How are you preparing...

How are you preparing
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Smudge
Posts: 277
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 7:49 pm

How are you preparing...

Post by Smudge »

More or less everyone (here) stores food, some would class this as hoarding, extreme and Doomsday Preppers'ish.

Some people grow food whether it be garden, balcony, windowsill, allotment, homestead or croft, some would consider this a waste of time even extreme after all the shops are full.

Myself I store some, I've grown a lot in raised beds which have now been dismantled and scaled down to pots.

I forage. I started young getting wild berries and fruits for my dad's wine making. In my youth I once spent 3 months living off virtually nothing but potatoes, I wish I'd known half of what I know now to add to them.

So how am I prepping? I'm no rambo waiting for the apocalypse, I'm preparing for hard times:

Keeping the car topped up save me a big when prices started to rocket,
Keeping a stock of toilet paper meant I didn't worry when sheep were panic buying,
Keeping food meant initial lockdown didn't really affect me,
Growing food and previously keeping chickens taught myself and my kids valuable lessons about where food comes from,
Foraging is fun and gives you a connection to the land understanding the seasons and environment.

Many people in Bosnia, Lebanon, Argentina and Venezuela didn't prep in any capacity maybe they wished they'd.

With more people using food banks than ever before and the risk of a food shortage, anything "prepper/survival" related can only be of benefit.
If at first you don't succeed, excessive force is usually the answer.
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diamond lil
Posts: 9756
Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2010 1:42 pm
Location: Scotland.

Re: How are you preparing...

Post by diamond lil »

Agree with that - growing some tatties in bags and keeping a couple of hens beats the food bank any day!
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itsybitsy
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Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2010 5:51 pm
Location: East Yorkshire

Re: How are you preparing...

Post by itsybitsy »

diamond lil wrote: Sat Jul 02, 2022 8:48 am Agree with that - growing some tatties in bags and keeping a couple of hens beats the food bank any day!
Somewhat surprisingly, a couple of potato plants have just grown themselves this year - must be from spuds I left in the pots last year by mistake. Let's see what they yield (or not :lol: ).
Frnc
Posts: 3182
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2022 1:54 pm

Re: How are you preparing...

Post by Frnc »

I'm trying to grow veg, but only succeeded in growing peas so far. Trying to avoid hybrids so seeds can be saved. I might have potatoes, will investigate soon. My neighbour grows apples; I can scrounge a few.
Of course I have a few weeks supply of food with long shelf life, and a bit of space to increase that.
Vega-J
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun May 22, 2022 7:05 pm

Re: How are you preparing...

Post by Vega-J »

I've been growing food for around 10 years now. Each year I've added more homegrown in to my diet and spent less in the supermarket. Last year I hardly had to buy any vegetables from the shops at all. My partner and I have learnt to eat with the seasons and I adjust recipes depending on what crops have been a success.

Another prep which I think is important is to slowly adjust your digestive system to the affects from Jerusalem artichoke :lol: they yield so much that we were eating them 3-4 times a week last winter.

I've only just started building a food storage in the traditional prepping sense but I'm slowly adding to it every week.
Vega-J
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun May 22, 2022 7:05 pm

Re: How are you preparing...

Post by Vega-J »

Also forgot to add a few things that I've started doing since taking on this prepping. I'm learning ways to cook, travel and keep entertained without mains electricity. All simple stuff really but it's fun right now and could be vital later on.
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diamond lil
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Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2010 1:42 pm
Location: Scotland.

Re: How are you preparing...

Post by diamond lil »

Vega-J wrote: Tue Jul 05, 2022 4:34 pm Also forgot to add a few things that I've started doing since taking on this prepping. I'm learning ways to cook, travel and keep entertained without mains electricity. All simple stuff really but it's fun right now and could be vital later on.
This stuff is very important and sometimes fun.
Yorkshire Andy
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Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:06 pm

Re: How are you preparing...

Post by Yorkshire Andy »

diamond lil wrote: Tue Jul 05, 2022 4:39 pm

This stuff is very important and sometimes fun.

Have you tried playing Monopoly with my kids "fun" is one way to put it :lol:

And well pie face causes full on melt downs (and that was the MIL as I didn't give her a chance :twisted: )
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong ;)

Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
jansman
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Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: How are you preparing...

Post by jansman »

Currently continuing my plan on Local Living. The way I see it, we are rapidly moving towards a very limited lifestyle. I am on the verge of semi retirement. Mainly because I have had a gut full of work, and also because I strongly suspect we are all going to have to live on less. I don’t expect private pensions to prosper in the coming crash either , so some kind of earnings will be needed, although I am no expert. Mind you, financial parasites, sorry, advisers, don’t have a crystal ball either!

My neighbour is the local Church Warden. He looks after the woodland at the side of the church. The wood needs a bit of management. They have asked me if I would like to remove suitable dead wood and trees in order to keep it in order. Of course, I agreed! On top of which, it’s over the road and I can get in easily with the barrow. There is enough in there for the rest of my life. And I have the key to the gates!

I have started fishing locally too. Where I did when I was a boy, and had no transportation. It’s been fun, and I’ve had some good sport. IF we needed food from the river, then today we would be eating well! ;) Had I my catapult or an air rifle too, then there was a LOT of game.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
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diamond lil
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Location: Scotland.

Re: How are you preparing...

Post by diamond lil »

Works pensions aren't worth it for some people. Husband has a good council pension and all it does is lift us above the level where we get any help for anything, from dentists to opticians to CT and rent.
If you're on a basic state pension then you can get Pension Credit which is a really good help.