Funny to think that for our grandparents, that was just a typical Tuesday.
They did pickling, canning, preserves, all that stuff. Some might've done smoking and curing. Kept a spare freezer stocked. After the Great Depression, they weren't going to be caught empty-handed again.
Two generations later, we learned nothing from them and look at that as comparable to going to the moon. Wow.
But yeah, I don't know how to do any of that either. To learn, talk to some older people, I guess?
1. Start a garden this year. Learn the basics. A big garden is just the same principles at a larger scale.
2. Just start doing everything yourself. Go on YouTube and watch how to do X and do it. It’ll build general knowledge of how things work. Saves money, builds confidence, generally good skills regardless.
3. There are survivalist camps if you’re hard core (don’t think it’s necessary, but some people might like it idk)
4. Start curing / pickling your own food. Some simple examples: but everything from the store to make salsa and try that. Make your own bacon (very good) by buying pork belly. Country ham can be delicious and fairly straight forward. Just be sure to follow guides. The USDA publishes guides on canning for instance
Hell I barely know how to change the oil in my car because I never had someone teach me and only recently got to a place in my life where I realized that sort of thing is important. I'm making headway, slowly but surely, but something like growing enough food for a family or acquiring meat, let alone preserving it, might as well be trying to get to the moon.