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Post by braided-rug on Jan 1, 2006 22:33:50 GMT 10
Trying out a new homesteading word "survivalist". Here is one of my favorite sites, with an interesting story, even linking in black outs, and Laura Ingalls. www.newagrarian.com/essays/gourmet.html |
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Admin
Major Contributor
formerly ~cara~
Posts: 4,651
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Post by Admin on Jan 2, 2006 6:56:33 GMT 10
What a story. The entire writing made me smile. Thanks again br, another great link.
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Post by braided-rug on Jan 2, 2006 13:16:20 GMT 10
"A woman who lives and farms in New Hampshire wrote me once that "I like the whole New Agrarian concept, though I tend to think of myself more as a Gourmet Survivalist. When nuclear winter happens, where will I get my ****akes and organic soap? I guess I'll learn to do it all myself!" Maybe ****akes and organic soap would seem frivolous to hard-core homesteaders, and nuclear winter an exaggerated calamity to prepare for, but I like this idea of Gourmet Survivalism. It's the art of living well, no matter your century or your circumstances. Sometimes, as after the ice storm, it means literal survival — cooking food, finding water, staying warm — but without losing your sense of yourself as a civilized person with a culture and even a sense of flair. Other times it is about making do with less than you might like, by finding ways to turn a little into a lot: scrimping without sacrificing, you might say. My correspondent bakes peppermint brownies to sell at a farmers' market: simple, I'm sure, but hardly a sacrifice."
From the above link.
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Post by braided-rug on Jan 2, 2006 13:30:49 GMT 10
"There is a type of hardcore homesteader I've never quite understood, though I read their letters every month in magazines. These are the folks who think it virtuous to drink their milk reconstituted from powder — indeed vainglorious to drink it whole; who compete to see who can take subsistence most literally, living on and with as little as possible. Any ornamentation on their cabin would be ostentatious, any seasoning beyond salt and pepper wasteful. I don't understand why simplicity has to be so dull, or so tasteless. If such a life brings you joy, I wish you all the best in it, but I rarely hear joy in the words of the hardcores, only grumping that other people don't need all that stuff. They certainly have a point, but I'll drink my milk straight from the cow, thank you, or as nearly so as possible; I can't bear the irony of relying on factory-dried milk to support an "old fashioned" lifestyle. Mere subsistence seems to me rather like a hair shirt, and I am not a fan of self-flagellation; it's just another form of vanity. If our lives ought perhaps to be simpler, they ought also to be better. Is it asking too much to want to live well — not by raping the earth and pillaging our fellows, but by working well and using our time, our talents, and our tools wisely?"
Umm, wouldn't it be great if I could think through this properly? I wonder if I am guilty of this? DH says I have too many spices in the cupboard to be guilty of this lol.
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