I grew up on a family farm raised by parents who were married during The Depression. My Dad farmed with a team of Morgan Horses on rented land, they lived in an "improved" log cabin, and they raised or grew everything they ate. During the Depression my Dad bought a rifle and a brick of ammunition, in part to hunt, and in part to defend the homestead because they did not know how bad things would get and he was concerned that people would be starving and come to take what they had from the farm. All my aunts and uncles came up in similar circumstances.
The horses were gone, and we had a tractor by the time I came along but these were meager beginnings.
We had no running water and an outhouse until I was in grade school. There was a hand pump in the back yard, plus a major convenience of a hand pump in the kitchen sink. Later when we had indoor plumbing, learning to do your business inside the house took some getting used to.
We had a smokehouse and under the smokehouse was a root cellar. My Mom canned hundreds of jars of vegetables every year that went into the root cellar, along with the potatoes and onions and smoked hams. When we built a new house years later, she insisted it have a root cellar so she could continue preserving food.
A freezer was a great luxury. Before we had a freezer, a rented freezer locker in town did the job. We butchered our own hogs and steers and chickens until I was in my early teens. My Dad taught me to hunt when I was old enough, so the menu was supplemented with rabbits and squirrels.
We went to the farm store and bought 100 chicks every spring. When the roosters became apparent, they were segregated until they were big enough to go into the freezer. The hens that failed to lay eggs followed the roosters into the freezer. My first job that I can remember on the farm was at about age 5 or 6, holding the chickens by the legs on the block while my Mom chopped their heads off with an axe. Imagine how the snowflakes would react to that nowadays. We had fried chicken for Sunday dinner every Sunday as long as I can remember.
For many years my Mom had an egg route in town, and that's how she got her cash for shopping for essentials at the grocery store and Woolworths and Sears.
My Dad was proud of the large garden he grew every year which provided fresh vegetables every day in summer and lots of beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, and etc. for preserving and canning. His apple trees provided the best apples I ever ate. He worked the farm until he was 74.
Over the years we began relying more on the grocery stores for canned goods and fresh meat and produce, and I could see the old ways of self reliance going by the wayside. My Dad's garden grew up in weeds when he died at 82, and many of the old ways of America died with him and his contemporaries.
Today Mrs Greener goes to the grocery at least once or twice per week. I don't even grow a garden anymore although I have space to do so. I know there are people who still live by the old ways, plus there are plenty books and now videos on how to. But the vast majority of the population have no idea of where their food comes from, or what it takes to survive on the land.
If the economy, and food supplies were to collapse, most would be in shock and unable to get by. We find it hard to imagine it coming to this in America, but we are witnessing things occurring over the past two years that we would have thought impossible just a few short years ago. I can imagine a scenario where there are millions of acres of food in agricultural areas, but no way to get it processed or distributed. This has brought me to consider stocking some long term preserved food supplies. My grandchildren will probably wonder what all that crap is when going through my stuff for the estate sale, but maybe it's worth the peace of mind.
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