Tags
body, budget meals, conversation, emergency food, emergency-preparedness, Food, innovative, pantry, safety, survival, sustainability, sustainable living, Vegetables
As the global cost of living continues to bite, many of us find it increasingly important to have a supply of ingredients in our store cupboards that we can fall back on in case of any crisis, personal or more widespread, that may affect our ability to nourish and sustain ourselves and our loved ones (including our animals).
What would we do, for example, were there to be a sudden water contamination and our mains supply was unsuitable to drink? Are we concerned about the fluoridation of our water supply and its link to cognitive decline? What would we do were the water authority to turn off the supply in order to undertake essential mains works? This particular situation arose in our area in December last year and again in early 2023. When water is essential to our existence, I believe that having supplies of bottled water for everyday use and for emergencies is vitally important, as is maintaining a water butt or any other container outside to collect rainwater, if space allows.
If someone is suddenly coming to dinner and you don’t have an opportunity to hurry to the shops, or there is a more widespread supply problem for example, or the price of everything continues to escalate, how do you keep warm and put food on the table?
All these are questions we need to be thinking about and asking ourselves how we would deal with them and, indeed, anticipating them, not with the intention of inviting negativity to manifest itself but, in a more positive way, of being prepared for any eventuality and being in a position to provide for yourself and your household and loved ones, and perhaps being able to support your local community in some way, too, in the event of a crisis.
This is where budgeting, scratch cooking and emergency food prepping come into their own. There is a growing band of YouTubers such as myself focusing more on this area. As you may know, I have been sharing budget meals and self-sufficiency for a long while now, whether it be an inexpensive, wholesome lunch or supper, a 1940s-inspired recipe, or more recently fruit and vegetable gardening and the store cupboard. Here is one of my recent videos:-
Responding to the needs of my subscribers, I intend to focus more on budget meals and pantry prepping in the future as well as other areas of self-sustainability, such as gardening, foraging/free food, home-preserving, sprouting and fermenting, etc. One of my subscribers has asked me to feature more 1940s recipes as they feel that what we are all going through is akin to wartime living, as is the need to be ever more canny with what money we have, let alone put any aside for a rainy day which of course most of us aspire to.
Of course I will share some of my activities with you all, as well as my other content and trust that you might find it interesting and entertaining. However, if you don’t, no worries; it is a free world in my world!
I have started to participate in a couple of open collaborations with GrandmaSandy and others on YouTube, as well as seeking out other content creators who share my ideas and values and lifestyle choices. Grandma Sandy came across my @catevanscuisine channel some months ago and gave me a much-needed shout-out for which I am most grateful, and I am now paying it forward and giving a shout-out to a few of the wonderful YouTubers I subscribe to:-
https://www.youtube.com/@GrandmaSandy – Budget Meals, Pantry Prepping, Fairy Garden, Tea Tuesdays crafting and more
https://www.youtube.com/@Shortievaughn – “Crazy but not dangerous” (fab recipes and banter)
https://www.youtube.com/@thetomatolady – Grow Joyfully Homestead
https://www.youtube.com/@the.rural.tribeuk – rural living and veggie gardening
These are just a few of the wonderful people making a difference. Why not check them out?!
See you again soon and a big thanks to all my subscribers for your support.
Catherine
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