Food & Diet Continued in the Event of a Zombie Apocalypse or TEOTWAWKI

I know I said that this next post on my zombie blog was going to be about the toilet, but I have found some more interesting things about diet that I thought I would share.

Should the world end somehow, either by a zombie uprising, or some other factor that causes the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI), diet is going to be a very important consideration. For those of us like myself that are not exactly the most svelte individuals, TEOTWAWKI will force us to slim down whether we like it or not.

The complete lack of any kind of fast food, convenience food, and the drastic reduction in the availability of soda pop, beer, alcohol, and super sugary sweets will slim down my figure considerably. Looking at the cupboard and figuring all the items that will disappear, such as anything that contains high fructose corn sugar, and other artificially concentrated sugars, does not take very long.

Considering the amount of work that will be needed to feed, clothe and protect my family of four, my wife and I both (I figure) will lose a lot of weight in first year or so after the collapse. Having to work hard every day to provide food for our two small children is going to be difficult.

I have enough food stashed away that we can get buy for a while until we need to resupply. Resupplying by scavenging is probably going to be the most effective means of supplying my family until we can get a garden laid in and possibly shoot some wild animals.

However a consideration is the weather. Let’s say the collapse happens in the winter months, you are going to have to feed, shelter and clothe your family until the spring time when it will be time to plant a garden. Winters here now are fairly mild with little snow, but a lot of rain.

You should already have a decent sized piece of property so that you can plant an orchard of several different varieties of trees suitable for the environment in which you live. If there has been nuclear weapon use as in my zombie novel, then the weather is going to get much colder and some of the more fragile crossbreed trees may not survive. I suggest planting hardier, heirloom type variety of fruit trees.

How many of you know how to butcher your own meat? You might want to get some books on how to butcher animals. I suggest buying books in print because electronics require electricity and if the grid goes down, there goes your electronic books.

There are several places nearby that I know of that I can shoot small game such as rabbits, squirrels, and waterfowl such as ducks and geese. While we might sneer at them now, and complain about the mess they make, inner city pigeons will make decent table fare when you are starving. In Sarajevo and Bosnia during the conflicts, starving inner city dwellers nearly annihilated all the city’s pigeons using sling shots and marbles. Those cute rabbits in the city parks are going to end in someone’s cook pot in no time same for the urban deer in the city park. Even fido may not be safe.

I recommend that people learn to use and practice with a good sling shot using either metallic shot or marbles. A sling shot is a quiet and lethal way to bag small game such as pigeons, rabbits and squirrels without making a lot of noise. Also get a good pellet rifle and learn to shoot it well as they can be used to bag small game as well without much noise, but are not as circumspect and quiet as a slingshot.

If you have hungry zombies around that are attracted to noise, shooting a pigeon with a gun may attract hungry zombies. In other situations, the sound of a gunshot may attract unwanted attention as someone may come to steal that gun from you.

If you live in the suburbs like I do, and have several large city parks nearby filled with urban deer (especially now during deer season) get a good crossbow and learn how to shoot it. A decent crossbow as seen in shows such as The Walking Dead is a quiet and efficient way to harvest game for the dinner table (or eliminate zombies) without making a lot of noise.