Extreme frugality question for everyone...

[Persimmon Lace]

Let's say we do get into a depression as deep as the last one. You've got a limited budget to buy anything but food, heat for your house, etc. But even that's bare minimum. In the books I've read of the depression and my grandparents/relatives recollections there were those who had absolutely nothing. Sometimes a family would have potatoes, milk and eggs or just greens with something else to cook.

My question for anyone who wants to answer would be...how are you going to get your picky eaters to eat only the food that's available? Go without what we now consider necessities but are not? What is your game plan to get through an extreme time?

[Lady_V]

Honestly... picky or not, when severe and prolonged hunger strikes, a lot of things look more appealing.

There are a lot of things I choose not to eat, but if it was eat a brussel sprout or drop dead from starvation... I will love me some funky looking green things!

I have been running taste tests to see what I can get past my family now. If they will eat it now when food is plenty, I know I won't have to clonk them over the head when it's scarce.

Rice or pasta with peanut butter has actually gone over well.... I tell them it's pad thai and they don't blink an eye. The rice/pasta will fill their bellies and the peanut butter will offer some protein if meat sources are unavailable.

[bonnotsm9]

I don't worry about it. If it gets that severe, they'll be glad for anything to eat.

There's an old saying- "hunger is good sauce."

[2ndGenGranola]

I strongly believe pickiness is tied to too many choices and just plain too much. I believe after missing a couple meals and not having plentiful snacks, even the pickiest eater will come around.

[rachelMcK]

I used to be a picky eater when I was a kid, and then my mom stopped making me dinner. If I didn't eat, I didn't eat. It was my choice, and I couldn't have anything else other than what was being served. Of course, I didn't eat a few meals. That lasted a day, now I eat pretty much everything. Picky eaters aren't so picky when they don't have a choice.

[Siebrie]

In that case, picky eaters can 'pick' not to eat, that's the only option I'll give them.

[thesightofoneself]

whether you want to bash me or not believe me, i dont care.

i'm a picky eater. i'm also a vegan. i'm also a health freak. i'm also a protein fanatic.

i'm not just going to start eating meat because i'm hungry. has anyone ever read the hunger artist by kafka? i'd rather pass out every night then eat something i refuse to ingest. dont get me wrong, i might be more lenient with my chooses, i do that now when i get sick of eating oatmeal every meal, but i'm not going to give up my principles. what would be the point if i couldnt stand to live with myself after eating that crap? a lot of people die on principle and i guess i'll be one of them.

[Spirit Deer]

Picky eaters are made, not born. They're picky because their parents allow them to be and cater to their fussiness like it's a handicap that no one can do anything about. Once the option to pitch a fit if the food isn't to their narrow-minded liking and get results for doing so evaporates, voila, they're not picky anymore.

If things got so bad I had to worry about how to feed my family ANYTHING AT ALL, the last priority on my mind would be figuring out how to continue spoiling a spoiled child.

And I don't see things getting that bad in the first place.

[tigo]

We are not picky eaters. We have lived all over the world and eaten things we thought we never would. When push comes to shove and you don't have your familiar comfort foods, you really will eat what is available. I try to have a stockpile of foods my family will eat and I only grow those things the majority of us will eat. I am the only one who will eat beets so needless to say I don't spend the time/energy/money growing those when a can or two will suffice.

[Denvergirlie]

My grandparents told me stories of not having anything to eat for a week until the day a turnip truck spilled over and they went to pick up the turnips late at night.
A "family" of 4 , the oldest was 11, their parents had died and it was just the kids that had to take care of each other.
You bet they all ate the turnips and were very thankful for them.
When someone is hungry, no one is a picky eater.
If it gets that bad, your child will not longer be picky but instead hungry and they will eat what you serve them.

As others mentioned, no child is really born a picky eater (outside of a few actual medical conditions), picky eaters are trained to be picky eaters by their parents. Let the kid go hungry for a few days and that problem will be solved.

[Lisahas2cats]

I was one of those "spoiled, picky eaters" as a kid. I can still clearly remember gagging hard at the smell and texture of certain foods that my mother insisted I get over my picky, whiny self and eat. To this day (I'm almost 39), some foods disgust me so badly I have chills thinking about them (slaw and bananas immediately come to mind, unfortunately).

I tried the hardline approach with my son (since I was obviously so spoiled and whiney as a child, I couldn't in good conscience pass that on to him, right?). And now, as a young adult, he has similar food aversions. So with DD, I'm taking the hands-off approach. I offer healthy food at every meal. If she chooses not to eat it, that's fine.....but there will be no alternate meals, nor snacks before the next meal. I don't give her things that I know make her gag (scrambled eggs), but other than that I don't sit around and plan meals around her food whims.

Having said all *that* to say......for the picky eaters in my house (me included) in the case of a very limited food supply situation, I guess we can keep doing what we're doing now: eat it, or don't eat till the next meal. Easy peasy, lol.

[Spirit Deer]

I offer healthy food at every meal. If she chooses not to eat it, that's fine.....but there will be no alternate meals, nor snacks before the next meal.

Which removes her from the "spoiled" category and you from the "indulgent parent" category.

My dad talked about eating lard sandwiches every day for school lunch during the Depression. I find that idea pretty unappetizing. But if it was that or starve, I'm quite sure I'd find a way to choke it down and be grateful to have it.

[annymoll]

Hunger changes things. Just ask the Donner family.

[Grainlady]

Hunger changes the perspective of a picky person.

I have a large stockpile of "The Seven Survival Foods" (grains, legumes, sprouting seeds, sweetener, salt, oil and powdered milk) and can make a plethora of foods with these ingredients even picky people would enjoy. You need to think ahead and be prepared, including knowing how to prepare these foods and recipes your family would enjoy.

Our new "Depression Era" foods wouldn't be the same as the 1930's. It's not likely we'd consume lard sandwiches or lard sandwiches and onions, as an example. Most of you have never experienced lard, but lard was a common household fat when I was growing up. My parents and grandparents went through the Depression so I grew-up with some of the same foods they used.

Our food choices and food storage is completely different than it was then. For the most part, people used a block of ice in an icebox, not a refrigerator; or cooled foods in a "cave" or a "spring house". My grandparents had their own ice houses and would cut ice blocks in the winter from rivers or ponds as their ice source. If I had to make an ice house today, I'd freeze ice in plastic storage containers to make the blocks of ice, rather than cutting ice from a pond. I'd also utilize an old freezer buried in the ground as the "house". There were NO freezers packed to the gills.... No supermarkets with stuffed shelves, either. You might have to make your own baby food from your food stockpile - what would you use? It would be best if you knew now, not later.

Most households in America were still on the farm or in a small rural community and they actually fared much better than those in urban areas. Cooking was done primarily on a wood stove, not in a microwave. All those things impacted the kinds of foods available and how they were used then, as they will influence how things will be used now.

So let's start a group of foods/recipes for the "New Depression" - even ones for picky eaters.

#1 on my list...homemade tortillas and refried beans. My parents (who passed away in 2000 and 2001) never consumed either of these foods their entire lives, but I will dub them the "new depression" foods.

My mother-in-law (also a depression era person) ate baked beans or beans mashed from Navy Bean Soup spread on homemade bread. Sounds good, huh! But consider this - the bean sandwich shares similar ingredients to tortillas and refried beans, but in today's world, the tortilla and refried beans would go over much better than the bean sandwich.

I'd suggest everyone learn how to make tortillas because these are a "bread" that can easily be made at home (you can even make them on an open fire or a bbq grill) with only a few ingredients and used for nearly any meal as well as snacks. Here's a simple recipe:
http://www.wheatfoods.org/Native-Ame...-Bag.219.1.htm

Beans combined with grains = a complete protein. You can add bean flour (if you have a mill - which I do) to the ingredients for a portion of the flour for the non-bean eaters. [Note: Use small white beans for bean flour in baked goods. They have the least beany flavor.]

I mill pinto beans or black beans into bean flour for making "instant" refried beans. It only takes a few minutes of cooking the bean flour in water to make refried beans. Not the overnight soak and the long cooking. I also "cook" beans in a Thermos using only boiling water. Another method for making refried beans that doesn't take a lot of energy.

I'll have to think of some more modern versions of the old depression foods for picky people and post more later.

[monkeywrangler71]

Picky eaters are made, not born. They're picky because their parents allow them to be and cater to their fussiness like it's a handicap that no one can do anything about. Once the option to pitch a fit if the food isn't to their narrow-minded liking and get results for doing so evaporates, voila, they're not picky anymore.

I was born picky, I was not made. I was not allowed to be, I was not catered to, I received no results for having a fit if the food wasn't to my narrow-minded liking. If I refused to eat something, I went hungry. I'm afraid there was no "voila" moment, I'm still picky.

Luckily the cheapest foods are the least offensive. All the picky eaters here would do fine with bread and potatoes.