Free  Self Sufficiency and Survival Foods Information

Certain extracts from select chapters have been chosen by Isabell to whet your appetite. These are indicated by the links in the menu above or on the left. They are not complete chapters but only excerpts taken from Isabell Shipard’s well acclaimed book How can I be prepared with Self-Sufficiency and Survival Foods?

Self Sufficiency and Survival Foods

…are you prepared?

Planting a garden with food potential is one of the most valuable things we can do. Will we always have a free country with unlimited food supply? Could a major calamity or drought affect the supply and the price of food? Could rolling strikes disrupt electricity, water, telephone, transport and other amenities to shops and our homes… and how would no petrol affect every household? We need to encourage one another to be as self sufficient as possible… now… in our gardens, as this is the most nutritious fresh food… and cheapest way to live in these times of rising prices. Growing our own food is very satisfying as well as beneficial to health and well-being.

We truly have been a ‘lucky country’… plentiful food, running water in our homes, sewerage systems which take away our wastes, comfort and luxuries in our homes… we truly are blessed. However… it may not always be this way in the future… would families be prepared… if a catastrophic disaster struck?

What could happen if we had a dictatorship type government? It is not very pleasant to think about… ask anyone who has lived in communist countries if it worked? If the plans for a ‘one world food bank’ is established, what implications could that have? Poverty, starvation and death is ‘the way of life’ now in many third world countries. How much food and non-perishable food does your family have on hand if all shops shut tomorrow?

video snippet from SBS World News Australia

Will you be self sufficient?

Plants that have survival food potential,

should meet 1 or more of the following criteria…

1. Plants that have proved hardy and adapt to a range of soils and low rainfall.
2. Plants that can be harvested at any time of the year, or have a long cropping period.
3. Produce that have a long shelf life when picked.
4. Produce that has potential for storing for later use, or can be dried or used in some other form.
5. Plants that are little known as a food source and are unusual… if times get tough, and jobs and food are scarce, then food will be a high price in the shops… our gardens may be raided and food stolen… so… grow some obscure food supply.

The following plants/seeds

could be practical for you to consider growing and storing for the future as survival food.

* Food plants not commonly known

salad mallow – 20.4% protein (even the dried leaves can provide a protein source)

sweet leaf bush – 34 to 39% protein

drumstick tree – 38% protein,

Queensland greens – 29% protein

fenugreek – 32.6% protein

comfrey – 22-36% protein

kang kong – 31% protein

amaranth – 20% protein

alfalfa – 34% protein

also sambu lettuce, mushroom plant, mukunuwenna, warrigal greens, Ceylon salad leaves, chicory, pit pit, pinto pea, Indian fig, Lebanese cress, mitsuba, rocket, leaf ginseng, darooka, rosella

* Seeds grown and harvested to store for sprouting,

or purchased in bulk and stored for sprouting (must be regularly used and replaced to ensure seed will always be viable for sprouting)… rice bean – 25% protein (seeds can be viable 10 years), chia – 30% protein, pigeon pea – 25% protein, amaranth (viable 4-5 yrs), chickpea, lentils, fenugreek, peas (viable 2-3 yr), corn and other grains (viable 2-5 yr), buckwheat, sunflower (viable 3-5 yr), brassicas (viable 2-4 yr), pepitas, sesame, alfalfa, mung beans, adzuki beans, broad beans and many other kinds of beans (viable 2-5 yr)

rare edibles, sprouts to eat
* Become familiar with edible weeds for Self Sufficiency

purslane, cobblers pegs, swine cress, dandelion, plantain, nettle, emilia, flick weed, shepherds purse, flickweed, chickweed, wild carrot and wild mustard, native amaranth, scurvy weed, vetch, wood sorrel, clover, nodding top, milk thistle, mallows, fat hen….. Learn about edible native plants growing in your area.

* Hardy root crops

arrowroot (Qld. & Sth American), cassava, taro, coco yam, sweet fruit root, Jerusalem artichoke, Chinese artichokes, jicama, oca, sweet potato, American groundnut, sacred lotus, American groundnut, water-chestnuts, yams (Dioscorea species), arrowhead…

* Hardy vegetables

all the root crops listed above, and pumpkins, squash, large Lagenaria gourds including long beans, flour gourds (also called wax gourds), chilacayote, loofah, asparagus, perennial beans like 7 year bean and hyacinth bean, choco, pie melon, African cucumber…

* Natural sweeteners like,

stevia, licorice, Aztec sweet herb; and also dried herbs for flavouring staples like pulses, rice and pasta when cooked eg. marjoram, oregano, thyme, savory, ginger, parsley

* Herbs for stress, pain, immune boosting and sleeplessness:

herb Robert, sensitive plant, gotu kola, king of bitters, lemon balm, St. Johns wort, mother of herbs, camomile, feverfew, woundwort, brahmi; aloe vera (living 1st aid plant) and speedwell for cuts; comfrey for bruises… ‘blue top’ for tick bite…

* Other items that will store indefinitely as Survival Foods

nuts in shell like almonds, peanuts, walnuts, pecan; carob and tamarind pods; rice, pasta, honey, molasses, dried vegetables and fruits, and herbs (eg. nettle 20% protein and salad mallow 20.4% which can provide a protein source when added to other dishes); candles, matches, water in containers, first aid kit, water-proof ground sheets, toilet paper (and grow an arla bush or blossom bouquet bush, to supply soft leaves for using in an outside make-shift toilet if the sewerage system does not work)…

* Save non-hybrid seeds…

from the basic food plants that you grow… like carrots, corn, peas and beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and the brassicas. We need to save our seeds, to preserve the biodiversity of seeds, to guarantee the survival of plants, in this century… from… genetic engineering.

herbs for health
For more information on Self Sufficiency and Survival Foods

and on many of the plants mentioned above, refer to Isabell Shipard’s book “How can I use HERBS in my daily life?”