Food Self-Sufficiency: Reality Check

This book began as a prospective magazine article.  After submitting it I was told they liked the article but they sent it back to me and asked me to expand on it and to include sources for things like where to buy canning jars.  I had recently published a handful of books, mainly prepper fiction, and I got to thinking....why not expand the article into a booklet.  My "booklet" ended up being 68 pages, which seemed respectable enough to be published. 

I wrote this book because in the world of preppers and prepper forums and prepper magazines and prepper books, there was this mentality that a person could just go along in life and that if the "SHTF" there was an easy way out:  Just plant a garden and maybe get a few hens for eggs". 

Anyone who has started a garden from raw land knows there is a lot more involved than just turning the dirt over and poking some seeds in it.  But these dreamer-type preppers couldn't be convinced that there was much to it at all. After all, everyone used to have a garden, it can't be that complicated. 

Never mind that it takes months for those seeds to produce a harvest!  And never mind that if you get a BIG harvest you need a way to preserve it.  And if the "SHTF" you're going to want a BIG harvest!  So I'd ask "how are you going to preserve it?"  Most would say "I'd can it".  Then I'd ask how many jars they had.  Most would say "a few dozen", some said "none yet", and some didn't even have a canner.  They said it shouldn't be hard to borrow one.  But they might be surprised, and I know that if the SHTF they aren't likely to find anyone willing to give them jars.  Plus there's canning lids to think about!

Same with "get a few hens".  How are they going to feed them if the SHTF?  I know they're picturing these happy little hens free-ranging around their yard, happily going back to the coop to lay a pretty little egg, then back out for more foraging.  There's always table scraps that can be thrown to them, since chickens are good garbage disposals!  But!

What happens when winter comes and there's nothing to forage for?  Funny how most people never had an answer for that.  They just got vague.  And it's really important to know this stuff when planning to move to the country, or to put in a garden or get chickens or other animals.  My book isn't all about gloom and doom, it's real life information that should be a "must have" on everyone's homestead or prepper book shelf. 

I have to admit I didn't have a very good attitude when I started writing this book.  I was about at my limit with "fairy-tale preppers", and I had to tame it down a bit when it came time to edit the book.  I had hoped to reach people with some numbers based on reality so at least they knew what they were getting in to.  It's great when someone wants to become more self-sufficient, but blocking out reality is not going to do them any favors down the road.

The cover photo was taken in my garden.  That's a decorative windmill from Harbor Freight, and the pine trees outside our garden fence, at dusk.

 

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Food Self-Sufficiency: Reality Check