Posted on 03/23/2008 11:36:40 PM PDT by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Thank you for clearing up the posting allowed on this thread.
I hope that it will prove worthy of your space and be useful to our Freeper Family.
Ruth
To all and I do mean ALL of my much loved Freeper Family, thank you for your love and faith in me.
I see names that I did not know were reading the thread, all are welcome and are going to be needed to share their information as they find it and all those little tidbits that are lurking in your minds.
My ‘good’ computer is in the shop, and it will be several days before it is out, this one plays solitare and goes on the internet, if it wants to and quits when it gets tired, so I am not able to go looking around or even open my Yahoo mail account to read, which will contain some 15,000 to 20,000 unread messages for this past month.
Don’t forget that Tenth Amendment Champion has opened a Yahoo group, also covering many subjects from here and also many of the healthy living subjects, a very useful thread to join and follow, I am assuming it is still going, as I can’t go there on this computer.
I have been doing some heavy praying and as Mama May always said “Now, shut up and listen for the answer”, I tried and was not hearing one, so played solitare and prayed somemore.
Even considered giving up the internet, and saving that money.
For me giving up Free Republic, is a bit like getting an un-expected divorce, a shock and numbness.
This morning while still in deep thought, on where to go with the future, KTOX from Needles, California turned out to be the only radio station that was coming in clear, and that is rare, as I only get it a couple times a year and it died as soon as the program was over.
Remember the old Twilight [sp?] Zone programs?
That is what was on the radio, one called “The Shelter”.
An old cold war program, about what would / could happen if we were going to be bombed with a nuclear weapon.
I hope that you can go to the site and listen to it, it will stop your hearts beating for a few minutes, for it spells out clearly what will happen if we have an emergency and people need to make an effort to survive.
Fiction yes, and no, for it is exactly what Dr. Bill Wattenberg has been warning us of for years, to be prepared and know what you were going to do when that day comes.
Many of you have bug out bags all prepared, but with the first announcement from the President, it was a warning to not go out on the roads, as they were to be reserved for Gov and Emergency vehicles only...........will that happen today?
Yes, it will, as I have heard it several times on the Police and Fire scanners, and no, I do not blame them, as I have also heard of more than one Emergency vehicle racing to the emergency and they are hit by some driver who thought they owned the roads.
It also gives a good cameo view of what to expect from your neighbors who have laughed at your preparations and not bothered to consider their own needs.
I asked for a sign, of what I could do, maybe I got one.
Thank you all for your love and caring, and know that it is returned to you all many times over.
granny
[twilight zone radio.com]
Granny - I have missed you here on FR and look forward to your input!!!
(Anyone - ping me when she’s back, and if a new thread, put me on a ping list.)
I am SO happy to hear your words of wisdom again!! During these troubled days I am positive we need to learn from you and others as to what we need to do to survive whether it’s just one person’s dumb mistakes in our new govt or an attack on our country. Your information provided on this thread and others is invaluable and everyone needs to read through it and learn.
God always sends a message when we most need it. You got your message this morning and we got ours now. :)
Thank you for your support and for joining in.
It will be another week before I can think of posting, as I can only come here when this 1998 computer wants to do so.
All the programs are so out of date, that they do not even have updates for them, Free Republic comes in half the time.
Yes, we will need a new thread, and I am thinking of checking out Dr. Bill Wattenberg’s files for a real scary one....LOL.
Hugs and much love to you, along with the hope that you will post your herb information on the the new thread, so it won’t get lost as this one isn’t the one being opened all the time.
granny
Dear Granny.
Welcome back; so glad to see you again. We missed you more than you know.
Lucy
Yay Granny!!!! Virtual Big Hug!!!!!! Big Grin with tears in my eyes!!!!
Hungarian Gypsy, thank you for reading the thread, even I do not have a copy of this thread.
I don’t know is Vickie has what you need or not, but if she looks at your post 9400, she will know if she does.
Vickie has worked hard to see that the thread continued and we need to make sure that her group grows and shares the information that she collected for it.
LOL, I will have several questions for her, when I get back on line full time.
granny
Welcome HOME, dear friend. You were missed by more than you know.
I thought I was going to have to hitch up the horse and wagon and make a journey to the desert to get you back into the fold!
I've been around here for a long time... and the public apology you received is the first I've seen in those 11 years! Let's you know how special you truly are! So let's let all that water roll on down the river!
Welcome Home Granny!@+!
Thank you for all your support and efforts.
Living alone, I sometimes forget there are so many Freepers sending love and prayers.....I should not forget, for it has been your love and prayers that has kept me going for this past 3 years....
A friend is priceless.
I am not always sorry that this computer will not do the searches, as when I heard the news talking about Soros being an Obama advisor, my heart stopped and I cannot remember the names of all the countries that he has ruined in the past, but now understand the real danger our country is in.
Storms, depression and terrorist strikes, those I can deal with, for those you do what needs to be done, at that moment.
Soros in my opinion, can cause our country far more damage than all of the above.
At this moment, I dare not imagine what he can and will do to the country, we are facing it all, including a civil war again, hunger and like the N. Koreans, surviving on soup made from a little grass and lots of water.
We need to know more about what wild plants are edible and how much one can eat of them, before they become toxic to us.
I remember being hungry a few times as a kid, and today the parents do not know what mine did in the past.
It is so easy today to become homeless and need to live on nothing........loss of a job, for most is the ticket to being homeless.
The San Francisco Liberals are waking up, the John Rothman program at kgo.com, was very interesting and one should be able to get it on a podcast at kgo.com.
They too are not happy with the big plan in Congress for voting on, and many of them are very aware of the dangers that are headed to all of us.
John is also going to be on kgo.com in the 10 pm to 1 am slot next week, as well as his Friday and Saturday 1 am to 5 am programs, he says that you can listen on air and podcast.
Yes, he is a liberal, but also he is very wise and widely read, with a long history of knowing what was going on in our country, he was one of Nixon’s speech writers.
Tonight, he said he will cover the Israel/Gaza war, he would have last night, except he started with the bailout bill and the phone lines were jammed on the subject from all over the country and lots of San Francisco callers too.
Dr. Bill will be on tonight and tomorrow 10pm to 1 am also at kgo.com....I can sometimes get them on my regular radio.
Stay safe and prepared........LOL, we must do something about being #7 on the Google search.
granny
Thank you for your love and support, I too have missed you, all of you, more than you will ever know.
Your lovely pets will be lost to me on this computer, as it does not like photos, but soon I will be able to share a smile over them.
It is true, a Freeper will sit and stare at a black monitor and wonder when it will come to life, I tried all that I could and now know that I had broken parts in the computer and that it was not the monitor, as I thought.
I had trouble posting the last post and if I do with this one, will have to give up and give the old gal [computer] a rest.
A big hug,
ruth
There you are, dear friend.
Thank you, Lord!
Oh! I love this topic. Thank you so much for the link!
While working on this I was happy to get a letter from my grandaunt. I was soon sad, as it seems to be her goodbye letter. She is in hospice care. She sent me a peacock feather and told me to keep it to remember her.
From one of your links granny.......Looks like we should stock up on seeds.
The panelists included:
Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety
Ignacio Chapela, biologist and professor at UC Berkeley who is a leading academic critic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
Fred Kirschenmann, director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
If you haven’t yet seen “The Future of Food,” I urge you to do so. Here are some facts brought to light during the panel discussion that I think are especially important:
* Monsanto, America’s largest seed producer, OWNS 24% of the world’s seeds. Monsanto and three other American corporations OWN 49% of the world’s seeds.
* 15 patents are now pending approval for genetically modified seeds that use “terminator technology.” Such seeds will kill themselves off after each growing season, preventing farmers from saving seeds (yielded from the current crop) for the next planting, which is essential for strong plants and a sustainable ecosystem.
* GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are not required to be labeled as such, thus relinquishing any responsibility of the corporations for health problems of people who consume their products.
* GMOs have been approved for human consumption, even after lab rats who were fed such foods developed major health problems. The health affects on humans is unknown.
* GMOs do not contain more nutrients than other foods, and they do not provide an increase in crop yield. Furthermore, it is impossible to create genetically modified seeds that are immune to all environmental challenges, as seed manufacturers lead us to believe.
* Scientists who challenge the safety of GMOs are often denied funding, or are told to keep quiet about their findings.
* Current GMOs in the United States include: corn, soybeans, canola and cotton.
* THE GOOD NEWS: By law, organic foods cannot be genetically altered.
http://ladleandwhisk.wordpress.com/
Do you know of seed providers who offer specifically non-GMO seed? I have a feeling they may be vital to survival wihtin two years or so. Also, how long do good seed last in storage and what’s th ebest way to stroe them? ... See why we need you, Granny? Mwahahahaha, I love it when right triumphs over wrong.
Good for you on printing the information, as there were several posts that I had saved for my own use and they are of course on the computer that is in the shop.
I had to quit printing, as I have boxes of printed pages waiting for filing and no time to file them....
It is wonderful that you heard from your Great Aunt and you need to ask her for any information that she may know and you will loose when she is gone, can you phone her?
I will be praying that her final trip is a peaceful one, she sounds as though she will be a soul that is in heaven waiting for your arrival.
A Peacock feather, how beautiful, one of God’s miracles, amazing how the colors change.
I am not sure how to suggest you store it, not in a box, as the bugs will eat it up, maybe the best would be in a small rose vase, so the air gets around it, or even as a bookmark in your bible.
I know that some of mine that I had in boxes had holes eaten in them.
granny
She said as a bookmark or with dried flowers. I will probably get flowers when I am home, but mostly it will be in my planner that I have with me all the time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.