Home gardening offers ways to trim grocery costs [Survival Today, an on going thread]

Dallas News.com ^ | March 14th, 2008 | DEAN FOSDICK

[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."

[nw_arizona_granny]

Your bookmark is getting too far behind, won’t you come and join in the thread, it is still growing.

Couldn’t resist, as you are one of the first bookmarks posted.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Thank you for catching the farming thread.

We have more problems going in this country than we know and if we do not grow our own food, we may not continue eating.

Sure we can import food, as long as the rest of the world wants to ship it and does so and it is not full of poison.

Missed your post as it took me all night to go through my pings, that I had neglected all week and attempt to note the links on paper, so I could find it again.

I know not to let it go a week....

Have a nice day at work.

Later,

[gardengirl]

Mornin’ Granny!

Bug catcher here, too, unless you’re extremely careful!

I love to piece, but I’m not much on quilting. My hands and wrists are getting too worn out. Too much sewing—and sowing—and transplanting!

Thanks for the tip on yahoo—might try it. The people like me, that remember bits of useless info, are going to be invaluable when the computers all crash—as long as we can remember what it is we’re trying to remember! LOL

[nw_arizona_granny]

I love to piece, but I’m not much on quilting. <<<

So make them a tied quilt, use speed cro-sheen a good type of crochet thread that is used for doileys, etc.

My hands are not of much use for any purpose, these days.

Yes on the storage of info, that is why as much as I love the computer, for research, but not for storage.

My books, I can mark the pages and highlight them and they wait for me, through thick and thin, as long as it is not fire or flood. LOL

Have a nice and easy day today....

[Calpernia]

That was a good post, bump.

I never even tried growing tomatoes inside until NW_AZ said to do it.

I’ve not bought tomato sauce in 2 years.

[gardengirl]

Thanks Granny! I am having an easy day. Slept late—well, late for me—8:00—LOL

Ate dinner at my in laws and then watched a movie. I watch very little screen. This one was Called The Education of LIttle Tree. It came highly recommended and was very good. Definitely a tearjerker! It’a about a depression era boy growing up with his Cherokee grandparents.

Y’all grow maters inside? How do you keep the whiteflies and such off them? We’ve overwintered them in the greenhouse before, but they get loads of bugs. The maters are ok—better than store cardboard, but not as good as outside fresh.

[Calpernia]

bump

Hi gardengirl, I have my tomatoes in a large butterfly pavillion. I also keep some praying mantis.

We go out every December, cut down our own Christmas tree. We also manage to find one with a mantis egg sack. We put the egg sack in the pavillion. The mantids hatch months early and will feed off of any bugs on the plants. Then, by early summer, the mantids are big enough to be released. The plants can also go outside in the pots they are in.

If there aren’t enough bugs on the plants to feed the mantids, they only need a few containers of flightless fruit flies that are available from reptilian stores.

[nw_arizona_granny]

How do you keep the whiteflies and such off them? <<<

LOL, I shook mine each day, for pollination , and that took care of the problem, If you had a bunch of them, shake the vine an and vaccaum the air as they rise up.

For bugs, you could use a shop vaccaum, one that has a water proof tank, son the bugs can drown and quickly.

White flies here leave, if the banana peel is cleared out and the peels aren’t in the indoor compost.

Out in the greenhouse a good spray of water and yes, I have been known to vaccaum there too.

Yes you can grow them nicely indoors, see Calpernia’s chart for ideas, a sunny corner and a few pots of vegs and your life is better for the growth and the food variety.

My spell checker says I can’t spell this morning.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Cal,

Thank you for keeping the information going, it is a shame that learning takes so many years..........or for me it does.

Are you doing as I did and saving the extra tomatoes in the freezer, until they fill the big sauce boiling pot and then cooking them down.

A light soapy water spray, or better yet, a praying Mantis or two, is a good idea.

I always brought in a couple Mantis, for me to watch, but beware, even large ones will get trapped in a spider web and die.

Calpernia, we could use your knowledge here, I do hope you will join us and share it.

[nw_arizona_granny]

I have my tomatoes in a large butterfly pavillion<<<<

What is a butterfly pavillion?

Why have one?

New thought, but it would be interesting.

They can be so beautiful.

Are you catching the Swampsniper threads of his wildlife and bird photography, they are breathtaking photos.

you are eye to eye with the birds.

[gardengirl]

Too cool! The insects are horrible here and going to get worse if the envirowhackos have their way. They’ve just about pulled everything that works. When their homes are full of roaches and their kids are dying of easily preventable diseases, it will be too late, but maybe they’ll realize jsut why all this stuff was developed.

I may have to try your pavillion idea. Did you buy yours or make it?

[gardengirl]

A pavillion is a large net tent, basically. Never thought about putting praying mantis in the house! Course, my rat terrorists would have a field day! LOL They hate little things that move.

Vaccuumming white flies—I never would have thought of that! They’re so numerous here I’m not sure there’s a vaccuumm large enough!

[nw_arizona_granny]

[You know me, one thing leads to the next, I checked the FR thread and got into google, this is info we will want in fire season.

Milford, do you have a file set up for links such as these? in your group?

scan san diego.net the police scanner, hooked me during the last big fires, they had excellent coverage, from all the action that it took to fight them and you cannot get earlier news, than the dispatcher to the Police and Fire Departments.....

.....granny]

Any Dxer’s Hams out there?
Vanity | 3/30/08 | mylife

Posted on 03/30/2008 12:14:41 PM PDT by mylife

Any Dxer’s Or HAMS out there interested in opening a Dxer Forum?

I’m new to this stuff and could use some FRiends to surf the waves with.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1994081/posts

Source of used radios at e-ham.com

http://www.google.com/search?q=E-Ham.com&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

SAN DIEGO FIRE NEWS RESOURCES
[The sources will cover many parts of California and we need them for every state, sooner or later..granny]
Good links:

http://www.ac6v.com/EP.htm

A starting point:
[Add you states name to the first search]

http://www.google.com/search?q=FIRE+NEWS+RESOURCES&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=lhm&q=FIRE+NEWS+RESOURCES+Arizona&btnG=Search

During the California fires, of about 2005, I was following the new fires on the CHP dispatched notes to the Police cars.

There was a white van, that was stopping at off ramps, starting a fire and getting right back on the freeway.

All over California for a week.

Today, I would add a shovel to the car, in my youth, it was to get unstuck, today, to fight the arson fires.

The FR thread was interesting to me.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Thanks for explaining the net tent/pavilion.

Guess it is the kid in me, Lady Bugs and Mantis are caught and brought in, if there is something to eat for them.

Here the Mantis will get in on their own, they are attracted to lights, and there are always bugs around the lights.

I remember playing with bugs as a kid, had to watch them do their ‘thing’.

[gardengirl]

Loved insects and crawdads and flowers and lizards and.... LOL

The only spiders I truly like are the golden orbs—they’re big, you can see them, and they pretty much stay put!

[Calpernia]

Like gardengirl said, the butterfly pavillion is an indoor pup tent. I got that when I was hatching butterflies for the kids. I started putting the plants in it because the cats would dig in the pots. Then, since we always get Christmas trees with praying mantis egg sacks, threw the sacks in with the plants and created a yearly cycle :)

I’ve not seen swampsniper’s threads. I’ve been missing much because I’m working local campaigns and the primaries are coming up.

[Calpernia]

Yes, I have frozen tomatoes and peppers and jarred. I let the mantids go once the weather warms up.

[Calpernia]

This is the pavillion I have.

http://www.enasco.com/science/Live+Materials/Butterflies/Cage/

And if there is a bug problem in your area, I'm telling you, getting praying mantids really, really helps.

[Calpernia]

I also bought fly parasites. I only had to buy these one season to see a difference in my garden:

http://www.biconet.com/flies/FC3.html

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://www.dailybreeze.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?articleId=8743734&siteId=577

Preparing for the next Big One
By Paul Schulz
Daily Breeze
Article Launched:

The October 2007 Southern California wildfires, which caused one of the largest evacuations in the state’s history, were a wake-up call about how quickly and unexpectedly a disaster can strike. Evacuating families had to deal with quickly gathering the necessary supplies, locating their loved ones and seeking help all at the same time - a terrifying scenario for anyone.

The response to the wildfires has been deservedly praised and was a testament to the hard work of many fire and police responders, volunteers, and government and community organizations that provided help to those in need. The American Red Cross provided nearly 25,000 overnight stays in 26 shelters throughout Southern California and served more than 375,000 meals and snacks at more than 80 feeding sites.

It is impossible to predict when the next disaster will hit. A 2007 survey by the American Red Cross and the Council for Excellence in Government shows that even with a history of natural disasters, Americans will not be prepared for the next Big One. In fact, the majority of Americans remain unprepared for a disaster - 23percent have not taken even a single action to prepare for a catastrophe, and only 4 percent have taken all of the recommended preparedness actions.

Many people expect government agencies to be prepared for and provide help during a disaster. However, local government officials, including those in Los Angeles, must spread limited resources to address both current challenges, such as ensuring public safety or reliable public transportation, and prepare for future, unexpected disasters. While elected officials are doing the best they can to address these needs, it is critically important for individuals to also help themselves and take steps to prepare for the next disaster.

The good news is that preparing for a disaster can be a simple process for individuals, families and businesses, and help is available. Most people know that the Red Cross responds in times of catastrophic disasters, but may be surprised to learn the Red Cross is also committed to assisting individuals and communities prepare for disasters, such as wildfires, earthquakes and single-family home fires.

The Red Cross advises everyone to take three actions to prepare for emergencies: Get or put together an emergency kit, formulate a family plan and get more information on the types of disasters that can occur in our area. (More information about disaster planning can be found at RedCrossLA.org.) A family plan can be critical in keeping families safe and well informed of each other’s status during a disaster.

For example, families cannot assume they will be together during an emergency. Individual family members should know what to do if a disaster strikes at home, school or work, including the contact information of a relative or loved one living outside of Los Angeles who can be the single point of contact. There also are supplies and skills that every family should have to be prepared for the first critical days after a disaster when help can be difficult to reach or delayed.

We may not be able to predict when the next disaster will strike, but being prepared is the best disaster response any of us can have - and it is within our reach. Preparing for disasters will also ultimately save lives and government and organizational resources. Let us put the effort in ahead of time and together commit to making 2008 a year of better preparedness for everyone.

Paul Schulz is chief executive officer of the American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles.