Planning For the Future

Four months isn't really that long, in the larger scheme of life.  It's roughly equivalent to one semester of school, one season, or one trimester.  In other words, I expect the time to go both very quickly, and very slowly at the same time.  Four months is equal to 122 days this year, it's a leap year, which means I've got a few meals to plan for. 

Something I've noted as I've sat down to contemplate what to stock up on, is that we eat a lot of food.  I'm not a heavy eater, but I do manage to eat 5 times a day.  Of course there's breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but I also need snacks through the day.  If I don't pack a baggie of carrots, a piece of fruit, or a yogurt, I will end up buying something from the vending machine before the workday is out. 

Because I eat so much, I have almost no idea how to go about planning for the winter without making an elaborate 4 month meal plan.  I'm trying to make estimates based on what we've been eating over the past few months, but I haven't been fully successful.

In general we eat eggs with veggies, french toast, crepes, cereal, oatmeal, or yogurt for breakfast.

Snacks often include yogurt, fruit, nuts, baked goods, carrots, cheese and crackers, or chocolate.

Lunches are often leftovers for me or the occasional frozen entree.  I either make my husband something meaty that will last all week (like a meatloaf or stew) or he has bread with cheese, butter, or meat.  He's likely go to out for lunch at least once a week, if not more.

Dinner is frequently some sort of meat, some sort of vegetable, and some sort of grain.  I also make noodles with sauce sometimes, or semi-homemade pizza (homemade dough is one of the things I hope to accomplish throughout this experiment, but I'm still in the learning curve).  In winter we eat more soups along with bread or sandwiches.  We've cut way back on eating out, but we do still go out at least once a week for our weekly Stammtisch, and frequently we'll go out a few more times withing the month.  I have a weakness for pizza delivery, but as I've been making pizzas at home, that practice has already been waning for a while.

Desserts are somewhat infrequent, although my husband and I both have a sweet tooth.  Usually desserts are spontaneous and revolve around my desire to bake something.  Otherwise I cave in at the grocery store and buy something that looks delicious.  We haven't regularly gone to the bakery around the corner, probably because I've been doing a better job at cooking breakfasts and dinners (we're too full to need dessert).

I have no idea how people planned their meals before the age of refrigeration.  I'm pretty sure bread was baked all year round, and there must have been cheese and dried meats, but that couldn't have been everything.  I imagine there must have been stew and oatmeal and whatever game had been snared.  Potatoes, onions, and carrots would have stored well for the winter, but fresh eggs and milk would have been out of the question.  I'm not sure when canning became commonplace, but fermenting things has been an age old practice. Sauerkraut, Pickles, Sushi...all originally done with fermentation.


I suppose the easiest way to go about this would be to change our diet for the winter.  Realistically, however, I know I'm going to want what I consider a "normal meal" more often than not.  I've tried to live on bread and cheese before, and no matter how good the bread or the cheese, I want "real" food.

So here's my first list:

Canned
16 jars of tomato sauce
18 cans of soup
8 jars of fruit pie filling
16 jars of apple sauce
16 cans of meat
8 jars of tomato juice
8 jars of pickles
4 jars Ghee
4 jars of creamed corn
4 jars of sauerkraut
6 jars black beans

Frozen
4 dozen eggs (maybe more) for baking
4 whole chickens
16 pork chops
9 lbs ground meat (in 1 lb portions)
16 fish fillets
18 cups berries
4 cups broccoli
8 cups tomatoes
8 cups zucchini/squash mix
8 cups peas
8 cups green beans
8 cups cauliflower
8 cups corn
4 cups pumpkin puree
4 packages butter

Cellar
20 lbs potatoes
4 lbs onions
10 lbs carrots
2 lbs brussel sprouts
2 lbs garlic

Pantry
10 lbs rice
5 lbs sugar
20 lbs flour
3 jars maple syrup
3 jars honey
Huge can olive oil
Large jar of sunflower oil
Large jug of vinegar
Dried milk (for baking)
Salt/Pepper
Spices

Other staples:
ziplock bags
paper towels
aluminum foil
parchment paper/wax paper

I have no idea if I've thought of everything, or if this would be enough for 4 months, or if I'm going overboard...it's a work in progress.

A Different Kind of Journey

Once upon a time mankind roamed the earth in nomadic tribes. Hunter-gatherers had simple homes, hand-honed tools, and a miraculous propensity for survival through adaptation. That which was taken from the earth was generally returned to the earth with very little adaptation.

Of course nice things like refrigerators and cars and computers didn't exist, all of which now do, and which have permanently altered the natural substances of earth through chemical processes, as well as our lives. The benefit of these changes means that we live somewhat stable lives, detached from the primal need for the basics of life, except for nations with endemic poverty of course and that we have reached a point in life where we can create museums and theaters and universities.

I can't claim that our adaptation from survival to innovation is all bad, in fact I consider central air one of the wonders of the world. I can, however, point out that there is an opportunity cost for all choices. As we become more and more "advanced" we loose something too, and we drive our world closer and closer to the point of our own eviction.

I happen to like my comfortable life, and I have to believe that we are capable of creating a comfortable life that is less taxing on the environment. After all, people have prospered on earth without electricity for thousands of years. As we've become more dependent on modern infrastructure we've somewhat forgotten that we can live pretty well without many of the toys we've become accustomed to.

My task, over the next 8 months, is to return to a different way of thinking. No, I'm not going completely off the grid, I'm not starting my own biosphere or commune, and I'm not giving up coffee or sugar. I'm simply going to figure out how to store food through the winter.

Why?

Well, for a few reasons:

1) If it doesn't grow near me in winter it's taking energy to get whatever it is I'm buying from wherever it came from.
2) If it did grow near me in winter, either a) I could be growing it myself or b) it's benefiting from a hothouse, which uses energy.
3) I can get far closer to an understanding of the fragility of life if I stop relying on a system of food delivery that is poorly designed and likely to break.
4) I will come out of the experience more educated on the basics of preservation than I would have been otherwise and I will be able to pass along what I've learned.

I'm aware that I'll still have an energy footprint. I will be using a freezer, a stove for canning, an electric dehydrator, glass jars and freezer bags, all of which are fueled by, or made from oil. I'll also purchase some foods or other items from places far away. Some things may come as far away as from China. That distance will be available due to our use of oil. I will, of course, attempt to keep everything as low tech and local as possible, but I intend to make the most of the oil that I'm using.

I should also point out that I have no hope of actually succeeding in preserving myself through a whole season on my first attempt. Likewise there are some things that I will continue to buy throughout the experiment (my husband would likely shrivel and die without a supply of milk throughout the winter) and we tend to enjoy a few meals out a month. But the goal is educational in nature, and I hope that the next few months will help me better understand a simpler life.