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Self-sufficiency\u2026. That\u2019s a word that should have some real meaning but seems to be fading in this so-called \u201cmodern\u201d world.\u00a0 Everywhere you may think to look, people are far less self-sufficient than their grandparents or great-grandparents and rely almost entirely on \u201cother\u201d to supply their needs. It\u2019s far worse in cities than you can imagine, even when a home with a back yard has enough room for a small veggie garden. Out here in the sticks where I live, same thing. People just don\u2019t garden, unless they have a rather squeamish reaction to the prices of food at the local groceries. In Suburbia, self-sufficiency is next to non-existent\u2026. But then, something happens, the stores shut down because they literally run out of \u201cstuff\u201d and the Suburbanites get \u201cwoke\u201d to the notion that maybe there\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n
Do they know how to function? Don\u2019t they have enough sense to plan ahead? Likely not, unless they grew up with it as I did. I still put productive plants in the pots on my front steps and harvest the results, but they\u2019re cooking herbs, not cucumbers, so the benefit that comes from that enhances my kitchen production. Takes the burden of buying thyme and oregano off of me, unless the squirrels get into it\u2026 which they sometimes do.<\/p>\n
Out of curiosity, I began to pursue what other people are doing to make their lives better, and found that a great many people who are not embedded in city living are doing quite well for themselves by planting vegetable gardens, but they are far enough out of town that it\u2019s a feasible option for them. A few have YouTube channels and have been doing self-sufficiency work for a while now. Others let us know about their cooking skills, but aren\u2019t reviving old recipes that didn\u2019t require modern equipment. And then, there are the videos of that lady whose cooking skills during the Depression are a real treasure.<\/p>\n
Remember that Italian woman who showed us how to make bread on the stovetop in a skillet, a little over a year ago? It was the kind of bread with a seriously crunchy crust that makes bread a lot better. When you hear that crunch, you know you\u2019re getting something real instead of a load of flabby stuff that goes stale in a heartbeat and doesn\u2019t hold up well if it isn\u2019t coddled. The crunch when she bit into that crusty pan bread made me sit up and take notice. If she can do that, so can I\u2026 and so can you.<\/p>\n
And yes, I’ll be doing that this fall and winter. If good, crunchy bread comes out of it, I’ll tell you. You know that.<\/p>\n
I do live in a county with literally dozens of groceries that serve a very wide and diverse range of ethnicities, which means that I have access to foodstuffs that I likely wouldn\u2019t find some place else, or would have to order online.\u00a0 For example, jasmine rice has a sweet and nutty flavor and a distinctive aroma of buttered popcorn and fragrant flowers.\u00a0 I\u2019m willing to try a bit of that, to find out whether or not I will like it, or if it\u2019s an acquired taste.<\/p>\n
And why would stores carry such stuff? Because stores like money. Storekeepers like money. It really is that simple.<\/p>\n
Yeah, you can get this stuff online, but if it\u2019s local, why shouldn\u2019t we give it a shot? \u00a0The point is that if I still lived in the city, I might have to hunt hard just to find it, because such items are frequently scarce in the city\u2026 and if things went sour, it\u2019s likely that such things could vanish from the store shelves. \u00a0Hint: this is why you stock up ahead of winter: it\u2019s what squirrels do, too, y\u2019know. They also steal birdfood…. little furry thieves, they are!<\/p>\n
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The point is that 30 years ago, such things were nowhere to be found, so I welcome the opportunity to give them a try.<\/p>\n
Now, here\u2019s the catch, which seems to be missed by many, many people, and you should be aware of it: a huge portion of the population thinks that food comes from \u201cthe store\u201d.\u00a0 If you raise a garden, or even simply do pot gardening on the steps of your humble abode, you know what I’m talking about.<\/p>\n
I knew someone long ago who refused good butter from a friend’s Brown Swiss cow, because ‘it came from your cow’.\u00a0 Apparently, that was an “eeewwww” factor. So when this “friend” was asked where she thought butter comes from, her response (in the early 1970s) was “Well, it comes from the store”.\u00a0 So I took the butter, paid the lady who had churned it, and told her later it was absolutely delicious. (It was also pasteurized.) I doubt that this has changed much. I guess the “gross” factor is hard to deal with, but as I recall, it was really good butter.<\/p>\n
It was not so very long ago that people went into a feeding frenzy because we were going into a lockdown.\u00a0 Remember that? Store shelves were swept bare. Jugs of milk vanished as if they\u2019d never arrived in the coolers. Not one of the people who got into that scavenging frenzy even thought for one second that there might be refills in less than a month, never mind a week. And if it happened once, it can happen again. Count on it. This is why I’m putting this in front of you: keep a weather eye on the gossip, don’t get sucked into it, but be aware of the “gossip” going around. This is why I buy butter in bunches and freeze the cartons.<\/p>\n
No, food doesn\u2019t come from the store. It comes from farms and livestock production, \u00a0A lot of fresh vegs and fruit come from Mexico Lindo and other places like Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. The source is usually on the wrap or bag. Oh, yeah: if you want to store flour, then five 2-pound bags of flour will stay fresh longer than one 10-lb bag, because you will only open one bag at a time. I know people who can’t make the connection between five 2-pound bags of flour and one 10-pound bag. Simple arithmetic escapes them.<\/p>\n
We have, as a population group, become far too dependent on \u201cthe store\u201d for everything, and the convenience of weekly shopping (or even daily, for that matter), and convenience foods like microwave meals and instant this or that are a pathetic symbol of lack of independence. These are the people who will pound on your door when their cupboards are bare and ask if you can spare anything. And unfortunately, if you give them dry beans, they will give you a blank look, because they don’t know what to do with them.<\/p>\n
Maybe it depends on the cargo and\/or the destination, but it\u2019s odd to see so much rail traffic and then have people tell me there\u2019s nothing being delivered anywhere.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the point: the visual evidence says otherwise. \u00a0<\/strong>So what happens when food transportation stops cold and the stores aren\u2019t restocked?<\/p>\n Think it can\u2019t happen? Well, if the trucks stopped rolling, it might. Why would the trucks stop rolling? Because someone somewhere high up said so? That\u2019s the \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d response, but every now and then I find something on a news channel which brings this up.\u00a0 I take it seriously, because if it’s a rumor, there’s a basis for it.<\/p>\n But that sentence is the kind of paranoid conspiracy stuff I\u2019ve been witnessing from the YouTubers who think there\u2019s some kind of weird conspiracy going on. I know better. If a store in your area runs out of stuff on the shelves because someone has had a panic attack about bread, then learn to make your own bread. It isn\u2019t that hard, as the Italian lady showed us those months ago during that ridiculous lockdown period, and what she created in her skillet is probably healthier than the stuff you\u2019d buy at the store, anyway.<\/p>\n If I want to go to the trouble of watching morning traffic on the news, I can see dozens of semi-trucks rolling into the city, either on their way to the offloading points (e.g., depots and grocery stores), or going elsewhere to serve other cities and towns. If I want to waste some time watching trains roll by, I can watch \u201crailcam live\u201d down at La Plata, MO and count the loaded cars going north and the empties going south to pick up stuff. So where is this \u201cno food supplies\u201d coming from? Not from my part of the planet.<\/p>\n The point is that someone is stirring the pot to scare you and me, just as that ridiculous fakery over infant formula a few months ago was meant to scare the public, and that didn\u2019t work.\u00a0 It was NOT believable. \u00a0The self-sufficiency we are used to is something that someone \u2013 some apeshit jackass with a big mouth and a vapid ego \u2013 is trying to destroy.<\/p>\n Well, it won\u2019t work, and why not? Because we know better, don’t we?<\/p>\n You know that grain of salt you\u2019re supposed to take, when you doubt something?\u00a0 Keep it handy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"