By no means have I ever considered ourselves “preppers”. Not really sure what we would be labeled as. I don’t consider us as hobby farmers because we truly farm for food not just for fun. A while back we had some company and they asked if we came from farming families. Neither of us did, and I proudly exclaimed without even giving it much thought that we were first generation farmers.
Reading the news of the banks flopping in Europe, threats of nuclear war from North Korea, damn Monsanto who is working really hard to taint our entire food system, and the bee colony collapse disorder gives me ANXIETY! I’m thinking that maybe the “preppers” are pretty smart peeps.
Another issue that REALLY bothers me is the recent crisis in obtaining ammunition and reloading supplies. So the government buys it all up, there is less supply, and now when it is available people are hoarding. That is just one commodity that is in short supply…I have not doubt that there will be more to follow.
With all that gloom and doom I have no immediate plans in building a bunker but I am motivated to dabble a little more in canning this summer. I have only canned fruits, vegetables, and broth but I’m interested in learning to can meats, beans, and soup.
What are some of your goals and ambitions in light of recent times?
9 comments:
hi! i've been following you for a while, but never commented. your post today is exactly where i'm at right now. how to get prepared without being a doomsday prepper. we moved here so we could have the space to do take care of ourselves and our family. we've been lazy, i'm afraid, but we've just recommited ourselves to moving forward as much as possible in the coming year--investing in building the infrastructure that we need to do this. i've never pressure canned, but i'm considering buying one this summer and learning. thanks for posting this.
As the old saying goes "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".
Learn all of the skills you can because you never know what tomorrow may bring. Just because you are trying to be self sufficient doesn't make you a doomsday prepper.
We live in this tiny 825 square foot house with 5 people and a dog...and we have so much food that we've canned, just poked in where ever we can fit it! ha! It's rather funny. But seriously, we may not be "prepping" either, but for sure, we are trying to avoid another major storm issue that could take our food supply because there's no electricity and such. We can almost everything--even summer squash. (Yes, it CAN be done!) I'm learning to make soap, we butcher our own meat, etc. There certainly is nothing wrong with being able to take care of yourself. :)
I would like to learn to can meat also. I can everything else.
I don't get the prepper stuff as it seems like people are just following trends...at least as it is portrayed on tv. That being said, we do a lot of our own stuff and it only makes sense to me to can food and prepare for hard times, emergencies, etc. We just look at it from a more old-timey perspective I guess rather than so many of the guys on tv who buy a handful of guns and figure they will shoot their way out of problems. I genuinely like doing things that provide tangible wealth to me...like food in jars and garden and bees and yes, some guns and ammo. It's all in the perspective to me. And, with the world in its current unstable state, I do take comfort in having those things in place!
We got rabbits recently so we can raise our own meat. We can't breed our own chickens because we can't have a rooster here, but rabbits don't make noise so they are a good option for us.
Of course we have the hens, and we will be getting meat chickens this May. DH will also be teaching the kids to fish.
I've got three gardens in the planning stages with the goal being to can, dry, store, or freeze a year's supply of produce. I won't have to make jam this year because of my major jam fest last year, so that means a lot more frozen, dried, and canned fruit and fruit leather.
I think preppers have gotten a bad rap lately. Probably because the crazy ones are just so...crazy. But the good ones I've really learned a lot from. After major disasters hitting the food and power supplies in many areas last year, preparing for the worst is just plain smart. I'd rather have it and not need it, than not have it and need it desperately.
I'm putting up more food than normal this year, and growing more for people who can't garden. The world doesn't feel like a safe place these days.
My husband and I feel the same way. I guess you could call us "preppers" but we aren't packing guns on us and looking over our shoulder 5 times a minute! We just believe that God gave us 2 hands and good common sense for a reason and our family is our responsibility not the governments. We homeschool, try to grow our food (still working on that skill!)and are building an off grid home. Stop by my blog any time to see what we are up to any time :-)
Here in the UK pressure canning doesn't seem to be done, even bottling fruit is not common now though I learnt to do from my grandmother (a farmers wife)
I intend to bottle (water bath) some of this year fruit/tomato harvest depending how good a crop we get, maybe try some dehydrating.
The cost of food is going up and up, so am hoping to grow as much fruit and veg as possible.
Getting some new laying hens and am thinking of maybe getting some rabbits for meat.
I think it's sensible to have a store of food at hand, all it takes is one weather forecast that says snow or a shortage of x reported on the news, everybody goes mad & clears supermarket shelves!
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