That's just rural living. I'm surprised anyone here is even concerned about this. You don't make a 30 mile run to town because you ran out of milk, and if you don't own livestock or poultry, one of your neighbors does. I had a few fruit trees, but in the last 5 years have planted a couple dozen fruit and nut trees. Here's something I wrote elsewhere:
Preserve your own food. I have 6 gallons of home canned tomato sauce, 5
gallons of applesauce, 36 half pints of apple butter, 40 half pints of canned
wild mushrooms, 14 pints of canned smoked salmon, 25 half pints of berry
jelly, 20 quarts of canned venison, 14 quarts of canned stir-fry, 7 quarts of
canned gardineria, 5 gallons of fresh sauerkraut, 7 lbs of walnut meats, 20
lbs of shelled almonds, And that's just the stuff I did myself. I have a
trade coming for a friend who did 60 pints of smoked tuna last summer.
For purchased food, I have 20 lbs of dry kidney beans, 20 lbs of dry pinto
beans, 20 lbs of dry navy beans, 20 lbs of enriched long grain white rice, 20
lbs. of brown rice, 14 lbs. of pancake mix, 25 lbs white sugar, 5 lbs brown
sugar, 1 gallon honey, 1 gallon pancake syrup, 1/2 gallon maple syrup, 24
cans evaporated milk, 48 cans of chunk and solid albacore in water, 5 lbs.
dried egg powder, 5 lbs dried milk powder, 5 lbs quinoa, 5 lbs corn meal,5
lbs popcorn, 5 lbs rye, 5 lbs steel cut oats, 3 lbs wheat berries, 2 lbs
pearl barley, 25 packages of flavored potato flakes, 8 pint bottles of olive
oil, 4 quart bottles of vegetable oil, 2 cans Crisco, 2 gallons of catsup, 14
pint bottles of prepared mustard, a multitude of sauces and herbs, 150
bottles of wine, 21 liters of assorted hard liquor, 5 lbs of coffee beans 25
boxes of green tea and 25 packages of medicinal teas. There's also a couple
of 14' long shelves in the garage full of canned foods too varied to list,
like water chestnuts, palm hearts, canned hams, chicken, stew, corned beef,
pineapple, etc.
This is just the standard household food inventory, not a survival store at
all. My wife and I often quit buying groceries for a month or so just to eat
what we have on hand. We don't eat out much, and don't have a problem
creating delicious and nutritious meals right out of the pantry. All this
food is cheap, since I shop specials and seasonally. For instance, 20 lbs of
long grain enriched white rice is $9 on sale. When we open the bag I pour it
into glass gallon jars with tight fitting lids for storage. Gallon glass jars
are easy to find. Restaurants will give them away free, or for $1 each.
I only listed the food that is dry or canned, so it will be fine if the power
goes out. We also have a chest freezer full of food, mostly steaks and
roasts, frozen vegetables and such. If things get really bad and it's in
danger of spoiling I have about 100 empty quart canning jars with lids and
other canning supplies, plus a propane burner that will fit the pressure
canner and about 100 lbs of spare propane. Wood heat for the house, 2500
gallons of gravity feed drinking water, a hand pump on the well for
emergencies, and a couple generators if I need them. Hunting rifles,
shotguns, reloading gear, bullet molds and sizing dies for everything, plus a
flint lock smoke pole that doesn't even need caps. 93 acres of timber and
pasture, with a creek in the back yard and a major salmon and steelhead river
just 3 miles away.
That doesn't mention the mobile emergency stuff, which includes a FSC travel
trailer with extra deep cycle batteries, always on a float charger, with
extra propane and fuel. It gets used every year for camping, so we can go
anywhere and don't need a utility hookup to be comfortable.
The funny thing is I don't even see this as survival stuff. It's just a
lifestyle, a lot of it a continuation of my farm background. My 93 year old
mother sees it as a normal way of life that she remembers well from her
childhood in the 1920s and 1930s. The canned meats are my grandmother's
recipe: cube the meat, dredge it in flour, fry until it's browned, hot pack
it into jars, fill with boiling stock you rendered off the bones, add 1 tbsp
of cider vinegar to each jar and process at 10 lbs. Even the toughest cut
will fall off the fork after it's canned. Does anybody remember when they
quoted livestock prices for canners and cutters?
