The How and Why of Self Reliance

It’s officially started—found the first ripe berries today! I’m pretty excited!  One of my favorite aspects of self reliance is wildcrafting food, particularly food I can put by, and the plethora of wild blackberries and feral apple trees in this neck of the woods are at the top of my list.  I am practically surrounded [...]

Many years ago I ran across directions for making a “ginger beer plant” in a delightful sort of coffee table book full of oddments entitled “How to Hold a Crocodile”.  I followed the directions and they worked well—but while we had run across a way to be self reliant for our occasional yen for soda [...]

Most of us could eat better (and more cheaply!) than we do, even on a tight schedule.  It just takes a little thinking ahead to increase your food self reliance in that step past growing your own.  Some of it is bulk cooking a head, some of it is just planning.  All of it helps [...]

There’s an old dietary adage that says that one should strive to eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and supper like a pauper.  While that may be the best approach for the sake of digestion, it seems that most of us eat the heaviest meal of the day in the evening.  Part [...]

Mmmm, falafel!  I don’t always have a tub of these tasty lumps of goodness in my fridge, but when I don’t I sure wish I did!  Falafel are a traditional Mediterranean simple good food that have been around for a very long time.  They are often served inside pita, or as an appetizer on or [...]

Rice patties are a very great deal more a concept than a recipe at my house.  The basic concept is to take cold rice, mix it with raw eggs and fry it.  The tasty part is all the little bits of this and that added to the mixture before and during cooking! Basic rice patties, [...]