FoodFight
19-Dec-2016, 12:22 AM
Thinking about foraging in general, and the Walking Dead in particular, it has struck me that even simple pleasures as a grilled cheese sandwich would be ultra rare in the ZPAW. Think about it. Bread doesn't last long, and flour doesn't store very well either. Wheat berries can be vacuum packed, stored indefinitely, and ground into flour as needed (again, shelf life of ground flour isn't spectacular so gotta use it soon). Baking is low-tech and doesn't require much in the way of materials or fuel so that's not much of a concern. But what if you don't have the wheat berries? Grow your own? You'd need a garden plot with some sort of water supply (as you would any sort of agricultural pursuit). Reasonable growing climate during the appropriate season (wheat is fairly easy). But you can't have random herbivores and zombies tracking down your fields. Some sort of fencing, obstacles, patrolling, etc. would be necessary to have a viable crop. So now you'd have manpower issues to contend with (left to chance wheat could be sown over a wider area, but harvest would now cover a much greater area requiring more security and gaining lower yields as well).
Cheese is another issue. Discounting horrible packaged cheese spreads, cheese would require cows (or goats, possibly). Don't forget feed for said animals (again, personnel and territory to grow and secure said feed). Milking, churning, cooking and addition of rennet (obtained from slaughtered cow stomach or refrigerated cultures.....though refrigeration would be a thing of the past as well). Aging of the final product then finally bringing the constituents together for the final product.
This last part is easy. Campfire, pan and spatula. Done and done. Best served with a cup of hot coffee (Don't get me started on the difficulties of that one!)
Cheese is another issue. Discounting horrible packaged cheese spreads, cheese would require cows (or goats, possibly). Don't forget feed for said animals (again, personnel and territory to grow and secure said feed). Milking, churning, cooking and addition of rennet (obtained from slaughtered cow stomach or refrigerated cultures.....though refrigeration would be a thing of the past as well). Aging of the final product then finally bringing the constituents together for the final product.
This last part is easy. Campfire, pan and spatula. Done and done. Best served with a cup of hot coffee (Don't get me started on the difficulties of that one!)