You also need to know how to prepare and cook what you grow and gather. Most folks think corn on the cob is the only way you eat corn, but we shelled if off the cob into grains, and took it from there. The grains are easier and more compact to store than corn on the cob, and I used the cobs to make pipes, an added bonus. I used What we called "prickly ash" to make the stems out of. There was a big-assed bush of it growing at the edge of our garden, and I could cut stems, shave off the bark and thorns, and then use a coat hanger to push the pith out of the middle of it to make pipe stems.
but back to the corn.
That corn, after being shelled, could be used as an ingredient in any manner of soups, or if ground into meal, could be used to make mush or fry bread. Mom used to make fry bread out of it by mixing in onions or whatever was handy into the dough, making flat patties, and frying them. that was also called "pones" or "Johnny Cakes", a corruption of "Shawnee Cakes". Or, you could just boil the grains and eat them as a side dish.
Beans? everybody knows how to cook beans... but I bet you didn't know you could grind them up to make a bread out of. Or a paste for other stuff.
I can't help you with the squash. I never would eat that stuff. Mom cooked it up with onions and stuff, but it never crossed my lips.
She also used to fry green tomatoes, because they weren't ripe yet, but we were still hungry anyhow. She breaded that with eggs and corn meal before frying it. I hate fried green tomatoes, but when you get hungry enough, the strangest shit starts looking like food.
I'd catch crawdads out of the creek, and boil them in salt water. They are exactly like miniature lobsters. Last summer, I noticed that someone had crawdad traps hung off the side of my bridge here. I left them alone, 'cause folks gotta eat, and I wasn't the one catching them.
When I was a teenager, I ate groundhogs, squirrels, rabbits, deer, fish, turtles, snakes, and any damned thing else I could catch. Except possums. I'm not eating anything I've seen crawl 3 feet up a dead cow's ass, and possums are that. I caught catfish out of the river, and have eaten gar fish caught out of the same river, which was a pain in the ass to clean. As it turns out, gars have scales that butt together instead of overlap, so they're tough to scale. I recommend just skinning them and having done with it. We even ate a grampus, which is the local name for what other folks call a "hellbender". it's a giant salamander that lives in rivers in the US. dear Old Dad called them "water dogs".
If it walks on legs through the woods, it can be eaten. Some critters are better than others to eat, though.
Point is. learn how to use what you have available, or what you can make available. The time night come that you're glad you learned that.
.
but back to the corn.
That corn, after being shelled, could be used as an ingredient in any manner of soups, or if ground into meal, could be used to make mush or fry bread. Mom used to make fry bread out of it by mixing in onions or whatever was handy into the dough, making flat patties, and frying them. that was also called "pones" or "Johnny Cakes", a corruption of "Shawnee Cakes". Or, you could just boil the grains and eat them as a side dish.
Beans? everybody knows how to cook beans... but I bet you didn't know you could grind them up to make a bread out of. Or a paste for other stuff.
I can't help you with the squash. I never would eat that stuff. Mom cooked it up with onions and stuff, but it never crossed my lips.
She also used to fry green tomatoes, because they weren't ripe yet, but we were still hungry anyhow. She breaded that with eggs and corn meal before frying it. I hate fried green tomatoes, but when you get hungry enough, the strangest shit starts looking like food.
I'd catch crawdads out of the creek, and boil them in salt water. They are exactly like miniature lobsters. Last summer, I noticed that someone had crawdad traps hung off the side of my bridge here. I left them alone, 'cause folks gotta eat, and I wasn't the one catching them.
When I was a teenager, I ate groundhogs, squirrels, rabbits, deer, fish, turtles, snakes, and any damned thing else I could catch. Except possums. I'm not eating anything I've seen crawl 3 feet up a dead cow's ass, and possums are that. I caught catfish out of the river, and have eaten gar fish caught out of the same river, which was a pain in the ass to clean. As it turns out, gars have scales that butt together instead of overlap, so they're tough to scale. I recommend just skinning them and having done with it. We even ate a grampus, which is the local name for what other folks call a "hellbender". it's a giant salamander that lives in rivers in the US. dear Old Dad called them "water dogs".
If it walks on legs through the woods, it can be eaten. Some critters are better than others to eat, though.
Point is. learn how to use what you have available, or what you can make available. The time night come that you're glad you learned that.
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’