Category Archives: Food & Water

Topics involved with food and water sovereignty

How to Slaughter a Turkey

Question Answered: How to Slaughter a Turkey

It’s Thanksgiving weekend and Turkey is on the menu.  Sure you could buy a frozen, or even a fresh turkey.  But maybe you raised a few birds over the summer, or somehow got your hands on a live one.  Now you’re wondering to yourself, how to slaughter a turkey?

Many of us have slaughtered chickens, and a lot of us have cleaned ducks.  But a Turkey is a lot bigger and a lot stronger.  So I decided to learn this for myself – of course I just searched for videos on YouTube.

Now killing animals is never fun, and neither is watching it on the internet.
But eating food that you grow at home is very fulfilling and one of the healthiest changes you can do in your life.  And if you are going to try butchering your own animals, you owe them to at least learn how to do it correctly ahead of time.

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Apple Crisp Recipe

Apples are a blessing in Canada.  We can make apple pies, apple sauce, apple cider, dried apples, and add apple as a flavouring to many of our baked goods.  But the most common thing I make with them is Apple Crisp.

My Apple Crisp Recipe:

I hesitate to give exact measurements for this recipe, because they really aren’t all that important.  It’s not like we’re baking a cake or bread where more precise ratios are important.

  • Apples – as many as you think you need
  • Oatmeal – 1 cup
  • Butter – 1/2+ cup
  • Brown Sugar – 1/3 cup
  • Cinnamon – 1 tsp
  • Nutmeg – 3/8 tsp

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GMO Food Labelling

GMO Food Labelling does not Mean Halting Research

Of more importance than the post on consumer nutrition responsibility, today I want to cover GMO food labelling.

GMOs are a hot topic for debate these days.  On one hand they allow farmers to grow more food, with less effort, and generally with the use of herbicide sprays that would kill the non-GMO versions of the plants.  Other GMOs have nutrients added in to the food to help prevent some malnutrition in children in poorer countries.  Golden Rice is the best example of that.

But that is exactly the issue, do we want to eat this food that has been heavily sprayed with roundup?  Do we want to eat food that has been modified at the genetic level with fish genes and a virus?

I won’t go into my beliefs on whether GMO foods are good or bad.  In short I think the research is good but I don’t want to consume them.  But there’s the problem, how do I know what foods have GMO ingredients in them and what foods do not?

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Gardening, Fruit & Nut trees, Chicken, Animals, and Preserving

Book Review: The Backyard Homestead

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!

I recently purchased the book The Backyard Homestead by Carlene Madigan (ISBN-10 1603421386 / ISBN-13 978-1603421386).  I found it to be a great introduction on the various fruits, nuts, vegetables, animals, and other items that you can have yourself; even in your urban backyard.  This is a great book to keep around for getting ideas for next year’s garden, figuring out how to preserve your harvest, and even giving me some ideas on how to incorporate animals into your food sovereignty plan.

Also, if any friends, family members, or spouses are reluctant to explore producing their own food, this is a great book to leave laying around for them the possibly pickup.  Covering most topics that a backyard homesteader may want to research, this book does make things seem quite simple and accessible to most people.

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Getting started with Hunting

My Plans for Getting Started with Hunting

Even though I grew up in the country on a farm, raising and harvesting our own meat and poultry – I am slightly ashamed of saying that I have no experience with hunting.  I have never had a problem with hunters, and always wished that I had those skills.  But that seems to be the problem with hunting, most people who hunt were raised by other hunters (father, uncle, grandfather).  But these days you will find older non-hunters, such as myself, becoming interested in learning about hunting and then going out to the field or bush themselves.

I consider hunting to be an essential skill for anybody seeking personal independence and self reliance.  Not only are you harvesting natural resources that you did not have to feed or raise yourself, but this is also likely the healthiest meat that you can find.  Naturally bred, antibiotic and hormone free, non-GMO fed, natural spring watered, free-range, organic meat – Almost the way that nature intended for us to eat.  No factory-farmed meat can compare to the health benefits of consuming this natural resource.

Below you will find some of my initial thoughts on getting started with hunting, along with some of the information that I have gathered.

Hunting is an important part of the Food Pillar of Personal Sovereignty

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A Tour of Our Summer Garden

A quick tour video of our summer garden

This is the type of garden I grew up with in southern Ontario, we could usually provide most of our vegetable requirements, and even put away a fair amount for the winter.  So continuing that trend, this is our summer garden for 2013.

I must say, this was planted before I really started learning anything about permaculture, self sufficiency, preparedness, raised beds, etc.  This is what came natural to us and, of course, we didn’t spray anything.  The only fertilization is compost and some cow manure.

Our ground is good for growning nightshades: tomatoes, eggplant, sweet peppers, hot peppers, etc.  Zucchini, squash, beans, and root vegetables grow well for us too.

A surprise this year was the size of the horseradish plants – the leaves were waist high!

Hopefully you enjoy – the garden will improve next year, I guarantee…