5 Questions for the Brilliant Minds Behind “Joe Beef: Surviving the Apocalypse”, On How to Survive the Apocalypse

We sat down with chefs and co-authors Frederic Morin, David McMillan and Meredith Erickson, who wrote a cookbook about being introspective, self-sufficient and autonomous at a time when most people are none of these things.

“We’ve lost an enormous amount of intelligence in the past 50 years,” says McMillan. “And we’ve lost a lot of skills. My father and most of his friends came from subsistence farming. Growing up they all had chickens, they knew how to slaughter a pig and pick apples and make applesauce. They also knew what it was to understand literature. They read Steinbeck. They read Dickens. They were well versed in fishing, hunting and music. They were even great at getting the information they needed without the Internet. It was called going to the library and studying.”

“Joe Beef: Surviving the Apocalypse”, is an opus of a cookbook where you learn how to do everything from making a chaga mushroom stock to delicious smoked nuts, and even your own bouillon cubes. (Note: for that one you’ll need a hashish pipe.)

Still, we wanted to learn more so asked the Joe Beef gang a handful of quick-fire questions. For the sake of space, we’ve edited their answers together.

The Apocalypse is here…we have 5 questions:

MODERN FARMER: City or country?

JOE BEEF GANG: The country. We can feed ourselves in the country. There’s fresh spring water. Less competition. No climbing over dead bodies. If you want to be around the most resourceful, knowledgeable and the best environment to survive, go to the first nations reservations. They’ve persistently kept these skills alive.

MF: Below ground or above ground?

JBG: Above ground. Solar panels. Longer viewpoint so you can see danger coming. Vitamin D. Apartments at ground level don’t sell. It’s better being rained on while high than being flooded in a hole.

MF: Fresh food or canned food?

JBG: We have a cellar centerfold in our cookbook preparing for the fact that the fields and food will be gone. Canned peaches. Canned milk to be able to make ice cream. Good canned is great. Or how about dried food? Potato flakes, lentils, chickpeas, a good steady store of dried vegetables. Spices. Salted foods.

MF: Day or night?

JBG: People get manic around too much light. But a long winter? That’s hard too. But we choose darkness.

MF: Fight or flight?

JBG: To paraphrase Bruce Lee, “It’s not how strong you can withstand the fight; it’s how strong you can avoid getting into the fight.” This is not about surviving. It’s about thinking about not getting there in the first place because we’ve all acted like idiots.

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