to.  Things like bacon, sour cream, cheese, and butter.  There's vendors that will fill in those gaps.  Spending that money on morale items might pay off for the little tribal society.
 
The guy from Bosnia:  He's written some pretty good advice over the year or so that his postings have been picked up by Western Rifle Shooters Association and posted there.  A thing to pick up from the Bosnian fight, was that this occurred in a supposedly civilized society, similar to ours here.
 
Toughen your hearts, Selco's life might come to you AO.

[Gambrinus]

I don?t have land to farm or hunt on but I do have an ocean. It would be nice to have plan B and C but since I don?t, I hope plan A is enough.

Another problem is that my family is too spread out.  Nothing I can do about that, life happens.  If the S hit the F we would not be able to join up.

[cockpitbob]

It never occured to me before, but the ocean is the ultimate prepper's food source.  It is there summer and winter.  It won't suffer from a drought.  It can't be raided by your hungry neighbors.  Too bad I like the mountains and never liked the beach or ocean.

[gil]

The problem with the ocean is that you would need a boat to get away from the whole population fishing from shore... If you have a boat, everyone wants it, and they would take it, unless you leave immediately. That means having the boat stocked-up at all times and secured. You would need to get to it immediately, because someone would probably already be trying to get the hatch forced opened when you get there..

Gil.

[cockpitbob]

Good point.  To defend you'll have to live on it.  And since fuel will be scarse in a SHTF world you'll need sails as well as a turret mounted gun.
(Waterworld)

[KC5OTL]

If you are part of a group, you will need a fairly large garden to support the group over the course of a year.  That will mandate some food storage before any SHTF scenario = enough to support the entire group for an extended period of time.

If you bug out on a boat, how much food can you store?  When you get to that final destination, how will you survive?  Any food you have on the boat will have to last long enough to make it until the harvest season.

Another thing about boats... if you are out on the open sea - and you will have to be to get to anywhere significant, you will be totally exposed and vulnerable to pirates.  And I'm betting those pirates will have bigger and faster boats than you do... and much bigger guns than you and your crew do.

If the main event is caused by and EMP, there won't be much electronics, but there will be some - especially vacuum tube technology.  But there will be plenty of electrical devices that will still work.

If the main event is primarily economic failure, there will be plenty of technology around.  And one thing for sure, there won?t be many new iPads being made.  Whatever technology is in existence when the SHTF will have to be repaired - even though it was designed to be throw away.

There are plenty of other skills to be had.  If you have some method to generate power, there are plenty of tools that will become like Gold.  I'm the guy who will be making and providing the small, personal power sources that will help put things back together.

But until the fever of chaos burns itself out, the best advice is make sure you can sustain yourself for a few years and then come out and become part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.  Of course, it is said that if the power grid ever did take a permanent dump, 90 to 95% of the U.S. population would be dead within one year so, the bulk of the social bottom feeders will be dead.

The fact is, if you manage to survive the chaos that is coming and you do manage to make it to the other side, and if you don?t have some type of skill or other useful asset to offer the emerging new society, you won?t last very long because those who will be left, simply will not tolerate the bottom feeding class that is so complicit in the destruction of the current form civilization.

The priorities should be: Water, Food, Shelter, Protection, clothing, Skills & the necessary tools.  Vehicles would be down a bit on my list because, if you can?t sustain yourself, your vehicle won?t fill your belly or keep you warm for very long!

You WILL need to store up enough food to get you to the point that you are self sustaining ? be it for one person, or a group of people!  You will need a way of procuring safe drinking water!  If you live in the North, you will need shelter, else you will become some geologist?s find in the next glacial cycle, a million years from now.

[Gambrinus]

Good point.  To defend you'll have to live on it.  And since fuel will be scarse in a SHTF world you'll need sails as well as a turret mounted gun.
(Waterworld)

I can do that  8)

[RadioRay]

Hi Freax -

Good to hear your input from the southern hemisphere.Welcome aboard.

-...-

It looks like this topic has come full circle.  Here, we've just come through yet another major summer harvest for only 200 square feet of raised bed gardens.  The hen yard is planned to be our extension garden for next year, when we move them to a new area and turn that into a standard row garden.  It's VERY fertile in there now, yet well aged.  The 'volunteer' tomatoes pooped-out by the hens are the BEST tomatoes of out entire harvest, surpassing what we grew on purpose in the raised beds.  I'm working on a chicken manure leaching system to make pourable fertilizer, less prone to 'burning' the plants.

>>>>====>  The goal here is to make a cornucopia so that we grown a significant portion of our own food, with as little labor as possible. We just today received great blueberry and fig starters from a neighboring house, so we'll be prepping those.  The 12x8' green house is finished and has a rough brick floor for heat retention and frankly, it looks cool.  We live in the Chesapeake Bay coastal region, so fish, crabs , oysters and etc. are all available.  However, I don't eat bottom feeders, so the crabs, oysters and politicians are safe...




>RadioRay ..._   ._

[Joe]

So far this year planted and harvested corn, canned most of it, stuck some ears in the freezer for corn on the cob this winter. Wasn't the best harvest of corn this year but considering the drought can't complain.

Plums harvested and canned into jelly and jam.

Peaches harvested and canned into jelly and slices.

Tomatoes, still going I probable have 100 green tennis ball sized on the vine. I have canned 3 cases of sauce, 2 cases of juice, 1 case of stewed so far.

Walnuts will be ready in 2-3 weeks, I usually roast they can some ( canning jar with O2 absorber) and stick some in the freezer.

73
Joe

[Luigi]

You all should keep a good supply of potable water. Food is great, but we can live long with a limited food supply. We cannot live more than a few days without water. In any situation where the water supply is cut off, you do not want to be drinking unclean water. That will rob you body of nutrients once the gastro intestinal issues hit you from drinking contaminated water.

In the desert we used to fill milk jugs with water when we were finished using them for milk. If an earthquake ever hit, we figured the water supply would be interrupted. This was back in the 1970s when the milk came in glass containers.

So, once you finish with a beverage, clean the container and use it for water storage.

We now have Ebola in the US, if you were quarantined in your house for 21 days, would you be able to make it?
Luigi

[RadioRay]

Freax et al,

You probably have a large Indian/Paki community in some near-by city.  I shop at their grocers here in the States.  Their food is often packaged for long-term storage without refrigeration, because that's a fact of life in much of their home countries, especially outside of the affluent areas in some cities.  Food additives are negligible, compared to the chemical cocktails we have in our U.S. 'food'.  Good, aged Basmati rice (I saw yours) in large bags is the least expensive at their grocers and face it: NOBODY knows about rice, veggies & spices like they do.  If we're all going to be eating 'third world' at some point, it's best to do it with third world spices. Get a few tins of Ghee (clarified butter for cooking) because in the tin, it stores just about forever, even after opening and in hot weather IF you use a clean utensil each time that you take some out and close the lid immediately.  If you HAVE refrigeration, so much the better. Ghee is very good for you, especially if on a small food intake.

Complimentary proteins like rice & beans not only inexpensive foods, but they taste GREAT and are VERY good for us!  I begin by reducing a very dense sauce from onions, tomatoes and spices, add the meal ingredients like a bit of meat and later veggies toward the end so they're not over cooked and just as the rice finishes, I combine the 'sauce/meal' into the beans and mix the beans into the rice. Serve it piping HOT and viola!  Po'Boys Chow that tastes like gourmet and costs very little to make! // Grrr!  I'm getting hungry now! //.  Leftovers?  no problem, roll them in tortillas, wrap them in wax paper, freeze and you have Grade A, lunches for work during the week. Don't waste food.

Learning to cook from scratch is a survival skill and it's enjoyable all around.  // I was on a survival trip with one of the fellows here a long time ago and made a 'Squirrel Tika Masalla' out in the middle of a wilderness area, using local food stuffs and my little spice packet...  //    :D  The others on the trip were eating unspiced, boiled swill, made from the same stuff I used, but they brought now significant spices.  I eventually pulled-out spice packets for them too, and we had an unofficial mini-crash-course on cooking techniques to perk-up a third world meal.



de RadioRay ..._  ._


Ps.  If driving to the Indian grocer is out of the question, I also use  www.ishopindian.com  and for single items , there is Amazon.com.  Many have free shipping on large orders, which eliminates the cost of gas to drive to the grocers, if the prices are competitive.

[NCGunDude]

I had considered ghee, condensed butter, from near east stores, but went with powdered dairy instead. Agreed we all need to be as self sufficient as possible.  My bucket list mostly involves skills at this point.