I do alot of woods exploring. I once found a clearing that had a few fruit trees. This is a hundred miles from civilization. Turns out, I was walking an old Indian hunting trail, and the fruit trees were related to the fruit trees that the Indians planted along their trail. They traveled light, and could run for 20-40 miles a day. They needed food along the way. Fruit trees were the first "fast food" restaurants....
@@j.b.4340 No. Not where I was at. Europeans didn't settle the Everglades until last century, and no, the Everglades are not ALL swamp. There are thousands and thousands of acres of dry land. In fact, the Seminoles NEVER surrendered to Uncle Sam, or anyone else for that matter. My family were the first Whites allowed to settle there, and that's because my family were moonshiners, and the Natives became quite close with my family. We used to have very beautiful clothes and other things the Indians traded with my family for, but most was given to the University of Florida Natural museum. Other pieces were given back to the Seminole nation. We had pieces that actually belonged to an important chief. He was a good friend to my great, great, great grandfather.
Obviously we only see what's on camera, but it's very apparent they have a real respect and love for each other. It's very inspiring watching them each week.
Growing up with five brothers and two sisters, my parents did everything possible to feed us off 3 1/2 acres. We would put up 400 quarts of tomatoes for example. Meat was limited because Dad had one milking cow and would have her bred for our meat. We had 4 chickens for eggs and then would have new chicks each spring to harvest by autumn. Dad wasn't a good hunter. More a farmer. But mom and dad would can, freeze, and dry and of course all of us kids would be involved. We would sell corn at the roadside for money for school clothes. Many lessons. For the past several decades my husband and I do always "pad" our numbers - and plan at least 2 years beyond our first year if at all possible. Now, as empty nesters ourselves, we find we preserve WAY too much! But, food security is priority. My husband hunts and fishes, so we eat 99% wild game and have since the 1980s. Our acreage allows for it and wild fruits, mushrooms, herbs, as well as small orchards. And, yes, our neighbors enjoy a great deal of excess produce from us. Our grocery bills are minimal but not zero. Some items we still get from the store. Thank you for sharing.
6:38 Twelve people in the house means you have to provide 48 meals a day or 336 meals per week. Two big meals, two small meals and some snacks in between to kids per deay. It´s a lot of food.
Although we keep building our food supplies, my wife and I are still stunned by how much more food we need to prepare to grow and have in storage. We look at the estimated food requirements for just the two of us, in our 60s, and we're convinced that it is way too high. Then we measure what we eat each day and calculate out what we would need for a year for both of us, and we are shocked. Thank you for your transparency and candid explanation.
Yes, every year there's *something* that doesn't grow well. This year, for us, was brassicas (darn cabbage butterflies). Take advantage of those "years of plenty" like Joseph did in Egypt. For us, peppers and squash did well. Whatever your situation, though, don't be discouraged. Set backs occur, they do! It's a part of life. Keep going. Keep growing! Keep adding to your arsenal of skills like growing, preserving, cooking from scratch, baking. Keep going.
It is super refreshing to hear preppers mention that it’s ok to give your extra food away. It absolutely is!! Share the wealth! Don’t just let it spoil because you weren’t able to get it preserved, or if you know you won’t be able to eat it before it spoils. Thank you for your message!
That’s what my mom always said, can and preserve everything that comes out of the garden because next year could be bad on one crop or all. We also had sources for fruits, berries from people who had them but didn’t want them.
I use to live in Kootenai County. I went fishing, picked wild berries and plums and there is a lot of wild asparagus, onions and Jerusalem artichokes. There use to be a bunch of farmers around Post Falls and Spokane that let us pick green beans when they were finished harvesting. I loved it there.
I was born in 1963 up until my parents divorced when I was 11, My family had a food supply for the whole year. In the fall my father would buy a whole cow, multiple pigs, and tons of chickens. I remember at least 3 large chest freezers, but I sorta remember a couple uprights also. We also had a big garden and my mom canned blanched and froze the whole season long. We lived in a 4 season state. This was done because of income. My dad was in the Airforce and my mom was a teacher. I did my father SS for him in the 50's he made 40 dollars a month. I think most people do not realize by the time I was born in 63 most households had only had a fridge/freezer in the house for about 10 11 years at that point. I am talking as the norm. I think society has suffered because we no longer do this.
@@MaN-pw1bn they look like the most fantastic gadgets. They look like there is superior ling term food preservation, with lower waste compared to traditional methods .
I’m working on my 3 month food supply as well as emergency preparedness, then onto a year’s supply! Thank you for this video, it’s exactly what I’m interested in right now.
I started grocery shopping 1 time a month [40yr.ago] with only a 1-2 quick stop for bread or milk in between months. Along the way it evolved to bulk store shopping & back to my childhood way of growing foods.. When the Ice Storm came here [KY.] last year I carried banana creme pie desserts to neighbors as within the 1st 12hours they were asking me do you have water. 9 days without power & running water, my household had a great time we had plenty of foods and board games. It was a time to blend Family together even more than the usual daily Electric lifestyles. Having preparations is a blessing, using our God given knowledge to have them is a gift all the years we live.
I am horrible with keeping records. What I did for us is used my jars on the shelf as a marker for what I needed each year. Ie I grew the first year 200 feet of green beans. We ate and canned them. The next year, for example, we used 30 jars of green beans. Now I knew I only needed to plant 59 ft to replace what we used and rotated the previous years jars to the front. Same with all my other vegies and fruit. This is my first year of canning meat, so I am in the process to find out how many to put up.
Great show...nice to see you letting people know about the old and some new ways....my family has been doing this for generations and my wife's side of her family also....great video....thank you...freedom for all people...
I love my '74 Ball canning book with charts on how much to plant, yields from rows, how many jars a bushel needs, etc. Especially nice when I could buy economically straight from the farmer years ago.
I am just starting my journey. Last year my goal was to can a 1 year supply of salsa. That was all, but a start. I had tomatoes, but bought peppers and onions. I put up about 60 pints. When I started canning salsa this year, I had still 7 pints left. Pleased with that. This year, I put up 51 pints with my own garden's peppers and onions. Last year I put up about a dozen pints of tomato sauce to test it out, plus that was all the tomatoes I had left after salsa. More tomato plants grown this year. So far I have 64 pints. My goal was 100, but I don't think I'm going to make it. One thing I've done for bulk things I buy is to write on the package the date I open it. Then when it's finished I know how long it took to use. It may take a couple of packages to get a good year number (I just dated my gallon of vinegar, but I'm using it fast for pickling jalapenos right now.) After 3 years, I know the side of beef is about 1 year for us. I buy from a local farmer and pay a local independent butcher to process. LOVE keeping it as local as I can. I am currently trying to figure out if we can do a hog. Tracking what we eat, need to research what a whole hog yields to see if this makes sense for us. We would probably need to supplement extra bacon and eat more ham to make it work. We'll see. It does take time to figure things out. And slowly expanding, rather than trying to do it all at once, is key, I think. Love this topic.
I grow the N. Georgia Candy Roaster down here in Tennessee. They are so prolific, and I think that you will love the taste if you like a sweeter winter squash. I really appreciate the texture of them as well.
I am only renting but I have been in the same place a while. My landlord has given us the go for a veggie garden. We wouldn't be able to grow it all but we will try....
I am an azure standard drop coordinator in PA! We have a lot of hurdles still for getting deliveries this far out but the product is worth it. The bulk companies in our area do not take care to maintain quality, or consistently source their products. So if someone is switching to bulk remember that not all businesses are the same. If you are disappointed with a product try another supplier.
Many of us also need to change the way we cook to reflect what we grow and raise ourself. That’s different that only store what you will actually eat, it’s learn to cook from scratch.
cooking from scratch always sounds like so much work but eating whole foods or simply what you grow doesn't sound as hard too me atleast. sometimes its eggs or kefir for breakfast fresh or frozen fruit a little later veggies with homemade ranch and some sour craut and meat for dinner
For me I am working on preserving as much as I can. I was just gifted 2 bushels of pears from a friend that has a tree and did not want to hit them with the lawnmower. We went and picked them and I am canning them as they ripen up. Whatever is in season I am getting all I can afford and storing up. For meats I am planning on a couple deer this year and what I can find in the grocery on sale. Azure standard has been my starting place. Next year will be my first time planting in the ground I have done small container gardens but not much so I will plant a small garden next year and pray that the Father blesses me with that. Chickens for eggs this coming year and meat next year
@@suzannestokes7076 Yes,I see now. I googled storing apple cider. You can can it. Get it just to boiling and ladel into hot jars and water bath for 5 min. She says keeps in their cellar for 12-18 months. She said you do get some sediment though but if you warm it up when you use it just stir it in. We like reading Laura Ingall's books as a family and have learned alot .In Farmer Boy - Manley Wilder remembers having popcorn and cider in the winter. I wonder how they kept that barrell of cider from fermenting . Maybe they just drank it a little sour? (Mrs.Z) Thank you for the tip.
I LOVE the chit chat. I'm glad you were able to harvest most of your food before the freeze. I'm not ready for this cold yet. I have probably a 2-3 month supply of food on hand (minus perishables like milk). My pantry is stuffed and overflowing this year. I have bought everything to make cheese and wanting to jump right into that.
Thank you so much for all your helpful videos!! Thank for addressing food storage people need to start preparing NOW if they haven’t already started. The supply chains will be horrible this Winter and inflation on all they we buy is bad enough now and it is only going to get worse in the months ahead.
I agree with you both...I can when available and adjust the following year! The planning of how much makes me smile...as you say, its a good start. When I plant, I plant one for the geese, one for the mole and one for me, plus one for the shelf....and then preserve whatever it produces! Makes me smile when people only have what they eat and some throw out what they do not use after a year...makes me cringe. Good video guys!
I must also add....since I took Carolyn's Canning class and learned the proper way to pressure can, it has been wonderful to have all the convenience foods on my shelves. I have canned for years, but the pressure canning class and pressure canner has opened all kinds of doors for long term storage for me and those I feed.
Many people eat out or on the run. They have no idea how much they consume in a month much less a year. Thinking what you eat each day and then in a week, including foods you eat outside of the home will be a start. When the big C started and folks were told they might have to stay at home a month there was a necessary rush on the grocery stores as many people didn't even have 1 weeks worth of food at home. The homestead lifestyle requires thinking way beyond this week. I appreciate your ideas. Most people really have no idea how much they consume in a year as food is always "just there".
I found your channel a week ago and it has so much helpful information!! I live a nomadic lifestyle out of my SUV but I have been able to take a lot of information from your videos and apply it to my life. Thank you.
Being nomadic is an excellent way of using dehydrated foods. My sister and I plan to be on the road so I’m prepared for my van pantry and my home pantry. I dehydrate veggies, cooked pinto beans, cooked pastas and white rice along with a lot of my home canned meats. For on the road, off grid or SHTF situation it wouldn’t be hard to use leftover hot water from a meal and put your next meal in a small thermos to hydrate for your next meal. I have dehydrated green hot chile salsa that doesn’t take much water to hydrate for a meal also. Safe travels!
In regards to extending your growing season, I would add, make sure to rotate and Inter plant. I didn't stay on top of that as well as I need to this year and am in a window, where I am between crops right now, with nothing coming in.
We love our kune kune. We just had our first litter last month. Our sows are proving to be wonderful mothers. Enjoy your new addition to the homestead.
Is it possible to see all your root veggies in your basement/cellar area. Your freezers full of meat you freeze. Your pantry full of your canned foods. Just to see how you are storing all of your winter food. Don’t mean to intrude into your home though. Thank you for all of your informational videos & love seeing how your family helps out.
You can search pantry tours- 1000's of videos out there. Many TH-cam families are now finding it a security issue in showing what they have, understandably.
Thank you for the terrific advice. I am collecting data on how much I eat and harvest from my suburban garden as a way of showing exactly how much money I save myself growing my own food in a year. This data will definitely help me work out my future growing volumes and patterns.
Living in Southern Arizona, we are not typical homesteaders. I would hate to have livestock in our summer heat. But, we do own shares to quite a few co-ops and it works out great.
I'm rather new to your channel. I've watched a handful of video so far and I am absolutely loving your guys videos! I've always grown food, but we just moved to East Texas to 28 acres from 1/5 of an acre in Colorado. Our needs is so so different cause most of us don't eat meat or even dairy & those of us ( 2 people) who do only eat a small amount. So our main focus is veggies & fruit. Once we get goats we'll all consume dairy though. It's overwhelming trying to figure out a years worth cause I've never been able to grow food on a big scale. The main reason we moved here was to really extend our season to help bring in the crops. Anyways.. I'm looking forward to watching more videos cause I'm sure I'll learn a lot :)
Hi- we are in CO too and looking to go south for the same reasons. Do you mind me asking which part you settled in (Just directionally like north,south…)? We are a bit overwhelmed with figuring it out. Good luck to you!
@@karynb9431 hello :) after much, much researching we decided on East Texas. We're near Tyler. About an hour or so. The weather is amazing, the growing season is long, the cost of living is reasonable & the people have stolen my heart with their kindness. I'm so sorry it took me so long to reply. I don't get on TH-cam a whole lot. Lol
@@littlefootranch4410 no worries! I don’t come on here much either. I appreciate the information so much!! TX is huge and it’s hard to figure where to begin. I’m looking around and it seems like a great area. Thank you for your help!
Thank you for your discussion .... Back in the early 1960's days, my mother figured on the volume needed per x numbers of meals per week and folks thought she was a little daft. For jams and condiments it was based on the amount per month; we did much more actual fruit and apple sauce than many did. We did garden, u-pick, gleaning, and purchased boxes/ bushels - then canned and froze. Ive done similar when making up predominately grocery store purchased larders. I'm not sure if I like your advice because it validates my approach or because it makes more sense. Thank you for this talk.
Such a wonderful vlog!! Thank you!! Melissa K Norris Modern Homesteading has a good workbook to help you to the note taking to work your way to doing exactly what we were taught here.
I lived abroad off grid for a decade. I got to use a work load. I spread my foraging into days and weeks. I only touched what I could process and carry or transport. I lived on a island off the coast of Colombia. In the end? Tetley tea bags and ICE was all I needed to have a sense of. Everything is going to be alright. Now I just try to buy what’s not going to be available. Like boiling my own personal store to shop in
Thanks for all the wonderful content. I've been buying a few freeze dried foods every month for a while and since you have the freeze dryer now, I would love to see some meals and your opinion. 😊
Talking corn I am here in Switzerland first frost will come today. I have looked for a really sweet corn that is possible to make seed for our self. The bantam never gave me a good result in taste and in the to short timing of the good period to harvest it. So I tried the ones from Sativa in Switzerland that gave me these possibilities. Mezdi ks is the fastest and tast great also the damaun ks. Try them out it is worth it. Cheers from Switzerland Christophe
Dorriny sweet corn is a good short season corn that we save seed from, our growing season is short, less than 100 days usually but dorinny sweet works well for us
you harvest just a little more than we do, i don't have a basement, tried a few underground buckets last year, didn't work, so we buried a old freezer, and im thinking that will work, just not enough time to start my dairy class,,,, ,love love being being self sufficient
Look into trash can root cellars...bury the can in the ground and you layer your root crops with straw or shavings ...it’s been working for me in NC, I’ve read from people in this area and TN that it works for them too...not sure how much more south/humid you are but maybe it’s an option!
@@solideogloria3111, I'd add it must be metal and in a covered location to keep from being flooded. I have to bury an old stainless steel dishwasher to be my storage box/cold locker. It's in a covered location, thankfully. I just need to get digging.
Weird year. Here in northern Alberta first frost is usually first week of Sept. this year have not had one yet and it is Oct 2. Picked more tomatoes and potatoes are not hardening their skins(what do i do), and peas are reblooming. Good thing I had a bumper crop of apples last year, because of a later spring frost there is zero apples on my trees, no berries either. And I agree with the hay storage, we always do that and it is a good thing. With drought this year and grasshoppers, no hay to bale. Thank you for your insight. I have been preserving for 40 years, and am trying to get the younger generation thinking the same. Not going well, Hello Fresh is what they think is good. Lol
Do you use a lot of ginger, rose hips, cordyceps and/or chaga mushrooms? That would help offset problems (e.g. #1 killer heart disease, cancerous cell buildup, inflammation) from intense meat usage along with regular spices such as garlic and pepper. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I hope we are getting a video of the cream of chicken and corn soup for the canner! We are moving 1100 miles away next week so I haven't done any canning this fall and it's been sad. Can wait until I'm settled in my new place and I can get back to preparing and persevering.
just moved to Priest River. we've been told to store six months of food! this winter is predicted to be harse. so you are colder in Bonners then here? Can hardly wait for next year to plant fruit trees and a garden!!
I made buttermilk and sour cream! I adore the kune kune pigs. Several homesteaders I watch have those. I wish I could get a freeze dryer but sooo expensive and I just don’t grow enough. If you or any of your followers ever want to sell freeze dried berries and fruit ( especially loquat!) let me know please! I’m dying to try some as I can’t seem to grow berries to save my life but also I think I’d like the texture better. Thanks for the tips on food storage needs. I feel like a combination of canned, (commercially and home), dried, and frozen seems to make sense. This year I’m going to can soups, stews and chili! I do have some long term food stores for any type of evacuation emergency. I have started to buy bigger volumes of things we use the most.
Kunekune do root a little if they detect shallow roots that they want to eat. Ours have extremely short snouts and they do root a little but not near to the extent longer snouted breeds do.
QUESTION: How do you "deal" with the scheduling of a funeral? Ex. If you are I the middle of harvesting season how do you handle going to that funeral and taking care of your harvest?
Very good question! For our family one person attends the funeral unless it’s a close friend or relative then we have decided to all go and get back to the harvest as soon as possible.
I have American Guinea Hogs which are similar behaviorally to kune kune. Mine do not root either. They are wonderful pigs. We are wanting to cross our AGHs with kune kune.
I would love to know more about how to properly store bulk pantry items. For example, flour, I recently had some bugs get into my flour and I'm struggling to find a container that will keep out all pests AND hold a full bag of flour. The ones I have found are very very pricey.
I went to a local bakery and bought the buckets their frosting comes in. 3 and 5 gallon buckets with lids for a couple of dollars. Works great to store rice, oats, and flour.
To keep bugs out of flour, it helps to put it in the freezer a couple of days, then store with bay leaves in each container. Check with a deli for their cast off glass one gallon pickle jars. The pickle smell does eventually go away. Put bay leaves in with pasta, rice, oatmeal, etc.
@@nancybrewer8494 I bought the empty bucks that held pickles from a sandwich place and after washing, bleaching and using vinegar and the smell was still there I found out you just need to put your buckets in direct sunlight for a few days and it takes all the odor away.
You didn't mention the number of canning jars it takes per individual. These are great ideas but many folks are trying to learn food preparation and storage in a grid-less capacity. In these tumultuous times, I think everyone should know how to feed their families without electricity or at least sporadic electric. Currently, we are too far from public electric to get full voltage. Our meter is a half mile away and we don't have enough electric to support freezers and refrigerators. We are desperately trying to acclimate to this condition as we believe it will be the norm in years to come. While we do have an LP freezer and refrigerator, they are very small, so we still don't have enough storage to freeze large animals. And while we do smoke meats, we don't like smoked meat well enough to smoke large amounts. As for canning that much meat, oh what an undertaking, even with electric. But back to my point with the canning jars. Im certain that you all are familiar with the numbers of jars that are needed to feed a grid living family for a year. And how many more it would require to feed them without freezers. No one ever believes me when I tell them that they need a bare minimum of 1000 jars per person for one year. They really get huffy when I tell them how many lids they need on hand. All the homesteading skills in the world wont save our families if we don't have powerless solutions for food storage. I hope that you'll take an interest and take the lead. People trust you folks and they need to hear this from someone they have faith in.
Sherri Jackson, there aren't a lot of options. Some of them depend on where you live. For example, here in southern Ohio the humidity hampers many of the traditional drying methods and winter temperature fluctuations make it difficult to keep meats outside like folks up north do. Smoking meat and pressure canning foods over a wood fire or propane, are just about the limit when you don't have electricity or it is limited. We do store potatoes and sweet potatoes in our cellar but that isn't a sure thing when you sometimes get two weeks of humid spring weather in January that can start them to make eyes. Its very, very frustrating and something I need to get ironed out. I sure do wish that I had asked my grandparents more questions.
@@bugoutbubba3912 is your cellar in the ground? I wonder if a deeper cellar would help. But if the humidity is the issue idk. Being able to hunt or fish will be extra important if you can preserve meat long term.
Sherri Jackson, yep the cellar is in a hillside, underground. Its very dark in there and properly vented. Humidity is actually a good thing for potatoes. If anything our cellar is to dry. It just doesn't take much of a warm up to trigger eye growth. We always have enough potatoes for seed but they rarely make it until our "new" (early summer) potatoes come on. As far as supplementing with game and fish, Im pretty darn good at that now but I feel that wild food will be extraordinary scarce should it hit the fan. That is the primary reason we prep/homestead, to have food when times get bad. Its about to happen. Prep accordingly.
My garden did not grow at all this year all my tomatoes died along with my beans peas and carrots. Literally every thing died The only decent crop I had was basil and mint.
Did you mulch with straw from a big box store? They are starting to use sprays (herbicides or something bad) on crops they sell the straw from... beware of that...it lingers. Crop rotation is important too...I had virus or bacteria splash up on my tomatoes this year, probably didn't mulch heavy enough...but only got a few tomatoes before the vines died..
@@marthasundquist5761 see they were growing well until the neighboring from cropdusted this is the first year he's done this and so I wonder if there is correlation between the two
@Ashley Yaw. Well...yup, that would be my guess if he was dusting an herbicide, generally they spray that with tractor...but if it was pesticide, might not have been compatible with the plants that died.
Lehman's catalog from Ohio sells freeze dryers also this company call L.e.m. they sell butchering supplies and dehydrators and such they have them too. Better go in on one with a few friends or family members I see they're expensive but if you share it it could be a good investment.🙂
I do alot of woods exploring. I once found a clearing that had a few fruit trees. This is a hundred miles from civilization. Turns out, I was walking an old Indian hunting trail, and the fruit trees were related to the fruit trees that the Indians planted along their trail. They traveled light, and could run for 20-40 miles a day. They needed food along the way. Fruit trees were the first "fast food" restaurants....
How interesting!
Early European settlers planted those, not Indians.
@@j.b.4340 No. Not where I was at. Europeans didn't settle the Everglades until last century, and no, the Everglades are not ALL swamp. There are thousands and thousands of acres of dry land. In fact, the Seminoles NEVER surrendered to Uncle Sam, or anyone else for that matter. My family were the first Whites allowed to settle there, and that's because my family were moonshiners, and the Natives became quite close with my family. We used to have very beautiful clothes and other things the Indians traded with my family for, but most was given to the University of Florida Natural museum. Other pieces were given back to the Seminole nation. We had pieces that actually belonged to an important chief. He was a good friend to my great, great, great grandfather.
That is so cool!
What kind of fruit trees?
I love how well they bounce off of and support each other in their talking points.
Me too! 👏👏👏 great comment 😇
Obviously we only see what's on camera, but it's very apparent they have a real respect and love for each other. It's very inspiring watching them each week.
Growing up with five brothers and two sisters, my parents did everything possible to feed us off 3 1/2 acres. We would put up 400 quarts of tomatoes for example. Meat was limited because Dad had one milking cow and would have her bred for our meat. We had 4 chickens for eggs and then would have new chicks each spring to harvest by autumn. Dad wasn't a good hunter. More a farmer. But mom and dad would can, freeze, and dry and of course all of us kids would be involved. We would sell corn at the roadside for money for school clothes. Many lessons. For the past several decades my husband and I do always "pad" our numbers - and plan at least 2 years beyond our first year if at all possible. Now, as empty nesters ourselves, we find we preserve WAY too much! But, food security is priority. My husband hunts and fishes, so we eat 99% wild game and have since the 1980s. Our acreage allows for it and wild fruits, mushrooms, herbs, as well as small orchards. And, yes, our neighbors enjoy a great deal of excess produce from us. Our grocery bills are minimal but not zero. Some items we still get from the store. Thank you for sharing.
@@gordythecat - 200 acres. Some wooded, some not. Combination of hill and somewhat flat areas.
@@FoundThingsandFamilyLegacies that's sounds so nice 😭
6:38 Twelve people in the house means you have to provide 48 meals a day or 336 meals per week. Two big meals, two small meals and some snacks in between to kids per deay.
It´s a lot of food.
You also have a lot of hands to help work and make that possible
Although we keep building our food supplies, my wife and I are still stunned by how much more food we need to prepare to grow and have in storage. We look at the estimated food requirements for just the two of us, in our 60s, and we're convinced that it is way too high. Then we measure what we eat each day and calculate out what we would need for a year for both of us, and we are shocked.
Thank you for your transparency and candid explanation.
Food will be a very good bartering agent when things get rough, don't discount the overages as unimportant!
Rationing. If you train your body to function on the bare minimum, you can survive much, much longer. JS.
Yes, every year there's *something* that doesn't grow well. This year, for us, was brassicas (darn cabbage butterflies). Take advantage of those "years of plenty" like Joseph did in Egypt. For us, peppers and squash did well.
Whatever your situation, though, don't be discouraged. Set backs occur, they do! It's a part of life. Keep going. Keep growing! Keep adding to your arsenal of skills like growing, preserving, cooking from scratch, baking. Keep going.
Our cabbage and broccoli didnt do well either. We had a great tomato year though.
It is super refreshing to hear preppers mention that it’s ok to give your extra food away. It absolutely is!! Share the wealth! Don’t just let it spoil because you weren’t able to get it preserved, or if you know you won’t be able to eat it before it spoils. Thank you for your message!
What is your favorite kind of bushel basket to use? Would you be able to do a video with all the tools you use for harvest?
I would be very interested in that info as well.
That’s what my mom always said, can and preserve everything that comes out of the garden because next year could be bad on one crop or all. We also had sources for fruits, berries from people who had them but didn’t want them.
I use to live in Kootenai County. I went fishing, picked wild berries and plums and there is a lot of wild asparagus, onions and Jerusalem artichokes. There use to be a bunch of farmers around Post Falls and Spokane that let us pick green beans when they were finished harvesting. I loved it there.
I was born in 1963 up until my parents divorced when I was 11, My family had a food supply for the whole year. In the fall my father would buy a whole cow, multiple pigs, and tons of chickens. I remember at least 3 large chest freezers, but I sorta remember a couple uprights also. We also had a big garden and my mom canned blanched and froze the whole season long. We lived in a 4 season state. This was done because of income. My dad was in the Airforce and my mom was a teacher. I did my father SS for him in the 50's he made 40 dollars a month. I think most people do not realize by the time I was born in 63 most households had only had a fridge/freezer in the house for about 10 11 years at that point. I am talking as the norm. I think society has suffered because we no longer do this.
In the UK, we didnt have a fridge or freezer until the mid 1970s. My first encounter was in my student flat in 1972.
I think every home should have a freezer dryer!
@@MaN-pw1bn they look like the most fantastic gadgets. They look like there is superior ling term food preservation, with lower waste compared to traditional methods .
@@lat1419 I like mine!
I’m working on my 3 month food supply as well as emergency preparedness, then onto a year’s supply! Thank you for this video, it’s exactly what I’m interested in right now.
I started grocery shopping 1 time a month [40yr.ago] with only a 1-2 quick stop for bread or milk in between months. Along the way it evolved to bulk store shopping & back to my childhood way of growing foods.. When the Ice Storm came here [KY.] last year I carried banana creme pie desserts to neighbors as within the 1st 12hours they were asking me do you have water. 9 days without power & running water, my household had a great time we had plenty of foods and board games. It was a time to blend Family together even more than the usual daily Electric lifestyles. Having preparations is a blessing, using our God given knowledge to have them is a gift all the years we live.
I am horrible with keeping records. What I did for us is used my jars on the shelf as a marker for what I needed each year. Ie I grew the first year 200 feet of green beans. We ate and canned them. The next year, for example, we used 30 jars of green beans. Now I knew I only needed to plant 59 ft to replace what we used and rotated the previous years jars to the front. Same with all my other vegies and fruit. This is my first year of canning meat, so I am in the process to find out how many to put up.
I do very similar. I like having a couple years stuff on the shelf because you never know when you will have a crop failure.
Great show...nice to see you letting people know about the old and some new ways....my family has been doing this for generations and my wife's side of her family also....great video....thank you...freedom for all people...
I love my '74 Ball canning book with charts on how much to plant, yields from rows, how many jars a bushel needs, etc. Especially nice when I could buy economically straight from the farmer years ago.
Thank you for all of the pantry chats! It’s always so comforting to hear your experiences - you make the lifestyle feel so doable!
Perfect timing:) dehydrating and putting up food this very moment:). Thank you!
Great video once again, and such an idyllic backdrop with the sunshine and apples!
I am just starting my journey. Last year my goal was to can a 1 year supply of salsa. That was all, but a start. I had tomatoes, but bought peppers and onions. I put up about 60 pints. When I started canning salsa this year, I had still 7 pints left. Pleased with that. This year, I put up 51 pints with my own garden's peppers and onions. Last year I put up about a dozen pints of tomato sauce to test it out, plus that was all the tomatoes I had left after salsa. More tomato plants grown this year. So far I have 64 pints. My goal was 100, but I don't think I'm going to make it. One thing I've done for bulk things I buy is to write on the package the date I open it. Then when it's finished I know how long it took to use. It may take a couple of packages to get a good year number (I just dated my gallon of vinegar, but I'm using it fast for pickling jalapenos right now.) After 3 years, I know the side of beef is about 1 year for us. I buy from a local farmer and pay a local independent butcher to process. LOVE keeping it as local as I can. I am currently trying to figure out if we can do a hog. Tracking what we eat, need to research what a whole hog yields to see if this makes sense for us. We would probably need to supplement extra bacon and eat more ham to make it work. We'll see. It does take time to figure things out. And slowly expanding, rather than trying to do it all at once, is key, I think. Love this topic.
Wow you like salsa. I bet my family uses 4 pints a year 🤣 Good work though!
Really good points about the vegetables, especially, thank you!
Azure Standard operates here in Northern Virginia/West Virginia Panhandle now and we love it!
Who are they owned by?
I grow the N. Georgia Candy Roaster down here in Tennessee. They are so prolific, and I think that you will love the taste if you like a sweeter winter squash. I really appreciate the texture of them as well.
I am only renting but I have been in the same place a while. My landlord has given us the go for a veggie garden. We wouldn't be able to grow it all but we will try....
I am an azure standard drop coordinator in PA! We have a lot of hurdles still for getting deliveries this far out but the product is worth it. The bulk companies in our area do not take care to maintain quality, or consistently source their products. So if someone is switching to bulk remember that not all businesses are the same. If you are disappointed with a product try another supplier.
Where in PA? I'm interested and live in Indiana County.
@@faintlyartistic7803 Bradford county
Many of us also need to change the way we cook to reflect what we grow and raise ourself. That’s different that only store what you will actually eat, it’s learn to cook from scratch.
cooking from scratch always sounds like so much work but eating whole foods or simply what you grow doesn't sound as hard too me atleast. sometimes its eggs or kefir for breakfast fresh or frozen fruit a little later veggies with homemade ranch and some sour craut and meat for dinner
@@gettintherejanice6216 what you just described sounds like cooking from scratch to me, especially if you made the dressing! ☺
Love you two! A big thank you from England.
For me I am working on preserving as much as I can. I was just gifted 2 bushels of pears from a friend that has a tree and did not want to hit them with the lawnmower. We went and picked them and I am canning them as they ripen up. Whatever is in season I am getting all I can afford and storing up. For meats I am planning on a couple deer this year and what I can find in the grocery on sale. Azure standard has been my starting place. Next year will be my first time planting in the ground I have done small container gardens but not much so I will plant a small garden next year and pray that the Father blesses me with that. Chickens for eggs this coming year and meat next year
Y'all are so full of wisdom. My family appreciates you sharing!
Your apple trees look good. Going to our local orchard this weekend. Want to find out about storing apple cider overwinter.
If you have a pressure canner, you can it.
@@suzannestokes7076 Yes,I see now. I googled storing apple cider. You can can it. Get it just to boiling and ladel into hot jars and water bath for 5 min. She says keeps in their cellar for 12-18 months. She said you do get some sediment though but if you warm it up when you use it just stir it in. We like reading Laura Ingall's books as a family and have learned alot .In Farmer Boy - Manley Wilder remembers having popcorn and cider in the winter. I wonder how they kept that barrell of cider from fermenting . Maybe they just drank it a little sour? (Mrs.Z) Thank you for the tip.
Where have you and your very helpful information been all my life?
I LOVE the chit chat. I'm glad you were able to harvest most of your food before the freeze. I'm not ready for this cold yet. I have probably a 2-3 month supply of food on hand (minus perishables like milk). My pantry is stuffed and overflowing this year. I have bought everything to make cheese and wanting to jump right into that.
Thank you so much for all your helpful videos!! Thank for addressing food storage people need to start preparing NOW if they haven’t already started. The supply chains will be horrible this Winter and inflation on all they we buy is bad enough now and it is only going to get worse in the months ahead.
Yes!! East Coast Girl here!! So excited they are finally coming this way
I agree with you both...I can when available and adjust the following year! The planning of how much makes me smile...as you say, its a good start. When I plant, I plant one for the geese, one for the mole and one for me, plus one for the shelf....and then preserve whatever it produces! Makes me smile when people only have what they eat and some throw out what they do not use after a year...makes me cringe. Good video guys!
I must also add....since I took Carolyn's Canning class and learned the proper way to pressure can, it has been wonderful to have all the convenience foods on my shelves. I have canned for years, but the pressure canning class and pressure canner has opened all kinds of doors for long term storage for me and those I feed.
Many people eat out or on the run. They have no idea how much they consume in a month much less a year. Thinking what you eat each day and then in a week, including foods you eat outside of the home will be a start. When the big C started and folks were told they might have to stay at home a month there was a necessary rush on the grocery stores as many people didn't even have 1 weeks worth of food at home. The homestead lifestyle requires thinking way beyond this week. I appreciate your ideas. Most people really have no idea how much they consume in a year as food is always "just there".
Thank you for all your hard work!
I found your channel a week ago and it has so much helpful information!! I live a nomadic lifestyle out of my SUV but I have been able to take a lot of information from your videos and apply it to my life. Thank you.
Being nomadic is an excellent way of using dehydrated foods. My sister and I plan to be on the road so I’m prepared for my van pantry and my home pantry. I dehydrate veggies, cooked pinto beans, cooked pastas and white rice along with a lot of my home canned meats. For on the road, off grid or SHTF situation it wouldn’t be hard to use leftover hot water from a meal and put your next meal in a small thermos to hydrate for your next meal. I have dehydrated green hot chile salsa that doesn’t take much water to hydrate for a meal also. Safe travels!
@@cocacolafiesta Thank you! Great idea about dehydrated food.
You will love the candy roaster! Wonderful sweet good storing too!
Great talk. Thx for sharing y'all. Peace and blessings, julie
You guys just look like fall. Flannels layered and apples hanging in the background. ☺️ Love it. No flannels yet here in the south. 🥵
In regards to extending your growing season, I would add, make sure to rotate and Inter plant. I didn't stay on top of that as well as I need to this year and am in a window, where I am between crops right now, with nothing coming in.
We love our kune kune. We just had our first litter last month. Our sows are proving to be wonderful mothers. Enjoy your new addition to the homestead.
I really enjoy these pantry chats 😁 thanks for sharing
Great chat!
I wish you guys were my neighbors! Thank you for all that you do to help us first time homesteaders.
Is it possible to see all your root veggies in your basement/cellar area. Your freezers full of meat you freeze. Your pantry full of your canned foods. Just to see how you are storing all of your winter food. Don’t mean to intrude into your home though. Thank you for all of your informational videos & love seeing how your family helps out.
It does help to visualize what that amount of food is when it's stored.
You can search pantry tours- 1000's of videos out there. Many TH-cam families are now finding it a security issue in showing what they have, understandably.
Love the background behind ya'll -- beautiful!!!!
I love these pantry chats. I'm just getting started and am learning so much!
I love your videos! Thanks!
Thank you for the terrific advice. I am collecting data on how much I eat and harvest from my suburban garden as a way of showing exactly how much money I save myself growing my own food in a year. This data will definitely help me work out my future growing volumes and patterns.
Living in Southern Arizona, we are not typical homesteaders. I would hate to have livestock in our summer heat. But, we do own shares to quite a few co-ops and it works out great.
I'm rather new to your channel. I've watched a handful of video so far and I am absolutely loving your guys videos!
I've always grown food, but we just moved to East Texas to 28 acres from 1/5 of an acre in Colorado. Our needs is so so different cause most of us don't eat meat or even dairy & those of us ( 2 people) who do only eat a small amount. So our main focus is veggies & fruit. Once we get goats we'll all consume dairy though. It's overwhelming trying to figure out a years worth cause I've never been able to grow food on a big scale. The main reason we moved here was to really extend our season to help bring in the crops.
Anyways.. I'm looking forward to watching more videos cause I'm sure I'll learn a lot :)
Hi- we are in CO too and looking to go south for the same reasons. Do you mind me asking which part you settled in (Just directionally like north,south…)? We are a bit overwhelmed with figuring it out. Good luck to you!
@@karynb9431 hello :) after much, much researching we decided on East Texas. We're near Tyler. About an hour or so. The weather is amazing, the growing season is long, the cost of living is reasonable & the people have stolen my heart with their kindness.
I'm so sorry it took me so long to reply. I don't get on TH-cam a whole lot. Lol
@@littlefootranch4410 no worries! I don’t come on here much either. I appreciate the information so much!! TX is huge and it’s hard to figure where to begin. I’m looking around and it seems like a great area. Thank you for your help!
Thank you for your discussion .... Back in the early 1960's days, my mother figured on the volume needed per x numbers of meals per week and folks thought she was a little daft. For jams and condiments it was based on the amount per month; we did much more actual fruit and apple sauce than many did. We did garden, u-pick, gleaning, and purchased boxes/ bushels - then canned and froze. Ive done similar when making up predominately grocery store purchased larders. I'm not sure if I like your advice because it validates my approach or because it makes more sense. Thank you for this talk.
Have you seen the Idaho pasture pigs? They are a cross with kune and I have heard wonderful things about them.
28:21 Better to be looking AT it than looking FOR it!
Such a wonderful vlog!! Thank you!! Melissa K Norris Modern Homesteading has a good workbook to help you to the note taking to work your way to doing exactly what we were taught here.
George candy roaster are amazing. Love making pie with them.
So glad you're helping prevent extinction of the Kunekune breed!
I lived abroad off grid for a decade. I got to use a work load. I spread my foraging into days and weeks. I only touched what I could process and carry or transport. I lived on a island off the coast of Colombia. In the end? Tetley tea bags and ICE was all I needed to have a sense of. Everything is going to be alright. Now I just try to buy what’s not going to be available. Like boiling my own personal store to shop in
I would LOVE to see harvesting videos!!
14:20
You're welcome 😊
Thanks for all the wonderful content. I've been buying a few freeze dried foods every month for a while and since you have the freeze dryer now, I would love to see some meals and your opinion. 😊
Talking corn I am here in Switzerland first frost will come today. I have looked for a really sweet corn that is possible to make seed for our self. The bantam never gave me a good result in taste and in the to short timing of the good period to harvest it. So I tried the ones from Sativa in Switzerland that gave me these possibilities. Mezdi ks is the fastest and tast great also the damaun ks. Try them out it is worth it. Cheers from Switzerland Christophe
Dorriny sweet corn is a good short season corn that we save seed from, our growing season is short, less than 100 days usually but dorinny sweet works well for us
you harvest just a little more than we do, i don't have a basement, tried a few underground buckets last year, didn't work, so we buried a old freezer, and im thinking that will work, just not enough time to start my dairy class,,,, ,love love being being self sufficient
so so informative! Thank you so much for sharing :D
I would love some help on how to store root veggies in hot and humid climate when there are no basements.
Same here!
Same
Look into trash can root cellars...bury the can in the ground and you layer your root crops with straw or shavings ...it’s been working for me in NC, I’ve read from people in this area and TN that it works for them too...not sure how much more south/humid you are but maybe it’s an option!
In FL, no root cellar is an option! We turned our laundry room into our storage area.
@@solideogloria3111, I'd add it must be metal and in a covered location to keep from being flooded. I have to bury an old stainless steel dishwasher to be my storage box/cold locker. It's in a covered location, thankfully. I just need to get digging.
Weird year. Here in northern Alberta first frost is usually first week of Sept. this year have not had one yet and it is Oct 2. Picked more tomatoes and potatoes are not hardening their skins(what do i do), and peas are reblooming. Good thing I had a bumper crop of apples last year, because of a later spring frost there is zero apples on my trees, no berries either. And I agree with the hay storage, we always do that and it is a good thing. With drought this year and grasshoppers, no hay to bale. Thank you for your insight. I have been preserving for 40 years, and am trying to get the younger generation thinking the same. Not going well, Hello Fresh is what they think is good. Lol
I love this channel.
id love to learn how to save seeds from corn and everything, im learning so much from yall !! thank you !
Do you use a lot of ginger, rose hips, cordyceps and/or chaga mushrooms? That would help offset problems (e.g. #1 killer heart disease, cancerous cell buildup, inflammation) from intense meat usage along with regular spices such as garlic and pepper.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Beautiful tree 🌳 behind y’all 👍🇺🇸😇
You guys rock
I actually paused right after your introduction and carried a bunch more down to the pantry
I hope we are getting a video of the cream of chicken and corn soup for the canner! We are moving 1100 miles away next week so I haven't done any canning this fall and it's been sad. Can wait until I'm settled in my new place and I can get back to preparing and persevering.
just moved to Priest River. we've been told to store six months of food! this winter is predicted to be harse. so you are colder in Bonners then here? Can hardly wait for next year to plant fruit trees and a garden!!
Aye! You're brave! I have family in Bonners...i couldn't handle living there at -1 degree!! I moved the complete opposite, South, SUN!!! Good luck🤷
This is a great chat! Just subbed :) blessings to you !
I made buttermilk and sour cream! I adore the kune kune pigs. Several homesteaders I watch have those. I wish I could get a freeze dryer but sooo expensive and I just don’t grow enough. If you or any of your followers ever want to sell freeze dried berries and fruit ( especially loquat!) let me know please! I’m dying to try some as I can’t seem to grow berries to save my life but also I think I’d like the texture better. Thanks for the tips on food storage needs. I feel like a combination of canned, (commercially and home), dried, and frozen seems to make sense. This year I’m going to can soups, stews and chili! I do have some long term food stores for any type of evacuation emergency. I have started to buy bigger volumes of things we use the most.
Eastern PA, just put in my order for Azure 🙂
Lol oh my goodness you made me laugh with the sweetish comment ... Too funny
Check out the 'Mossy Bottom' channel. His Kune Kune pigs in Ireland root. He actually uses them to plough his land.
Kunekune do root a little if they detect shallow roots that they want to eat. Ours have extremely short snouts and they do root a little but not near to the extent longer snouted breeds do.
Azure standard has been delivering to Georgia for a while already.
I would like to have some more information on the pig that don't root everyone I've ever owned rooted up my yard bad and I love raising pigs
Please let us know how the freeze dried corn on the cob worked.
QUESTION: How do you "deal" with the scheduling of a funeral? Ex. If you are I the middle of harvesting season how do you handle going to that funeral and taking care of your harvest?
Very good question! For our family one person attends the funeral unless it’s a close friend or relative then we have decided to all go and get back to the harvest as soon as possible.
Love your videos! Do you ever substitute parsnips in your stew canning recipe?
How fun! Kunekune is Babe!
Can you show your storge set up.
I have American Guinea Hogs which are similar behaviorally to kune kune. Mine do not root either. They are wonderful pigs. We are wanting to cross our AGHs with kune kune.
I would love to know more about how to properly store bulk pantry items. For example, flour, I recently had some bugs get into my flour and I'm struggling to find a container that will keep out all pests AND hold a full bag of flour. The ones I have found are very very pricey.
I went to a local bakery and bought the buckets their frosting comes in. 3 and 5 gallon buckets with lids for a couple of dollars. Works great to store rice, oats, and flour.
To keep bugs out of flour, it helps to put it in the freezer a couple of days, then store with bay leaves in each container. Check with a deli for their cast off glass one gallon pickle jars. The pickle smell does eventually go away. Put bay leaves in with pasta, rice, oatmeal, etc.
If you search the video playlists you will find some of the food storage videos they have done. :^)
@@nancybrewer8494 I bought the empty bucks that held pickles from a sandwich place and after washing, bleaching and using vinegar and the smell was still there I found out you just need to put your buckets in direct sunlight for a few days and it takes all the odor away.
Did you happen to freeze dry any shell peas? Would love to know if peas would be successful freeze dried.
You didn't mention the number of canning jars it takes per individual. These are great ideas but many folks are trying to learn food preparation and storage in a grid-less capacity. In these tumultuous times, I think everyone should know how to feed their families without electricity or at least sporadic electric. Currently, we are too far from public electric to get full voltage. Our meter is a half mile away and we don't have enough electric to support freezers and refrigerators. We are desperately trying to acclimate to this condition as we believe it will be the norm in years to come.
While we do have an LP freezer and refrigerator, they are very small, so we still don't have enough storage to freeze large animals. And while we do smoke meats, we don't like smoked meat well enough to smoke large amounts. As for canning that much meat, oh what an undertaking, even with electric.
But back to my point with the canning jars. Im certain that you all are familiar with the numbers of jars that are needed to feed a grid living family for a year. And how many more it would require to feed them without freezers. No one ever believes me when I tell them that they need a bare minimum of 1000 jars per person for one year. They really get huffy when I tell them how many lids they need on hand. All the homesteading skills in the world wont save our families if we don't have powerless solutions for food storage. I hope that you'll take an interest and take the lead. People trust you folks and they need to hear this from someone they have faith in.
What is the powerless solution for food storage/preservation?
Sherri Jackson, there aren't a lot of options. Some of them depend on where you live. For example, here in southern Ohio the humidity hampers many of the traditional drying methods and winter temperature fluctuations make it difficult to keep meats outside like folks up north do. Smoking meat and pressure canning foods over a wood fire or propane, are just about the limit when you don't have electricity or it is limited. We do store potatoes and sweet potatoes in our cellar but that isn't a sure thing when you sometimes get two weeks of humid spring weather in January that can start them to make eyes.
Its very, very frustrating and something I need to get ironed out. I sure do wish that I had asked my grandparents more questions.
@@bugoutbubba3912 is your cellar in the ground? I wonder if a deeper cellar would help. But if the humidity is the issue idk. Being able to hunt or fish will be extra important if you can preserve meat long term.
Sherri Jackson, yep the cellar is in a hillside, underground. Its very dark in there and properly vented. Humidity is actually a good thing for potatoes. If anything our cellar is to dry. It just doesn't take much of a warm up to trigger eye growth. We always have enough potatoes for seed but they rarely make it until our "new" (early summer) potatoes come on.
As far as supplementing with game and fish, Im pretty darn good at that now but I feel that wild food will be extraordinary scarce should it hit the fan. That is the primary reason we prep/homestead, to have food when times get bad. Its about to happen. Prep accordingly.
How do you store your root crops
My garden did not grow at all this year all my tomatoes died along with my beans peas and carrots. Literally every thing died The only decent crop I had was basil and mint.
Did you mulch with straw from a big box store? They are starting to use sprays (herbicides or something bad) on crops they sell the straw from... beware of that...it lingers. Crop rotation is important too...I had virus or bacteria splash up on my tomatoes this year, probably didn't mulch heavy enough...but only got a few tomatoes before the vines died..
@@marthasundquist5761 see they were growing well until the neighboring from cropdusted this is the first year he's done this and so I wonder if there is correlation between the two
@Ashley Yaw. Well...yup, that would be my guess if he was dusting an herbicide, generally they spray that with tractor...but if it was pesticide, might not have been compatible with the plants that died.
what do you use to bring it all in and store it till it is processed or stored?
Could you expand on the freeze drying? My son loves freeze dried fruit and would LOVE to learn to do it myself.
Lehman's catalog from Ohio sells freeze dryers also this company call L.e.m. they sell butchering supplies and dehydrators and such they have them too. Better go in on one with a few friends or family members I see they're expensive but if you share it it could be a good investment.🙂
@@edwardzarnowski5558 thank you!
Harvest Right freeze dryer has a web site. They usually have a contest to win a freeze dryer. God bless.
@@elizabethcope1502 awesome! Thank you!
Do you boil the cobs after removing the corn to make corn syrup? I have seen it done before and I want to try it next year.
Little mountain ranch just did a squash taste test video and candy roaster won
My Georgia candy roasters are delicious
Will you be saving the seeds?