After you have your own shelter up, whether the camper or the Little Home, and your water sources identified, you're going to want to establish your food supplies. We've previously discussed foraging the food already available as well as planting vegetables and fruit, but man cannot live on vegetables alone. (Sure there are some people that avoid meat, but it's not natural.) Still, you're going to want to store your food, since your preferred diet doesn't produce food all year round. Don't forget to add salt to your plan.
Until you have long term storage for meats, you'll probably want to stick to meal sized animals. Small game such as squirrel, rabbit, raccoon, and fowl not only allow you to eat well, but also to eat all the meat you've put over the fire.
When I was a kid, home canning vegetables, along with jams and jellies was common. Today, I only know a few that do it, but this is a great way to save money and have better tasting vegetables, all year long. One of the benefits to canning, instead of freezing, is that food preservation does not rely on a steady electric supply. The food will last for years, and you'll know if it has gone bad, visually. While taste may be the biggest benefit, saving money is huge, and knowing that you have food for months or years is comforting. These are the supplies you need: a pressure canner, Mason jars (reusable for decades), lids, screw rings (reusable), a jar lifter. You can even can meat.
Chances are, the 2nd year, you'll be buying more jars, and perhaps even for the first 5 years. As time goes by, you may find that you need to cut back a bit, as it is fairly easy to get beyond the point where your have more food on your shelves than you'll eat in two years. It'll last longer than that, but you won't want to overstock.
There are 3 sizes of lids commonly available. The wide mouth size makes the process easiest, from getting the food in, and out, to cleaning, but sauces are readily stored in the smallest mouthed jars. And those jars are the same size as what spaghetti sauce regularly comes in. So, if you're not ready to start canning, but plan to, and you buy Ragu, wash out the jars and store them for later.
Since most of us don't want to eat a whole animal at a time, and don't want to miss out on meat the rest of the year, it's good to have ways to preserve meat that isn't part of today's meal. Freezing the meat is one way. Curing meat is another way. Using a diverse set of storage methods decreases the risks of losing all food or having a boring diet. Dehydration is another method of preserving foods. And you can build a solar dehydrator to do it. If you're worried about being in an area too hot and humid, there is an app for that.
As you establish yourself, you'll want to add a root cellar fairly soon. This was common fare before freezers and refrigerators. You really don't need a year's supply in the kitchen pantry, but you do want a secure place to keep the food you store. Build it right and supply it right and it'll be like going to the grocery store, without having to pay for the goods. I'll come back to this subject of construction, but suffice it to say, a little more work on the front end will mean better results in the long term. Build it twice as big as you can imagine needing. The primary benefit of going underground is that the temperatures stay fairly constant. In fact, that stability has led many to build lodging underground.
Some of the least maintenance sources of meat are: chickens, goats, and catfish. What we're talking about is meat for the table, not as a means of income, so all of these projects can be small scale.
If you live in an authoritarian area, or in the city, they probably won't like you having farm animals, and will probably take action to prevent it.
Chickens are probably easiest of all. If you give them a safe place to sleep and fresh water, they'll give you eggs. Off the Grid News has published a list of things you'll need, and I'm simplifying it here, but chickens really are cheap grub. They eat bugs and things out of the yard, but you'll want to supplement that a bit. And putting up a barrier to keep predators away and them in is also a good idea. They come with a bonus: they hate snakes. They'll warn you if a snake is there and often even run it off or kill it.
Bees and Honey are another cheap and easy way of adding to your free diet. There are many benefits, from inoculation from local allergens to having a natural sweetner readily available, to pollination of all those things you're growing.
Goats also have many benefits (and a few downsides). First off, they eat anything that grows, which makes them a great lawnmower that fertilizes as it goes. I never knew if that was the primary reason my relatives had them, or it was for food. Secondly, they are a source of milk to go with your eggs. From the milk, you can make butter and cheese, and even yoghurt, and while this has far exceeded my knowledge, it may be something I learn in the future. I've said before, I'm not a fan of goat meat, but many are.
Catfish is a staple in the South. It is such a great tasting fish that catfish farms have popped up to supply stores and restaurants. If you create a small pond, and stock it with catfish, you can have a ready supply of fresh fish. You'll want to have a pump in there so that the water is aerated and to keep the algae knocked down, and come fall, I recommend you put a net up to keep the falling leaves out, but catfish survive winter temps just fine without a heater. I keep saying I'll write something more substantial on this, but I don't know how soon that'll be. Combine this with a greenhouse and some water line, and you have a system called aquaponics that is its own little ecosystem.
You don't need a large pond for this, and if you build it nicely, you can even do this one in the city. You will need to keep the population in check and need to feed them, but it's better to feed your food than to feed your rodents.
If you've looked at the links here, you've found that it is basically a table of contents to the food sections of Off the Grid News. They have some great ideas and articles over there, and I've linked to a select group of those articles that will develop you a full menu which can reduce your annual food bill to what you currently spend in a month. There are limitations based on where you live and I've seen reports that federal government has made "food hoarding" a crime, but in the space of a summer and fall, you can set up a year's food supply. It'll take a little work and a little money, but it is well worth it, for the savings and better tastes alone. The piece of mind that you'll be able to feed your family come storm, famine, or unrest is nice too.
What this is really doing though, is providing you an outline to becoming self-sufficient, and most today do not understand how dependent they've become, or how simple it is to become independent. Living with Nature isn't for everyone, but there's a reason why those that do are far more protective of their Individual Liberties, and the Right to decide for themselves what to buy, and what they do on the property they do buy. As the government becomes more intrusive and more authoritarian, some may find escape outside the borders, while others will find refuge in nature.
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