Full vid here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AxfHwh7FRKU.html doing this again this year, LMK how I should change the rules now that I have more space!
Your Health comes first. Losing 13 lbs. in 30 days is hard on the body. It thinks you are starving and you will put the weight back on likely a lot more, because your body is prepping for being starved again. You don't have to make the challenge harder, it was already too hard. Instead show off the range of meals you can make with the food. So maybe some clips of recipes you liked best. Or even a full video. Maybe collaborate with a local cooking channel or innovative restaurant that could use your exposure. Show the variety you can have in potato dishes. You have chickens, so your ability to barter is greater. Most IMPORTANTLY don't harm yourself for your show. None of your viewers want that.
Kinda feel like you should get a certain amount of money like $2 a day (that you can save up and use or use everyday) that can be spent at a farmers market or on things you could never grow yourself. like wheat or rice or hell even cheese or milk. So that youre still eating everything you can grow and youre still buying locally from people who can grow those things (like the eggs). I mean providing one staple grain that you can have unlimited amount of and one animal product that you can also have unlimited amount of like eggs or cheese which are amazing for health and calories and frankly surviving famine foods wouldnt be cheating it would be good for your body and health and also prevent you from having seasonal issues with food like climate weather and dangers like fishing from definitely contaminated water sources etc even if you just buy a set amount of grain or starch and animal product before starting and making it rationed like i get 1 cup of dry rice a day and 2 eggs and 50grams of cheese and you could save those daily rations up if you wanted but you could really and should really work out how much you need as a baseline calories and have at least half your calories be your total daily ration and the other half be garden forage fish or barter. That way even if you dont eat it you have that option in lean times or if your sick or injured whatever AND you wont stress your body. Maybe you could incorporate an intermittent fast into this time or better yet preserve lots of jams chutneys dried fruits hell even meals like MRE type but solely from your garden like beans chilli or such i mean make it realistic. Even pioneers and settlers had rations of basic grains like flour and and sanity keeping coffee or honey. And even when they had big kitchen gardens and fruit trees they still bought canned goods and animal products and little treats and long term grains flours and spices. Maybe you could pair up with a friend or local green grocer or hell a farmers market or something and take scraps or even a resturant and help prevent food waste and really make use of things less eaten like carrot tops or peels for veg stock and other such things that usually get binned or composted and instead eat them use the whole plant.
I saw a recent video of yours saying that you want to limit yourself to what comes strictly off of your property. You're doing a great job Eric (sorry, Kevin. I always do that), but I don't think that's wise right now, IMO. I think your previous rules were quite good, allowing you to barter, forage, and fish. My only critique of that is to go fishing for larger fish, man! WTH?!? You have chickens now, so that's going to help a whole lot. I've only got four chickens, and it takes no time at all to have so many eggs you don't know what to do with. At $7/doz. in value, they're a huge barter item. One last comment, I don't think that I've seen you grow amaranth past the microgreen stage yet. A high protein grain, the leaves are edible and it reseeds like gangbusters. If at all, convince Jacques to do it too. That should be a comedy. #Hunger Games Boys Are you planning on doing it in Vlog form or one video?
I want to do this!!! I've never done this, but I am currently challenging myself to eat I thing from my garden everyday during harvest time and once a week other times.
@@joe_schmoe_420 please don’t, that causes algal bloom, decreased levels of oxygen, and severe reductions in water quality and in fish and other animal populations.
@@eidelrose using pond run off for your plants??? Because that's what he was talking about. The dirty fish water actually makes a wonderful fertilizer for plants hence the "increased yield" they were taking about.
This post reminds of that one time some rich asshole told me that it's fine if farmers stopped their jobs because we got the grocery stores. Like bitch, where did you think those foods in the grocery stores came from??
I think if you brought em in and put in a tank for a couple weeks feeding them out, they'd be a better option, kinda like a grass finish on beef cattle
@@ohnonotagain8935 exactly! That will clean out their system. I do this with live Crab. I feed them chopped of raw corn kernels. Because corn doesn't digest so when it comes out, it scrapes their intestines, cleaning out their system.
@@kra_hme just think of all the plastic we eat and don't know it. Plus the new push for cricket flower in a lot of foods as well as commercialized cockroach coffe grounds. I swear RU-vid is having me read labels at the grocery store and garden in my kitchen far more than I ever thought necessary
when I was stationed in San Diego in the 1980s going on a grunion run was a rite of passage. you haven't lived till you've seen a dozen drunk sailors trying to catch fish with their bare hands by the light of the full moon. The experience wasn't complete without an appearance by the Shore Patrol and a call to your Chief. Good times, lol
@@clashoclan3371 lol imagine you''ve spawned 1000 miles, just about to finally get busy and fulfill your life's purpose, when some random hangry guy grabs you for dinner
'Surviving off my garden for 30 days' was an eye opener. Thanks for showing us it takes more than you think. Even with him fishing and foraging outside of his garden, he still lost 13 lbs in a month. That's staggering!
@@hannahwillis9838or hens! Or at least knowing someone with hens. An egg is around 70-75 calories. 5 eggs/day would give you around 350 extra calories to work with
He could have grown legumes. For protein and calories. He said he had 90 days to prepare. His garden is big enough to grow enough food for 30 days even without fishing and bartering. I guess he needs to forage BC he doesn't really have fruits in his garden. Berries and nuts would be a great help. I don't know if he can grow berries in his zone and nut trees take forever to produce.
I think people dont realise how effective farming is on a mass scale rather than an individual. We really should be supporting local farming more for better quality, accessibility and pricing of food.
That will never happen any time soon. People will only do what they see as beneficial to them. No one wants to pay 50% of their income to a local farm. Not unless they have specific values which push them to do that.
@@AJ-ox8xy Thats the problem. You cant count on individuals because its governments and companies that cause these price hikes of ethical and local economy supporting programs by allowing unethical products. Its up to working through the government to get mass beneficial societal change.
@@josjos-x5s I agree. But traditionally that takes a highly united society that is bound by blood tradition and history. It's not possible right now on any grand scale. I do agree though we need to unite and focus on supporting local agriculture. But that will happen on the small micro scale for now. Good luck 👍.
@@AJ-ox8xy I think the problem is that people are too bound by tradition. An unwillingness to share with others outside ones own circle and people still falling for the lies or charisma of higher powers in society that don't have their best interest in mind. In truth social progress has only ever happened through denying higher powers. Even in feudalistic times you weren't guaranteed your own crops. Of course you need a united society but usually progress avoids tradition and the tradition of powers that keep people at bay.
Yeah $900 for a month of groceries is far to much for any single person. That would be $225/week for a four week month. Assuming there are 30 days that month that devides up into $30 every single day. No one should be spending $200 or more every single week on groceries for just one person.
@@acorneroftheinternet4179 for 3 of us I lived with a couple that probably spent over a grand a month on food she would make really intricate dinners and they'd be completely different each day so she made a tone of food waist by not using food from a previous meal just buy new vegetables etc. Every couple days because they old ingredients weren't needed for to long and went bad
Honestly, if I saw someone picking fruits off of a tree at a park, I’d just go join them. If it is edible, don’t waste it. In fact, when you eat the fruits, save all the seeds that you can and grow more!
In my area of my country and even over the border in my sisters area, we have cherry plums coming up everywhere. They're alongside rivers and some of the older people see it as poor people food. You get a cherry pitter and go for your life and boil them up. But most people don't bother. I have numerous plum trees and one is taller than my house. You get sick of eating them but regardless, I have a ton in vacola jars (British thing similar to ball mason but usually far bigger). Between that, the jarred rhubarb and about 11 dozen jarred pickled eggs and a bunch of Jerusalem artichoke, never mind the hidden rice stash, I'll be right for a month.
@@gameseeker6307I’m kinda poor but we own land somewhere by Utah with a house but my sister is acting like a bitch I could grow trees and show you if we do go since my mom decided to listen to my sister
@@AnythingButBecky1127 don't quote me on this, but I believe you could grow 'em just fine... I know a lot of people love 'em, but they aren't my cup 'o' tea
With urban gardening, I don't think the goal is to totally replace the food system, but supplement it with healthy, sustainable alternatives where manageable. Market varieties of many crops are bred for what stores and travels well, not what's most delicious or nutrient-dense.
This really goes to show how far we have come to secure food sources. It really makes me appreciate what we have today and hope the system doesn't fail. You did great, you had a really smart approach!
My local middle school has crab apple trees in their parking lot. They may have been considered decorative, but I pick a BUNCH and made over 2 dozen jars of crab apple butter. It's very good!
Around my area and even far further north, we have cherry plums growing all around rivers in public. I have one tree in the front yard taller than my house in red, another one in yellow, a whole ton I have put tree guards round that I don't even look at, and damson plums.
@@SS-pw8en all fruit can get bugs or worms in them. You have to cut the fruit. All the crabapples I used had been cut in 4ths and I sliced the cores out, as the seeds from any apple are toxic. Also. You cut away any bad portions, holes, bruises...then you can use what's left to process into whatever you are making. Also, worms mean that the fruit wasn't treated with any pesticides. That's a good thing. The stuff from the grocery stores, are treated and have been modified to resist many things that can affect the final fruit. Very few of the apples from our 2 golden delicious trees come off nice. They are all imperfect in some way. We don't use chemicals on them. Still good apples for pies, jellies, butters, and canning...also cut for eating.
@@gujwdhufjijjpo9740 homeless people literally have to forage like this to survive because they are receiving no community support and get harassed and beaten, meanwhile this dude is doing the same thing for clout but its "different" or "quirky" because he has money
@@gujwdhufjijjpo9740 it's more of a western countries problem, like America and Canada, because people often look down on the poor or homeless. because "they didn't get a job" or "worked hard enough", meanwhile, the same people preaching this rhetoric are the same reason why houses with 2 bedrooms in the suburbs cost over 500k American, they gouged all the prices as far as they could, and whine when they can't sell their house that was previously 50k in 1990, for 1million in 2020 because "the area is nice". It's basically the difference between Haiti, and the Dominican republic, one side is inherently more wealthy then the others. therefore,despite them being the same race, despite them being all descendants of slaves who didn't wanna be there, the Dominican republics people treat the Haitians incredibly poorly, because "theyre poor" "they don't work hard" "they smell funny so I chase them away" among many other holier then thou sayings. Haiti fought for independence and paid the price by being put into severe debt, that ravaged their side of the island, and the Dominicans stayed under the heel of Europeans, thus, they inevitably benefited when the world decided that colonies weren't very kosher and were given all the stuff left behind by the Europeans, including vast infrastructures and education, all of which, were stripped from Haiti when their rebellion won. This was just a simplified summary, but that should show you just how bad humanity can be, even to our own relatives and friends, the second someone becomes wealthy, 7 out of 10 times, they start to look down on everyone else for being poorer them them.
“No community support” Rose I don’t know where you’re from, but here in San Diego the majority of homeless people remain on the street because they don’t take advantage of public services. They’d have to give up their drugs in order to be in public housing and most choose the drugs over help. I’ve been here for years, that’s how it is.
A person living as independently as possible would need at least ⅓ acre of land dedicated just to farming in order to get by. He obviously doesn't have that kind of space. Keep in mind, he still lived predominantly off his potatoes and never bought so much as a single clove of garlic. The only bought things he had was olive oil for cooking fat and iodized salt. Yeah his title is a tough misleading, but its still impressive as hell he was able to get by as much as he could. His full video goes into far greater depths and I reccomend you watch it
@@acorneroftheinternet4179 not even misleading. This is how it was done for millenia. These kids just click a RU-vid video and expect Bear Grylls drink his piss instead of the tap water
I bartered 2 weeks of pet/house sitting for a 50-gal fish tank and later 1 week for a pair of Doc Martin boots and all the raspberries I wanting for canning. (Late season/ would have gone to waste and got permission to pick) i like bartering, too!
You can use a vertical layering system for your potatoes. Use a post and chain fence for the body in the shape of a cylinder, and layer the potatoes for a better yield per square foot. :) Hope it helps!
"I located a building with lots of food, and after foraging a basket full of supplies, ran out at top speed with minimal interactions with security guards."
I remember this video! Now that you've got Jacques to barter with and much more space, I think it all needs to be 100% off your own property. No fruit foraging or freeway fish 🤣
I think foraging is an age old way that people survived and although there's not like orchards of apples around here there's definitely citrus and things you can't pick off trees that nobody picks so why not.
@@eileenwineinger3173 nothing at all wrong with foraging! I just meant in order to make the rules more difficult for the next challenge, now that he has a larger property with his own fruit trees.
I think foraging would help put things into your body that it needs that you aren't normally getting. Going more natural to be the most ideal health as we were made
foraging is a really good way to get fresh and local food too! It's something that's quite common in my country, even if a little changed. In the Czechia it's normal to go mushroom picking (if you know what to look for! especially watch out for poisonous mushrooms and plants) and then we have other things like picking wild blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. Trees such as apple, pear, plum and or cherry trees are planted around the roads and villages. And then there's something we call paběrkování.( I don't think there is a literal translation, because the translator gives me 4 different possible names, and none of them make sense.) It is an activity where people go to fields that have been harvested recently and collect what the machines did not collect. This is a legal activity and you are not paying anyone for it. So you can bring home carrots, radishes, beets, potatoes, corn, etc... Of course, it doesn't look like a bought thing because it was thrown in the field, but it is a good food. And I'll admit that when we walk around the field, sometimes you pick up something before harvest. Young corn is delicious! Of course it won't provide food for people on a daily basis, a lot of this stuff is seasonal. But if you know how to can and dry and freeze, you don't need to buy some things. In general, it is mainly about diversifying the diet during the year, free of charge and healthy. I'm honestly happy that these things stick around because they are really beautiful experiences. Finding blueberries in the woods, ripe and sweet, or just picking up a bunch of carrots from the field. Or stop along the way and enjoy an apple or a plum...
This is actually how I lived pretty much all my life. Backyard farming is better that going to the grocery store. Since we were a poor family, I refuse any money given by my parents since my 3 older sibling attend college at that time. I went to my grandparents just so that my parents can focus on my older siblings' financial assistance. My grandfather and I mostly do farming and sell it so that I can support my own financial. I planted mostly green beens and red beens. Red beens are easy to grow since you can make them into baked beens. Sweets peas and greens peas. Good for broth meals and chopsoys. Potatoes and sweet potatoes. Sweets potatoes are easy to grow on hot weather areas. You can cut 2 foot of the end of the long long stem, if you can find it, and replant it. White and yellow corn. I dry the yellow corn utilizing the sun light. To be honest, them heatwaves this year produced more dried yellow corn and dried white corn. Dried white corn is also good because you can make them into porridge. Grind them into crumbles, soak it in water, boil, and they go well with milk and salted crackers. We plant pineapples too. You can grow pineapples in your garden since you cut the top of a store bought pineapple and plant the top of it. You can only harvest 3 times and you must replace the plant. In the green houses, we plant bell peppers, onions, garlic, ginger, carrots, Pechays, cabbage shoots, tomatoes and strawberries. Chickens are easier ro raise than pigs because pigs needs extra work. Chickens are easier because you can just train them to go in their chicken pen. After than, you can just let them loose then call them before sundown. Pigs on the other hand have more luxury because they eat vegetable peels and egg shells. Yes, they eat egg shells. It's a luxury because they eat more natural more nutritious food. Just don't let them near the chickens because they'll slaughter the chickens. Sometimes, they bite my legs so I hit them sometimes. It's self defense, not animal br*utality.....
In the '80es my whole family lived from our garden and stables, the whole winter . We hade potatoes, tomatoes, apples, nuts, pears, all kind of berries and we hade animal like pigs ,goats cows and chickens, many chickens. Our garden was big and we prepared from spring till fall to have everything saved for the winter .
There are several other easier starch sources- taro, cassava, purple yam, Chinese potato, air potatoe, arrowroot, plantain. Before large agro machinery made growing rice and wheat much less labor intensive, they were a very small portion of carb source in tropics. Most of starch sources were startchy fruits like jackfruit, plantain and breadfruit in summer, then roots and tubers during monsoon, which grew more mass for the area cultivated. Plantains, arrowroot and cassava were also either turned to flour or dried shavings to extend shelf life.
I'm aware there are tons of people who would perish without a grocery store which doesn't give much hope for survival and shows why that COVID bs happened with people hoarding food all of a sudden. Good on you for doing this and showing that it is not easy to be fulfilled consistently and it also takes work to eat and gather food much more work than taking bags inside from your shopping trip
The title and the first thing he says is surviving from his garden. Then literally adds other method's of getting food. I'm going to do a survival video in which I survive solely on crumbs from my belly button. In this time I'll barter for food from my local shops with money for the REST OF MY LIFE. Now this is a challenge.
@@magesalmanac6424 btw I'm not being mean it's just genuinely most Americans don't have a decent sense of humour and this was prime example of someone missing the point. Fantastic name btw. I collect miniature antique almanac's.
@@macandfries6765 Yeah, it happens, but usually affects some crops. I grow stuff. Sometimes when I fail to fertilize or water properly, the yields would tell. But given that there is access to water and fertilizer, the swings in yield should be minimal.
It's cool to see your more recent videos and how far you've come, adding chickens, more veggies and citrus to your yard garden. Also interesting to see how your garden is surviving despite local climate challenges like heat and low rainfall.
This is the reason why our farmers and agricultural system deserves more appreciation, it's quite easy to nag and complain about every little thing with food in our stomachs, without our food supply, none of the other things matter.
To be fair, things haven't always been that way and it's no guarantee to stay that way. The Great Depression happened and it's possible it could happen again. Better to prepare yourself and not need it than need it and not have it
I just realized how bad our diets are. Just eating 1 snack a day is enough calories to rival a normal meal with fruits and vegetables but we don’t get the necessary vitamins in that way. This was truly an eye opener. No wonder ppl that farm their own food and live within nature are usually skinny. Yes there’s also far once but at least they get enough vitamins unlike the rest of us who rely on processed goods. Fruits and vegetables don’t have nearly as many calories to cover your caloric intake unless you eat a lot which also means getting a lot of vitamins and having a huge variety between vitamins. Our diets are messed up and I blame grocery stores. Now we eat what we want to instead of eating what we have to which makes us healthier and happier
I'l love to see you optimize your "run" this year based off of what you learned! If you make a planner/list to prepare I'd love to see that as well. Since you have access to feesh grown/wild fruit it might be interesting to try and make vinegar w them, since they'll have wild yeasts on the skin instead of cleaned (somewhat) like a lot of grocery store produce is. I know it's too late now, but if you know someone who grows olives and is willing to trade, it might be neat to make your own olive oil to use in a future challenge!
we have a TON of produce in our garden, at least variety wise. I think I could live off of it for a week maybe, but what I like to do is supplement and save up on a few grocery trips by using my fresh produce. I get to eat my own tomatoes, cucumbers, salad, apples, paprikas, chilis, kiwis, carrots, potatoes, strawberries, blackberries (we're overflowing with these), raspberries, herbs, onions, green beans and lots of grapes! None of these sources would be sufficient enough to get me through a month but combined with our neighbours honeybees & chickens we can switch out a chunk. Love it!
@@thomaswhite3059 if we say 3 lbs water weight and 10 lbs actual loss, 3500 calories/lb of fat gives us a deficit of roughly 1167 calories/day. Since he's 6'4" and 225 lbs, we can put his TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) at roughly 2863 calories/day, assuming light exercise and ~30 years old. Subtracting that out, that means that he ate, on average, around 1696 calories/day, which is sustainable for a 5'3" 140 lb woman. 2000 calories/day is a rough benchmark, and it's too low for many men and too high for many women. Overall, he did get fairly close to his goal, but he didn't account for the number of calories he actually needed.
I survived a summer with two 4x8 garden beds and eggs from my 3 chickens. The only things I found I needed from the store were something sweet (cookies), something salty (chips), and condiments.
The next time you do this, I’d love to see more perennials utilized in your new space, to see if it’s possible in a realistic future situation where we’re on lockdown and we can’t safely leave our property. Also, I feel like sweet potatoes would be an excellent annual option, as you can eat the tubers and vines. True yams would be great for those MASSIVE yields.
I’m tellin ya move out of the city and into the suburbs/countryside and you can two 10X better than this 😊😊😊 but awesome job you’re hard work payed off ❤❤❤
Too low fat, you need to barter for a day to cook your food in, like ghee or lard. It's called the starvation diet, when you watch those survival shows and people starve even though they're eating rabbit every day. Rabbit is very lean, you need more fat to survive. 💗. Nice experiment!
i’m obsessed with your channel. Always great advice, i always learn something, and honestly just looking at your beautiful garden homestead makes my day. Even though my progress is going slow, it’s still going!!!
i remember you doing this. this was great. you should do more like this. like do one for limited garden spaces, trying to find out what % of your diet you can supplement with your garden.
This is a great challenge! It scares me a little, lol. We do raise meat rabbits and have laying hens. I need to seriously consider if my family could do this! I bet it shows where the weak areas are in my “survival” homestead plan.
Greetings from New Zealand. Wonderful video! You did very well, being in an urban environment! For more calories and protien, have you considered growing something like Marrowfat peas? Then you can make 'mushy peas' or 'pease pottage'. Given the way things are going, I think doing this kind of thing is really good, and may be quite useful to know and be able to do. Would love to see a video on the veggies you consider to be the most important/valuable for this kind of exercise. Great work! Cheers.
Of course you can’t, your garden is too small to sustain American portions. Still, your garden is enough to save you lots of money and help the environment, which is great.
People often don't realize it but eggs are life. Good protein, enough fat, tastes good, hell, you came from an egg. All you need is some chickens and you'll have eggs everyday
Those bluegills are probably going to be the best tasting and the best protein you're going to get in your meals if you cook them properly which is just like any other fish just be sure that you are cooking them thoroughly through it only takes about 10 minutes after prepping however I would not be concerned about the bluegills at all I eat them on a weekly basis LOL live next to a river love bluegills best panfish ever no punctuations don't care LOL
@@joanrichter4718 I grow them, so I'm partial. Mulberry trees are coming out of our ears. This June, we made jam, used them to make a crisp, and froze some. Next year, we're going to try making wine.
This is why I speak loudly about community and working together to feed each other. Bartering, helping with preserving, and all that is a way to take care of each other. But good on you for giving it a try.
