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Resilience Club: Reduce Your Food Costs
May. 4th, 2022 10:13 pmWith food prices rapidly rising, I thought now would be a good time to take a deeper look at reducing food expenses. I covered quite a lot about eating cheaply in my post on stocking up, so in this post I will mostly be focusing on “advanced techniques” rather than the rice-and-beans basics. There are two general approaches with which I have had success in reducing food expenses to the bare minimum: harvesting the surplus from the industrial waste stream, and producing your food yourself. While these approaches can be complementary, usually people will find that they are more suited geographically or temperamentally for one or the other; it is much easier to pull from the industrial waste stream in urban areas, and easier to engage in serious food production in rural areas. Finally, there are a variety of preservation techniques that are useful for making the most of both approaches.
Harvest the surplus from the industrial waste stream
Dumpster diving: This may be a bridge too far for some folks, but I am personally rather satisfied when I can rescue good food from dumpsters. This works best in bigger cities where your boss or your kids’ school teacher isn’t going to see you. My husband once scored hundreds of bars of organic chocolate from the Theo factory in Seattle, and it is trivially easy to load up on pizzas and baked goods in many places. The real challenge is maintaining a healthy diet under these circumstances! You can get fruits and vegetables from outside grocery stores, but often the experience is a bit…gooey. You can also just ask grocery stores, or an acquaintance who works at one, to give you their expired food, and sometimes they will.
Food Not Bombs: If your city has a Food Not Bombs chapter, they will usually provide prepared food that is saved from from the waste stream (some chapters dumpster dive, some receive donations of food that’s about to expire, and some use purchased staples such as beans/lentils) to anyone who is interested. The food is usually vegan, and the vibe is usually one of sharing with all regardless of situation/income, but isn’t limited to people “in need.” Many chapters do potluck-style meals, and most need volunteers (who are, of course, welcome to share meals). There’s definitely a certain politics involved, but you don’t have to share their politics to share their food.
Food banks: I don’t personally patronize food banks because I don’t want to take advantage, but I have heard from more than one farmer and gardener that the food they’ve donated to their local food bank is actually often thrown away because people don’t want it or don’t know how to cook it or see it as “poor people food” and reject it (sweet potatoes and collard greens, for instance). Because this fresh food doesn’t have a long shelf life, it simply gets thrown away, so you might check with your local food bank to see if anything is going to waste that they would be willing to give you. This could also be a good source of food for livestock such as chickens or hogs (or even pet dogs), or for composting.
Gleaning: Gleaning is another good option, especially if you are near agricultural areas. A couple years ago, a friend of mine was working at an organic peach farm, and brokered a deal with her boss for us to come pick the last peaches off their trees after they were done harvesting. We hauled off truckloads of peaches. There were plenty of buggy and split pit peaches, as well as underripe ones, but they made amazing jam and pies. I canned over a hundred gallons of jam that summer. The orchard owners benefited with fewer bug and disease problems from rotting peaches lying around, and since we were thorough and respectful of the trees (no breaking branches, etc.) we got a standing invitation. Many farmers and even just regular people with fruit trees in their yards are happy for you to come clean if you are personable and respectable.
Assistance programs: I wouldn’t recommend relying on government assistance programs for your necessities if your goal is resilience, but if you are genuinely struggling (or if your political praxis involves stealing back some of your money from the government whenever possible), assistance programs such as SNAP or WIC (or the equivalent in your country) may be an option. I’ve occasionally been surprised by who can qualify for these. I’ve also noticed more and more farmers’ markets accepting SNAP. I’ve never gone this route myself, so I can’t give detailed advice, but it may be worth looking into depending on your circumstances.
Miscellaneous: I know people who have grazed on free samples in grocery stores (I used to have a thing for the rosemary bread at Central Market when I was in college) and attended church breakfasts, Chamber of Commerce “lunch and learns,” campus and community events, store grand openings, and even funerals and wakes in search of free food. If you go this route, I wish you good judgement and Godspeed!
Produce your food yourself
This is mostly what my husband and I do these days. There’s a definite learning curve and startup costs will expand to fill the pocketbook allotted to them, so be prepared to rein yourself in.
Gardening: This is a pretty obvious one. I strongly recommend organic gardening over conventional. For keeping yourself fed, corn, dry beans, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and sunchokes are all winners in my book, depending on your climate and tastes. For nutrition, taste, and fun, of course, the vegetable varieties are endless. Carol Deppe has some good books on gardening in hard times and saving seeds. John Jeavons is the author to look for if you have extremely limited space and want to grow as much food as possible. Orcharding takes longer to pay off, but is worth it if you have the space (even an urban or suburban lot). I am partial to permaculture and took a PDC in 2019, but the payoff is much slower than an intensive organic main crop garden; however, for increasing the resilience of your land base, I think it’s hard to beat. For seeds, I really like Experimental Farm Network and Southern Exposure if you’re in the US South or equivalent climate. I’ve also noticed that some of my favorite hand tools are starting to be difficult to acquire due to materials shortages, so now might be a good time to stock up if you have some extra cash. Composting, including vermicomposting and humanure composting (see The Humanure Handbook by Joe Jenkins), are useful skills for the gardener.
Foraging: I also think it’s very worthwhile to learn about you local flora and begin gathering some wild edibles. Of course, exercise proper caution and beware of harvesting from toxic areas such as roadsides. Foraging is surprisingly effective in cities; it’s pretty common to find nut trees or berry bushes or cattails, for instance, in parks and along urban trails, and virtually everywhere outside the poles has enough edible weeds growing wild to provide a tasty salad. You probably won’t meet the majority of your caloric needs this way (with the exception of the aforementioned nut trees), but many of these plants are highly nutritious, tasty, and beautiful, and it helps you get to know your local area. It is a good idea to look into responsible foraging practices and not to take too much of any plant, especially rare or slow-growing ones.
Hunting/fishing: Equipment costs can be high to start with, but in many states residents can get fairly inexpensive hunting and fishing licenses. A deer or an elk can fill a substantial part of your freezer, as can a weekend fishing trip once a month or so. It is easy for me to provide all the animal protein my family needs for the year with less than a full day’s active labor this way. Of course, it is necessary to hunt responsibly in order to avoid depleting populations, but in many areas prey animals such as deer are actually overpopulated. Look into lead-free ammunition, water pollution levels, chronic wasting disease, and other potential health concerns before taking an animal.
Raising livestock, aquaculture, and aquaponics: In addition to hunting, it is of course possible to raise meat and fish. Meat rabbits and aquaponics systems can exist in very small spaces, although I dislike that meat rabbits mostly need to be kept in hutches (some people have had success keeping them in more natural colonies) and that aquaponics systems are quite reliant on inputs of energy and technology. I prefer cows on pasture, fish in ponds, and goats, pigs, and chickens in food forests. But you work with what you have.
Preservation techniques (useful for both strategies)
I recommend learning the following preservation techniques for dealing with seasonal gluts or big dumpster hauls, in rough order of increasing difficulty/increasing likelihood of making yourself ill by doing it wrong: freezing, fermentation, water bath canning, dehydration (probably easier if you live in an arid climate), pressure canning, smoking/salting/other meat curing techniques. I won’t dive too deeply here, but there are tomes written on all of these for those who are interested.
All right, that’s it, folks! See you next month!
Harvest the surplus from the industrial waste stream
Dumpster diving: This may be a bridge too far for some folks, but I am personally rather satisfied when I can rescue good food from dumpsters. This works best in bigger cities where your boss or your kids’ school teacher isn’t going to see you. My husband once scored hundreds of bars of organic chocolate from the Theo factory in Seattle, and it is trivially easy to load up on pizzas and baked goods in many places. The real challenge is maintaining a healthy diet under these circumstances! You can get fruits and vegetables from outside grocery stores, but often the experience is a bit…gooey. You can also just ask grocery stores, or an acquaintance who works at one, to give you their expired food, and sometimes they will.
Food Not Bombs: If your city has a Food Not Bombs chapter, they will usually provide prepared food that is saved from from the waste stream (some chapters dumpster dive, some receive donations of food that’s about to expire, and some use purchased staples such as beans/lentils) to anyone who is interested. The food is usually vegan, and the vibe is usually one of sharing with all regardless of situation/income, but isn’t limited to people “in need.” Many chapters do potluck-style meals, and most need volunteers (who are, of course, welcome to share meals). There’s definitely a certain politics involved, but you don’t have to share their politics to share their food.
Food banks: I don’t personally patronize food banks because I don’t want to take advantage, but I have heard from more than one farmer and gardener that the food they’ve donated to their local food bank is actually often thrown away because people don’t want it or don’t know how to cook it or see it as “poor people food” and reject it (sweet potatoes and collard greens, for instance). Because this fresh food doesn’t have a long shelf life, it simply gets thrown away, so you might check with your local food bank to see if anything is going to waste that they would be willing to give you. This could also be a good source of food for livestock such as chickens or hogs (or even pet dogs), or for composting.
Gleaning: Gleaning is another good option, especially if you are near agricultural areas. A couple years ago, a friend of mine was working at an organic peach farm, and brokered a deal with her boss for us to come pick the last peaches off their trees after they were done harvesting. We hauled off truckloads of peaches. There were plenty of buggy and split pit peaches, as well as underripe ones, but they made amazing jam and pies. I canned over a hundred gallons of jam that summer. The orchard owners benefited with fewer bug and disease problems from rotting peaches lying around, and since we were thorough and respectful of the trees (no breaking branches, etc.) we got a standing invitation. Many farmers and even just regular people with fruit trees in their yards are happy for you to come clean if you are personable and respectable.
Assistance programs: I wouldn’t recommend relying on government assistance programs for your necessities if your goal is resilience, but if you are genuinely struggling (or if your political praxis involves stealing back some of your money from the government whenever possible), assistance programs such as SNAP or WIC (or the equivalent in your country) may be an option. I’ve occasionally been surprised by who can qualify for these. I’ve also noticed more and more farmers’ markets accepting SNAP. I’ve never gone this route myself, so I can’t give detailed advice, but it may be worth looking into depending on your circumstances.
Miscellaneous: I know people who have grazed on free samples in grocery stores (I used to have a thing for the rosemary bread at Central Market when I was in college) and attended church breakfasts, Chamber of Commerce “lunch and learns,” campus and community events, store grand openings, and even funerals and wakes in search of free food. If you go this route, I wish you good judgement and Godspeed!
Produce your food yourself
This is mostly what my husband and I do these days. There’s a definite learning curve and startup costs will expand to fill the pocketbook allotted to them, so be prepared to rein yourself in.
Gardening: This is a pretty obvious one. I strongly recommend organic gardening over conventional. For keeping yourself fed, corn, dry beans, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and sunchokes are all winners in my book, depending on your climate and tastes. For nutrition, taste, and fun, of course, the vegetable varieties are endless. Carol Deppe has some good books on gardening in hard times and saving seeds. John Jeavons is the author to look for if you have extremely limited space and want to grow as much food as possible. Orcharding takes longer to pay off, but is worth it if you have the space (even an urban or suburban lot). I am partial to permaculture and took a PDC in 2019, but the payoff is much slower than an intensive organic main crop garden; however, for increasing the resilience of your land base, I think it’s hard to beat. For seeds, I really like Experimental Farm Network and Southern Exposure if you’re in the US South or equivalent climate. I’ve also noticed that some of my favorite hand tools are starting to be difficult to acquire due to materials shortages, so now might be a good time to stock up if you have some extra cash. Composting, including vermicomposting and humanure composting (see The Humanure Handbook by Joe Jenkins), are useful skills for the gardener.
Foraging: I also think it’s very worthwhile to learn about you local flora and begin gathering some wild edibles. Of course, exercise proper caution and beware of harvesting from toxic areas such as roadsides. Foraging is surprisingly effective in cities; it’s pretty common to find nut trees or berry bushes or cattails, for instance, in parks and along urban trails, and virtually everywhere outside the poles has enough edible weeds growing wild to provide a tasty salad. You probably won’t meet the majority of your caloric needs this way (with the exception of the aforementioned nut trees), but many of these plants are highly nutritious, tasty, and beautiful, and it helps you get to know your local area. It is a good idea to look into responsible foraging practices and not to take too much of any plant, especially rare or slow-growing ones.
Hunting/fishing: Equipment costs can be high to start with, but in many states residents can get fairly inexpensive hunting and fishing licenses. A deer or an elk can fill a substantial part of your freezer, as can a weekend fishing trip once a month or so. It is easy for me to provide all the animal protein my family needs for the year with less than a full day’s active labor this way. Of course, it is necessary to hunt responsibly in order to avoid depleting populations, but in many areas prey animals such as deer are actually overpopulated. Look into lead-free ammunition, water pollution levels, chronic wasting disease, and other potential health concerns before taking an animal.
Raising livestock, aquaculture, and aquaponics: In addition to hunting, it is of course possible to raise meat and fish. Meat rabbits and aquaponics systems can exist in very small spaces, although I dislike that meat rabbits mostly need to be kept in hutches (some people have had success keeping them in more natural colonies) and that aquaponics systems are quite reliant on inputs of energy and technology. I prefer cows on pasture, fish in ponds, and goats, pigs, and chickens in food forests. But you work with what you have.
Preservation techniques (useful for both strategies)
I recommend learning the following preservation techniques for dealing with seasonal gluts or big dumpster hauls, in rough order of increasing difficulty/increasing likelihood of making yourself ill by doing it wrong: freezing, fermentation, water bath canning, dehydration (probably easier if you live in an arid climate), pressure canning, smoking/salting/other meat curing techniques. I won’t dive too deeply here, but there are tomes written on all of these for those who are interested.
All right, that’s it, folks! See you next month!
