Store bought food versus home grown

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Haertig said:
Just a blind guess on my part - but I'd almost be willing to bet that if you took a survey of all members here, the majority would NOT be living on a homestead. Just my guess though.
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you're probably right

I was looking for a farm forum and couldn't find one, so I found this. But like you, I also like the members on this forum. I was just curious why you joined this forum
 
Ok and now I have another comment on store food. I personally think most canned store food is as good or better than what I can. The exception is pasta sauce but I just ruined a batch by letting it burn on the bottom of the pot. But most things I have tried canning don't taste all that great afterwards. Store pickles for example are better. Mine always turn mushy. Store fruit are better also. I have tried canning zuccini and that was a total fail. I do better on freezing stuff than canning it.
 
I've never tried canning squash because I think it would be mushy. But I've frozen and dehydrated and freeze dried alot of it. Our storage has store bought canned food in it. Why not? I'm not a big fan of canned peas, though...prefer frozen. Too mushy. I think my home canned peaches, pears, and apples turn out pretty decent compared to store bought. I don't like to pay the price for store bought canned fruit, it's pretty pricey nowadays.
 
I spent a lot of time on agtalk. I learned a lot in a short amount of time. Called it ag talk University. But I somehow didn't really fit in. Same with the early retirement forum that I was on for a few years. Learned a lot but didn't really fit in. Story of my life? I was the dumbest kid in advanced placement!
 
it's the people here. Even the ones that see things differently Some are weirder friends than others, but I've got some pretty weird physical friends as well.
Remember.... It is said that if you do not have a ...weird.... friend or more.... you are the one... I guess that makes me the one..... eh..... ??...
 
I often think that "homesteading" can be a mindset as much as an occupation. I don't have cows or chickens and I haven't gone deer hunting for some years now. But I do grow a garden and put up food; and I try to source everything I can locally and eat seasonally. I get beef from a coworker and chickens from the Amish and non-gmo flour from the Mennonite store. I have found store bought foods, especially something like a tomato in January, to be expensive, bland, and of questionable origin. (Yes, I am weak and buy potato chips and ice cream sandwiches and overly processed microwave pizzas.) :D
But for the real foods - I can and dry tomatoes in the summer for eating in the winter. Fresh tomato sandwiches are a summer time only treat.
 
sonya123 said:
May I ask a really silly question? Why are you on a homesteading forum if you don't live on a homestead ? Just curious
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I don't live on a homestead but there is a lot of crossover between prepping and homesteading. As Haertig said, we have a great family here.
 
sonya123 said:
Ok and now I have another comment on store food. I personally think most canned store food is as good or better than what I can. The exception is pasta sauce but I just ruined a batch by letting it burn on the bottom of the pot. But most things I have tried canning don't taste all that great afterwards. Store pickles for example are better. Mine always turn mushy. Store fruit are better also. I have tried canning zuccini and that was a total fail. I do better on freezing stuff than canning it.
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My canned meat tastes at least as good as store bought and I know what is in it. I like my canned salmon better than store bought and having spent enough time around big commercial salmon canneries, I promise, my quality is better. The wife makes a good pickles when she can be talked into making them. Home canned is generally a better quality product with no chemicals.

I wouldn't try canning a summer squash but perhaps pumpkin.
 
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I think part of my problem is we don't use a lot of canned stuff and the stuff we do use is generally things that don't grow here ( other than the tomato stuff ) . Things in cans I buy are bamboo shoots , water chestnuts, coconut milk, peas ( yes, I like canned peas) which grow well here but are way too much of a hassle to shell and can when you can buy them for very cheap, pineapple , tart pie cherries and a few cans of ravioli and spagettie and meatballs
Oh I do have some canned salmon and chicken for backup but just a few
we freeze our chickens
 
Many people don't like canned stuff. I tell people to just figure out what they would eat for two weeks if they couldn't go to the store at all. Breakfast lunch and dinner. Then buy enough of that for two years. So right there's the problem....maybe someone doesn't have chickens, but wants to eat eggs. So buy two years worth of freeze dried eggs. If you want fresh eggs, then you gotta have chickens. Then there's chicken meat...don't like canned? Buy freeze dried. Don't want to do that? Then you have to raise chickens and learn how to butcher them and can it yourself if you can't use a freezer. I know it's hard. Oh well.
 
Amish: why do I need 2 years of food? We can survive just fine for several months of no store visits if we had to, but not sure about 2 years. We don't have room to store 2 years of hay for the animals, so after 1 year we would have to start eating them. We have no practical way to store 2 years of chicken feed either, it would probably get moldy too.
But you are right, I have learned not to store too many canned things I don't regularly cook with. They will just go out of date.
We have a ton of freezers to store the meat we sell, plus our stuff . We have one freezer full of frozen water bottles for the meat at the market ( works great stays frozen)
The freeze dried stuff is just as bad. I got some meals at the beginning of covid just in case, but never used them. They are now expired.
 
Amish Heart said:
You need two years of food just in case.
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Just in case what? Nuclear war? EMP? Civil war? If any of those things happen we all will have bigger problems than not enough food. Do you have a small army to defend your food? ( I have been on the other forum for many many years...trust me, thought about this in detail) . I have stopped worrying about those sorts of things because there really isn't much you can do about it If . gov decides to send a drone to blow up your farm, or a billion Chinese come invade, or all the crackheads in rural areas run out of food and go on a rampage or any number of things the 2 years of food might be pointless.
 
Ha Ha Yep! Just in case any of those things. It would be worse if something happened and I didn't have any food (to worry about, to defend, to EAT). Not preparing because it MIGHT be pointless is not being prepared. It also might not be pointless.
Individual decision to prepare or not prepare, for sure.
 
Or, the only hwy washes out, including the railroad and it's bridges, and nothing gets delivered. No food in the stores. That happened here. I didn't care, but a boatload of people did. It took a long time for that to sort it's self out. Then there was that whole covid thing, and they aren't done with us yet.
 
ClemKadiddlehopper said:
Or, the only hwy washes out, including the railroad and it's bridges, and nothing gets delivered. No food in the stores. That happened here. I didn't care, but a boatload of people did. It took a long time for that to sort it's self out. Then there was that whole covid thing, and they aren't done with us yet.
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Yes.. And it will take a couple more years at best for that road and rail system to be repaired.. Until it happens to them, people don't realize a lot of situations...
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Amish: why do I need 2 years of food? We can survive just fine for several months of no store visits if we had to, but not sure about 2 years.

Two years for your family... You would be surprised how creative you can be with storage..
Hay grows every year... Unless your on the 10th floor of the condo..
 
sonya123 said:
Amish: why do I need 2 years of food? We can survive just fine for several months of no store visits if we had to, but not sure about 2 years. We don't have room to store 2 years of hay for the animals, so after 1 year we would have to start eating them. We have no practical way to store 2 years of chicken feed either, it would probably get moldy too.
But you are right, I have learned not to store too many canned things I don't regularly cook with. They will just go out of date.
We have a ton of freezers to store the meat we sell, plus our stuff . We have one freezer full of frozen water bottles for the meat at the market ( works great stays frozen)
The freeze dried stuff is just as bad. I got some meals at the beginning of covid just in case, but never used them. They are now expired.
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Two yeas worth of food gives you time to grow a crop. Scenario: Disaster hits in early summer. It is too late to plant your garden so your next crop is almost a year and a half away.

Some years crops just don't produce much. If you only produce six months worth of food per year you can live 4 1/2 years. This gives you time to clean up your act.
 
Amish Heart said:
I'm just the weirdo who would like 7 yrs backup. And yes, I grow food, and butcher animals I raise. Food storage is only as good as how long you want to eat. I like to eat.
I know how creative I can be with storage.
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Seven years!? That's food storage in biblical proportions!
 
Amish Heart said:
I'm just the weirdo who would like 7 yrs backup. And yes, I grow food, and butcher animals I raise. Food storage is only as good as how long you want to eat. I like to eat.
I know how creative I can be with storage.
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Thats me, I am getting creative with 43 ibs of kohlrabi tomorrow. Even 3 months of food will save some heartache.

Sonya123 has a decent stock. If something really rotten happens, she just needs to switch from selling to home use. From me not knowing squat about her, her prep might be geared to keeping the freezers going; something I think she has already thought about, just for her buisiness purposes alone..
 
FarmOR said:
My ultimate prepping plan is to live off gophers. I gots 20 years worth!
And alfalfa? People do consume that...
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FarmOR said:
My ultimate prepping plan is to live off gophers. I gots 20 years worth!
And alfalfa? People do consume that...
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IMG_2135.jpeg

there are more recipes in this book of my grandmothe’s if you’re interested.
 
ClemKadiddlehopper said:
Thats me, I am getting creative with 43 ibs of kohlrabi tomorrow. Even 3 months of food will save some heartache.

Sonya123 has a decent stock. If something really rotten happens, she just needs to switch from selling to home use. From me not knowing squat about her, her prep might be geared to keeping the freezers going; something I think she has already thought about, just for her buisiness purposes alone..
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Yes we have food running around out there and we have enough land to feed ourselves. Plus there is rabbits and deer and pigeons you can eat.
But my point originally was that if something massive happens most likely we all will be screwed in so many different ways even if you had a hundred years of food things would still go bad in some way. We have enough food for minor stuff like getting snowed in, or if the stores closed temporarily because of some covid crap or whatever.
We used to have more but mostly it all got out of date since we like fresh food. Even the flour in Mylar didn't last super long. It was fine once I opened it but then went rancid really fast, like in a week. Rice got bugs in it, cans of Spam was the biggest waste of money ( yuck , I would literally have to be starving before I eat that)
Cooking oil goes bad too after a while so does peanut butter.
Now I just go buy a 50 lb bag of flour when I am close to out and store it in buckets

and yes we have solar backup and a generator but our inverter just gave up its ghost. It's 7 years old so that was probably it and I need to order a new one
 
Caribou said:
Seven years!? That's food storage in biblical proportions!
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Maybe. If anyone has heard about 7 years of feast and 7 years of famine, we understand that.

@sonya123 Once wheat or any grain is ground, it loses freshness quickly, even if it is stored in Mylar. This is why there is the suggestion of storing wheat. Many of the suggestions for food storage is whole foods, like wheat, rice, and beans. Do I want to live on that? Nope! But I do know that they can be supplemented when we have things to supplement with. Wheat has been found in caves in the Middle East, in ceramic containers that was 1000's of years old and still viable, sprouted. Flour that old would probably be black and disgusting.

I'm not a fan of Spam either, but there are people who stock up on it and like it.

It has been suggested somewhere here that few of us will survive what is ultimately coming. I really believe that. I'm not sitting around in fear. I just keep working on being prepared. There are people who prepare for more short term possibilities and then there are people who keep stocking up, adding more grain, dehydrated and dried foods because they understand the situation any of us could be in if the forms of transportation are disabled due to roads being out, railways being destroyed, etc.

Since we are not used to living such a primitive lifestyle, it is hard for some people to even imagine living off of basic foods and not running to the store whenever they want or need something.

Space is a consideration for all of us. I once read about a couple who wanted to have food storage and had no space for it. They got busy. They had an attached garage. They parked a utility trailer in the garage and kept digging out a crawl space until they had a decent space to store the food they wanted. The dirt went into the trailer. They would cover it and drive it out to dump it, so neighbors were not seeing what they were doing. I cannot imagine the back breaking work.
 
Haertig said:
The thing is, you don't know what you're getting from the local farmer/rancher either ... unless YOU are that farmer/rancher. We can hope what we are getting is better, but we don't know the financial/family situation of that local farmer/rancher and what corners they may be cutting to try and stay afloat.

I would tend to prefer something from a local farmer/rancher all things considered though. The problem sometimes is finding it.
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I know what goes in to the beef that I raise and sell. My customers all know and trust my beef. My cattle are raised in mountain meadows in summer and fed good quality grass hay in winter. For the last 90 days before butchering I put the steers in my feed lot and feed them grass hay and corn, oats, barley and molasses. All of my customers have said my beef is the best tasting beef they've ever eaten.
Not all farmers/ranchers are unethical and dishonest. In fact, I don't know any who are. I know many who operate feed lots on a much larger scale than my little operation, and none of them cut any corners to make profit. Every rancher that I know of takes great pride in taking care of their cattle.
 
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