you can, now would you?

We don't peal our potatoes or apples, we eat the broccoli stems in broccoli soup.

I've already been working on training the grandkids to eat the heals of the bread. I told them they are like a hamburger bun, now they fight over which one gets the bun and it's so sad that each loaf only has 1 pair of "buns", LOL.

What do you mean 99% of what was tossed from inside the bird? Are you talking about the gizzard, heart, liver? Those get chopped and put in the stuffing. The ones from chickens get saved in the freezer until there are enough to make a meal.

Who lets veggie water go down the drain? That's where most of the vitamins end up, why would anyone throw it out? It gets used for soup stock in my house. I don't have much veggie water since I steam the veggies or eat them raw instead of boiling them.

Eating grubs? I prep so hopefully that choice will never have to be made. With lots of seeds, lots of animals to butcher or get milk & eggs from, and fruit trees, I hope we will be able to eat normal forever. But if it came down to nothing but forage foods, grubs would get lost in a gumbo and after watching everyone else eat it, I would probably eat it too. Enough spices would probably make just about anything taste good.

I'm so frugal that my kids make fun of me for using up everything. They think I'm being cruel to the animals cause they rarely get any leftovers, other than bones, tossed out to them. I can only use so many bones, then the dogs start getting them.

I use corn husks to make bread. One of the Indian bread recipes I have is to wrap the dough in a husk, then cook it in boiling water. It sounds bad, but tastes very good.

With a large family, not much goes to waste at our house either. The chickens and rabbits get any bread that get moldy, or a crust that wasn't eaten. And the insides of green peppers, apple cores or any bad veggies from the garden.

I don't peel anything we eat (except oranges), and we eat the stems on broccoli in "cream of" soup. I wouldn't hesitate to eat almost any animal or part of an animal. I'd have to be very hungry to eat grubs or worms....but like Alan said, with the planning we've done hopefully it never comes to that. In times of starvation, I'd eat anything....

But I get angry, like the OP, when someone comes to my house and lets their kids pile their plates high with food. They leave 75% of it on the plate, and I have to grit my teeth not to say anything. My kids have been taught to only take what they will eat, because I'll make sure that they eat it :flame:

We have one daughter who's kind of picky, but she'd either eat what I had to cook post SHTF or go hungry.

Most people in the world eat what the are accustomed to within their society and culture, though I grant that such "accepted" food items will vary from area to area. Some people would starve rather than eat items that within their experience are "animal" foods such as corn or unprocessed oats. Thought they may be intelligent enough to understand that something could be eaten, they may not make the connection on how to prepare it for their consumption.

When I was in Spain, for example, I ate squid, octopus, fresh water eel, a congealed sheep blood product, horse flesh, stuffed beef tongue, a dish called "callos" that I think was something akin to a soup like concoction of what appeared to be cooked gristle, connective tissue, and other "other animal products" that might still be edible but not technically recognized as a food item by Americans, but is worth saving to eat in Spain.

I saw pig heads, feet and tails, and chickens that were less than perfectly plucked, field dressed but still with head and feet attached sold in markets and butcher shops. Those things, at first, startled and unnerved me. I became accustomed to such things after a short time and now, after doing hunting and helping others with animal processing it doesn't cross my mind other than a matter of sharing knowledge.

Most people I meet, when I tell them such things, make a face and wince if not look slightly ill. I would not even mention eating worms or insects to those people. They are already unsettled.

What some overlook is the fact that there are chipmunks, squirrels, skunks, raccoons, opossums, foxes, coyotes, snakes, frogs, turtles, moles, voles and various smaller birds that could be eaten if needed. As for vegetation and fungi based foodstuffs, there are so many that I cannot mention them. Suffice it to say that there is plenty of undomesticated items that can be eaten that resorting to insects and worms would be very low on my list.

No food of any kind is ever wasted in my house as I've got chickens or working dogs (not pets) who will eat any scraps that we do not.

But if food were to get really tight we'd be a lot more particular about the scraps that go to the animals in favor of eating them ourselves. I did peel the sweet potatoes and the turnips yesterday but left the white potato skins on. The finished dish would not have been as attractive but I could have left them on.

What we're talking about here is attitude. If the change comes on slowly enough nearly everyone will be able to change their attitude to adapt to changing circumstances. We may not be happy about having to do so, but most of us would be able to do it. It's when the change comes suddenly that real problems are going to come to the fore for some folks. Most will still be able to make the change but some won't be able to cope to one degree or another. They'll quit eating altogether or fail to eat enough to properly nourish themselves then fall prey to the ills that malnutrition brings.

This is one of the things that personal prepping does. It buys us time. Time to find other resources, time to pack up and go elsewhere if we just gotta, and very importantly time to adapt.

.....Alan.

hmmm - we are pretty careful with food. The only thing that ever gets thrown away is chicken bones. Fat from roasts gets saved for cooking, fat from other things that isn't so tasty (like sausages) gets put straight onto the dog's dry food. Brocolli stalks get used, all the veg peelings go into the chicken pan to be cooked up for a hot mash. Bread there is never any for the animals - any leftovers either get saved and dried for breadcrumbs, or made into bread pudding if there is enough. Potatoes - I do peel them usually, peels go to the chickens, and as the winter progresses, I cut out any eyes for seed. Roast bones go into the stock pot first, THEN to the dog.

If things were really hard, I would make stock from the veg peelings first, then give them to the chicks. And the fat that rises on a stew pot, can be used to make rush lights (if things were really dire)

I think the hardest part for most people initially would be the importance of fat. Fat has become a dirty word in today's society, so people always waste it. But it is such an essential. A couple of years ago, I did a week of living on wartime rations - the major problem was fat. We had plenty of potatoes, flour etc, but without fat it was hard to make them palatable. Not to mention the dietary necessity of enough fat.

I had a surprise the other day - we butchered some rabbits, and while I was on the phone to BF, he said to his mum that we had just been putting the buns in the freezer. His MUM (who lived through the last war) said "I don't want to know - I don't believe in killing things to eat them". Luckily I was on the phone, not there in person, as I nearly choked on that last statement LOL

I think people would learn pretty quickly not to waste things, I think the not being able to pop to the shops and buy convenience would be more of a lesson. Even in the last war, they had to run cookery courses to teach people how to use what they could get - and that was THEN.

My BF (who's 45) can just about cook bacon and egg, and another friend of mine had a husband who did ALL of the cooking. When he died suddenly, she quite literally didn't know how to boil and egg or cook pasta. THOSE people I see having huge problems.

hoggie

bee said:

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You can eat the sweet potato skins,the white potato peelings, the broccoli tough stems, the apple peels, that little curl on the end of the green beans, the ham fat and gristle, the heel from the loaf of bread, that cracker that was dropped to the floor and 99% of what was tossed from inside that bird when it was dressed(after proper cleaning)....now would you?

Click to expand...

I have and would most of those things, except the cracker, I'm just not as quick as the dogs. Gristle, yuck, but if it meant survival I would, otherwise a dog gets it.
I grew up in a large family, we didn't believe in wasting. The turkey along with all the sides were saved for leftovers. My mom wouldn't have to cook for at least a few days that way.
This year we didn't go anywhere for thanksgiving, we usually visit relatives, but, my dad is just recently out of the hospital, so wasn't up for too much company. We don't eat turkey, and my son doesn't like ham. I told the kids to each think of a dish they would like to make to contribute to the thanksgiving dinner with my help if needed. We ended up with lasagna(my son cooked)all homemade, even the pasta, but not the sausage, cream corn(canned) and mashed potatoes(daughter cooked not instant), and I made some pies and cookies. With just the three of us, we don't tend to make big meals, and don't like waste.
It sure was a nice day, and I was able to get a few truckloads of firewood cut besides. Today I'll probably cut 3 truckloads.