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Full Title: The Modern Pioneer Cookbook
Nourishing Recipes From a Traditional Foods Kitchen
Author(s): Mary Bryant Shrader
Publishing / Edition: DK, 2023

Click here for the Table of Contents of the book


Content Review

This cookbook revolves around the idea of creating a kitchen that is both "traditional" (i.e.: where many things are made from scratch) and "zero-waste" (by reusing scraps, preserving, and so on).

Mary is very generous with her knowledge, running both a website and a corresponding YouTube channel, Mary's Nest. She even offers a homeschool curriculum for teaching these same sorts of skills to children. Altogether, it is such an incredible wealth of free, practical information. You can tell that it is a labor of love. All of the writing on this website is motivated by a similar compassion for others...

During the pandemic/lockdown, I was conversing with some online friends about what each of us were doing to make money stretch when preparing our meals.

For example, I would rely heavily upon grains (like brown rice), beans, and frozen/canned vegetables. In the proper proportions, I could make meals that were relatively balanced. Then, I would season them with cheap spices to keep them from feeling bland (e.g.: salt, pepper, onion or garlic powder, Italian and Cajun mixes, chili flakes, etc.). And finally, I would fluctuate through different combinations in order to vary my diet even further (e.g.: lentils with carrots and green beans, black beans with corn and tomato, etc.). My life was/is very austere, but I had a place to store food and to cook so I could get by on as little as ~$40/month.

I wanted to help everyone more, so I prayed over what else I could share. This research became the article Abundance Through Food Preservation & Economy and how I first heard of Mary's work. I have been reminded of it from time to time since then.

Making sure that everyone is well fed is a fundamental aspect of what I am working towards, so it seemed natural to elaborate upon this idea of a traditional, zero-waste kitchen. It is often complemented by growing a "potager" (i.e.: a garden that is filled with seasonal vegetables, fruits, herbs, edible flowers, etc.). One does not have to own land or have a yard in order to do this. Some aspect of it is possible within every living circumstance, such as growing herbs on a kitchen windowsill or growing pots of vegetables on a small porch.

As our kitchen and garden become more tightly coupled to one another, we are presented with opportunities for making even more food! For example, we have several options whenever we are faced with the "leftovers" from cut fruit or vegetables:

1. If we know something about the plant, we can propagate a cutting and/or a seed from it.
2. We can cook things with scraps directly (e.g.: vegetable broth).
3. We can make compost for growing more plants.


Elsewhere on the website, we had spoken about how this type of thinking can be expanded to pretty much every aspect of a living space. We mentioned the home and yard of Brad Lancaster, and how they are like a masterclass in "ecological design". To reiterate a few points:

• A huge amount of the material that is used within the house is salvaged from scrap, while the house itself is structured in such a way as to passively heat it and cool it according to the season (through insulation, the positioning of windows, the slant of the roof, etc.). The oven, refrigerator, water heater, and other appliances are all solar-powered as well.

• Every inch of roof is used to harvest rainwater. This is held in two large "gravity-fed" tanks, where the height and weight of the water itself is used to push it through pipes to where it is needed instead of using a pump to move it. This water is available for all household tasks. "Greywater" (i.e.: the soapy water leftover from washing clothes, bathing, etc.) is used for irrigation.

• A composting bin and toilet generate rich soil for growing native plants all throughout the yard. All of these plants produce useful materials, medicines, and food. Native plants are used because they are well-adapted to that climate and do not require more water than what naturally falls as rain.

By helping individuals to become self-empowered by teaching them how to create their own sustainable kitchens and gardens like this, we can then link these up into larger communities where people can practice mutual aid (e.g.: having a seed savers exchange with all of your neighbors who are also growing their own food). It is not limited to growing food either.

For example, if we are willing to build machinery, then we can generate energy through small-scale windmills, motors that run on "biofuels", kinetic generators that are pedal-powered or hand-cranked, and so on. Ideally, everyone would have more than one way of generating energy in the event that any one of them fails. Whether we are pumping water, heating and cooling a space, or running lights and appliances, nearly every household task requires a clean and reliable source of energy.

In another article on the website, we spoke about the idea of creating a "resilient microgrid". To give a quick summary:

In computing, a "mesh network" is when every computer is connected to each other in such a way that, if a connection fails, any two can still communicate with one another by routing through a different path. We can connect every household together in a similar manner to form a "microgrid", where any excess electricity that is generated by anyone could go to wherever it is needed and/or be stored for later use by everyone. The "SolBox" is a good example of a similar system.


Imagine a whole neighborhood filled with homes like this, with everyone helping one another without being overly dependent upon each other.

We can also carefully scale these ideas up to make an "ecovillage". What is an "ecovillage"? To quote the astrophysicist Robert Gilman:
...we will define an eco-village as a human-scale full-featured settlement in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development and can be successfully continued into the indefinite future.
We have spoken before about the idea of combining local food banks with community gardens, as well as coming up with a general plan where the edge of a city can be turned into "food forests" filled with plants native to that area in order to prevent "urban sprawl", while large greenhouses within the inner city can be built in order to grow more diverse foods. All together, these systems can lead to food production that is completely local and where absolutely no one goes hungry because a surpulus of food is readily available to everyone!

For example, the system set up by the Growing Power organization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was very inspiring. They grew a huge amount of food within a greenhouse inside of city limits using a variety of methods that supported one another:

They raised fish and plants together ("aquaculture"), with the waste of the fish acting as a fertilizer for the plants. The plants were grown in trays that were stacked on top of one another in shelves to maximize the amount of space used ("vertical farming"). They also raised insects to feed the fish ("vermiculture"). Some forms of composting produce heat. They used this heat to keep the inside of the greenhouse warm throughout the winter so that they could grow food all year-round! With enough planning, one could make a greenhouse that is almost like a natural environment ("bioshelter").

We can extend this design to provide even more resources. To continue these examples:

The work of John Todd shows how to use sand filters, specific microorganisms, and carefully selected plants and small animals like snails, to remove toxins from an environment in a way that complements the above processes. This can be used to filter waste water. It is also possible to use similar systems, like algae-based "photobioreactors", to filter air and produce oxygen.

In addition to making compost, leftover plant scraps can be used to generate energy by using "biodigesters" to produce methane gas, which can then be used for cooking food. It is also possible to culture specific types of bacteria to form "microbial fuel cells". In short, any stream of municipal waste can be fed back into the system in some way to produce something useful.

Imagine, these sorts of sophisticated bioshelters at regular intervals within the inner city. Instead of creating pollution and waste, they can produce food and energy without having to import it from far off places. Now, how do we make the "food forests" at the edge of the city?

The study of "agroforestry" and related techniques show how to combine trees with crops and pasture. We can mimic a forest by planting in layers and introducing complementary organisms, like fungi which make beneficial "mycorrhizal networks". These mycorrhizal networks interconnect the roots of those plants so that they can share nutrients. Depending on the types of plants that are used, a forest can grow in a relatively short amount of time.

Photo Credit: Realize Homestead

Everything that we truly need can be made without destroying the environment, while simultaneously providing a habitat for other living creatures, like insects and animals.

The creation of cities ("urbanization") is tied to the creation of businesses ("industrialization"). In order to mitigate the problems with both of those processes, people have started forming what are called "transition towns". These transition towns attempt to become self-sufficient by maximizing the use of:

• practical devices that are small in scale, accessible, relatively cheap to build and maintain, and fit within a given context ("appropriate technology")

• small, community-owned businesses that focus on trade skills and craftsmanship rather than on mass production ("cottage industries")

This emphasis on community doesn't have to limit production of useful items though. A similar initiative is the "fab city", which tries to increase the number of things produced locally by continuously reusing what is already there ("circular economy"). This is done through a network of "fab labs" or "makerspaces", which are workshops where people can share tools and learn how to build things. As better ways of doing things are developed, this information is freely shared (a process they refer to as "Data In, Data Out" or DIDO).

Again, this can connect to streams of municipal waste. We've covered before how many incredibly useful things can be built from the material gathered from local recycling programs. To reiterate some of this:

The machinist Dave Gingery made an entire machine shop out of scrap aluminum. First, he made a "charcoal foundry" to melt aluminum. He then molded the parts for a "lathe". A "lathe" is a machine that shapes a piece of material (such as metal or wood) by pressing a blade against it as it rotates. Dave then used the lathe to make other tools, then combining their use to make more. Many useful machine parts can be made in this way! A similar project is the MultiMachine designed by Pat Delany. It is, quote: "A complete machine shop in one tool. Entirely built from scrap material."

Once we've made a basic machine shop, we can use it to build even more devices to handle other kinds of materials. Making the machines designed by Precious Plastic can help us to do a similar process with scrap plastic. We can make just about anything, from equipment to make gardening easier all the way up to any type of device that would be needed to build a civilization. What is stopping us?

All humans share basic needs (like clean air and water, healthy food, protective clothes and shelter). The thing that keeps everyone from having an abundance of these things is war. We already have the means to take care of everyone. It is peacemaking that we need. Only genuine peacemaking will heal the divisions between people.

The tendency for warfare extends beyond fighting with one another and into warring against the environment. To give an example...

A lot of the work of chemical and biological labs throughout the world is founded upon war directly, or carries out a kind of war by constantly approaching things as a competition or by attempting to "solve" problems in a destructive way. It is especially evident within agriculture. I've said this before, but it bears repeating:

Modern agriculture is a very labor-intensive process. In an attempt to automate it, large fields of one type of crop ("monoculture") are planted uniformly in rows so that they can be harvested with machines. However, if a large number of the same type of plant is concentrated within a given area, the soils become depleted as all of the plants compete for the same nutrients.

Chemical fertilizers are used in response, but these have the minimum of necessary minerals for plant health. They produce a sickly plant susceptible to diseases and insect infestation. Fungicides and pesticides are used to combat those problems, but poison the groundwater supply and kill off helpful creatures like butterflies, bees, ladybugs, and earthworms. Everything is interconnected.

Industrial agriculture is not necessarily "inefficient". It actually produces a surplus of food. The problem is that a large amount of that food is wasted at every point within that process, at great cost to the environment, and as many people all over the world still go hungry.

If we include factory farms that attempt to maximize the amount of livestock raised, and the slaughterhouses which try to quickly prepare that meat for human consumption, then we also face issues regarding animal cruelty and human safety (including the spread of infectious disease). And that still does not even touch upon the topic of nutrition and the impact of highly processed food upon the health of our bodies and minds.

In short, our food system is incredibly broken. We are literally trying to sustain life by causing death. We have already shown to some extent how those issues can be taken care of, but there is so much more to do.

Of course, Mary's book doesn't cover a lot of what I am talking about here. So, why do I find the need to share it then? Because what she does give within this cookbook is a brilliant starting point. No matter your circumstances, there are things that you can do to adopt more sustainable practices for the benefit of yourself and those around you. There is a closeness that naturally develops as family and friends both cook and share a meal together. Imagine this feeling spread throughout an entire city, and then across cities and nations until it covers the entire globe? Everyone needs to eat. Let's practice peacemaking until we can all share a meal together.

...Besides, I once jokingly mused that maybe a blog post could save the world. Why not a book review? ☺

[P.S.: If you like this book, check out its sequel.]


Related Resources

• Lease the eBook from Google Play $