My partner grew up in the mountains, and that’s very much how they ate. Home-grown, canned and cooked basically everything above flour. The kids got taught what they could wild forage themselves, and what to bring back to ask about.
Now, they were so cash poor as to have to rub two pennies together to make three, but that’s a whole different point of conversation
Yeah that’s how my mom grew up 70 years ago in Appalachia, those days are long gone.
The other comment about hotdogs and mac & cheese is much more accurate to the 21st century IME.
Wasn’t that long ago, but damned if they ain’t making it harder to do. Every cheap plot of land I’ve looked at has such stringent use restrictions it’s basically having an invasive landlord with more steps. Homesteading is dead, at least in places i’d consider it.
Not to romanticize it too much. It sucked so bad my partner’s mom responded to a trip idea with “what? Fuck no! We lived in a tent for a year, why the fuck would I want to go camping?”
We still are never allowed to ‘just go live in the woods’ lol
