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 Friend.
I am not fully back as yet, as this old computer does not like the fancy new inventions on some of the pages and says
“Error # occurred in line # and I must close”, where upon the instant, it closes.
It is a female computer, as it has “headaches” and refuses to even come here to read.........
All of you are very important to me.
It will be another week before I can think of what to post, LOL, my computer has ended up in a shop 2 towns away and must wait till Scott can make the pickup, that is after it is fixed.
I wasted time in a local shop, with a liberal, who thought that a reformat would cure all.......which I refused.
It turned out to have a broken in half processor [first time the repairman ever saw one break in half], power supply and mother bord troubles........guess I use them more than most folks do.
Good to hear from you, hope you are well and warm.
ruth
Welcome Home Granny!@+! <<<
Thank you.
No, I am not special, it is all of you who made it happen, Freepers are the most wonderful creatures that God has invented.
It will be another week before I am posting intelligent posts, not until my regular computer is fixed and I get back in the groove, imagine all the unread posts at my Yahoo mailbox, as this computer is so old that it will not work with Yahoo.
What is that I read, you are in the woods already, or was it for that “load “ that you needed to deliver.
Woods, wow, deer and all kinds of dinner will be lurking there....
Hugs and love to you and your lovely lady,
granny
Welcome to the thread and do feel free to post your thoughts and information that you want to share with us.
It will be another week, before I get back my regular computer and can go back to posting in my regular mode.
I am one who does not approve of the GMO seeds for any purpose.
LOL, I don’t even buy the hybrid seeds, as they also will not stand saving for the next season, or many do not.
Check out posts # 7435-7436-7437, in this thread, my paper note says it is seed links and posts.
If I were making an order today, I would start with Sandhill Presservation, then Nichols in Oregon, Pinetree seeds, which is rare seeds. com, maybe.
Check Richters in Canada, they are a good company and have herbs and old varieties.
Check Thrifty Drug Stores and the Dollar stores, ask if they will have seeds and when, as I suspect they will sell out at once.
Even Walmart some years had the 10 cent packages of seeds some years.
These won’t be 10 cents now, but 25 or 30 cents, well worth it, as they all grew for me and they are mostly the old non-hybrid types........
I have bought from all of the above for many years..
Gurney had good seeds, but lousy live plants, So I quit buying there 20 years ago and don’t know how their seeds are today.
To store the seeds, a tight sealing coffee can and some powdered milk in a coffee filter paper should absorb moisture......maybe a couple of them about 2 inches across, you could tape it or do as I would, put in as much milk powder as it will hold and gather it to seal with a twistem wire.......you know the bag twisters to seal them.
Then seal with sealing tape, or ‘duck’ tape...the coffee can and store in a cool place, that is dry..
I have stayed away from the expensive seed sources, also the fancy, pay a membership to buy seeds places.
Seeds can be sold out, due to so many of us planting them for food.
In WW2, all our cabbage seed went to Russia, sold by the ton.
Much of our seed comes from overseas and that means that they can be withheld from us, if a Soros type of person wanted to hurt us, he would simply buy the company and say that he could not ship the promised seed, due to our restrictions on the disease they had found...on them.
And there is the plain old crop failure and there are no seeds available to sell.......Order early from Sandhill Preservation, as they grow most of the seeds they sell and they are always having crop failures, just as we do in real life.
They say wheat and other grains, tomatoes etc are good for years and that you should not save onion seeds past one year.
I have planted 10 year old onion seeds and they grew, LOL, that was the year of the onion garden.
Figure that you loose about 5 per cent of the seeds per year, so order extra’s, and plant thicker with old seeds.
I am hearing Alex Jones pushing canned seeds on the radio, I didn’t write down the address/url..
I think Walton feed.com sells them and several other dehydrated food shops sell them already canned.
It got to be a big racket before the Y2K/2000 event, they were canning $20.00 worth of seeds and charging $150 to 200. per can..
Yes, I have stored seeds, always have, all my life and save some from the store, no don’t ask why, as they rarely grow and I have grown tomatoes 5 foot tall, that never had a flower on them the entire season, from saved from the store seeds.......beautiful plants, no tomatoes.
One year here, I planted a bunch of big pots of all kinds of oriental greens, all that I did and didn’t know of and when the season was over, saved as many seeds as I could, in a big paper bag, never have had the chance to see what I have saved.
Watch the oriental seeds, as they are now also selling hybrids, which do not grow for us in all this wind and sun.
Save seeds, buy some basic kinds and feel safer than you will if you do not.
Hello Friend, thought of you and am glad to see you here.
I answered all your seed questions, in the post before this one #9424.
Yes, we will need seeds saved, I can well imagine having $5.00 cash in my pocket and no other money.
It would mean beans and rice and not seeds for some dream garden 3 months down the road.
I have always considered seeds and materials for clothing as my money in the bank, still do..
It is wonderful to have on hand what you need and not pay todays high prices.....
OK, the truth is that sometimes, I don’t keep up with rotating my canned goods and have lost some this year.
Also, most of the folks I would worry about today are going to look silly in some of the kiddie prints, but hey, we all like Donald Duck, don’t we.......?
Good, glad we were in agreement, I was thinking either sealed or free air.
My Aunt Corene also contacted me at the end, so that she could prepare me, the oldest, to walk with the other kids through what she knew was close.
I am so glad she did, it has helped me to not be afraid of what is coming.
They had used the paddles of life on her, to bring her back and she said it was difficult to come back, but her daughter was not prepared for her death and we were not either.
Corene said it is light and airy, so bright and peaceful on the other side and there is nothing to be afraid of.
There is a Hungarian folk tale that has served in my own family to make the loss a little easier to bare.
“When you find a penny, look up and say thank you, for it was dropped for you to find, as a reminder that your Guardian Angel is on duty”.......
Shortly after the death of my daughter in law, we found two, Scott knew the story and we are convinced it was his dad teaching Theresa how to toss pennies at us........LOL
granny, granny. You can’t imagine how much your return means to me!! Have checked here every day hoping you were back-then today after spending a horrible day cleaning out the house of my beloved sister who passed away unexpectedly last month, I turned on my puter, exhausted with tears still running down my cheeks. Immediately checked your name and the tears turned to tears of joy. Thank you, thank you for salvaging this terrible day.
I now look forward to sharing gardening news with you and all our friends.
Bountfiul Gardens in Willits, CA has very good non-hybridized seeds, I have ordered from them twice, and they also have good books such as (never can remember the name exactly) “How to Grow More Vegetables (than you can imagine on less land than you thought possible)”. It’s a very good deep digging method than enables plants to grow much closer together with less water evaporation. The author, John Jeavons, also describes the nicest compost piles. I used to make them when I had garden space and they composted up so quickly.
(DH PROMISED he will cut trees so we can have a garden this summer and he better get on it!)
In my post above here is another source for good non-hybridized seeds, also many heirloom or old fashioned varieties and unusual vegetables, as well as herbs and flowers.
Just found the web address:
www.bountifulgardens.org
My catalog says “Heirloom, Untreated, Open-Pollinated Seeds for Sustainable Growing”.
I woke up and turned on the radio, KOA in Denver, there was a notice that the alert for the car loaded with explosives along the county lines of [?] Colorado counties had been located, at least I think it was located, the broadcast was a little confused.
Said the car had crashed and the Police had caught the man with the bomb and the bomb squad was on the scene.
As ususal, no names given, above is about all the words used.
If you want to listen to the Denver news on the radio, they may have it on the half hour too, and it is at 850koa.com on the computer.
This computer does not do websites, so I can’t go look for the articles on the Denver man with a gun.
Sorry for the double posts, but the computer decided the last post was done and would either highlight it for deleting or post it........so goes the life of an antique dealing with an antique machine.
This is all that’s at the KOA site thusfar:
(Headlined in red)
News Alert: Reverse 911 Calls Go Out In Weld County Along The Greeley-Evans City Line After Sheriffs Find An Abandoned Car With Possible Explosives. The Bomb Sqaud Has Been Called. Click for details
http://www.850koa.com/main.html
No article yet when you try to click for details
Do not read his section of the catalog with the rare poultry, or you will be in trouble.
Few people have ever seen some of the beautiful chicken varieties there are to be had.
The pink climber sounds good.
I found his descriptions to be as true as they can be and didn’t listen, when he warned that they had sparce foilage and in a hot sun area, the tomatoes would burn....LOL, here they cooked.
One year, I ordered a lifetime supply of the different varieties, rather like a kid in a candy shop....that was the the last year that I could have a real garden and it was worth every minute.
Pick up some of the old yellow pear tomatoes or the red pear tomatoes, they are small, but will bear more pounds per plant than you expect, each a bite sized fruit..
Here the cherry tomato grows better than the large ones.
I like the Pinetree catalog, for the mixed types of seeds, being as nosey as I am, I want to try them all, so bought the mixed varieties.
My Basil plant just died, it was a mixed variety from a Pinetree pack and lived about 6 years in front of the hot west window in the living room......finally froze to death.
LOL, I saved seeds from it, so will grow another, and have left it alone, just in case it wants to try a second lifetime.
My memory is a joke, it will remember part of any thing, but will not retain a name until I turn the page.
Of course Soros is a name that has so much behind it, that one remembers it.
He ruined a couple of countries, via the money part of it, that I do remember.
I have never settled on where he gets his money, who is his boss and know that we traced him back to the nazi money, Calpernia remembers that part of the story, again it has names in it, that I forget, even tho, I dug into them.
There is such a strong thought that Soros is behind our money troubles and I cannot shake it.
That he bought the White House for Obama, that I believe and he tried for Kerry, that we already know.
So, yes, garden seeds may become very rare.
Sandhill Preservation is also a good site for Sweet Potato plants and I tried to get Jerusulem Artichokes started, as if one grows them and leaves the small ones, you can have a natural source of food growing on its own, without your having to have seeds, but not here, they grew, but want water all the time.
I wish I could come and give you a hug.
Thank you for caring so much, I feel blessed to know such wonderful people as you are.
I can imagine the pain of cleaning out your sisters house, that is so final, now you have to admit that she is gone. And that is something we never want to do.
My friend Mary promised me that I would not need to attend her funeral, as she would not have one and almost 30 years later, I still stop and think “Should send Mary this one”, she would have loved this thread and taught me so much that is on it.
They say that when you see the time 11:11 on your clock, it means that God is with you.
That is OK, with me, reminds me to say an extra prayer for the day.
When I see 5:55, I say hello to Mary. No, the 5:55 has no meaning to us, that I know of, it just seemed to fit her.
Our quilt patterns were usually in multiples of 2 or even a nine patch.
Don’t forget to watch for pennies and figure that your sister is tossing them to remind you she still loves you.
May God grant you a few extra blessings.
granny
I think it was Bountiful gardens that I ordered some of my weed seeds from, for food.
That was a fun order, I was attempting to get food of any kind growing and some of the amaranth/pigweed family will grow enough for us and animals.
I did get a weed that grew 6 foot tall and the leaves were good enough to beat spinach, so I froze some and dehydrated a bunch of them.
The Jeavons book is good, I think he is the father of the deep digging methods, or at least one of the early pushers
of the method.
They also had a bean from India that would grow wild and of course I tried it here, but it didn’t go wild.
I would be dangerous, with my wild gardens, in an area that would grow, without my constant care.
Last week was the first time that I had been out in 11 months, rather a shock to see the changes in our valley in the past year, new buildings and signs of growth.
LOL, such an exciting life I lead.
I rather liked the thought of hiding gardens in the woods, even here in the desert, there are hidden springs, if one could go and plant their extra seeds near them, it might be interesting to see what survived the wild animals. and people..
The 10 pm broadcast was broken, but it said the man wanted was a known murderer.
Said they found the car with a bomb in it, abandoned ...
I really am not clear on what they meant by 130 [?] in it, or if they have found the man or not, from the last broadcast.
While my 5 year old Compaq is in the shop, I am using a 1998 Packard Bell, with 98 Windows, on dial up link.
It is a desk top computer.
I had Free Republic set as the opening page, so it does open to Free Republic, but objects to going to other sites.
It is full and the programs have flaws in them, so they work as they will and are out of date for for the modern gimicks that are common today.
Mine should be out of the shop in the next week, or so they said.
Thanks for visiting this thread and asking about the computer, I have forgotten what I knew about it when I used it before, so get by the best that I can.
[THIS IS A MUST READ THREAD, GOES WITH TODAYS THOUGHTS..granny]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2176045/posts
Wealthy countries want to buy farmland abroad
Toronto Globe and Mail / Scripps-Howard News Service ^ | January 30, 2009 | Eric Reguly
Posted on 01/31/2009 9:07:14 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
[This almost scares me, as we own so little of the U.S. farm land, 25 years ago 62% of it was foreign owned, according to the board of Realtors.
At that time, when I was on my soapbox, one of my clients told me to not worry, as all the President needed to do was sign an Ex. Order that cancelled foreign ownership.
There is no way that order would be signed today.
granny]
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