Sustainable living but no homesteading?

[jennypenny]

There's a new book available for free today on Kindle A Year Without the Grocery Store: A Step by Step Guide to Acquiring, Organizing, and Cooking Food Storage

It's pretty short and I haven't read it yet so I can't vouch for it, but the price is right.

[jacob]

I plowed through it. It's good. Main difference between her system and mine is that she goes 12 months out (so needs mylar bags and oxygen absorbers and a more elaborate rotation system), whereas I only store about 3 months (so little/no need). Otherwise, it's very similar. Even to the point of growing vegetables out of 5 gal buckets if you can't put down roots. Buying stuff in bulk or on sale and DIY storing/canning/freezing it instead of buying freeze dried or MREs. She uses Azure for bulk purchases. The importance of know how to cook with the ingredients and how this is accomplished by doing this on a regular basis and being able to improvise, that is, actually know how cooking works. (It's written in a context-free way for those think cooking = heating up a can of sauce and combining it with exact ingredients from a recipe list and not knowing what the ingredients do.) Also suggest practicing with the non-electric appliances before an emergency. I think that using non-electric appliances in general is better(*). There's a bunch of calculations of the 1 meals = x,y,z .. so 150 meals = ... which is useful to gain a sense of proportion and also not to end up for 10 buckets of stuff that never gets used. Alternatives for finicky eaters like paleo, gluten-free, ... The importance of water storage is discussed. At this point I was skimming, so I didn't see if water bricks were mentioned. I'm pretty sure I didn't see any mention of my beloved gamma seals.

(*) I learned what a Saratoga Jack is. Never heard of this before. Will it really substitute for a slowcooker? Or is it more like a 70% substitute e.g. vegetables, stews, and chilis but not hard stuff like beans. Some readers might learn that there's such things as non-electric can openers. The book is very complete/thorough.

Add: Okay, it looks like the Saratoga Jack is just a haybox with a carrying handle, so same as the Japanese thermal cookers. The little pot is an inset that goes on the top inside the pot ... not below it. Old-fashioned hayboxes had actual insets (like hot iron or stones) to retain heat longer.

[George the original one]

There's a new book available for free today on Kindle

Free on Kindle Unlimited ($9.99/mo). If you don't already subscribe, Amazon will let you trial 30 days for free.

If I've misunderstood the terms, please speak up!

[jacob]

It's free for second-class Amazon citizens too. You just have to 1-click-buy it for $0.00.

[George the original one]

Thanks, that worked!

[Pkate]

I homestead with a huge garden but I know it is not for everyone. I love gardening. I get exercise, sunshine, stress relief, food and joy from gardening. Most people do not get these benefits from gardening and shouldn't do something the detest doing. If you are going to homestead you need to have the time to not only grow the food but also process, store and cook all of it. It is a large commitment to cooking from scratch and to use all the food you produce. It is a labor of love but it isn't for everyone. It is also extremely difficult to produce all your own food even with permaculture practices. I will never try and grow all my meat or dairy but I do have the resources to by this things from other local farms that do produce them.

Urban living has it's advantages. I spent 11 years living in large cities with no car and roommates. I was mostly debt free and saving money. I wouldn't worry about staying in a urban environment as long as you are saving the resources to leave that city if the need arises. Renting with a low cost of living and having large financial cushion gives you so much flexibility. It is much easier to move out of an apartment than move a farm it things get difficult where you are.

If you want to encourage more farmers to produce food in your area start seeking them out and support those farms who produce food in a manner you want to encourage. It is easier to help support local food producers than it is to grow your own. It never hurts to have good relationships with local farmers. It is more expensive for me than buying form the local supermarket but I prefer the quality, flavor, higher nutritional content, and the ability to find out exactly how the food was produced.

I do recommend keeping a deep pantry to not only take advantage of good sales but life will throw you sideways. It is nice to not have to worry about food and other consumables during a personal emergency. Injuries, illness, job loss, and other hiccups along the road to FI will happen. All of these have happened to my husband and I in the 8 years we have been married and it is nice to have stuff on hand when I can't drive or he is between contacts.

[sky]

I recently threw out a 20lb bag of brown rice and a couple pails of rolled oats that had sat in my basement for about 10 years. I guess they were good insurance but were never needed.

My current method is to grow microgreens and cook beans. They seem to go well together. In addition, raisins and dried cranberries can make up the fruit part of my diet, although I prefer fresh fruit. Black Oil Sunflower seeds are my main microgreen, and as organic microgreen seed, they cost $35 for 5lbs, but I see black oil sunflower bird seed advertised at $15 for 40lbs. I use about 1lb per week of sunflower seed now, sprouted as greens for one person. I may buy some more pails with omega lids and store some sunflower bird seed. If I were set up with sprouts for several months, beans and raisins, I could probably last a long time together with foraging/fishing.

I have been a gardener without a great deal of success for many years. My soil is starting to get better but it is not easy to grow food outside.

[slowtraveler]

The skill and capacity to do it are most important.

I read a book called Green City that changed my mind on this. Cities are far more carbon and resource friendly than rural areas due to economy of scale, walkability, and things like that.