Buy the food you normally eat, buy extra, rotate stock.
Ok Hammer, you have my attention. Would you take a minute and write about seed stock. My uneducated interpretation of any seeds bought for my garden are hybrid and because they are hybrid will not germinate. And I'm not even touching the conversation about the agricultural seed program.
Lotsa ways to do it. I do a few of them for hobby, prepping, economy, etc.
I think Dave Canterbury's frequent quote of "live food doesn't spoil," is an interesting one.
Ok Hammer, you have my attention. Would you take a minute and write about seed stock. My uneducated interpretation of any seeds bought for my garden are hybrid and because they are hybrid will not germinate. And I'm not even touching the conversation about the agricultural seed program.
That seeds from hybrids won't germinate is one of the biggest myths on the interwebs. People want to believe that the seeds from the fruits of hybrids are somehow inert, but that's usually not true.
Seeds you save from hybrid crops will germinate, but the results are unpredictable due to the plant carrying traits from two or more non-hybrid varieties. You may get the same thing or you may get a mix of plants that in varying degrees resemble the parent stock. That includes the amount fruit that is produced (or not). Eventually, if you keep doing it for multiple generations and segregating seeds based on traits of the plant that produced them Gregor Mendel-style, you'll get something that will consistently produce the same thing.
The advantage of legacy varieties is the predictability over generations. You also can't guarantee that 100% for several reasons, but in general they will be more consistent from the early generations onward.
I've been under the impression that all green beans must be pressure canned. This is the way I've always done it, without meat. I do a cold pack, pour boiling water over and place in the pressure cooker.
The issue with that is two fold...
1. There has to be something living you can consume,
2. You have to find, catch, kill, dress & cook said 'Live Food', otherwise it's just wildlife.
Consider this,
At any given time there are 370 million people in the US.
30% of that population is armed, that's about 111 million people thinking the same way you are.
The 'Game' & livestock won't last long, just like it didn't last long during the great depression when there were only 123 million in the country.
I'm old enough to remember when there weren't any deer or turkey season in Indiana because the populations were just rebounding from extinction during the 1930s...
A with nearly as many firearm owners in the US now as there was entire population in the 1930s, exactly how long before the game is gone?
Oh, I agree wholeheartedly about the problems with the niave "I'll hunt to eat when SHTF," mentality. I'm not talking about that.
Canterbury was talking more along the lines of "live" food being live as in a variety of growing plants and contained creatures like cattle, chickens, goats, fish, etc.
More along the lines of surrounding your house with edible plants rather than decorative flowers and bushes. The same could be said for wrapping your head around the idea of your "pets" being considered walking food, in case they ever have to be.
The garlic, onions, tomatoes, peppers and horseradish you grow in the flower bed could well be an excellent seasoning or side for Fido stew. Fido, who also requires your edible food in SHTF.
Too many would rather starve, and I know a few that would, than to eat their pet.
Yes, they will starve along with all the rest of those unprepared. Then the rest of us will survive, eating the pet that they "just couldn't."