The things you can do with wildlife, nuts and berries.
Water was always boiled because there was no public water supply at the time. This meant a scarcity of wood at some times and more effective methods had to be found.
Coffee was RARE. Parched wheat or barley was used as coffee substitutes, although very poor ones.
People hunted for wildlife to put on their tables out here, since much of this part of the US was still wilderness. They also foraged for wild vegetables and had fairly decent diets, compared to the Southern states farther east.
Many people have heard of the scarcity of food during the war. One of the most important of scarce foods was salt. Because they had no refrigerators that we know of, salt was important in storing foods. Meat was cured, and butter was salted to extend its life. Salt was declared at one point by President Lincoln as a “contraband of war.” Necessity came up with inventions such as boiling off seawater to pulling up the floors of cure-houses to boil off the salt that dripped from the meat. As for sugar, the most sought after luxury, there were plenty of chances to replace sugar. Sugar beets were boiled, sorghum was used, fruits substituted whenever possible. But most simply learned to do without.
