A Micro-History Lesson To Better Prepare for the Future
I'm not a doomsday prepper or anything, but I'd feel less anxiety about this coronavirus epidemic if I were confident my family was food-secure and self-sufficient. The initial food shortages we're seeing make me look back at other times in U.S. history when we've faced food scarcity and how we handled it. You know the old saying "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it." I like to look at similar situations in the past to help plan for the future.,, 
 
​During World War I (WWI), America’s troops and their allies in Europe were facing starvation- Most of their farmers had enlisted in the war, leaving their farms to languish or be turned into battlefields. To meet the need for food overseas, the U.S. urged its citizens to reduce their personal consumption of meat, wheat, fats and sugar. Slogans such as “Food will win the war” compelled people to avoid wasting precious groceries and to eat more fruits and vegetables, which couldn't  be transported overseas. Likewise, promotions such as “Meatless Tuesdays” and “Wheatless Wednesdays” implored Americans to modify their eating habits in order to increase shipments to the soldiers. The U.S. also urged them to keep hens & raise chickens. As a result, food shipments to Europe were doubled within a year, while consumption in America was reduced 15 percent. 

During World War II (WWII), it became apparent that voluntary conservation on the home front wasn't enough. The U.S. set price limits and issued food ration books in order to discourage hoarding and ensure equitable distribution. Americans couldn't purchase sugar, coffee, meats, cheese, fats, canned fish, canned milk and other processed foods without food ration stamps. 

It's reasonable to imagine if this pandemic continues to grow and our world spirals, food shortages could worsen and rationing may become necessary. I'd rather be prepared and start increasing my self-sufficiency now before that happens. There's no negative to growing your own fruits & vegetables and canning some of them. Start bee-keeping for the honey or collect sap from your maple trees to make maple syrup and trade for other goods with neighbors. Raise your own backyard chickens and be sure of eggs/meat. We should learn from the past to help us better prepare for a potentially significantly different future. Up until now, our "homesteading" lifestyle of self-sufficiency has been just a fun hobby... but it could quickly become a real necessity and the new normal.


*Source: History.com

With the coronavirus changing life so drastically, I've found that our homesteading ways have really helped with weathering this storm. My penchant for cooking foods from scratch and resourcefulness has become a lot more essential. I've made a list of the times I've felt fairly well prepared for self-isolation and reduced food security:

• No TP! My husband's been to the store ~5 times in the last week and hasn't found any toilet paper. We've still got about 10 rolls left from last month's Costco trip, but I'm not stressed about potentially running out soon at all because... I've got cloth wipes from our children's baby years! We used cloth diapers on our babies and cloth wipes soaked in water and 2-3 drops of tea tree oil. They'd go in the diaper pail and get washed on our washing machine's sanitary cycle. Toilet paper is totally a luxury and we'll manage without it (if we have to). 
• Paper Plates: We stopped using paper plates just a few months ago. We were starting to feel guilty about the quantity of paper plates we were putting into our landfills. Plus, they cost money that I wanted to trim from our grocery budget. So we simply stopped buying paper plates and switched to dinner plates only. Now that paper plates are all gone from the grocery aisles, it doesn't affect us at all!
• Paper Towels: At the same time a few months ago, we also tried to trim paper towels from our grocery budget. I bought a bunch of cloth napkins for meals and some white cotton washcloths for home/kitchen clean-up jobs. Once we had those, we stopped buying paper towels entirely. We went a few weeks without paper towels and found that we only missed them when it came to cleaning up dirty jobs like pet accidents. Long story short- we reduced our dependency on paper towels by about 90% and facing the current shortage isn't the big deal it once would've been.
• Shortage of food staples!
  • Ranch dressing: I went to put out a veggie snack tray for the kids and realized we were out of ranch dressing. I've made it from scratch before (though I'll admit, I don't always) so it was no big deal to make it from scratch. But oh no- we were out of sour cream too! So I found a different ranch recipe that calls for mayonnaise and buttermilk instead. But guess what, we had no buttermilk either! So I had to make my own buttermilk first! No problem- I've done that before too. I felt very resourceful and proud of myself when I put out my delicious veggie tray with homemade ranch.  
  • Hummus: The store was out of hummus (the other dip I like pairing with my veggie tray) so I made my hummus from scratch. For whatever reason, that's not one I've made before. So I looked up a recipe and gratefully had all the ingredients. It was the most delicious hummus I'd ever had. I will NEVER buy store-bought hummus again!
  • Quiche Pie Crust: I made broccoli quiche tonight, my mom has an amazing broccoli quiche recipe. Homemade pie crust is one of those staples that I've inexplicably avoided. I've always used Pilsbury's pre-made pie crust when I make this quiche recipe. But this week- it's gone from the shelves! So I reluctantly made my own pie crust from scratch... and it was delicious! I'm a total convert. As God is my witness, I'll never buy store bought again! 
  • Bread: I love making homemade bread! I often make sourdough bread using live yeast, homemade cornbread or my banana bread. When my husband came home saying the bread aisle was completely empty, I didn't panic, because I'm completely comfortable making my own.  
  • Flour: Everywhere is out of flour! Imagine my relief at being able to make my own flour. Because those bulk bins of wheat grain have scarcely been touched!  You can learn how to easily mill your own nutritious flour from wheat grains in this blog post here.
  • Cow milk: Another staple food that's hard to find these days is cow milk. After watching documentaries like Food, Inc., Supersize Me, and Forks over Knives, we wanted to significantly reduce our family's intake of meat and animal products.  A few months ago we starting making primarily vegetarian meals and slowly weaned the family from cow's milk moving to almond milk. I'm glad we made the switch, it's been an unexpected relief not to have to search for scarce cow's milk in today's grocery stores. And if almond milk starts becoming scarce- no problem! It's so easy to make it from scratch with just almonds and water (see blog here).
  • Meat: When we tried to go vegan, I subscribed to www.ForksMealPlanner.com for their vegan meal plans and recipes. We've found the recipes to be a bit hit or miss, but the happy result has been that we reduced our meat intake by somewhere around 50-75%. We weren't militant about it- we didn't go all vegan. But cutting back on meat a few months ago has made today's meat shortage no big deal. I've tried & made a bunch of new vegetarian/vegan dishes in the last few months and am completely comfortable living with much less meat-based meals. Phew!

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Homesteading Fails that I'm seriously regretting!

• Fruit & Vegetables: We moved into our new home a few months ago and haven't built our gardens yet. I'm hoping I can find some fruits & veggies that are sprouted and ready for transplant at a local nursery soon- because if things get worse and grocery stores continue getting more sparse, I want to be self-sufficient! That's a stresser for me right now. 
• Chickens: We used to have chickens- in fact I successfully petitioned our previous city of Allen, Texas to reverse their anti-chicken laws. We had 4-6 chickens at a time and plenty of eggs. I loved it! Unfortunately, the new house we bought is within an HOA that doesn't allow chickens- UGH! I'd seriously prefer to be as self-sustainable as we can, especially during this coronavirus pandemic when food supply is less reliable/guaranteed.

​Worried about food shortages and preparing for the new-normal? Learn from the past to prepare for the future! Read my newest blog post Food Shortages and Rationing.