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Survive the ’08 Meltdown: Part 2
October 7th, 2008
Food: Eating What You Can Get
World markets continue to take dramatic hits and the Dow has fallen below 10,000 for the first time in four years. Seems a lot of banks and other players are unhappy with the trillion dollar bailout package passed last Friday because it limits their personal golden parachutes and stock option scams. Awwww. Should we call the waaaaambulance for these whiners? Nope. If they didn’t need our money they shouldn’t have begged for a handout in the first place. In the meantime, regular people are having a much harder time putting food on the table as prices rise dramatically and more and more find themselves out of work. This post is a beginner’s primer on how to get food if you can’t afford it.
Before I get to the list of good links readers may find helpful depending on their particular situations, readers should know that many states, such as the one where I live (NC) have budgetary caps on how much relief in the form of food stamps they are able to provide. This can mean that even as increasing numbers of people find themselves going hungry, fewer people will have access to the standard governmental relief. Thus more people must turn to other providers. A good overview of those providers supported by the USDA commodity program is provided at Amber Waves. If your family is in danger of ‘food insecurity’ be sure to familiarize yourself with emergency providers in your area. Cities generally have soup kitchens, places where you can go for a hot meal. Most smaller cities and many towns or counties also have food banks, check into what you will need to provide to qualify.
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Filed under Alternative economics, Alternatives, Barter, Economic Depression, Family Projects, Foraging, Grow Your Own, Inflation, Staple Foods, Surviving, Wild Harvest | Comments (2)Harvesting Wild: The Mast Crop
October 29th, 2007
People trying to make do on less and less money in the modern world already know that food is a greater expense for a family than most economists like to admit. Most of us have scanned various ‘official’ guess-timates of how much of a family’s income goes toward groceries – not eating out in restaurants or fast food joints – and have smirked at the discrepancies between what government thinks we can live on and the constantly rising prices at the grocery store.
Fortunately for those who live near a copse of woods or a real forest, nature does provide a bounty of foods that can be had for no more than the price of a healthy hike, some prep time and effort, and the energy it takes to process the harvest.
The production of acorns by oak trees every fall is called the “mast crop” here in the southern Appalachians. Some trees will produce bushels of acorns one year, practically nothing the next. We know that squirrels, bears, deer and other wildlife depend on the mast crop to put on weight for the coming winter, but did you know that the nuts of wild hickory, walnut, chestnut and oak trees were a large part of the staple diet of Native Americans long before white guys came?
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Filed under Alternatives, Nutrition, Recipes, Staple Foods, Wild Harvest | Comment (1)