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 ...
LIving in eastern NC, we deal with high heat and humidity most of the year. It is HARD to keep anything that’s not canned, and even that is not a guarantee.
I envy those of you who live in cooler climes where storing things is easier—not enough to move! :)
I swear, beans and other dry goods come pre-bugged around here! Some things, unless you keep them in the frig or freezer just won’t keep. Same thing with the bean seeds at the garden center, and raw peanuts.
Good, you found us, I am so glad you got a ping.
I have not abandoned the terrorism thread, it was that this one has been so much fun, that I could not leave it.
Hope you are OK and doing well.
Yep.
Have you ever visited the site, Timebomb2000? One can lurk there but some pages are off limits to just lurkers. They have a new rule there where you have to post periodically to keep your account active. I haven't signed up so I just lurk where I'm allowed.
That’s it...
“Stinkbait” is our unique find-your-way-home keyword... (I’m adding it now...)<<<
So spoke Uncle Ike and we have an official keyword for this thread.
Yes, I am smiling.
If you did not get a ping to this post, then I have missed putting your name on my ping list, or have not reached it, as I still have 80 posts to read.
My thanks to all of you, for being Freepers and for being here with me tonight and for most of you, it is ‘today’, for me it is still Easter Day, a special one.
Me either. My sister was always the clean, lady like girly girl, where I was the always the one getting in trouble rough and tumble, pants and baggy shirt type.
stinkbait is a great keyword.
Boy that sure looks familiar. I’ve forgotten alot of the old haunts. I’ll bookmark it.
I make it a rule to eat what I store..
When I rotate I take things from my store room, place them in my pantry and we use it up.
I have yet to have to donate stuff to the food bank.. however if I had excess I would.
Remember to store what you eat and eat what you store.. during a crisis is no time to find out you cant stand the taste of all that food you stocked up on.
Nobody knows how to make soap anymore. Well, darn few.<<<
It is not that difficult to make soap.
When I get a chance, I will go get the link for the best soapmaking group on the internet, a group fine enough to be Freepers.
The link is in a different yahoo box and I don’t want to sign out of the one I have open right now.
Maybe some day I’ll register, I just don’t like posting on many sites and you HAVE too there.
“Hunker down, act desperate.”
You bring up a good point. Its never a good idea to tip one’s hand as to how much food you have stored.
If the government is giving out “free cheese”, it might be a good idea to stand in line like the others. During a crisis the rumor mill is in high swing and the last thing you want people saying is “Hey where is djf, how come he isn’t in line with us.. he must have food”
heh just something I have thought about.
I bet dogs wouldn’t mind licking it off. lol<<<
If you share it off your arms, they will soon request it on their dog biscuits.
My cat Hitler, is a vegetarian and will not eat canned cat foods, real meat yes, cans no.
That's the rule we follow. Your food won't do you any good if it taste like........
I have yet to have to donate stuff to the food bank.. however if I had excess I would.
We buy by volume here, so many potential mouthes to feed that we can't eat it all when we rotate.
Good for you, keeping your daughter in the country.
Our daughter would have been better is she had been moved to the desert, sooner.
Live and learn, that is life.
Thanks restornu. I half-saw a TV ad for that a month or so ago and couldn’t remember the name of it later.
Sounds like me and my sister!
Yep, been buying meat off local farmers for a long time... its nice that I live in a city that is literally agricultural less than 20 miles outside the limits if you go the right direction.
Guy works full time regular job, but raises cattle and pigs as a side business on his farm. 100% corn fed, and pay a rediculous price per lb and have better beef that I can find in any butcher shop or market. Even the ground meat made from the scraps has virtually no fat. Butchered just the way I want it, vaccumm sealed, lasts forever. Yea I gotta pay per lb of pre slaughtered weight, but what I pay is insanely less than what the supermarket charges and far better quality.
Yea, its a bit of a haul to get to the butcher shop and pick it up, and haul it all back to my house in coolers etc.. but its beyond worth it. I pay less per lb of processed beef that the super markets sell their low grade ground meat per lb.
I’ve debated joining one of the CSA’s but I don’t think I could eat all the veggies they deliver weekly. For me its not about the “organic” stuff, though nothing aginst those who wish to go that route, for me its simply all about $$. I refuse to pay $4+ a lb for ROUND STEAK that I know they paid that farmer squat for... They keep marketing crapier and crapier cuts and charging more and more for them, and none of that’s going to that farmer.
One thing I wish I could find is a steady source of affordable local chicken... those you need constantly, as opposed to beef or pork where 1/2 can last ya a year or so. One of the CSA’s has them, but not a consistent volume.
I've said that myself on FR. Only our immediate family knows about it.
During a crisis the rumor mill is in high swing and the last thing you want people saying is “Hey where is djf, how come he isn’t in line with us.. he must have food”
That's where the guns and ammo comes in. lol
haha so true..
Hahahaha, your probably right.
My cat Hitler, is a vegetarian and will not eat canned cat foods, real meat yes, cans no.
I'm sure you know the real hitler was a vegetarian as well. LOLOLOL
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