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 ...
**She knows there’s bad people because we told her there was. She is too friendly with strangers and that’s dangerous in todays world.**
It’s good that she knows, awful that she has to. I am a naturally affectionate person, esp with little kids ( and little old men!) and my first reaction is to hug kids. It is so sad to see the ones that practically scream rape when you move. I grew up in a huge, loving family—many, many aunts, uncles, cousins, grands, etc. We are all very touchy/feely. I’m 44, the oldest of 5, and both my sisters and I still fight over who gets to sit in Daddy’s lap! Since we can’t all fit, somebody gets his lap and the other 2 bracket him like bookends. :)
I think this is part of what we were talking about earlier—before the nanny state. Now, everyone is so afraid to disipline their kids, or even hug them for fear someone will take it the wrong way. HUmans need physical contact. It can make you feel better than any drug ever proscribed.
Humid is a fact of life here! We’re only a couple of miles from the Atlantic, if you go by water. If we drive, it’s about 25 miles, by the time you go to the bridges and double back! LOL
Sorry I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would ahve liked on your thread! Have to work sometime! It was really great! Would you add me to your ping list please?! Thanks!
When we lived at Wellton, we were the first homestead east of Mexico, 40 miles, but that was nothing for dope smugglers.
The illegals did not scare us, as they had walked 40 miles and often all the way across Mexico, to get a job, work and go home.
I have met more than one vehicle, with one of my mothers big aprons on and a pistol underneath it.
But the oddest of all, I had 2 Samoyed dogs, Frosty was a giant dog and Snowball, well she was the runt, that was why they let me have her, at about 3 weeks old....
People would drive in the yard and refuse to get out of the car, they were afraid of the dogs.
If they only knew that the dogs did not know what the fancy commands meant, that I was prone to whisper to them out loud.
Or that the most evil things they ever did, was keep wearing out the front seat in the dune buggy, while that sat on it, LOL, both of them, all day and all night, waiting for it to move and take them for a ride in the desert.
You would look out the window and swear it was 2 humans sitting there, praying for some movement.
They were children’s dogs, knew to stop and what no meant.
Snowball could talk/communicate, Frosty could say Hallooo and almost manage ‘howdy’.
We had been to town shopping all day, [40 miles to Yuma] and to get to our place needed to cross over the main canal.
There were cars all over the place all kinds of activity, at the canal bridge.
We went on home and while I did the putting away of supplies, Bill went to feed the livestock.
He came in and said to me “Honey, I think someone has been here and Snowball is attempting to tell me something, so I will take the gun and go for a walk”...
He is looking every place, empty old cars, pens that were not being used and going further afield as he circled, and found nothing, but Snowball did not give up, she kept him going in circles, until he found a little 3 year old boy, standing in the middle of the desert, crying, this at midnight.
He was good with kids, they loved him, the next thing I know he is in my kitchen, saying call the cops, we don’t know this kid and Snowball is grinning with joy.
Bill found him at the edge of our property, where we did not go, as it was full of ground hog tunnels and they stayed full of
coontail and sidewinder rattlesnakes, he was in the middle of the snake den.
Friends of ours were part of our unit for search and rescue, Mac and Harry were on on hands and knees, crawling the mile from the canal, looking for the boy.
He had gone on a weekend fishing trip, with an aunt and uncle and their children, he thought he was in bed with the other kids and she thought he was with his uncle, fishing.
He had been drawn towards our place, as we had a big street light installed, so we would be able to see the snakes at night.
He was already on the bombing range and would have been lost to us, plus there were cougars, fox and coyotes out there, that we knew of, having seen them.
[I talk too much...sorry about that]
I’m going to be making a horned owl scarecrow for the garden this year ‘cause most critters are afraid of the owl predator. It’s what the Amish and Mennonites use and they know their gardening!
Our next step is to find a local farmer so we can buy and have him raise a calf our family can share at butchering time.<<<
You are lucky, that you have such fine teachers for gardening.
On the calf, if you make a deal, get it in writing, right down to who will pay for hauling it to the butcher shop.
Make sure you know who you are dealing with.
Can’t you have one at your place, if you got one a month or so old, then it would not be that hard to raise and you would have your own manure for the garden.
Hay and grain and lots of water, of course a pasture, if you have it, but we don’t have pasture for the calves in Arizona.
Good alfalfa hay.
Never mind all the medicines and chemicals, if they are not sick.
Does a neighbor have a big pasture? maybe a hind quarter would pay the rent on it for a year.
You could when I was active, raise 6 goats for the same cost as one mild cow, we sold our cow and went with the goats, but then I have not eaten the meat, so have no opinion on its taste, some say it is like deer.
I had all the pork and beef that I needed, in the freezer, so did not eat my goats.
First, if you look at our keywords, they cover a lot of territory and I for one, cannot stay on one subject, so your watermelons are not off topic.........
Did you know they also have square tomatoes, something about the machine pickers and easier to package.
I am old fashioned, I want my food to look just like it did in my granny’s day.
LOL.
If you open them, just tuck them in the dresser drawers and in the linen closet, all will smell clean.
Or, I should say, that is the way that I would do.
bookmark
The world would be better off if he had more influence.<<<
You are so right, Dr. Bill has set my thoughts on different paths for all these years, but not on these genome seeds.......those I do not want.
He says that it happens everyday in the field, and I am sure it does, but the new seeds are not natural, they are forced matings and will get us in trouble.........
in my opinion.
As I understand it, squash pies follow the same recipes and most of us would not know the difference.
The Acorn Squash would be a little different, but not that much, I am betting.
Your pies would suit my taste.
Thank you for joining us.
You are on the ping list, that I never dreamed of starting, until this thread.
Welcome glad to have you with us.
. She’s 12 and no where near mature enough to understand the world around her so we’re very protective and watch her very closely. She would be easy pickings for a pervert so she is never out of our sight or off our hand in public.<<<
You do have your hands full.
I admire parents who really care what happens to their kids and attempt to protect them.
I am sure we are all praying for her safety, Freepers prayers are strong in power and protection.
Take care.
I gave the Hydrophonics some thought and thought that I might not be happy with it, as I never stay in a routine and would kill the plants.
You can build your own, no reason to buy fancy equipment.
Now that is what I thought the Angels would look like .
Her beauty takes your breath away.
She is going to lead you to places you don’t even imagine, her brain is going 99 miles an hour.
I am so glad you were blessed with her.
She could be a doll, in a collection.
You are on the ping list, welcome and jump right in, there is room for all of us and so much to learn.
I am glad you are here.
I forgot to respond to this. I don’t know but I’ll take that as a high compliment. :)<<<
Yes a very high compliment.
And you were also correct, on there not being gasoline for a washing machine.
Looks like the thread is going to hold! Good job!
I’ll be back later tonight to add some to it...
JD
Yes, the square foot gardening has solved problems for many people.
I have known several people who swear by it.
Back in the early 1960’s, Rodale published the information on growing on bales of straw.
I tried it and it works, from an old memory, you put on an inch of manure, then a layer of sand then more manure, until you had several inches on top of the straw, all the time running the sprinkler on it.
when it is soaked in well, plant seeds.
As with everything time will tell.
A new word to me, I haven’t been reading homesteading, since 9-11, have been too busy learning about terror.
Looks interesting.
Like you, I have read many books and could not tell you where some of my ideas come from and like the way I cook, a dab of this and 3 or that, so I do strange things.
Just don’t get suckered in on the human sludge kick that is going around again.
In the late 1950’s it was the best thing ever for raising Cymbidium Orchids, and then the growers started having health problems.
A cut on your hand, if you were using sludge and you might die.
Today, they are attempting to once again convince the public to spread it on the grounds.
Not for me, too many diseases and they already know that the pills people take are coming through the treatment plants.
LOL, again, in my opinion.
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