Being more self sufficient

Deb June 30, 2022

Back in early April, my local group got together to talk about what we thought might be going to happen in the future, and how we might need to support ourselves and each other. I’ve already posted some of what we’ve discussed at later meetings, but here’s a bit of an index page with some overview topics, and links to more detailed info.

Energy Solutions

The topics from our power brainstorming session:

Water Solutions

  • In Part 1, we have some info about different types of water collection tanks
  • In Part 2, we talk about storage and sterilisation options

Producing our own food

Being city slickers, our options might be different from in other areas. Some of the other thoughts we had:

  • Have a plan as a group, so you are growing a variety of crops between you.
  • What spaces do you have that could grow vegetables or fruit trees? Who in your suburb can help you with expert advice or some muscle power? If you’re already well set up, can you offer help to others starting out?
  • If you don’t have a back yard, do you have a patio or a window sill where you could grow food in pots. If nothing else, can you grow herbs to trade for vegetables?
  • If you can’t grow much yourself, can you volunteer a couple of hours a week in someone else’s backyard, in exchange for sharing the crop?
  • Is there a community garden in your area?
  • What can be foraged? Can you plant uncommon plants, that others wouldn’t recognise, in public areas, for harvesting later?
  • Can we put pressure on WCC to start putting fruit trees into their public land? Suggest to Green councilors as something to implement before the election?
  • Think about what else is available in the area – what can we get from the ocean? Do you know someone who can hunt or has a farm, who you can get bulk meat from?

Preserving / storing food

  • Can you put a freezer somewhere? How will you power it if the grid goes down?
  • How else could you preserve food – eg dehydration, bottling, fermenting (sauerkraut)? Would it be helpful to have workshop to learn how?
  • Can you organise a working bee with others in your area once every couple of weeks?

We started putting some resources here and will be brain storming more on this.

Stocking up on non perishables

This is one of the subjects we plan to talk about in more detail, but some of the issues to think about include:

  • Where can we put up some shelves to store things?
  • What dry or canned goods can I stock up on, that will last a good length of time, or be good for preserving – eg tins of fish or meat, tinned or dried fruit, rice, beans, rolled oats, salt, vinegar, sugar, honey.
  • What other non food items do we need to have a supply of, or have the ingredients to make? This might include cleaning products, batteries, household supplies and health supplies.
  • It’s helpful to choose things you will eventually use anyway, so if there never is an emergency situation, we’re not stuck with things we won’t use.

Trade / Finances

  • What do you have or could buy that could be used for trade?
  • Bearing in mind that if the power goes out, there will be no automated payments, is it a good idea to have some cash reserves?
  • Would bullion or cryptos be a good investment?

Skills

Security

  • Think about how to stay low profile. Do we only plant edibles in parts of the garden that can’t be seen from the road? Where might we keep our food stores that isn’t obvious to all and sundry?