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I get a lot of requests for more “old school” episodes of TSPC and most of those focus on homesteading, permaculture, hard skills, etc. which lead us to the pillars of homestead series that we will continue today.  In part four of this series we are going to cover the fourth pillar, local hunter gather knowledge, aka foraging and trade.

Note this series is not about commercial farming for a profit, scaling food production to feed 50 families, etc.  Rather old school American homesteading like our grandparents & great grandparents did.  Feed yourself, store surplus and share surplus with your neighbors.  That is not to say a side hustle market garden or similar won’t fit with this series just that the foundation is first about “feeding the family”.

So what are the pillars, for this discussion there will be four….

• Gardening
• Back Yard Livestock
• Perennials and Herbs
• Local Hunter Gatherer Knowledge (foraging and trade)

Like any set of “pillars” these are not end all, be alls, just the foundation on which to build.  Each is connected to others though function stacking and additional systems.   Gardens create waste, animals create waste the two are connected via composting, compost feeds the garden which feeds the humans and animals as one example.

Today’s episode ends the series on what may be the most important of the pillars.  They say no man is an island.  I say no homestead an island.  We have taught against lone wolf mentality since our foundation in 2008 here at TSP.  I also think back to all the hunting and fishing I did as a kid.  While our garden was huge there was no question what put more nutrients and calories up every year for the family.  Venison, trout, catfish, pan fish and doves and other small game likely made up 60% of our total diet annually.

When you tossed in things like wild blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, etc that we foraged you likely got another 10% of calories.  As to mushrooms I can’t remember my father, grandparents or uncles ever buying a single mushroom from a store, ever.  Yet we ate some of the most gourmet and sought after mushrooms in the world like maitake, morels and chanterelles which we ate fresh, dried and some even ended up in our jars of Chow Chow relish.

And I just can’t talk about this subject without adding in local trade, as fellow members of a community are in a way like an opportunity to “forage”.  When we forage we go off our land, use work, knowledge and resources to obtain other resources.

So what were we doing when we took two hefty bags of our grapes 5 houses up the road to Buddy Shoemaker and he turned them into wine, kept half and returned the other half to us as “payment”?  Or when I got my oldman’s best friend to do a transmission job on my POS car in return only for showing him my secret spot to catch wild brook trout?  Local trade you bet but doesn’t it also sound like going off your land and using resources and knowledge to obtain what you can’t produce for yourself?

Join Me Today to Discuss…

• Human settlement was built on a foundation…
  • Common ideology
  • Hunting and Gathering
  • Trade
• The most common resources to look for
  • Direct forage (berries, mushrooms, wild vegetables, etc.)
  • Aquatic resources (fish, shellfish, aquatic vegetations)
  • Hunting (big game, small game, birds, etc.)
• The over looked opportunity
  • Local resources for resell
  • Local resources for your own homestead
• Moving on to local barter, trade and community support
  • Share first, trade second, it is amazing what happens
  • Use local labor when you need help (not corporations)
  • Identify key influencers in your community
  • Get involved in local events, etc. (Chamber of Commerce is generally not great)
• Steps to really get started with foraging, hunting and fishing
  • Identify as many opportunity spots as you can find, use contacts, google maps, etc.
  • Scout said opportunity locations, determine the ones with potential
  • Go deeper into those with potential, keep a journal of what you find
  • Remember you may scout a place in September with no yield that is great in May, etc.
  • Remember parks/game lands/etc 90% of people only go on 10% of the land
  • With fishing especially keep really good records (day, time, weather, water temp)
• Final Thoughts

Resources for today’s show…

• Join the Members Brigade
• TspAz.com
• TSPC on Discord
• TSPC Group on Telegram (group chat)
• TSPC Telegram Channel (just messages from me)
• Jack on Flote
• Jack on MeWe
• Join Me on Odysee
• All My Recommend Bitcoin Tools and Resources
• Perennial Vegetables by Eric Toensmeier

Sponsors of the Day

• Start9 Embassy Servers
• The Wealthsteading Podcast with John Pugliano
• Red Neck Hippy Duck Farmer Shirt – Small Front/Large Back Design
• Red Neck Hippy Duck Farmer Shirt – Large Front Design
• Paul Wheaton’s Amazing Homestead Bundle
• The Greater Reset 4 Conference in Bastrop Texas
• Rapid Rooter Plugs – TspAz Item of the Day

Video Version of Today’s Podcast

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.

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