Not only can I not afford to buy, or have space to store, all the items I'd need to be self-sufficient, one person couldn't ever do all that anyway. There are some things I can do really well, some I totally suck at... thinking of you all small engines, or large ones now that I dwell on it... but there are others I can do passably well. My only hope is to trade the fruits of the passable skills for the things I can't do at all, which are many.
With that thought in mind, I picked up another 50 pounds of whole wheat flour, 50 pounds of brown rice, and 20 pounds each flaxseed, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, and quinoa. Most of those aren't really edible by themselves but they are awesome toasted, crushed up and added into breads.
Chia seeds - tiny little things, crunchy, nutty flavor, but the good thing is 1 tablespoon added to a dish adds 2 grams of protein, soluble fiber (the good stuff), a little bit of omega 3 fatty acids (also the good stuff) and over10% of the RDA for iron, magnesium, manganese and selenium. Even has 8% of the calcium we need in a day... That's a pretty good bang for 1 tablespoon of food. I'm a chia seed fan, add them to oatmeal, stir fry, soups... I spent my whole adult life until the last year or so thinking chia seeds were only good for growing green hair on terra cotta heads from "as seen on tv."
The feeling that something wicked this way comes, is getting strong, really strong.
Today, a foraging trip through Sams is in order.