Home gardening offers ways to trim grocery costs [Survival Today, an on going thread]

Dallas News.com ^ | March 14th, 2008 | DEAN FOSDICK

[nw_arizona_granny]

Americans finding soaring food prices hard to stomach can battle back by growing their own food. [Click image for a larger version] Dean Fosdick Dean Fosdick

Home vegetable gardens appear to be booming as a result of the twin movements to eat local and pinch pennies.

At the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta this winter, D. Landreth Seed Co. of New Freedom, Pa., sold three to four times more seed packets than last year, says Barb Melera, president. "This is the first time I've ever heard people say, 'I can grow this more cheaply than I can buy it in the supermarket.' That's a 180-degree turn from the norm."

Roger Doiron, a gardener and fresh-food advocate from Scarborough, Maine, said he turned $85 worth of seeds into more than six months of vegetables for his family of five.

A year later, he says, the family still had "several quarts of tomato sauce, bags of mixed vegetables and ice-cube trays of pesto in the freezer; 20 heads of garlic, a five-gallon crock of sauerkraut, more homegrown hot-pepper sauce than one family could comfortably eat in a year and three sorts of squash, which we make into soups, stews and bread."

[snipped]

She compares the current period of market uncertainty with that of the early- to mid-20th century when the concept of victory gardens became popular.

"A lot of companies during the world wars and the Great Depression era encouraged vegetable gardening as a way of addressing layoffs, reduced wages and such," she says. "Some companies, like U.S. Steel, made gardens available at the workplace. Railroads provided easements they'd rent to employees and others for gardening."

[nw_arizona_granny]

[Top snipped]

“Our mission at the CPSC is to keep American families safe,” said Nancy Nord, CPSC Acting Chairman. “CPSC will enforce the requirements of this pool and spa safety law with a focus on where the greatest risk of drain entrapment to children exists, such as wading pools, pools designed specifically for toddlers and young children, and in-ground spas, particularly where these types of pools and spas have flat drain grates and single main drain systems.”

Nord added, “State health and enforcement agencies share the responsibility to ensure this law is properly enforced. I recommend these agencies take the same approach as CPSC concerning enforcement priorities.”

Pool and spa operators are encouraged to continue working as diligently as possible to come into compliance, as the agency and state Attorneys General are empowered to close down any pool or spa that fails to meet the Act’s requirements.

For more information about the Pool and Spa Safety Act, how to comply, and which companies have been certified to manufacturer drain covers and safety vacuum release systems, please log on to: www.cpsc.gov/whatsnew.html#pool

[nw_arizona_granny]

I am so cold and it is gently raining slush here.

Good information you are posting, thanks.

It is too cold to comment a lot tonight, but I found them all excellent.

[nw_arizona_granny]

On the gold we gave our people in WW2, gold is good trading stock...

Next time you see a group of immigrants, fleeing some country, look close, they are dripping in gold chains.

I noticed it years ago, we send them money and support them once they are here, but when they arrive, their wealth is on them.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ferfal has his finger on the truth and doing things right.

He is both correct and a good writer.

It is difficult to know what you need.

I agree with him, he has all his ducks in a row.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

http://www.tomatoseeds.net/growing-tomatoes/ugly-tomatoes.html

Ugly Tomatoes: They Aren't Just Ugly Tomatoes

In recent months, there has been a tremendous interest worldwide in what has been dubbed the “Ugly Tomato”, brought on largely by extensive coverage in the press. In many ways, this was brought on by the recent action of the Florida Tomato Committee who chose to block the sale of the trademarked tomato variety “Ugly Ripe”, a tomato derived from the old French heirloom tomato variety Marmande. The Ugly Ripe Tomato is solely produced by Santa Sweets Incorporated, who are the same company who introduced the grape tomato variety “Santa” or “Santa Sweet”.

“UglyRipe” is a registered brand name for the Santa Sweets beefsteak style tomato and is probably responsible for the coining of the term “ugly tomato”. Due to the variety's irregular appearance, which is contrary to the standard round tomatoes regularly produced by Florida tomato growers, The Florida Tomato Committee, which consists of twelve of Santa Sweet's competitors charged that the Ugly Ripe was ruining the reputation of Florida produced tomatoes and promptly blocked all transit of the variety from Florida into other states. The Santa Sweets Company has reportedly lost over 2.8 million dollars worth of revenues as a result of this action. In light of this violation of free trade, the politically motivated are encouraged to visit Santa Sweet's “Ugly Ripe Protest Campaign” page for information on what you can do to help.

But just what are Ugly Tomatoes?

Since Santa Sweet's introduction of the Ugly Ripe Tomato to stores in 1999, the term “Ugly Tomato” has since grown to be applied to all Heirloom Tomatoes.

And what then are Heirloom Tomatoes?

Originally, the term “heirloom”, in reference to gardening, was coined during the early 1970’s to identify those vegetable and flower varieties that had originated with a particular family of people and had subsequently been passed down from one generation to the next up to modern day. Typically, these varieties were obtained a single source who had maintained them so many years. Often these varieties were completely unique and had been limited to only one or two gardens per era. This not only made these varieties very rare, but also made them very desirable by gardeners who revelled in the idea of preserving a very small part of agricultural history, and probably most importantly, in the idea of being one of only a few people with the variety.

For a few years, the above definition proved to be satisfactory, but as heirloom seeds, and in particular, heirloom tomatoes became more popular, the definition soon changed. Chances are, due primarily to the seed and plant dealers who wished to capitalize on the heirloom market, many old non-heirloom varieties of tomatoes such as Marglobe, Livingston’s New Stone, Henderson’s Ponderosa or Rutgers, suddenly became marketed as “heirlooms”. Meanwhile, as the plant collectors became more and more obsessed with heirlooms, many of these people sought out previously unknown foreign varieties and introduced them as heirlooms.

In more recent years, probably the most common definition of what an heirloom tomato is, is that an heirloom tomato is any tomato variety that is not a hybrid and has been in cultivation for at least fifty years.

And why would anyone want to grow heirloom or so called ugly tomatoes?

Well, it's all about taste!

Almost everyone agrees that the commercial tomatoes of today don't taste like tomatoes should taste. Many go as far as to say that they “taste like cardboard” or seem “completely tasteless”. This is due to the fact that commercial tomatoes are typically NOT bred for taste, with the Ugly Ripe being one of the few exceptions. In fact, like just about every other aspect of the food industry, commercial tomatoes are bred for early maturity, high production, uniformity, appearance and most importantly, they are selected to withstand long distance shipping. A genuine tomato taste is really the last thing on their minds!

This is in complete contradiction with the way things were done over 50 years ago when consumers demanded a high quality tomato blessed with a wonderful flavor. In the old days, taste came first and very little attention was paid to their exterior appearance. As a result, they came in a wide range

So are “ugly tomatoes” really ugly?

No, they are just REAL tomatoes!

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Yes. His blog is very well written and full of good information. Many of the events in Argentina are frighteningly like those here in the US. The fact that private debt was put on the US taxpayer is terribly wrong, and it will destroy us. No country can have that much debt and survive. He said the banks will do whatever they have to, to survive at everyone else's expense. We didn't have to wait for the IMF to come here and offer money to the politicians to get them to take on massive debt - our own banks did it to us. And the Congress egged it on and accepted it gleefully!

The IOUSA was pretty well done, too. Very sobering picture of what will happen when the Baby Boomers retire. Many will keep working, I hope. I don't know. It's not a good picture.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Decorative Jar Lids

If you're going to do creative work, your craft supplies should look the part. Here's a way to decorate basic jam jars with lively fabric scraps. First, cut out a circle big enough to cover the lid -- including the lip, inside and out. Put the fabric face down, and apply spray adhesive. Center the lid on the fabric. Fold up a section of the fabric so it adheres to the outside of lid lip. Snip a slit every inch or so on the remaining unadhered fabric (make sure not to cut past the edge of the lid). Press flaps over so they adhere to the interior of the lip. Fill jar with sewing notions (or other miscellany), screw on the lid, and get inspired for your next project.

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Really cute!
10th

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

http://lucykatecrafts.blogspot.com/2008/07/tis-season-for-strawberries.html

Tis the season for strawberries...
I've noticed there is a lot of jam making happening in Blogland lately, plus with Wimbledon also on, and so thought this tutorial for a really easy jar jar topper might be useful, if you have jam left over you'd like to give as a gift.

To make one for strawberry jam (the pattern can be easily adapted for other fruit), you will need -

a jam jar with lid (mine is 8.5 cm across, and notice, once again for the purposes of photography, I have ‘stunt’ jam, not homemade!), a circle of felt measuring 16cm across (you will need a larger piece if your jam jar is larger than mine), two pieces of red felt 2.5cm x 4.5cm, another piece of red felt cut into a strawberry shape about 3cm tall, a small amount of green felt for leaves, about 58cm of narrow ribbon, some red, green and yellow embroidery thread (I've used pearl cotton 8), a small amount of stuffing, pencil, pins, sewing needle and some scissors.

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She goes on to explain and illustrate how to make this darling jar cover.
10th

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

http://www.tomatoseeds.net/growing-tomatoes/growing-preparing-tomatoes/growing-cooking-tomatoes-001.html

How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table
By GEORGE W. CARVER, M. S. in AGR.,

Director EXPERIMENTAL STATION, TUSKEGEE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE

APRIL, 1918

DEDICATED: To my esteemed friend and co-worker, Mrs. Adella Hunt Logan, who was tireless in her efforts to help the farmer and his family, and who saw in the tomato a panacea for many of his ills; and who contributed more data of real value along this line than anyone else with whom I have come in contact, I affectionately dedicate this bulletin.

But few people realize what an important vegetable the tomato is. While, it is true that chemical analysis does not place it very high in the nutritive scale, if viewed from this angle alone its real value will be greatly underestimated.

For the reasons which follow, every normal person should make the tomato a very prominent part of the weekly diet:

1. It is a vegetable that is easily grown.

2. It yields well and keeps for a long time.

3. It usually brings a fair price, because nearly everyone likes tomatoes.

4. It contains distinct medicinal virtues (which are recognized by many authoritative books on household remedies), as “vegetable calomel.”

5. It is both a relish and an appetizer as well as a food.

6. Our soils can be made to bring enormous yields of tomatoes, superior in look, taste, and general appearance.

7. They can be prepared in so many delicious ways that one can eat them every day in the week and not get tired of them.

8. The old vines contain splendid dye-stuffs, which could be utilized as a by-product for dying fabrics of various kinds.

9. There are so many sizes, colors and varieties that, for garnishings, fancy soups, and especially fine decorative table effects, they are almost indispensable.

10. With a little intelligent effort fresh tomatoes can be produced in this locality almost the year round.

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What an intelligent man GW Carver was. Think of all he had to overcome. I wonder if anyone has ever done a film about him. I bet it would be fascinating.
10th

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Next time you see a group of immigrants, fleeing some country, look close, they are dripping in gold chains.

I noticed it years ago, we send them money and support them once they are here, but when they arrive, their wealth is on them.

How terrifying it would be to flee the country that way, with your belongings on your back. Impossible to imagine!

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Gifts from Your Kitchen

Wrap up your holiday shopping without leaving the house! From flavored sugar and spiced oils to candied nuts and herbed salts, our crafty elves have cooked up tasty gift ideas for the foodies on your list.

Download festive gift tags for each recipe, complete with cooking and usage suggestions.

• Candied Lemon Peels: Recipe | Gift tag
• Candied Orange Peels: Recipe | Gift tag
• Chile Oil: Recipe | Gift tag
• Cinnamon Pancake Mix: Recipe | Gift tag
• Citrus Salt: Recipe | Gift tag
• Cranberry and Goji Berry Chutney: Recipe | Gift tag
• Herbes de Provence Salt: Recipe | Gift tag
• Sweet Spice Rub: Recipe | Gift tag
• Lavender Sugar: Recipe | Gift tag
• Maple Sugar Walnuts: Recipe | Gift tag
• Mulled Cider Spice Sachets: Recipe | Gift tag
• Preserved Lemons: Recipe | Gift tag
• Rosemary Olive Oil: Recipe | Gift tag
• Sugared Cranberries: Recipe | Gift tag
• Tangerine Sugar: Recipe | Gift tag
• Tarragon Vinegar: Recipe | Gift tag
• Vanilla Bean Sugar: Recipe | Gift tag

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

http://asonomagarden.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/december/

Slowing Down in December
Published December 8, 2008 holidays, musings 4 Comments

I’ve had such a hard time putting words together on screen lately. Thoughts have been rushing through my head like wild fire and I’ve composed entire posts in my head while waiting to fall asleep. I’ve even imagined clicking ‘post’. Have you received those insomniatic posts on your RSS feeder? Those are always the good ones, the ones virtually written in the wee hours of the night without a pen in sight. This week, I hope to actually get them to you.

Each year in December I try to inject a little more meaning behind my Christmas decor and take out some of the glittery lamé. While I’m not quite ready to sign us up for a No Shop Christmas or anything drastic, I do what I can to slow Christmas down, to be actually be present in the season, and I avoid shopping centers at all costs. And maybe it is an overly romantic idea, but I try to keep the consumerism down for my two young boys to a minimal level. We don’t show them cartoons that show commercials and we make doubly sure that this doesn’t happen at this time of year. I’ve found that filling our house full of things that remind me of the true merriment of the season helps focus me.

Last year I read about how in Germany, at the begining of December they take a pruning of their apple tree, put it in a vase inside and in about 20 or so days it will be in full bloom…just in time for Christmas. It just so happened that the day I read that article, Scott happened to be pruning our dormant apple tree so I took a few branches and put them in a tall vase on our mantle. With a healthy dose of scepticism but with my ever ensuing hope, I kept the vase full of water. And wouldn’t you know? Right around Christmas Day it burst open with little pink blooms. I was all ready to show you how we did this this year, but it was such a warm fall that our apple tree is still full of leaves. However if its been cold where you live and the apple trees have lost their leaves, give it a try. Seeing those little pink flowers during the longest, darkest days of the year is a welcome sight indeed.

This year, however, I bought this Swedish welcome star (pictured at the top). And I just love it. I’ve never been to Sweden, but I’ve read that they place these in their front windows to symbolize light in the long dark days and to welcome visitors to their house. We don’t have a front window to place this in, but I put it in front of this old mirror in our family room and the beautiful light gets reflected all over our living area. Sitting next to the music box angel that I inherited from my grandmas house makes it even more meaningful.

What do you do to celebrate the holidays that’s a little more natural and a little less consumeristic?

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Granny, have you ever heard of this? I'm sure you can't grow apples where you are (and especially not in Wellton!), but I never know what kind of stuff you have in your head.
Thinking of you and hoping you are warm and well. I love you.
Vicki

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

http://asonomagarden.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/honey-spice-cranberry-sauce/

Honey + Spice Cranberry Sauce
Published November 24, 2008
in the kitchen, recipes
Tags: cranberry sauce, cranberry sauce recipe, thanksgiving

There isn’t anything local about cranberries for this California girl. But what Thanksgiving meal isn’t complete without them? I never was too hot about cranberry sauce growing up. I just didn’t get it, was it a dip? Was it something you ate by the spoonful? What did you do with it?

Now I get it. You just put a little dob of it on your fork along with a little bit of turkey and a smudge of stuffing and your mouth is set for happiness. I discovered this cranberry sauce recipe a handful of years ago and haven’t turned back since. It’s so full of tangy, sweety, spicy goodness. I hope you try this.

Honey + Spice Cranberry Sauce
————————————
1 – 12oz bag of cranberries
1 3/4 c. apple cider
3/4 c. honey
1 t. cinnamon
Grated orange peel from 1 orange
6 whole cloves (I put these into a metal tea strainer for easy removal)
Pinch of salt
1 whole bay leaf

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the tea strainer full of cloves. Thicken with a little cornstarch diluted in water. Enjoy!

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

http://asonomagarden.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/our-weeping-santa-rosa-plum-tree/

Our Weeping Santa Rosa Plum Tree
Published March 14, 2008
fruit trees, what’s blooming
Tags: bud break, fruit trees, organic garden, peach leaf curl, santa rosa, santa rosa plum, weeping plum

Since moving to this spot, we’ve become a little fruit tree crazy. When we first toured the property we were excited about seeing the golden delicious apple tree, pear tree, and orange tree that were here, but since then we’ve planted an additional 10 or 11 trees to our third of an acre.

This Santa Rosa Weeping Plum is one of our newest additions and one of our favorites. It stands at the back of the yard out on it’s own, so it really is a showcase tree. I think this photo really captures a time when it’s at its most beautiful, right before the bud break. This was on February 28th. Now it’s in full bloom with branches touching the ground.

Since we’ve planted it we’ve had a problem with peach leaf curl and we don’t know how to treat it organically. The only thing we’ve been able to do, which is the only non organic thing we do in our yard, is to spray it with copper spray. If anyone knows of a better way to treat it, please comment. We’d love to know.

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Anyone know?
10th

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://politicook.net/2008/05/21/frugal-recipes-from-wartime-europe/

Sausage and Sultana Casserole

Ingredients:
1lb sausages
1 large onion
2oz sultanas
1 sour apple
Pinch of mixed herbs
Stock
Salt

Method:
Chop up and fry the onion.
Fry the sausages.
Cover with stock.
Add sultanas, herbs, salt.
Place in oven and cook slowly for 35-40 minutes.

Carrot Fudge

Ingredients:
Carrots
Gelatine
Orange essence

Method:
Finely grate carrots and cook four tablespoons
full in just enough water to cover for 10 minutes.
Add flavouring with orange essence, grated orange rind or orange squash/cordial.
Melt a leaf of gelatine.
Add gelatine to mixture.
Cook quickly for a few minutes stirring all the time.
Spoon into a flat dish.
Leave to set.
Cut into cubes.

Vegetable Roll with Potato Pastry

Ingredients for pastry:
4oz mashed and sieved potato
1/2 teaspoon of salt
8oz plain flour
3oz fat
2 tablespoons of baking powder

Method:
Sieve dry ingredients together.
Rub fat into flour and gently mix in potato.
Add just enough water to make a fairly dry dough.
Knead well.

Ingredients for filling:

11/2 cups of any mixed boiled vegetables, diced
1 pint thick gravy
Salt and pepper
A little chopped parsley

Method:
Take 1/2lb of potato pastry and roll out on a floured board.
Moisten the vegetable mixture with a little of the gravy.
Spread vegetables on to pastry leaving 1 inch all the way round.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Roll up and seal well at the edges so that gravy cannot seep out.
Place on a well greased baking tin with the seal underneath.
Brush with milk.
Bake in a moderately hot oven for 35-45 minutes.

Health Bread

Ingredients:
11/2lb self-raising flour
1 teacup sugar
1 breakfast cup syrup
1 egg
1 breakfast cup of raisins with stones removed.
1 breakfast cup of milk.
Pinch of salt.

Method:
Mix together the sugar, flour, salt and raisins.
Beat the egg and add it to the milk and syrup.
Mix all the ingredients together. Bake in two well greased loaf tins in a moderate oven for approx. 11/2 hours.
Slice thinly after a couple of days and serve with butter or margarine.
Will keep for a month in a tin.

Sugarless Apple Dessert

Ingredients:
Cooking apples
Condensed milk
Orange juice
Nuts or grated chocolate

Method:
Grate raw cooking apple.
Whip together with the condensed milk.
Add a little orange juice.
Arrange in dishes with nuts or grated chocolate on top.

[nw_arizona_granny]

That is a fantastic starburst, one should be able to make it out of a heavy paper, years ago, I had one of gold card board, looked a little like your photo, but I had no idea what the meaning of it was.

On the branches, yes, even in San Diego we did that, with Pussy Willows, have never had apple branches to play with.

If you don’t know the Pussy Willow, it is difficult to say what it is, a shrub, that when it blooms forms white furry things, that are about a half inch long...along the stem.

LOL, I am not sure if they were blooms or leaves, but oddly enough they have been on my mind for a week or more.

Any branch that is dormant, should work, ladies did that for hundreds of years, as a bouquet of pretty leaves or flowers was welcome in the middle of winter.

and it has started raining hard again with wind.

[nw_arizona_granny]

had a problem with peach leaf curl<<<

I haven’t owned that many fruit trees, so cannot offer a solution.

Is it a mineral deficiency? Or an insect?

[nw_arizona_granny]

We didn’t have to wait for the IMF to come here and offer money to the politicians to get them to take on massive debt - our own banks did it to us. And the Congress egged it on and accepted it gleefully!<<<

I can’t say I am surprised, as I couldn’t see where people got the money for all the goodies they bought.

But still it left me feeling shocked, kinda feels like a double punch with the election.

I could never understand, how Americans were so sure that the enemy would never attack us on our own soil, and I don’t mean the liberals saying no, I mean mr average American.

They attempted to invade us from all sides during WW2, there were more nazi troops in Mexico waiting to cross the border, then in most european countries where the war was.

There was a convoy that got stuck in the sandhills at Yuma, came across the Mexican border.

Ships on both coasts, LOL, I heard someone on the radio a day or so ago, talking about how shocked they were to find the ships got so close to the east coast.

There were also incendiary bombs sent in on weather balloons from Japan, that started fires on the west coast.

Now we have the jihadi to show us new ways.

So taking out our money, is just another form of attack, it was the al-qaeda original plan.

Now, with al-qaeda and the communist manifesto, it comes true.

[nw_arizona_granny]

The Florida Tomato Committee, which consists of twelve of Santa Sweet’s competitors charged that the Ugly Ripe was ruining the reputation of Florida produced tomatoes and promptly blocked all transit of the variety from Florida into other states.<<<

That should wake up the country, things are getting out of control.

This type of law is impacting us, in more ways than most realize and I don’t like the thought of it.

LOL, I have Yuba, Calif, I think, it says Sutter County Sheriff on the scanner, they had cops on alert, a caller said shots fired and there was a cop car in their area, but they didn’t know who was shooting.

Roll Call, showed no cops in that area.

Then came the call to cancel the shots, the lady had found the trouble, it was a CAT on her screen door.

[nw_arizona_granny]

The correct phrase finally met up with my mind and here it is.

Be extravagant, use 3 foot branches, not little 6 inchers.

http://www.google.com/search?q=forcing+tree+branches+indoors&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a