Simple Living in Practice, Lesson #4
As announced yesterday, we will proceed our lessons today with some comments on food. The practical idea behind self sufficient living that relies fully on what God provides is that, whatever you need, try to produce it yourself. If you cannot produce it, either do without it, or find a neighbor that will trade what he has for what you have - eggs for beans, canned vegetables for a sack of flour, in short: barter. Remember that the goal is to need as little money as possible, so that what Scott Nearing called "bread labor", labor that pays money, labor that relies on society as a market, can be reduced to a minimum.
So how can you produce what you need ?
First of all, you need to rethink your dietary habits. If you are used to drinking pop, eating deep frozen pizza and otherwise rely on Arby's for more healthy food, you will have to change a lot. If you are already used to drinking water from the tap instead of Coke, making your pizza dough yourself, and if you haven't seen a fast food restaurant from the inside in quite a while (or from the car window while sitting in the drive thru line), a subsistent lifestyle will not come as such a shock to you.
Secondly, planning your garden is prudent so that you will have shady and sunny places, and don't forget to look at the vegetation around you to see where the wind usually comes from. Lay out your garden intelligently - remember that you will live off it, and that working in it will be a big part of your working day. In order to be able to plan it intelligently, you should know at least the basics about what type of food you want to plant, and leave room for an herb garden, since the next doctor most probably lives an hour's drive away. Plant tomato and cucumber, pepper and beans, potato and salad, onions and peas, and whatever other vegetable you might want to eat during the year. Flowers will come in handy too, since many of them serve as a natural protection for your vegetables, drawing insects to themselves that otherwise might feast on what you planned on eating yourself. "Companion gardening" is a term you might want to look up in a good book or on the internet, and try to find a good guide to herbal medicine too.
Thirdly, and lastly for today, when you buy your seeds, take heed that you don't buy hybrids - the principle of mixing is abominable to the Lord (Deu 22:9-11), and if you plant a fruit tree, make sure that you don't eat of it's fruit until the fifth year, for the fruit of the first three years you are not to eat, and the fruit of the fourth year belongs to the Lord (Lev 19:23-25).
There is a lot to wise up on ! Take the weekend to make a plan, before we come up with lesson #5 come Monday, and enjoy the Sabbath in study and rest and praise.
Technorati Tags: simple life, companion gardening, God's creation, nature, homesteading, self sufficiency, separation, SAHM, plural marriage, polygamy, dominion covenant, multi-generational family, Joshuah's House
So how can you produce what you need ?
First of all, you need to rethink your dietary habits. If you are used to drinking pop, eating deep frozen pizza and otherwise rely on Arby's for more healthy food, you will have to change a lot. If you are already used to drinking water from the tap instead of Coke, making your pizza dough yourself, and if you haven't seen a fast food restaurant from the inside in quite a while (or from the car window while sitting in the drive thru line), a subsistent lifestyle will not come as such a shock to you.
Secondly, planning your garden is prudent so that you will have shady and sunny places, and don't forget to look at the vegetation around you to see where the wind usually comes from. Lay out your garden intelligently - remember that you will live off it, and that working in it will be a big part of your working day. In order to be able to plan it intelligently, you should know at least the basics about what type of food you want to plant, and leave room for an herb garden, since the next doctor most probably lives an hour's drive away. Plant tomato and cucumber, pepper and beans, potato and salad, onions and peas, and whatever other vegetable you might want to eat during the year. Flowers will come in handy too, since many of them serve as a natural protection for your vegetables, drawing insects to themselves that otherwise might feast on what you planned on eating yourself. "Companion gardening" is a term you might want to look up in a good book or on the internet, and try to find a good guide to herbal medicine too.
Thirdly, and lastly for today, when you buy your seeds, take heed that you don't buy hybrids - the principle of mixing is abominable to the Lord (Deu 22:9-11), and if you plant a fruit tree, make sure that you don't eat of it's fruit until the fifth year, for the fruit of the first three years you are not to eat, and the fruit of the fourth year belongs to the Lord (Lev 19:23-25).
There is a lot to wise up on ! Take the weekend to make a plan, before we come up with lesson #5 come Monday, and enjoy the Sabbath in study and rest and praise.
Technorati Tags: simple life, companion gardening, God's creation, nature, homesteading, self sufficiency, separation, SAHM, plural marriage, polygamy, dominion covenant, multi-generational family, Joshuah's House
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