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.
That generation went through the Great Depression and learned from it well. Of course, it would have been wasteful to let so much land sit idle.
I think this generation has no idea what their grandparents and great grandparents went through in 1930s....there were zero grocery stores in this area back then. The stores were basically feed stores for animals, some flours and homemade goods were sold. People sold eggs or raw milk. There were places to get corn ground, and a blacksmith or two. The rest you had better be able to barter, or you had to have a cow, pig, chickens, etc on your farm...all the basics. I remember a great grandmother talking about making lye soap, apple butter, apple cider and a host of other things. We are in apple country here. The women were quilters...and lived like the Amish, albeit the food more southern fare. Some still do these things off the grid.
Both sides of my family the women were as good a shot as the men, some better. A family of ten had to eat...so here in the mtns there was some skinning/gutting before cooking, and lots of fishing. There was no running out for a gallon of milk...it was a bucket, you milked the cow, you strained the milk and made butter, etc.
Some of what they knew was not passed on in various areas of the country as PROGRESS came...that is what makes this a scary economy. I was fortunate to have milked a cow, fed the animals, and helped with a garden. I learned to survive.