Episode 186: How to Prepare for Rising Gas Prices & Food Shortages

KODY HANNER

I did. I had to drag him a little bit. There has been a topic we’ve been talking about a lot for probably the last six months: whether or not we’re going to be facing food shortages in the fall.

[02:02]

KODY HANNER

But I think I jumped the gun, because I always like to tell everybody what’s happening on the homestead first. Do you want to tell them what happened on the homestead this week?

RON HANNER

This week? Our biggest one is that one of our Brown Swiss heifers is going to calve. She willingly went into the barn and into the calving pen by herself for the first time ever. This will be her first calf, and she’s been totally unhandled so far, so we were pretty surprised to see her standing at the gate waiting.

KODY HANNER

The poor girl is so engorged. I feel bad for her.

RON HANNER

We had another cow, our Belfair—

KODY HANNER

Bailey.

RON HANNER

Bailey. She’s our old girl. She knows the routine. I checked her out the other day, felt a leg, and went ahead and moved her into the calving area. What do you know? Two days later, she calved. We didn’t expect her to calve until November, but we were a little concerned, so we moved her in to keep an eye on her. She’s got a beautiful bull calf that looks just like a little Brown Swiss, because Dad’s genetics are very strong. He looks exactly like his half-brother that was born two months ago out of Blue.

KODY HANNER

We have too many calves. Can you guys keep track? If you could, just send us a list so we can run inventory.

RON HANNER

They try to name them all, and I’m like, no. That cow that just had a calf, or the black one, or the black-and-white one, or whatever it may be.

KODY HANNER

The kids name every single calf. I tell them, “That one’s going to freezer camp,” and they’re like, “Great, we named him Billy.” Whatever. As long as you know. Since we don’t always tag our calves, it is nice having names because we can identify who they are when we’re talking about them.

[04:00]

KODY HANNER

We also built an amazing chicken tractor this week.

RON HANNER

Yeah, that was fun.

KODY HANNER

But it’s stuck on our porch.

RON HANNER

We can get it off.

KODY HANNER

It’s stuck on the porch because you wanted to build it on the porch.

RON HANNER

It’s the only flat spot we have.

KODY HANNER

We built this really big chicken tractor for our laying hens. We have too many laying hens for the coop we currently have, and we needed something where they could be out on pasture even in bad weather, so it’s covered and very structurally sound. We didn’t realize it would be too wide to get off our very large porch. Now the boys get to lift it off the porch, so that ought to be fun.

RON HANNER

We’ve got lots of muscle. We can do it.

KODY HANNER

That’s why we have seventeen kids.

RON HANNER

Seventeen?

KODY HANNER

I don’t know. I lost count.

RON HANNER

We name them too, so why not just call them all Wyatt? They’re all troublemakers.

KODY HANNER

Both of our Wyatts are kind of troublemakers. If we just call them all Wyatt, we’re covered.

[04:58]

KODY HANNER

All right, now to what we’re actually talking about. Like I said, for the last six months this has been a topic for us, and really all I’ve been seeing online and on news channels is that we could be facing some food shortages this fall, starting now.

In the spring, I was watching some big changes. When they first shut down the Strait of Hormuz, just in one week our gas prices went up 30%. China stopped shipping fertilizer, and they provide a significant amount of the world’s fertilizer. The Middle East cut off another large portion. In the United States, we produce a lot of our own fertilizer, but a lot of the urea and other components used to make it still come from other countries.

At the same time, a slaughter plant that processes about 5,000 head of cattle a day shut down. They had already shut down the border because of screwworm. I thought, I can see the writing on the wall right now. I don’t want to raise alarms, but as somebody who teaches people how to grow their own food, maybe I should throw out some tips.

So I did a reel. It was really simple. I showed a picture of our canning cabinet and said, “We could be facing some food shortages in the fall. Here are some tips on how to make sure you’re okay.” I included all my sources.

People went absolutely insane. They called me a fearmonger and said, “I’m going to save this post to see how well it ages.” I’m like, okay, I think we should have a conversation about how well that post has aged.

There is a lot going on right now. Between what’s continued to happen around the Strait of Hormuz and concerns over winter, they’re saying this El Niño could be extremely strong. We hear crazy things about the weather all the time, so we’ll see, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

[07:47]

KODY HANNER

As of right now, the national gas price average is $4.48 a gallon for gasoline. I forgot to look up what it was for diesel. Do you remember?

RON HANNER

Not the average. We’re seeing diesel pushing ten dollars a gallon over in Washington.

KODY HANNER

We’re in Idaho, but when we got off the plane a couple weeks ago coming home from the Ozarks, it was almost ten dollars a gallon for diesel. We were shocked.

He’s looking it up. That national average is up about $1.25 to $1.50 a gallon—around 50% in the last year. The national average for diesel is $6.51. It says California is the highest in the nation at $8.42, but I know I saw it at $9.99.

RON HANNER

It’s higher than that. We live in an area where a lot of beehives are brought in because we’ve got hops and a lot of agriculture. They do the pollinating and then, come wintertime, they take them down to Northern California—Chico, Oroville, areas where we used to run around a lot. They just made their first trip down and were talking about fuel prices there. Knowing exactly where they’re taking them, it was $9.99 a gallon. That’s Chico, Gridley, Oroville—north of Sacramento. It’s ten dollars a gallon already.

KODY HANNER

And that’s in the Central Valley of California, which, the last time I looked—and it could be different—California provides about a third of the world’s food. If that’s what diesel prices are, food is going to go up. There’s no way around that.

I thought I was going to come on here with this astronomical number, but I looked it up before we started and national food prices have only gone up about three percent recently. But I know what I’m paying for food right now. We grow a lot of our own, and even when I go to the grocery store a couple times a week, I’m blown away by the prices.

RON HANNER

It’s not going down anytime soon.

KODY HANNER

No, absolutely not. In general, food prices have gone up dramatically over the last several years. That alone tells you the direction we’re going. If gas prices continue to go up, not only are food prices going to go up, we’re looking at major supply-chain problems.

[10:44]

RON HANNER

Besides that, with fuel prices getting as astronomical as they are, I’m hearing quite a bit of chatter about American truck drivers doing a 24-hour strike—basically everybody on the road pulling into a truck stop and shutting it down for 24 hours. These guys running truck-and-trailer owner-operator operations have to ask: how can they afford to keep those trucks on the road the way fuel prices are going?

KODY HANNER

One thing I want to add to that is that a lot of people say, “Shut down Big Ag,” or “Shut down these big corporations.” Most of these guys are owner-operators. They’re guys who own trucks and contract out. The big corporations often won’t pay them more, but they’re having to pay almost double in fuel.

RON HANNER

I’ve got several friends who are owner-operators. One down the road has four rigs, and it’s almost impossible for them to keep the trucks running strictly because of fuel. It’s insane.

KODY HANNER

What did you say they paid to fill up their tank the other day?

RON HANNER

I don’t know. It was around four hundred dollars.

KODY HANNER

Four hundred dollars. When they’re doing one of their hauls, that doesn’t even cover the whole haul. That’s maybe enough to get there.

RON HANNER

Maybe.

KODY HANNER

And then they get paid, what, fifteen hundred dollars for a haul? It’s not a huge amount. When fuel costs double, their margin gets smaller. Even if you look at the remaining money as “profit,” that’s two days on the road, wages, maintenance on the vehicle, insurance, and everything else.

RON HANNER

They’re having to take a huge cut in their own wages because they have to cover the fuel costs. There are guys going hungry because they’re still willing to drive food, merchandise, whatever it may be, from point A to point B for all of us, and then they’re sitting at home wondering what they’re going to eat for dinner.

KODY HANNER

Exactly. We’re already seeing the hurt that some of our friends are feeling. I’m so thankful for the local food system we have in our area, and I want to circle back to that. But let’s talk about what it could look like if trucks shut down for just 24 hours.

[13:42]

KODY HANNER

We think, “Twenty-four hours—why is that such a big deal?” Right off the bat, a lot of medical supplies are delivered daily. If they’re not delivered, that’s fresh blood, insulin, oxygen, and other things hospitals need every day. In big cities, they’re going through those supplies daily or every couple of days. They need shipments because they don’t have storage for much more. When you look at smaller operations, that gets even worse.

Gas stations are going to run out of fuel. You might think, “If the truck drivers aren’t using the gas, where’s it going?” But the issue is that they’re not bringing it.

RON HANNER

I was down at the truck stop yesterday getting fuel because we needed fuel in the truck. There was a truck on the opposite side of the pump from me, and they had ten five-gallon cans they were filling on top of the fuel in their truck because they’re already concerned about fuel shortages. It hasn’t even begun to hit yet.

KODY HANNER

Most gas stations have to be filled at least a couple of times a week, if not more in bigger areas.

RON HANNER

Usually more.

KODY HANNER

I’m thinking about our little gas stations up here. When you’re out on the interstate, those big stations with a hundred pumps probably need restocking daily. In one day, they could be out of fuel because the truck bringing it is sitting in the parking lot, not moving.

When you start thinking about it like that, interstate traffic could stop quickly. Manufacturers are another example. A lot of manufacturers work on a system where a truck comes in, they manufacture the product, and it’s going back out in a 24-to-48-hour period. If their shipments don’t come in, the whole production schedule gets disrupted.

We do that. I have a paper shipment once a week. If that shipment is one day late, I’m only ordering almost exactly what I need because we run on a small margin. If my paper is a day late, everything else happens a day or two later depending on what time it arrives and whether it still fits into our production schedule. It piles up really fast, and we’re just one producer.

If the mail isn’t coming in, you may not be getting your bills, but you’re also not getting your checks. That immediately affects cash flow.

RON HANNER

Within a couple of days, banks can run short on cash for transactions if normal deliveries and cash flow are disrupted. You go to pull money and they may not have it.

KODY HANNER

And when that first day happens and everybody sees it happening, people start hoarding. It’s like the South when there’s a threat of snow: no bread and no milk.

RON HANNER

Been there, done that.

KODY HANNER

I was one of them. Now I laugh about it because we have our bread and milk here. We have our cow, we bake our own bread, and we buy flour in bulk. But that’s not the case for everybody. That’s when you start seeing shelf-stable foods disappear—powdered milk, flour, canned foods—gone.

[18:02]

KODY HANNER

What are you looking at?

RON HANNER

The lights flickering. Bonners was out of power. I’m hoping we’re not next.

KODY HANNER

Yeah, me too. Last week I was chasing a mosquito in here the whole time, so this week I might as well be looking at the lights flickering.

If you’re not ready in advance, you’re going to be the one hurting. There are things a lot of people don’t think about. In urban areas where you put your garbage out once a week and have one little can as your only way to get rid of it, trash starts piling up fast when nobody comes to get it. And you don’t have the gas to drive it to the dump either. That becomes a public-health issue within days.

RON HANNER

You don’t have any horses, so I guess we’re going to train the cows to ride.

KODY HANNER

We’re going to have to ride the cows to town to get our trash to the dump.

RON HANNER

You first. Let me know how it goes.

KODY HANNER

We’ve got Wyatts to do that. You know how they always say you have two kids—one smart enough to come up with the idea and the other dumb enough to try it? We have those.

RON HANNER

And they’re both named Wyatt.

KODY HANNER

Yes. And because there’s always that second-child syndrome, we have a second set of boys who are the same way.

RON HANNER

One’s smart enough to come up with the idea, the other is dumb enough to try it. Keeps life interesting.

KODY HANNER

We always say the hospital isn’t open on Sundays, so you can’t hurt yourself because we’re not taking you.

[19:58]

KODY HANNER

If this goes on longer than a week, you’re starting to look at water issues too. We’re lucky enough to have a well, but if power stations can’t run, or if weather gets bad and we start losing power, there goes our water supply too.

RON HANNER

So we’re going to be carrying water from the pond.

KODY HANNER

Luckily we have a spring-fed pond, but if we’re looking at a horrible El Niño, it might be frozen solid.

These are all things we’ve talked about with people over the years since COVID. We’ve had so many people say, “Prepping isn’t really on my radar.” Why? I’m not talking about end-of-the-world stuff. I’m talking about losing power, losing your job, getting sick, or not being able to drive to town for a few days.

Some of you might say, “Then you DoorDash it.” That is not an option where we live.

RON HANNER

Not even a little bit.

KODY HANNER

Our closest thing to DoorDash is friends posting on Facebook, “Hey, I’m going to Coeur d’Alene. Does anyone need me to pick anything up while I’m down there?” We’re about a hundred miles from the closest Costco. That’s our DoorDash.

[21:31]

KODY HANNER

As of March, I had lots of ideas about how to be prepared for this winter. As of right now, I know what we’re doing. We’ve prepared a lot and we’re scrambling to wrap everything up. The UK is already putting information out to its citizens about stocking up on food and storing water.

One simple thing: if you have canning jars sitting empty on the shelf and nothing to put in them, fill them with water. They’re going to be sitting there anyway.

RON HANNER

Can water.

KODY HANNER

Can water. If they’re sitting there empty, they might as well be sitting there full of water. If you later need the jars for food, they’re already clean. Dump the water out, put in what you need, and can that. Otherwise, you have good, clean, safe drinking water.

Our water comes from a well. If I just fill a jar with well water, put a lid on it, and leave it sitting, it can grow algae after a while. It doesn’t hurt us when it’s being pumped fresh, but if I don’t can that water, it can turn green.

RON HANNER

Nobody wants to drink green water.

KODY HANNER

Exactly. You can sterilize it that way. Another option is freezing water.

RON HANNER

Until the freezer doesn’t work.

KODY HANNER

Until the freezer doesn’t work. Can it.

I’m just throwing out options. One thing I always suggest is to find a protein source.

RON HANNER

I’ve got about sixty of them running around up there. They taste like bacon.

KODY HANNER

We have lots of protein sources, and we aren’t sharing.

RON HANNER

No.

KODY HANNER

We’ll share if you pay a fair price.

[23:27]

KODY HANNER

One thing I always tell people is to secure a protein source. If you can lock that in, even if you have nothing else for the rest of the winter, you’re not going to starve. Can you buy half a hog? Do you have chickens?

RON HANNER

I have lazy chickens. They don’t lay eggs.

KODY HANNER

They’re being problem girls right now.

RON HANNER

No, we got one today.

KODY HANNER

Ooh. We have too many chickens, which is why we made the chicken tractor. We also had to have some ducks in with our chickens for a while this summer, and I don’t think they liked that.

RON HANNER

They’re angry.

KODY HANNER

We have close to forty hens and have gotten one egg in about a week, so that’s a little annoying. But that’s why we have the chicken tractor. We’re going to get them all separated and happy once we lift it off the—

RON HANNER

Couch.

KODY HANNER

Off the porch.

RON HANNER

Or we just put the chickens on the porch.

KODY HANNER

It’s the kids we have to lift off the couch to move the coop off the porch.

RON HANNER

Right. A cattle prod probably works well for that.

KODY HANNER

A lot of people hear “buy half a hog” or “buy a quarter beef” and think about the price tag. Absolutely, there is one. But you don’t always have to foot that bill by yourself. The more you buy in bulk, the cheaper it is per pound. If you can get a couple of neighbors, friends, or family members together and go in on half a beef, you’re splitting the cost and still stocking your freezer.

What is half a beef even going for right now? Like $2,500?

RON HANNER

Too much, in my opinion.

KODY HANNER

Right. When you’re buying direct from farmers, you’re getting a product that can stretch further. And it’s also how you cook it. If you eat everything as straight meat, it goes really fast, especially with a big family. But if you’re making stews and stretching the meat over several meals, you’re still getting a good protein source along with vegetables.

Potatoes are incredibly inexpensive in season, and you can store them in a basement or root cellar.

RON HANNER

Especially for us. Depending on the time of year, we can get them for ninety-eight cents for ten pounds or sometimes five dollars for fifty pounds. When the good deals come around, we stock up on potatoes and throw them in the root cellar because that’s exactly what it’s for.

KODY HANNER

A lot of people say potatoes are a complex carb and they turn to sugar in your system. But if I’m trying to store food, I’m not talking about eating potatoes fried in vegetable oil every day. A baked potato with broccoli, cheese, or whatever else is completely different.

RON HANNER

Bacon.

KODY HANNER

Bacon. Even my kids will slice a potato really thin, fry it in lard, and put sea salt on it. We use Redmond Real Salt. I would much rather my kids eat that than go buy potato chips at the store.

RON HANNER

It’s a totally different product.

KODY HANNER

Absolutely. And on top of that, you can pay five dollars for a bag of chips that, if you crushed it all down, might be half a cup of actual product, while that same five dollars can buy a large amount of potatoes. Start thinking about those things. Stock up where you can.

[27:25]

KODY HANNER

As homesteaders, we also have the advantage that we can buy perishable food and preserve it. Personally, I would rather grow all my tomatoes before I preserve them, but we live in North Idaho.

RON HANNER

You might get that chance this year.

KODY HANNER

What do you mean?

RON HANNER

With El Niño, everything I’m seeing says we’re going to have a very mild, warm winter and an extended growing season for our area.

KODY HANNER

Unfortunately, you just showed me a graphic the other day that said we were going to freeze today.

RON HANNER

For us specifically, we’re supposed to be drier and considerably warmer than normal. It should extend North Idaho’s growing season.

KODY HANNER

That’s a good thing for us, except we haven’t had a snowpack in two years, and that’s why you spent all summer on fires.

RON HANNER

And that’s where I’m going to be again next summer, because it’s not going to be good.

KODY HANNER

So I’m going to be a wildland widow again.

RON HANNER

Probably.

KODY HANNER

Who wants to come work on my farm, bind my books, and talk to me so I’m not a wildland widow?

RON HANNER

I do.

KODY HANNER

If I’m not cooking, my daughter cooks even better than I do at this point.

RON HANNER

No, she does.

KODY HANNER

But I taught her, and she still asks, “Mom, what should I do? What seasoning goes with this?” So I still have a hand in it.

I don’t want to be a wildland widow again, so somebody can be my sister wife temporarily. It only comes with the benefits of work and being fed.

RON HANNER

Maybe a couch to sleep on.

KODY HANNER

Maybe. Depends on whether we’re doing homeschool at the moment. You’d fit in up here.

[29:16]

KODY HANNER

We just got one back, so we might have an extra person here.

RON HANNER

Who?

KODY HANNER

CJ just came back. Our oldest son is switching jobs, and his job was managing a resort where he also lived. He may still have a house lined up in town, but for the time being he’s coming home. It’s going to be awesome because we’re going to have all of our kids under one roof again, and we’re really excited.

We may even have some other things up our sleeves. We’re excited to talk more about—not necessarily a family compound, but maybe a little bit of a family compound.

RON HANNER

Yeah, it’s all about the family compound.

KODY HANNER

“Commune” is the word that’s a little creepy.

RON HANNER

Compound.

KODY HANNER

We’ll say compound.

We’re excited to talk about some of the family-compound ideas we’ve been discussing and the multigenerational family model we’ve talked about a lot on the road. We’re excited to actually experience more of that and talk about what it might look like.

We were just out in the Ozarks at a conference. Which one was it?

RON HANNER

The Ozark Homesteading Expo.

KODY HANNER

Yes, that one. Part of our conversation there was: why are more of us not living on the family farms and ranches and working together as a family the way it used to be?

RON HANNER

We’ve always wanted that. That’s why we bought the place here in Idaho that we did. As our kids grew up and went in different directions, they did their own thing for five or six years. Now they’re coming back with more of an adult mindset and saying, “Why aren’t we just living here at the ranch? We can all work the ranch. It makes it easier on you guys. We combine bills and we all help pay the bills.”

KODY HANNER

So the stuff we taught you when you were younger—you actually listened to something?

RON HANNER

No. It can’t be possible. Not our crew.

KODY HANNER

They’re all excited. They want to live on the farm and combine bills rather than Mom and Dad carrying the house payment and everything else.

RON HANNER

Oh, crap. I’ve got to go.

[32:06]

KODY HANNER

Ron is our local fire chief and he just got a call. Koocanusa is up the road.

RON HANNER

Five-year-old female, possible seizure.

KODY HANNER

Go, go, go. Five-year-old with a possible seizure. We’re going to let him go, but I still have some really great ideas for you guys.

[32:28]

KODY HANNER

This is a big reason why he doesn’t join me regularly for podcasts. We actually wish he could be on more because, as you’ve probably heard, we have a lot of fun together.

Where I was going when we were talking about tomatoes—and he was saying I might actually get some tomatoes this year—is that it’s really hard in North Idaho to grow tomatoes. I have to have my garden in right around the last frost date, and my tomato plants already need to be about eighteen inches tall. Let’s face it: I’m human and I have a million things going on. My tomatoes aren’t always that tall when they go in. If they are that tall, it’s sometimes because I forgot to plant them and it’s now July and I figure I’d better get them into the ground.

I am already getting cherry tomatoes, so that’s cool.

For those of you thinking, “I didn’t have a good enough garden this year,” remember that if you’re going to can food, it doesn’t necessarily have to be something you grew yourself or bought in bulk directly from a farm, even though that would be ideal.

If perishable food is still available at the grocery store, you can buy tomatoes there and preserve them. Just don’t waste them. Don’t take them home, forget what you’re doing, and let them go bad. Take them home and actually can or preserve them, even if that means freezing them.

I know relying on a freezer can be concerning if you’re worried about losing fuel or power. But if you need to, freeze things. If it looks like you’re going to lose power, you can pull food out and can it. I freeze most of my tomatoes every year because it gives me time later in the winter to can them, and they’re much easier to peel after they’ve been frozen.

You also don’t have to do huge batches. Everybody assumes that if you’re canning tomatoes for the year, you have to do hundreds of pounds in one weekend. It’s nice if you can, but honestly, especially with juices and similar things, I small-batch can all the time. Sometimes I only have two jars in my canner. I keep a setup available while I’m cooking dinner. I make juices with my steam juicer or run things through a processor and can them right there.

Fermenting is another option. We’re just starting to dabble in that, so I am not the expert, but it is an option.

Refrigerator pickles are another one. We were eating refrigerator-pickled produce for a year. It wasn’t always cucumbers. I’ll put cherry tomatoes that are just starting to turn yellow—when the skin is beginning to soften—into a pickling brine in the refrigerator. I was eating them until March or April. They’re so good. If they’re greener and firmer, they come out tasting a little like a green olive. If you’re into green olives, awesome. I’m not. But the ones that are starting to turn red taste like a really salty tomato.

Do what you can. Another strategy is simply to buy a little extra each time or cook a little extra each time and put some away. Everything helps.

[36:54]

KODY HANNER

The biggest thing I promote all the time—and you’re never going to convince me it’s a bad idea—is a local food system.

We’re going into the end of the growing season, so a lot of farmers are already done. They’ve made their sales for the year and grown what they’re going to grow. But there are still things like eggs, milk, and meat that can be produced year-round.

If you start buying from your local farmers, that helps make it possible for them to continue farming and continue having a product for you. The thing is, start now. Start before you’re out of food. Once everybody is out of food, they’re all going to turn to the local farmer.

And when this crisis is over—or the next crisis, or whatever it is—continue buying from those farmers. You’re supporting your own community and helping keep that local food source alive. If those farmers go out of business, there is no more local food. You cannot have a local food system without local food.

I don’t know how many times I can say it, but you’ve got to support your local farmer.

A lot of people tell me, “I have to go from this place to this place to this place, and that’s a lot just to do my grocery shopping.” Buy in bulk. Make a list of the things you buy the most—five things, ten things, even one thing. Maybe it’s bulk beef, eggs every week, or milk every week from somebody.

Make your arrangements and go pick them up on a Saturday. Make a day of it. A lot of farms love when you bring the kids. Some of those products you’re buying in bulk only need to be picked up once a month. Then one day during the week, go to the store and pick up whatever groceries you need to go with those things.

You may find you’re actually saving money. Direct-to-consumer foods can have a higher price tag, but what you can do with that food often stretches much further when you’re intentional.

I mentioned making a stew out of a roast. Make the stew. Keep the bone from the roast. Turn around and make bone broth with that bone and the scraps from the stew. The list goes on and on.

If you buy a gallon of raw milk from a farmer, you’re not just getting a gallon of milk. Let it settle and pull the cream off the top. You still have most of the gallon left. Take some and make yogurt. Keep some for drinking. Use the cream in coffee or make butter with it.

When we have a couple gallons, we’ll take some of the skimmed milk after the cream is removed and make mozzarella.

You may look at ten to fifteen dollars for a gallon of raw milk and think, “That’s ridiculous. I can’t afford that.” But compare that to the cost of butter, yogurt, cheese, and drinking milk. One gallon can become several different foods.

There’s so much more you can do, even if the price tag in that moment is higher. If you’re intentional, it stretches further.

Honestly, if I can bake a couple loaves of bread, have a gallon of raw milk, a few packages of sausage, a few packages of burger, and some flour, I can darn near feed my whole family. With our six kids that’s eight people, and right now we have a couple extras around regularly too. We’re feeding around ten people on a regular basis.

If I really had to, I could feed all of us on those staples and we’d be fed well with healthy, clean food. The growing boys might eat me out of house and home if I let them, but if it came down to it, we could make it work.

If the price is too high at the beginning, just pick one thing. Start there. Whole foods can be more filling and more nutrient-dense, and you’ll begin to see where your money stretches.

Again, if you can spend a few dollars on a large amount of potatoes versus the same amount on a tiny bag of chips, it starts to become a no-brainer. I watch my local grocery store for deals. Sometimes I can get ten pounds of carrots for $2.99. Grab those when you can. Root vegetables will last much longer in a root cellar than a lot of other products.

[43:08]

KODY HANNER

This episode got a little crazy with Ron having to take off, but that was really most of what we wanted to discuss. We were going to go a little deeper into what we do for preserving and minimizing waste.

One big thing for us is that we make a lot of dog food with our scraps. Every time we’re cutting fat off a steak, every time we have extra potato peelings, anything like that, it goes into a bag in the freezer. Whether our chickens get it, our dogs get it, or something else on the farm gets it, everybody is getting fed.

We have a very strict rule: no protein leaves the property unless we’re selling it. If we don’t drink all of our raw milk, it goes to the pigs. Whey can go to the plants, pigs, or chickens. They love it.

Even if we have a piglet that gets accidentally crushed and we know it didn’t die from illness, we can use that protein to feed chickens, pigs, or dogs rather than waste it. I don’t let the dogs see that they’re eating a piglet, but the point is that it’s still protein produced on our property.

If we find a nest of mice, the chickens will take care of that too. We try not to waste anything that can go back into this looped system.

If tomorrow I couldn’t go to the grocery store for a month, two months, or even longer, we would still be eating comfortably, even if meals got a little boring. There are always options.

Another thing I’d consider is ordering salt in bulk. You can use it to preserve foods and season food, and you can use a little in water as an electrolyte if needed. If stored water develops an off flavor, a little salt can also make it easier to drink. We buy Redmond Real Salt in bulk. I’ll put a link in the show notes. I believe there is a discount code, although I’m not sure whether it applies to bulk products.

[46:02]

KODY HANNER

I hope you can take this episode and start coming up with ideas for being prepared for the unexpected. In today’s world, we never know exactly what’s going to happen.

Preparedness can mean building relationships. It can mean having some food stored. People say all the time, “We can’t afford that.” There are ways to start small. I have a lot of information on my website and in past podcast episodes about how we stretch food and save money on our homestead. There are also plenty of websites devoted specifically to preparedness and cooking on a budget.

If you have questions or need ideas, always feel free to reach out to me. If you have a particular question you’d like us to cover on the podcast, you can email us at hello@thehomesteadeducation.com. I can answer your question privately, or if you think it would make a good episode, I’m happy to share that information with everybody.

If you have something you think you can add to the podcast, we have a form on the website, or you can email me. We’re always bringing on guests.

My goal has always been to teach people the questions they don’t know to ask, to provide information when things feel overwhelming, and to educate the next generation.

Remember that you can get all of my Homestead Education books on our website at thehomesteadeducation.com. Many of them are available on Etsy, and we accept ESA funds. Our goal is to educate the next generation by looking at agriculture in a different way.

I hope all of you gained something from this episode. I’d love to hear what you think of Ron, because he wants to join us more often. I think he brings a really unique perspective from all the things he’s experienced in his life, and we make a pretty funny pair.

Thank you, everybody, for coming. Until next week, keep growing.