Living on locally sourced food in the Yukon for 1 yr.

LaurieLovesLearning
LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
edited November 2020 in Other News

Yes. Someone did a documentary on this. Their experiment was only a year. They actually made their own cheese (yes, a bit of sarcasm).

Yet, it sounds like they went back to their every day life. I was kind of disappointed in that & not impressed, obviously.

So many people know these skills and don't just source things from others. They do most of the work themselves. They live it as a lifestyle. It is not like it's a new concept...I guess though for a city person, it might be. Sigh. Enjoy?


Comments

  • MaryRowe
    MaryRowe Posts: 736 ✭✭✭✭

    Yeah...the sad thing is, that most people watching this are likely to see it as the great adventure/endurance test/man's challenge to Raw Nature that the documentary-maker intended. In a way these folk really are crossing from one world to another, and showing their adventure to those in that other world they came from and went back to.

    For 29 years I commuted from my little house on 30 acres in a very rural area where folks live a more traditional and self-reliant lifestyle, to my day job teaching at the university in the city, where folks live very differently. It's not just a matter of whether you garden, forage, raise chickens, make herbal medicine, soap, cheese, etc. etc. or don't do those things. It's two completely different ways of thinking and knowing and relating to the world around you. There were times when I felt like I was two different people, or at least had to act as though I were--and times when I got into trouble in the city because I couldn't or wouldn't do that.

    I am so much happier since I retired and mostly spend my time out here now. But I still have friends in the city who cannot comprehend this lifestyle or why I would choose it. "But you are an educated person and you can afford to live in the city. You don"t HAVE to live like that!" They worry about my safety and have been phoning and emailing during the lock-down to make sure nothing has happened to me "all the way out there in the sticks." They see THIS lifestyle as artificial--a kind of reality-TV show, or a documentary like this one, and wonder why it isn't over and I haven't come back to civilization yet.

    Of course, I feel much safer living out here than I would in the city, and I worry about THEM. At TGN, we've just seen Marjory's take on 2021, and I'm sure we all pretty much agree with it. We are in for rough times ahead, and the more self-reliant you are, the better able you will be to get through it. My city friends, living in that other world, where the thinking, the values, the things you know and don't know about, and so much else, are all so totally different, have no good way to prepare for what is coming. A few are aware and have slid into a sort of fatalism about it, most are simply in denial and ignoring the issue. I doubt they would even sit through a documentary like this one, but if they did, it would be to watch it as an adventure story, a bit of entertaining escapism.

    Sorry--I didn't mean to hijack your thread with my fretting, but these things have been so much on my mind lately, especially since covid turned all our lives upside down, and my city friends are having so much tougher a time dealing with it than I. And of course they can't understand that either. The difference between the way most of us here in this forum would see this documentary and the way the sort of people it was made for would see it, is just another example of the problem.

  • Tave
    Tave Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Back in the 70s, when farmers went on strike, someone asked, "Why do we need farmers? We have supermarkets." That question demonstrated just how disconnected many people in the city were from their food source. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved. Hopefully, this experience will motivate them to eventually make the change permanent.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @MaryRowe That was not hijacking. It was spot on.

    @Tave Unfortunately, I have heard that statement too. It doesn't help when parents don't want their kids to know that milk comes from a cow's (what?), and the eggs come out of a chicken's butt. "Don't you know that the eggs come from the back of (name your supermarket)?" Yes...that was relayed to me by a disgusted chicken enthusiast when a parent said what they told their kids. They refused to let their kids pick eggs at her place. :(

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    Thanks for bringing this to our attention @LaurieLovesLearning I have signed up for a notice of screenings in my area. It will be interesting to watch. I'm curious how much they kept in their lives from the experiment and how much they went back to.

    I have many stories of people who are completely out of touch with where their food comes from. A niece, when she was about 6, refused to eat a carrot at our house cause it had come from the dirt.

    I find that one of the comments I get frequently from city dwellers who have no concept of life outside of their worlds, is: "What do you do with yourselves?" They imagine a world of boredom with nothing to do but weed the garden. I was at a family function in the city a few years ago and one of the neighbours who was there, kept asking questions over and over. How do we get groceries? How far is it to stores? What happens if we run out? How do we get mail? Is there a bar or restaurant nearby? What do we do for entertainment? Do we even have power? It was a totally foreign lifestyle for her to imagine; so involved in her life in the city that she never leaves it. Not even to go for a drive or holiday to see the rest of the province that she lives in. I had a sister-in-law that, until she was over 30, had never been beyond about a 100 mile radius of the city. So lots of people that can't imagine life outside of their personal bubbles. I agree that lots of people who might watch this will think of it as an adventure or escapism, not a lifestyle anyone would want choose.

    I watched the documentary series, "The 100 Mile Diet" and read the book, when it came out a few years ago. Many of the participants went back to their previous food sourcing but I found an interview with the authors of the book and 15 years later, they are still eating about 85% local. Good for them, but they live in the Pacific Northwest where the climate is much more conducive to being able to provide a wider variety of produce for most of the year.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    I have a SIL who never left the city until she married my brother. She was also about 30. It was a very new world to her. She likes coming out of the city, but could never leave what she knows. It is a vastly different culture.

  • Tave
    Tave Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It's amazing how many times I've been asked if I have electricity and running water where I live. I can't decide if I want to laugh or cry at their ignorance. I just take a deep breath and tell them, "yes, I even have internet, and there's a supermarket three blocks down the street."

  • MaryRowe
    MaryRowe Posts: 736 ✭✭✭✭

    A while back, two of my city friends ventured out, curious about how a person could survive out here. I gave them the grand tour. My various crafts were interesting, if eccentric, though the fermenting crocks and jars were very concerning: "Are you SURE you aren't going to poison yourself???" (No way would they even taste any of it.)

    They could get their heads around the idea of a garden well enough, but the chickens were quite disturbing--What's that blob? The chickens made that? Do they just do that any where? Can't you control them? And they eat what? All that kitchen waste?? And you actually eat the eggs???

    But the clincher was when we went for a walk in the woods and I showed them some of my favorite wild food plants. They were truly horrified, and could not believe I would "just walk outside and start eating random weeds." They decided it was really a long trip home, they had probably better get started, and were so sorry they could not stay for dinner as we had planned.....

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited November 2020

    @MaryRowe 🤣🤣🤣 That 😳😲 blob. Haha! Oh, that is funny. You need a litter box. Haha!

    We are proud of our blobs here. Haha Do I like cleaning them up, well, no, but they signal a "simple" life that many people never have the privilege to experience.

    Oh, how I enjoyed your post. Thanks for sharing.

  • MaryRowe
    MaryRowe Posts: 736 ✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning Come to think of it, online I have seen patterns for chicken diapers and the actual diapers for sale, (apparently some people actually do keep "house chickens" as indoor pets?!!), so I suppose that is an option, those I doubt my girls would be likely to go along with it, and Radbod Lord Rooster would most certainly be dissatisfied....

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    Yes, they are certainly a thing. I would not use those. Ew. Not here.

    I do have 2 tiny house chickens (supposedly serama, but am thinking they may actually be small OEB: Old English bantam ☹). They are in a critter cage, with homemade guards to keep mess in. They don't go free in the house. That is not allowed. Hemp bedding (but not dusty pelleted hemp) is good stuff, by the way!

    With a name like that for a rooster, I can imagine his dissatisfaction with a diaper. Haha!

  • draperpamela
    draperpamela Posts: 3 ✭✭✭

    Greetings! I am new here. And I'm currently a city dweller, though I was raised (until the age of 18) in rural Pennsylvania. I have spent most of my life wondering about the themes that have been brought up on this thread. I was always fascinated by the city the few times we visited when I was a kid. When I moved here, my family was very concerned about me (after 15 years, it's still the first thing they bring up! "Are you sure you're safe? I saw the most terrible thing on the news the other day!"). I'll never forget my first weekend in Philadelphia, in July, hiding in a closet because I thought all the 4th of July fireworks were gunshots!

    Now that I've lived here a while, it does feel like I've truly experienced being BOTH a country-dweller and a city-dweller. And I just want to share that there are definitely pockets of city life that are FULL of knowledge and culture related to growing food, medicine and just generally being in touch with the land we live on. Watershed and wildlife care (I have weekly visits from foxes, deer, possums and raccoons because I know where to visit), community gardens and orchards, foraging for wild food, cooking from scratch, fermenting our vegetables...these are all NORMAL practices in my community of west Philadelphia :) We also have a variety of traditions from all around the world that have their own flavors and approaches to these things - West African, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and of course, powerful, life-sustaining, black American traditions. I joined this site to keep learning so I could share knowledge with my community here. Thank you all for sharing your wisdom.

    Perhaps I should start a thread for city-dwellers on this site? I'm curious about how others find ways of living with the land inside city limits ;)

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    Welcome, @draperpamela! We do have an Urban Gardening section for just that subject! Any wisdom that you have to share is certainly more than welcome in this subcategory found here:

    https://community.thegrownetwork.com/categories/our-garden

    While you are exploring the forum, please take a moment to become familiar with our rules & FAQs, and leave a short intro so that others nearby might be able to more easily connect with you. I will leave the links for both below:

    https://community.thegrownetwork.com/categories/our-front-porch-welcome%21-%28please-read-before-posting%29

    https://community.thegrownetwork.com/categories/introductions