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 ...
That looks excellent.
I’m having a nice glass of Zinfandel with my steak.
Thank you.
Thank you, Admin Moderator! I miss Granny and want her to come back.
Me too! Thank you Admin Moderator. (I wish Jim would invite her to come back, also.)
Great News! Let’s celebrate! (I’ll have a glass of that, thank you.)
Look! Look! Good news. How about a glass of Champagne while we’re waiting for Granny. I brought six cases of Dom Pérignon.
I’ll raise a virtual glass of champagne to that!
Thank you everyone!! Now we can only hope and pray that we get her heat fixed and a computer that works. Prayers would help a lot....I have learned many things from granny over the past 6 or 7 years - a lot about life, survival and cooking things out of grown food or little food. We may all need this information soon.
Her knowledge about terrorism, communists, socialists etc. is amazing. Granny has spent years at her computer here on Free Republic sharing her thoughts and her time with us and we are all very, very thankful for that!
Thanks very much AM and for the ping JD. Music to read this thread by...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUlH09TMKgQ&feature=related
...for a FR treasure!
{{{hugs}}}
bookmark
holding my breathe and praying to see granny posting again here. Does anyone have contact with granny so we can get any clue as to her health and the status of her puter problems?
Yes, we have contact. Someone has spoken with her on the phone, in fact several people have.
Working on a few things and her computer so she can be back here again.
Granny is our FReeper “Family Jewel”. We need her wisdom even more now, and she still has a lot to share.
More of this, Part II.
I’m placemarking that one!
Appreciate the ping ... Granny Ruth, get yourself back in this chat, ya heah.
Granny - when you get back I want you to know your thread right here was #7 on Google search for make your own mixes!!!!
If anyone else already has this copied, please freepmail me, so I can get it sent. Or I will just copy again. LOL!
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