Stacy Witscher

Jason Hernandez - I'm so sorry that your mother did that. My grandmother did the same thing with the family photo albums, but years before her dementia set in. She got despondent one night and threw out all of my mothers childhood photos, shortly thereafter my mother moved her out here with us in California.

Nicole - I know that it can be painful to go threw all this stuff. I think that's why so many people just don't do it. But I think it's good, good to feel and reminisce with the ones we love before they are gone. And anything the kids can use means less stuff they have to buy.

Anthony Saber - when looking at the bionutrient website, they call it a bionutrient meter, not a brix meter. My only familiarity with a brix meter is with measuring residual sugars in alcohol production, and testing frozen desserts, where you want a lot of sugars for nice texture. Why would a brix meter help determine micronutrient quantity?

Personally, I like to be clear that micronutrients (vitamins & minerals) are what we talking about, calories, carbs, protein, and fat are all nutrients, just not the ones the typical westerner is lacking.

In a lot of ways, I feel like I don't have much to offer, because I never ate like that. I have always had some kind of garden, and mostly cooked from scratch. It took me a long time to realize that I wasn't your average American.

S Bengi - my lifestyle is very different. I don't go somewhere to work, I just homestead, so I'm home more. And I'm very introverted, so I don't hang out in the public spaces of my house when others are home. The only way I could only use my bedroom for sleeping is if I also had a sitting room, so like a suite, and that seems wasteful.

I always wonder how big people's houses are when they say "only use the bedroom for sleeping", maybe it works for extroverts, but I need to be able to get away from people.

That being said, I totally agree that supermarket food lacks micronutrients and most people could stand to eat more produce.

Lucrecia - how long did you let them sit before you moved them? Typically you want to wait until they are totally cool. I have an All-American pressure canner, so I'm not familiar with the Presto. And I've never even seen canning lids that don't have the bump, so I don't know what to make of that. But I've always had better success pressure canning if I let them cool slightly, about 5-10 minutes in the open canner before removing them, less venting etc.

Got to say - that kind of gendered response - female vs. male preppers is part of the issue. Prepping has a lot of (in my opinion) negative connotations. I already prepare for at least a year of food, just because, and have done so for a long time, mostly because of an undependable spouse. I never knew when he was going to come home and whether or not it was going to be with money.

I'm a survivor, and have always done what is necessary. That being said, I'm older now, and am perfectly happy choosing to die.

One of the issues is that places that are currently vegetarian by necessity wish to change this and be more western (rightly or wrongly), placing more pressure on these systems. I don't really like classifying people who can't afford meat as vegetarian. I feel like that is disingenuous, they are just poor. Just because I can't afford caviar, doesn't mean I'm a non-fish egg eater. Silly.

Lucrecia - I don't know about Nicole, but I'm more referring to the human consumer. Yes, the whole animal is utilized but some of it is used in a very negligent way. Because there isn't a good market, it's just animal-by-product. And with some animals, in some areas, this is very wasteful. Like the lack of market for calves from dairy cows, some areas just have little to no market for these and they are used largely as animal-by-product. If all this was used for human consumption, less total animals would be necessary.

I have been following this thread intently, and enjoying it thoroughly. I'm planning on building (with help) an off-grid small straw bale home, no electric heating/cooling other than a fan and interested in learning more about battery options. Thank you to everyone for your contributions.

I agree with Nicole, more people need to embrace nose to tail eating. While this is a novel approach, I don't really think it's needed. So many meals can be made from one chicken, and hogs are even better, never mind dairy. If humanity can be saved, I don't believe it will be through technology.