In a similar vein, you might want to look into the Buckskinning community. They are a group of epople who do events based on life in the eary 1800s. All of their items have to be authentic, including hand sewn clothes, and period correct cooking. Although they drive to the events, and are allowed ot have ice on hand, you can get a lot of "live off the land" information for how they do things. One frind of mine even brain tans his own deerskin to make into clothing.