Food, not supplements

Food comes after water in the hierarchy of the things you need to sustain life off-grid.

First Water, then Food, then Fire, then Shelter, although you could argue Shelter and Fire should be the other way around.

Food and water the source of our nourishment, and you simply cannot live without them.

Off-the-grid living puts a heavy emphasis on self-sustenance, self-doctoring and running your own power supply. This means that you’re going to have to give up many conveniences that modern society offers.

You will be living away from the convenience of supermarkets that provide most commodities in one huge place. Gone will be the ease (as well as the stress) of living in the city.

Water is usually rather easy to secure, although we have made a video on our YouTube channel about what happened when we went searching for free water in the city.

This article is focused on food. There is also a video about finding free food in the city.

But how do we secure food when living off the grid?

Fishing

If you’re able to find a clean natural water source, there’s a chance that you might also have found a source of food. Of all off-the-grid food available, fish is the most beneficial. It contains your daily requirement of Cod Liver Oil which is more essential to survival than one might think.

The advantage of fishing is that as any fish you catch, you can cook and consume immediately, as opposed to fish farmed supermarket fish, filled with its own faeces and five days from factory to plate.

Farming

The most common method of securing food comes in the form of farming. And it is rightly so, because this is where you’re going to get your staple food from. This is essential to your survival because crops like your vegetables, fruits, and grains will help get you through the winter, where animals and fish may be rare.

You may even decide to raise livestock to further boost your ability to nourish yourself and your family, as is the case in subsistence farming. Though it’s important to note that the purpose of subsistence farming is to allow you to provide exclusively for yourself (or the off-the-grid community) and thus, the farm and the crops produced from it have no commercial value.

Hunting

For the average outdoorsman, hunting is a favorite way to pass time. It is a hobby to most people. But for those who opt to live off the grid, it is a way of life and a means for survival.

It is an essential supplement to both farming and fishing, especially when you need to get through the winter. Pelts and fur are also very valuable during the bitter cold