Store bought food versus home grown

[Mountain trapper]

My ultimate prepping plan is to live off gophers. I gots 20 years worth!
And alfalfa? People do consume that...

When you run out of gophers you can come get some of my ground squirrels.

 

[Amish Heart]

And you can come have some of our raccoons. I hate them.
Alfalfa...we have about 13 or so acres of it. I'll feed it to something I'll eat, but doubt I'd eat it. It's interesting to see what people needed/wanted/were short of in the area you live in now, during the great depression. I know the land changes, and the population changes, but it can give you an idea of what to store. My grandma was born in 1900, lived down the road from where I live now, and was short of sugar. She'd trade her ration coupons for sugar. She had everything else.

 

[Tommyice]

And you can come have some of our raccoons. I hate them.

There's a recipe or two in that book for them too. Interested?

The book is part of a two volume set from the 30's. Lots of great info and stuff in those books.

 

[FarmOR]

My grandparents having lived through the great depression would dig out their crawl space and build shelving for fortification. Grandma would can and preserve all kinds of creative stuff. Just accustomed habit. Emphasis on no waste. Watermelon rinds immediately come to mind. They were never discarded, she'd can them and turn them into sweet pickles. Us kids readily devoured many of jars of sweet pickles water melon rinds!

I guess I learned a lot from their stories. And dad having immigrated from war torn Europe surprisingly suffered a lot of the same shortages. My grandparents were taken aback by my dad's knowledge of food preservation and stories of living in attrition. They were largely ignorant of the rest of the world peoples.

Another theme that pops in my head was the forming of alliances. And particularly the religious discrimination that they had to endure in their region. In hard times people band together. A particular popular "gang" can become a government on their own. Having prepared as part of their religion, they are fortified by goods, ammo, and strong men. If you're on outsider? Heaven help you...

 

[Magus]

NOT be living on a homestead

Nope, guilty. I'm a survivalist or was until I met these guys that looked like they might need some help in the form of info. I spent a lifetime earning it, its a shame to waste it.

 

[Spikedriver]

I'm just a kid that grew up on a farm out in the middle of nowhere. I live in a town of 2,000 people - the kind of place that has hay and corn fields inside the city limits. So no, I'm not a homesteader at all, but part of the name of this place is "Country Living" and I am  well aquainted with that lifestyle.

I'll be honest - I find very little difference between feedlot beef and "natural" beef. I like some fat in my burger meat and marbling in my steak. Grass fed range beef doesn't cut it for me. Give me some corn fed Iowa feedlot beef any day. And I grew up with "confinement" pork, as we raised hogs that way on a small scale. It's more tender and juicy that any "natural" pork. One can argue the ethics of confined livestock - that's another subject altogether. Having been on the front lines, working those pigs and breathing the same air as they do, I have some issues with it. But there's no denying the quality of the meat.

Home raised veggies are a different story from storebought. Especially if they're wild veggies. We had wild asparagus on the farm. It blows those skinny storebought spears out of the water. Wild raspberries have so much more flavor that store berries. Potatoes didn't have much difference, but things like fresh green beans picked two hours before dinner make grocery store veggies look like a joke. I don't much care for any canned veggies but when it's what's available you eat it, I guess. Same with canned meat.

 

[Caribou]

Maybe. If anyone has heard about 7 years of feast and 7 years of famine, we understand that.

Exactly what I alluded to. Great job.