Nine Ways To Be More Self-Sufficient (Even If You Live In The City), by K. Sowell

Just a Marine ^ | 2/4/14 | K. Sowell

[Kartographer]

1. Invest in a water filter. 2. Build an emergency medical kit. 3. Keep a few hens. 4. Grow some vegetables and/or fruits. 5. Learn to can. 6. Get a stand-alone freezer. 7. Learn to bake bread. 8. Purchase at least one firearm and get comfortable using it. 9. Homeschool your children.

[bigheadfred]

oooh i love bunnies so soft warm and cuddly wait a minute that seems like you are telling me to become a pacifist by chickening out and i would rather raise HE!! before i give them the bird

[Kackikat]

She was ready for anything, and believed in keeping a 3 yr food supply.

[Kackikat]

I had some rabbits when I was young, and then they wanted me to eat them, Oh MY.

[Iron Munro]

Canning is becoming a lost art. Not only is it hard to find someone who does it, it’s becoming hard to find someone who is even INTERESTED in doing it.

Learned to can at my mom's side growing up.
She didn't have any daughters so she pressed us boys into service.
Picking veggies, shucking corn, shelling peas, prepping tomatoes, fruits, etc.

We learned to can and cook just about everything.

She gave us many things but teaching us to can, cook and do things for ourselves turned out to be some of the most important and the things I treasure the most.

Picking and canning was hard work in the summer when we would rather be running through the woods, but in the fall it was a satisfying to look at all those beautiful different colored jars lined up in the cellar pantry knowing we would have good food all winter long.

Although our heaviest canning days are behind us I still can some every summer and keep supplies on hand in case of hard times. I still have some of mom's wire bail jars - they must be 50 to 60 years old but are in good condition. We don't use them but have jar rubbers in case we ever need them.

I was finally able to buy an All American Pressure cooker and am looking forward to breaking it in soon.

I am also trying to talk my son and daughter-in-law into letting me teach them how to can. It's a skill I would like them to have and I believe it will pay off down the road.

But they are both busy and a can of veggies on sale are only 50 cents or so. But it's when there are no cans of veggies to buy that I am trying to get them prepped for.

[ansel12]

There has never been a time that it wasn’t important to be prepared.

[Two Kids' Dad]

I think Sam’s Club also sells 18-packs of chicken seeds in the dairy section near the butter. LOL

[DNME]

Canning, dehydrating, growing your own, raising small livestock, fishing and hunting ... these are all crucial and necessary skills.

Throughout human history, starvation has always been on our heels. Learn to make your own food or risk the consequences.

[Iron Munro]

Spent a lot of my youth helping my mother prepare and can food. She was a prepper in a time when it wasn’t needed.

That's the way my whole generation grew up. Back in the day it wasn't thought of as prepping, it was just the way people lived. If we didn't pick and can food we didn't eat.

It was odd for people to not have food on hand. Now it is almost the exact opposite.

[windcliff]

Thanks for sharing. I think I’ll read more about the subject.

[Iron Munro]

Thanks for sharing. I think I’ll read more about the subject.

You can get started very inexpensively doing tomatoes and some other things in a boiling water bath. Al it takes are some canning jars and a large pot.

Modern canning jars are just about foolproof if you follow simple instructions.

Then you can move up to a pressure canner.

It all seems more complicated then it is.

A widely used book that will help you get started is the Ball Blue Book.
You can buy a used copy for as little as $1.00 in many places.

Here is one place: http://tinyurl.com/Get-A-Ball-Blue-Book

Good luck.

[ansel12]

If you like pickled eggs, can some of them.

My first canning exercise was canning pickled eggs, when all I had was a double hot plate and a hose bibb for water.

[ctdonath2]

Wife: “Bunny!”
Me: “Dinner!”

[bgill]

I’d bet the author has never seen a chicken or planted one seed outside 4th grade science class. Do NOT use your grandmother’s canning cookbook unless you want to die. While a stand alone freezer is a great prepping tool, it will only keep your food safe for 3-4 days without electricity. One firearm is not going to be enough when you’re the only one on the block with food. Anyone relying on this article might as well buy a purple sparkly unicorn to guard the fence line. Very poor information.

[Secret Agent Man]

12. then learn another skill.

13. then another....

[bgill]

I had a rabbit that would attack anyone who came near it. Had chickens (100+) that would dive bomb anyone coming near their shed. Cattle are much easier to handle.

[Cold Heart]

Cheap available food is a big time saver but has had the downside of people loosing the necessary skills. Why spend half the day baking bread when you can buy it at $1 or 2$ a loaf on sale.

Spend a cold day at home baking bread once a month or buy a head of cabbage & make some sauerkraut once in your lifetime.
Can food just because once & while. Grow some potatos just to see if you can even though they are extremely cheap. Get the kids involved. My 10 year old grandson wanted to bake bread the other day. I got the recipe out & let him do everything, just pointed to where everything was in the kitchen. The loaves turned out beautifully, best bread he had ever tasted.

[wku man]

Here in the People's Republic of Boise, we can have as many as six hens, but no roosters. Building a hen house is one of my planned spring projects.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[matt1234]

Why spend half the day baking bread when you can buy it at $1 or 2$ a loaf on sale.

Recently, I have been making biscuits with baking powder. The whole process takes about 30 minutes...from turning on the oven to ready-to-eat biscuits. Once I get really practiced, I should be able to shave off at least 5 minutes.

[bgill]

NEVER use an old canning book because there have been serious updated rules. Check the USDA site for the latest rules. The Ball Blue Book still has some questionable recipes. Whenever you combine two or more vegetables, meats and or fruits in a jar, ALWAYS process it for the ingredient which takes the longest time. Don't use canning recipes from the web if you're new to canning because they may have unsafe timings and have skipped important steps. About those steps, it's important to understand the WHY in them - timing, food density, headspace, multiple foods in a jar, etc.

Not to scare you off, but canning has rules for a reason.

[Eagles6]

Coat extra eggs with food grade mineral oil. They will last many months. You will know if you have a bad one.