Diving In and Getting Going
Sharon July 31st, 2008
Wow - is the class over already? I’ve now done two months of intense writing on food storage - which is great, it feels like 75% of my next book is already written. And of course, I can think of a whole bunch of things I left out - I didn’t tell people how to make cheese! What about sourdough and yeasts? What about community scale food storage? Ack! Still, there comes a point at which I have to admit that there are only 24 hours in my day and that I’m getting a little control freaky if I personally feel I’m the only person on the planet who can help people get fed. Maybe time for a short break and a few drinks before the next class 
.
I can’t think of any better way to end this class than with my last post from last time “Bunt to Whee: The Battle Cry of the Food Storers” - and a reminder that in the five months since the last time I ran this class, the reasons for getting started on these things have only increased. Food prices haven’t come down. The oil in agriculture is still there. The climate is still getting warmer. And we’re getting poorer by the minute. The truth is that we need a reserve, some practice, and people in our communities with these skills.
So all I can say is - I wish I’d written on everything and answered every question, including all of my own, but it is far more important that there are so many of you out there doing this stuff! All of you trying, blogging, talking to people, teaching others, helping out your neighbors, testing in your kitchen - that means my little stuff gets bigger all by itself, through the magic of community - yours here and then yours with the peopel you spread it out to. I’m really lucky, and so is the world to have y’all.
So thank you all for all the comments, and the experiments, and all the blogs, the Independence Days Updates, the failures and successes, the accounts and recommendations. Thanks for all the people you show something or explain to, all the kids who get to see their Dads and Moms taking food storage seriously, all the times you have and will offer to give a neighbor a hand or a reminder that this is cheaper in bulk.
This isn’t just about my personal senes of gratitude of course, but it is vast, and I feel very fortunate that I have people to correct me, to point out my errors, to offer new ideas and to take the stuff I did (and the stuff other people did that I stole), and spread them around and play with them. The hell with control freaks - there’s no way I could do that much myself.
Heck, there aren’t that many of us, but there are more and more, and I’m starting to hope just a little that this kind of networking might actually spread out to where it is needed, when it is. It is already bigger and more powerful than I’d ever dreamed.
Thank you all, and Bunt to the Whee!
Sharon
- Classes , Food Storage
- Comments(7)
By STEVEN KURUTZ
Published: July 31, 2023
ONE Friday afternoon a few weeks ago, as cable news channels carried bulletins that two government-sponsored mortgage lenders might go bankrupt, Kathy Harrison stood in the kitchen of her two-story, 19th-century farmhouse here, about 20 miles northwest of Northampton, laying out herbs from the garden.
With commentators throwing around phrases like “mortgage meltdown” and “peak oil,” the American economy seemed, at least to some, at the edge of an abyss, but all was calm in the Harrison household. Two loaves of bread, baked fresh that morning, sat on the counter. Mrs. Harrison’s daughters, Karen, 14, and Phoebe, 5, were laughing and playing dress-up, while her husband, Bruce, 62, stood at his wife’s side.
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/garden/31disaster.html
[...] Casaubon’s Book » Blog Archive » Diving In and Getting Going Wow - is the class over already? I’ve now done two months of intense writing on food storage - which is great, it feels like 75% of my next book is already written. And of course, I can think of a whole bunch of things I left out - I didn’t tell people how to make cheese! What about sourdough and yeasts? What about community scale food storage? Ack! Still, there comes a point at which I have to admit that there are only 24 hours in my day and that I’m getting a little control freaky if I personally feel I’m the only person on the planet who can help people get fed. Maybe time for a short break and a few drinks before the next class
. TEOTWAWKIAIFF: Survival Preparation Phases July 31st, 2008 [...]
I truly enjoy reading your post! I can’t wait to read Depletion and Abundance.
There are more and more people willing to listen to these messages, Sharon, so don’t think that some of the atmosphere has changed for some.
I’ve found your class posts and your blog generally to have an enormous amount of practical and uplifting information in it. Well done, Well done!
cheers,
shamba
A Correction!!! I meant to say that definitely the atmosphere of listening to what we can do for ourselves HAS definitely changed and I find more and more people willing to listen to the kind of ideas that your blog is about.
shamba
Thank you for all your writing. I’ve been reading you for awhile & appreciate the information you share. It’s been great “playing along at home”. THANK YOU - and YES - Bunt to the Whee!
Thank you Sharon, for all you do. I learned so much from the class, your blog, the discussion and archives from the first class - so much to think about, so much to do and hopefully, to share. And, now I know that I am not alone!
Blessings!