Being Prepared: Bread, Bait, and Feeding Your Own

Having stuff does not replace skills.

We have forgotten how to make bread. We have forgotten how to raise a chicken. We have forgotten how to feed ourselves when the shelves go quiet.

Preparedness is not a pantry full of cans. Preparedness is knowing what to do when the cans are gone.

When I was young we were poor. Really poor. In New Jersey I walked to the A&P and bought the day-old bread. Five cents a loaf. I carried it home. That bread fed me and my little sister. When the loaf was almost gone I tore off a few pieces, walked down to the lake or the stream, and put bread on a simple handline. No pole. Just line, a hook, and patience. Carp took it. We ate fish that night. A sandwich. Hot if we could manage it. That was dinner. That was protein. That was us taking care of us.

Nobody brought us a box. Nobody signed us up for a program. The store had what it had. When it didn’t, the skill still worked. Bread from yesterday became bait. Bait became a fish. A fish became a meal for two kids who needed one.

Those racks of day-old bread are gone now. The loaves last too long. They do not mold. They do not go stale the old way. That is good business. It is not the same as knowing how to make a loaf yourself when the trucks stop or the power fails or the money runs out.

You can store flour. You can store yeast. You can store salt and a little fat and a little molasses. Water you already have. With those things you can make bread to eat. You can make bread to bait a line. You can feed a family without asking anyone for permission.

This is a dark rye I make. Cocoa, coffee, molasses, fennel. It keeps. It tastes like something that came out of a farmhouse kitchen, not a factory. A piece of it still works on a hook if you need it to.

Dark Rye

1½ cups lukewarm water

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 cup medium rye flour, plus more for dusting

1¼ teaspoons table salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar, packed

3 tablespoons black cocoa

1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso powder

1 teaspoon fennel seeds, to taste

1¾ teaspoons instant yeast

2½ cups unbleached bread flour, divided

Stir the water, vinegar, rye, salt, butter, molasses, sugar, cocoa, coffee, fennel, and yeast. Add the bread flour until the dough comes together. Knead until it is smooth. Let it rise. Shape it. Let it rise again. Bake it until it sounds hollow. Let it cool. Then eat it. Or tear a piece and go to the water.

Victory gardens feed you. Bread fills you. A handline and a little skill can still put protein on the table when nothing else will.

Being Prepared does not mean you own more things.

Being Prepared means you do not have to depend on anyone but yourself.

That is the point.

— Rob Yonaitis