Kill your refrigerator!

Okay, now I really have something to think about; life without a refrigerator.

I didn’t even realize that some people choose to live without one (they choose that??) until I came face-to-face with it at my friend’s house. It didn’t even register, at first, until I took a more careful look at Lane’s kitchen, today, and I realized she really wasn’t kidding. They don’t have a fridge. Huh? Go figure. Then she started explaining how you really don’t need a fridge for most food items.

Yet another notion about something we think we have to go out and work hard for because we must have these “necessities” just to live. WRONG!

Talk about a mind-blower. So, now, what else have we been raised to think we “must have” that we really don’t need at all? TV, fridge, car, car insurance, electricity to run the stuff, gasoline, the newest fashions, razors, anti-depressants, MRIs, elective surgery, techno-gadgetry?? How many of us work jobs we hate because we need to money for these things?

It boggles my mind.

I did a little poking around on Google and saw that there are, in fact, more people going totally “off the grid.” Here is a blog from a guy who has been OTG for 30 years or something…wow!

http://littlebloginthebigwoods.blogspot.com/

Steal this book: still relevent

You know…some of the original “hippies” were SO on the right track. I’m rediscovering the relevance of some of those ideas. Interesting. Abbey Hoffman came into popularity a little early for me…I’m a baby-baby boomer. Hell-yeah…he had some real ground-breaking ideas:

Love this recipe for the Hedonist’s Delux Lobster dinner.

Yeah…watch out for those “claw thingies.” They will kick yer ass every time!

Oh yeah, you need to know what a “switcheroo method” and a “booster box” is to pull this one off.

Oh, and BTW, Mr. Hoffman wrote this book from his prison cell…so, yeah, there are some potential pitfalls…

Hedonist’s Deluxe

2 lobsters

2 qts water

seaweed

1/2 lb butter

Steal two lobsters, watching out for the claw thingies. Beg some seaweed from any fish market. Cop the butter using the switcheroo method described in the Supermarket section above. When you get home, boil the water in a large covered pot and drop in the seaweed and then the lobsters. Put the cover back on and cook for about 20 minutes. Melt the butter in a sauce pan and dip the lobster pieces in it as you eat. With a booster box, described later you’ll be able to rip off a bottle of vintage Pouilly-Fuisse in a fancy liquor store. Really, rice is nice but…

Read the rest of Mr. Hoffman’s brilliant book at: http://www.pieman.org/stealthisbook.html

Wild food harvesting…

Providing another way for you to eat and nurture yourself…and it’s free!

I have had a life-long interest and experience in utilizing wild plants and living off the land (fishing, clamming, seagreens, plants, herbs) and want to continue my knowledge in that area and encourage others to try this and to share their experiences.

Recently, I found a good source of information from a blog and videos posted by Sunny Savage. She is trained as a nutritionist and takes you from harvest to nutrition and conservation issues through food prep.

Here are excerpts from the emails:

I wrote:

“…I’ve a little experience, over my lifetime, on what to gather. We have a pretty good knowledge base here in the people…but I have so many question like, are all those jellyfish that washed up during a storm edible (chinese dry and salt jellyfish to preserve) and is it really true that you can pretty much eat all seagreens? That some just taste better than others…. Some wild food educators seem to focus on the stuff that is really time consuming to harvest and prepare….I like to be more practical. I mean, if it’s too time consuming people are not likely to incorporate into their daily lives, right?”
Sunny wrote:

“You should do a workshop, sounds like you have some good experience and the tools to learn more already.”

and…

“I am no expert of the sea, and have many of the same questions as you. We’re all figuring it out together, I’m just openly talking about what I find.

I believe the only poisonous seaweed is Lyngbya, ‘mermaid’s hair’, and that there are nonpoisonous ones that will cause gastrointestinal discomfort. “

So, I’m continuing to learn and plan to obtain more of my everyday food through wild harvest. I’ll share with friends and community and we will see what happens.

Here is a video by Sonny Savage on cattails (I learned about harvesting/eating these as a teenager):