I had never even thought about food independence before 2020. I am sure most of you were just living your life, focusing on your job, kids, passions etc. just like I was. We were all just taking care of our families and doing life.
Things changed for me when I noticed signs in the stores listing the items I could only buy a limited amount of (I am clutching a roll of toilet paper right now just thinking about it!) or even worse the shelves being completely bare. One time I was checking out with two packs of chicken and I was told I couldn’t buy that many. We have a family of six people so one pack wasn’t enough. Needless to say, I was uncomfortable and fear started creeping in.
I decided then that I was going to learn how to grow food.
Food independence can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In a nutshell it means having the ability to provide food for oneself and your community. Here are the first steps of food independence to consider:
- Growing vegetables in a garden
- Saving seeds
- Raising animals for meat
- Locally sourcing food you cannot grow or raise
Why is food independence important? The obvious reason is that you are taking control of some of the production so that builds resilience and also makes you less dependent. It also keeps money in your local community which really supports hardworking local farmers. It also helps the environment because sustainable organic farming builds up the soil and thus helps the environment.
I also think that it challenges us to eat seasonally which is truly fascinating to me. I will explore that more in future posts but when you grow your own food, you really understand what grows during certain times of the year and I believe eating that way is more nourishing.
This all seemed completely unattainable to me. I was honestly feeling really confused about a lot of the things I was learning about starting a garden. I promise you that you can find at least some food independence!
We can walk this road together.
Great article! Can wait to hear your ideas on fertilizing and mulching!
Me either! It’s funny how we get excited about subjects like this.
Lots of great info and encouragement for beginners (like me)!
Thank you! I’m just getting started. I could talk about this all day.
I had that same internal struggle at the store in 2020 when they were limiting what I could buy. I’m ready to join your movement!
Woohoo! We can learn together!
My husband has been about this for a long time now. He harvested his seeds, stored food and has wanted to get into canning for awhile now. He is glad to see that my friends are getting on board, because maybe I’ll get on board with it! I do believe that you should have a well-stocked pantry! But it’s what to stick it with. We did end up losing food because we lost track of what we had.
How do you store your food? How do you keep pests out? How do you keep track of what you have?
This is a very good blog. I’m excited to learn more through you!
I totally get the losing track of what you bought! I just posted yesterday with some tips to prepare for a food shortage. Did you see that? I think having a plan is key and purchasing with meals in mind. We don’t have a basement so we use two pantries right now. A friend of mine just said “if you aren’t using under your bed to store food, you aren’t storing food!” which I thought was awesome. I am hoping to learn more about canning and medicinal herbs too. Thank you for coming along this journey!