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 ...
Heh - you are exactly right about how I handle my “compost.” I had to sign a waiver that I understood the stuff was not for human consumption. However, I had made friends with the produce man and knew they weren’t putting any poison on it. Ya know, I just had to know lest that stuff contaminate my garden. But, we have eaten much more fresh food this winter as I have been doing this. I really have to watch to whom I say that as this *is* a small town and if word got back they wouldn’t give me the culls anymore.
They throw away so many good items that I have been sharing with a friend on social security and preserving a little each week. For me, it’s something when I have produce to can in January!!
I expect my soil is about opposite of your soil. It’s such hard packed clay that I often injure myself with trying to loosen it up. We don’t have a motorized tiller yet, so I borrow one about once a year and do the rest by hand. The compost is helping but it takes time. This is my grandmother’s old home and she was the first generation who didn’t garden so it’s never been broken up. However, she never fertilized, just watered and cut the grass. When I manage to get the soil loosened up I find lots of earthworms the next time I move soil. They are really taking to my compost piles.
And I’m getting to be like that manure patch you found, I have piles all over the back yard! LOL
I thought it was awfully cold this morning! I knew it was supposed to be up to 70 today and thought I was being a wuss. Had no idea we would have such a cold night! Haven't stepped outside to look at the thermomether as the Mr. took the dog out this morning. I got a batch of bread rising so I could turn on the oven and warm up the kitchen though!
I’m about to head out to work.
I’ve noticed that Texas dirt is full of rocks. since we haven’t had any rain the dirt is also hard as a rock. Some dirt here is red and the rest is somewhat sandy.
Fresh baked bread sounds terrific right now. :)
Have a wonderful day :) Two more days until the Shootout draw.
~boing~ I should have had a V-8. Why didn't I think of that?!? LOL Good thing I posted that question!
I'm about 50 miles from a WalMart so I will have to wait until I make it to town to get some of that Pro-mix. But, I will keep it in mind.
I am like you with the water bottles. The first time I saw those wall-o-water ads I figured I could rig something up and have been saving almost ALL containers since then. And since we are in an area where we are either feast or famine on rainfall I actually go out in the rain sometimes and fill up empty bottles from overflowing rain barrels so as not to let the barrels overflow and to save as much rainwater as possible.
Last year those water bottles saved my tomatoes and peppers when we had a late freeze. I can't explain it but I'm one of those people who always think I can get by with putting out my plants a little too early. Most years my gallon milk jugs of hot water actually save the plants though. When I know we are having a really cold night I will actually fill them with very hot tap water around dusk so they'll keep that heat as long as possible. And like WCG posted a moment ago, it seems that if we have those cold nights in spring they are typically followed by a warm day so no harm done. So, of course, each year I end up putting things out early... LOL
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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Okay, YOU will understand my gardening schedule. Each year I make my own calendar. I add my schedule in this order, 1) children and grandchildren's birthdays; 2) races; 3) gardening chores based on almanac times. I arrange all gardening chores AROUND races! LOL Saturday is going to give me gardening time since the Shootout starts late. LOL
Prayers for your physical ailments and a good work day. Bless you.
LOL, wonderful news indeed, one more game of solitaire on that old computer and I would have gone mad.
Of course nothing at all might have been worse.
Hope you are well and safe.
This poor computer has been 2 shops in the past month.
The first one messed around with it, the second replaced the needed parts and made it work again.
Guess I needed the break, but when I got it, I still wasn’t able to do the things that I wanted to, so here I am again.
I was also able to make space to actually move around and be seated inside the house by carrying my wintering-over potted plants to the greenhouse. I'm thinking the man of the house is glad he bought me the greenhouse for that reason also.
Worried about ME?? What a sweetheart you are! I’m fine... I was worried about you! I learned something from this whole incident on FR... I was raised in a chaotic home, and backing down and giving in was the way to survive. But that’s not always the best way in life. A good lesson, indeed.
I think this is the John Batchelor show you were talking about.
http://www.johnbatchelorshow.com/
<<<<
Yes, I think that is the program that I get on the Calif station, radio, is it KFI that is at 640? I think so.
The repairman warned me that he could not get the exact parts for this computer, LOL, it is over 5 years old, so maybe the changed processor or motherboard is it, and maybe it is all in my mind, as with dial up, I will never be “fast”.
As for hiding the emergency foods, and not finding them again, I have the same problem.
Check the fine print on your lens cleaner, some of them react to the medicines and over the counter cures that one takes.
Some even react if you have diabetes, etc.
Too early for me to think of the right words, something about counter interaction of drugs, there are a couple of good books on it, and 25 years ago, when I read the first one, I gave up on the drug store over the counter meds.
About the only thing I use is the Essential oils, peroxide, alcohol and have kept a tube of cortisone for bad bites.
Have a good day, smile a lot, makes people think you have a secret.
Keep warm, wear plastic, keeps in your body heat and out the cold.
A piece of plastic over your head, like a head scarf does wonders on a cold night, I forget that trick.
I like the plastic, as I don’t like weight on me, guess I am a couple thousand years out of date, a fig leaf would be plenty.
Hi JD, I haven’t posted it yet and my laptop again refused to go online. I think we need to get a hub or a wireless router to get it to go online. Ain’t computers wonderful?
It’s important to post questions here as well as your knowledge. Granny jumps on the questions and gets answers for us. LOL she’s like a living encyclopedia!
What time does the Shootout begin? My husband will be glued to the couch and I will be in and out of the room, still unpacking boxes!
Thank you for your posts on the essential oils and herbs. I have not been able to get to sleep the last couple of nights since our drive home is a lot longer and we are eating dinner at a much later time.
Then I remembered that someone gave me a gift of lavender scented stuff (one of the benefits of moving, you find stuff you had forgotten about), and in the kit was a bag of lavender! Wow, into my pillowcase it went and after a few sniffs, I drifted off to sleep. Amazing! Much better than a sleeping pill.
That Ambien stuff was responsible for the death of my uncle’s brother, who drove his car in his sleep and crashed in an orchard.
Canning in January is fun, and it warms the house.
Have you tried a dehydrator?
I like the cheap one that Walmart sold, about now it is sometimes half price, it will have about 5 trays, is round and has a fan.
I have a larger homemade one, but it involves real work and uses too much electric for small batches.
Watch for onions in your produce, as when they are planted, they will bloom and give you seeds, plus split into 4 onion bulbs......yes, the common onion.
I had read that when you cut the roots off, you can plant them and they will grow again, I didn’t get mine planted in time to really test it, but it looked like it was going to grow.
I also found a half onion in the refrig, that was growing nice green onion leaves from the center.
If you cut the leaves for cooking, it will make your growing onion smaller and I think stronger flavored, so I use lots of greens and then use the bulb for soups.
yes, I have sand, or a sand / clay mix, some spots are pure sand.If the earthworms are happy, the soil is doing the right things.
I envy you, a move and compost piles too...You will enjoy the challenge of a new place.
I laugh at lawns, such a waste of effort, even flowers are better than grass to look at, for me.
My sister insists on flowers, she calls them “ Food for the soul”.
If you live in an area that has canals, watch for the time they clean the moss from them.
We would bring home all the trailer would hold and dump it in a pile, and the poultry would have said it was a poultry heaven, all those little shells and other goodies.
Most folks have never heard a batch of chickens sing, they do with a pile of moss.
This was in Wellton, near Yuma, Az, if there was any moss left after they had eaten their fill, we put it in the compost.
Yes, I too am a hurry up and plant it.
Try to remember that the warm growing plants want the soil at 50 degrees........or LOL, a hot water bottle to make it through the night.
When I still used the wood stove, I was building a wall of water bottles around it, my thought being that they would heat and release it later, and I would have the water for the animals and garden if hard time hit, or the water company broke down as it does at times.
I have to be careful what I do, as any old gal, is suspected of being senile.....but I am building a platform of water in front of the sliding glass doors.
I started filling my large coffee cans that I can’t bear to toss out and they are all plastic now, so won’t rust.
My pipes are not buried deep enough and freeze some years, so I leave the faucets on during the freezing weather, it has always bothered me to waste all that water, so I started filling the coffee cans.
They will make a nice base for plants to set on.
And can be dumped, if the cans are needed to store beans, grains, etc.
9’ x 9’ will work, any smaller allows for too many changes with the outside temps.
Maybe when you move to your land, he will extend it, by then you will want it extended.
LOL, start your wall of water bottles on the south or west for the most heat, south being desirable and west is the hot sun.
Don’t forget to plant the cabbage plants for the winter and a lot of the other vegs will do well over the winter and grow year round, tomatoes will grow 2 or 3 years in a greenhouse.
I prefer my greenhouse to be attached to the house, in fact it has been said that I might be happier, if I lived in the greenhouse and didn’t have to mess with a house.
It is great fun to wander into the greenhouse and check things out, when you want, with out having to reach for outdoor clothes, coats, etc.
Check out solar greenhouses for great tips on things you can do, the hippies did wonders with developing solar survival green houses. Complete with fish for food and rabbits in them.
Good, that you are OK.
Sometimes, time also solves ones problems.
Hard to imagine where the last month went, it seems like a couple of days, when I look back.
Yes, Lavender is so much better than a pill.
But the sleep is the wonderful part of the game.
Scott’s Lady friend, was having problems, so I suggested he share his bottle of Lavender E.O. with her.
She said it stunk and she would not use it.
But before he could tell her to give it back, as he used it, he heard her telling someone at work to get it, and told them
“it works”.......so she is converted too.
I suggested he give her a full bottle for Valentines day, and a bouquet of lavender flowers.
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