Posted on 04/12/2008 10:50:55 AM PDT by Graybeard58
NEW HARTFORD -- Courtney Ieronimo is eager to fight back against the rising price of food by raising vegetables for the first time.
"If you are savvy, you can save the seeds and freeze or can what you don't use right away," said Ieronimo, who has a leg up on other gardening novices as a sales associate at White Flower Farm in Litchfield. She already knows how to grow flowers, so she's hoping vegetables will be an easy next step.
In addition to saving money, Ieronimo also wants to know for sure the food she puts on the table is pesticide free and locally grown, with less of a carbon footprint than potatoes shipped from Maine, or tomatoes from Florida. She's looking forward to the stress relief of digging in the soil.
Ieronimo isn't alone. The popularity of gardening, as a pastime, a money saver and a lifestyle choice, is expected to grow. A particular attraction for newcomers this year is the rising cost of food.
"There is a 20 percent increase in the number of people buying vegetable seeds this year," said Agriventures Agway Manager Colleen Grady in Torrington. "There is a lot more interest in gardening, in knowing where your food is coming from."
Next door at Blue Seal Feeds, Bob Hedus said seed potatoes were flying out the door Friday, a day after they arrived. At the Super Stop & Shop down the road, tomato seed packets were sold out.
At Gresczyk Farms in New Hartford, Bruce Gresczyk removed his glasses and eyeballed soil in thumb-sized plastic cells. He poked gently at a light soil covering tiny seeds planted three days earlier inside one of several greenhouses along Route 202. He's busy planting tender vegetables now -- six to eight weeks before the last frost and the traditional start of the growing season, Memorial Day.
"There is life," Gresczyk said, poking at the sesame-sized seed for Bravo Cabbage that will grow into basketball sized heads perfect for sauerkraut. Each of the thousands of tiny plants will be transplanted into bigger pots, and nurtured until they are ready for sale and transplanting to gardeners who opt against doing it from seed themselves. "We're bumping up production," Gresczyk said. "I have a hunch, based on anecdotal information. A lot of people are looking for someone to rototill their gardens, and you can beat the prices in the store."
No two gardeners or growing seasons are alike, so it's difficult to compare prices. A tomato planted in a recycled milk carton in a sunny window and fed kitchen compost after it is transplanted in a garden can produce 50 pounds of tomatoes inexpensively. Or, you can build and heat a greenhouse, buy potting soil and fertilizer. Gresczyk invests $600 a day on oil to heat several greenhouses, but demand for locally grown produce made the investment profitable even before food prices increased by 10 percent or more.
At the UConn Home and Garden Education Center at Storrs, Carol Quish said the number one topic people call about is still lawns. But that's changing.
"We're getting more calls about how to use a patch of land for vegetables," she said.
White Flower Farm's Propogation Supervisor Allison Brown is busy nurturing more peppers and tomatoes and an expanded offering of vegetable plants than last year. The upscale nursery that specializes in flower and landscape plants last year sold 8,000 tomato plants during an annual tomato festival in June. Many are heirloom varieties which offer flavor abandoned by commercial growers because they don't ship well, and are inspiring newcomers to gardening.
Urban dwellers are not exempt from the trend.
"I am getting calls from a lot of people interested in getting hooked up with a garden for the first time," said Cordali Benoit of New Haven, president of the Connecticut Community Gardening Association, a clearing house for 80 community gardening projects statewide. Two-thirds of the projects are vegetable gardens on private and municipal lots, many now with waiting lists. "There are people who do it for the social aspect, or because they don't know how to do it and want to learn from others how to grow a tomato that tastes like heaven compared to the pale pink ones you get in some salads."
Others are nostalgic about their grandparents' victory gardens, grown during war years, Benoit said. "It's only in the past couple of generations that we have moved away from home-grown produce," she said.
At Moscarillo's Garden Shop in Torrington, Carmen Brochu said a heightened interest in raising vegetables to save money is prompting many to ask questions now. It takes work, she cautions. You can't just plunk a tomato plant in the ground and reap a catalog perfect bumper crop. With a willingness to learn, the reward of a vine-ripened tomato is within reach. Even the best gardener needs good luck in the form of good weather.
"Do the best you can to learn the most you can about the variables you can control," Quish said.
I know that's why I grow vegetables!
Ping
I wonder if modern Democrats grow "defeat gardens".
I started 192 seedlings 3 weeks ago, more will be started soon.
The growing season here is short, the last frost usually occurs in late May or mind June.
Great stuff coming, peppers, tomatoes, green-beans, peas, sugar-snaps, watermelon, broccoli, punkins, onions, carrots and more.
Incidentally, I'm north and west of New Hartford and at an elevation far greater.
Here is how I planed ahead.
They'll attempt to defeat you in court to make you share YOUR garden with THEM.
Our asparagus bed has ten spears poking up and looking good.
I’m not one to enjoy getting dirty in the heat (a girly girl) but I almost always set out tomato plants. Here in Texas we have two growing seasons and my home grown ones actually have taste to them unlike the grocery store tomatoes.
I share mine with rabbits, which I am sure are democrats because they destroy what they can't eat, crap on everything and multiply like democrats.
I may have the problem solved though because some cats moved into my neighborhood last spring and the democrat rabbits started to disappear. I am pretty sure the cats are Conservatives, they work (hunt) for their food and don't bother anyone.
A piece of card board has better taste than tomatoes sold in grocery stores. Around here the ones in stores come from Florida and all look just alike and taste the same - like card board.
Expect home-growers to be regulated by the FedGov in not too long.
Gardeining PING!!!!!!!
Thanks go to Red Devil for the heads up on this!!!!
Thanks for the plug for our weekly fest!!!
Oh how right you are!!!!! I do my best to avoid buying tomatoes at this time of the year. If I do buy them I stick to the outrageously expensive grape tomoatoes, they at least have tomato flavor.
Oh how right you are!!!!! I do my best to avoid buying tomatoes at this time of the year. If I do buy them I stick to the outrageously expensive grape tomoatoes, they at least have tomato flavor.
I agree with both of you and bought a pint of grape tomatoes today for $2.50. They have some flavor but the skin is tough. One of my favorite childhood memories is of standing in my grandmother's garden with a salt shaker eating tomatoes off the vine.
Just thought some FReepers might want to take a break at, least once a week, from the politics. And I figured the more people who get involved with the thread well the more people I can ask questions to! LOL
Good Thread!
It reminds me of the early ‘70’s when things took a down turn thanks to Ford and Carter. The home gardening fad took a full swing. Burpee was suddenly selling mail order seeds at huge rates and quantities. WE had 4 varieties of corn, 6 types of tomatoes, exotic cabbage and countless other hybrid veggies to weed, pick, can and freeze.
Gawd I hated late August!
Good idea!!!!!!!
I couldn’t do anything outside this afternoon, we’ve had horrendous thunderstorms so everyting is back to being swamp.........SIGH
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.