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 ...
I also believe that some form of subsistence farming would emerge as a necessity to battle back economic downturn.<<<
You are correct, this downturn is coming faster than we expected.
Are you in an area that gardens for food?
Any handy hints?
Years ago, I tried to learn all that I could about Japanese gardening, short of using the honey pots on mine.
But now it is gone from my mind, unless I am using the knowledge and do not even know it.
” Tobacco is a great bartering commodity. “
I keep my tobacco for personal use — coffee is my bartering stock.. I also drink coffee, but at - until recently - some $4/can for Walmart house brand coffee, I’ve managed to accumulate quite a stock over-and-above personal use needs.....
The general principle you stated is a good one, though — it’s the small ‘luxuries’ - and, yes, minor vices - that will be in demand.....
Thank you, keep checking, as the many articles that I have stored, have not really been touched, as yet.
“Gee, grow your own veggies? Who’d have thunk that?” I feel very fortunate that my landlord lets me have a few garden planters around my front door. Live in a small apartment complex and had to get written permission to do so as it breaks the uniform look of the complex. Am surprised at how much can be grown even though there is no full sunshine. Just love the taste of home grown veggies and herbs.
All you can eat southern fried food buffet - $5.64.
There are some who will just take out another credit card and go on........but many of us have already had to tighten our shopping lists.
I used a cheap food dehydrator from Walmart, one year for squash and other things in the garden.........it was on sale for about $30. about this time of the year.
I like squash and cabbage type vegs in my soups.
I also have a homemade dehydrator, cabinet style.
Due to health, I can’t garden, but I miss it and miss the taste of fresh foods that I grew.
Yes, grow a big garden and can or dehydrate all you can and win brownie points for all that you give away.
There are so many homeless people today, that donating it to the local shelters is a good way to insure that you will have a bumper crop.
When you drop the seeds in the ground, LOL, think of me, I always thought to myself that I was not ‘seeing’ tiny seeds, but that in my minds eye, I saw a full bearing plant.
I love seeds, they contain one of God’s miracle gifts to us.
We have been preparing for a couple of years now and when we rotate our supplies the food bank reaps the benefits. It's a win win situation.
We bought a wood burning cook stove about maybe two years ago, just encase. :)
Thank you for passing the word.
Now to see if we can make this a worthwhile information thread.
Welcome.
Good for you.
That nothing grows here and no one that I know owns a milk cow or even a goat.
Goat cheese is easy to make and good to eat.
When I was making the cheese, there were several other goat raisers that had me making the cheese with their milk.
Thank you for letting Gabz know of the thread.
” We bought a wood burning cook stove about maybe two years ago, just encase. :) “
Urban apartment dweller, here — so I have to be selective as to the types of supplies I lay in, with an eye towards being somewhat easily transportable if a bug-out becomes necessary...
That means that, for the most part, I stay away from canned goods and bulk goods, opting for 1# packs of beans and rice (stored in empty coffee cans) and other lightweight and portable items...
By the way, the other reason that I opted for small packs over bulk is that bulk goods pose a long-term storage problem, not being packed, usually, in water/moisture-resistant packaging... The smaller quantities, while a tad more expensive, are packed in sealed plastic bags, which can be opened as needed.....
Just imagine having to live off the grid and prepare accordingly.<<<
Excellent advice.........I will admit that I now have a wind up radio from the C.Crane Company, the Freeplay radio.
In the old days, you went to bed when it was dark and got up with the sun, or before.
Good advice on keeping a stockpile of coins, you are right, they will be needed.
Of course we can, and WILL!!!!!
Our neighbor plowed my field last week so I'm planning on getting peas and beans in this week. I'm also going to be getting a lot of seeds started indoors.
This week is Easter break and so we're playing host to a variety of 9 year olds, lots of free labor!!!!
We only drink goat milk. There’s a couple people around here who have goats so the last couple years we’ve had it about year round, which is a real blessing.
I figure the time will come when we can’t enjoy all the stuff we do now, so I take it as it comes and am grateful for what we have now.
Have you ever checked out mylar bags for long term storage?
If, as is eminently possible, we end up in some form of barter economy, you possess wealth in your boxes of odds ‘n ends.... ;~)<<<
I should send you post to my sister and brother, it is mainly the sister, who does not see the value of my lifetime store of junk.
But she is the baby, was not born in Texas on a farm, but in a nice hospital in San Diego.
So has never lived with the little out house, a bucket dipped in the tank for water, etc.
They will inherit, and they can get rid of it, after I am gone.
She came this week, let me be clear, she is a fine woman, who came out of love and to help with the many things that I cannot do for myself.....
She really cannot understand all the odd things that I own, as she works and gardens and keeps a lovely home, I helped to raise her, most of her youth, so it is partly my fault.
You should have seen her, when I explained that the wool carding machine had cash value, as does the spinning wheel.
I should sell or trade them for something that i do need, as it is beyond me to use them now.
I traded my cream separator and a black powder rifle for the computer that got me on the internet, might not have been the best trade dollar wise, but I love the Freepers that I have talked to all these years.
It is a lifesaver today, and I am sure what keeps me going.
So God pulls the strings and we go the path he points to.
Ohh, yes do join in, some of the Freepers have known for a long time that I heard different music than they do and have been after me for years to start this thread.
The time was never quiet right, and all of a sudden, it feels like now is the right time.
If I seem dis jointed, I have the police scanner on for San Diego, the swat team or some team is arresting guys in a house, the bad guys have guns.
AND, an officer looked in a window and found a baby was laying on the bed, so now they are attempting to do a snatch and grab on the baby and get it to safety, before they enter the house for the bad guys.
I wasn’t paying attention, until the beeper started that says an officer is in danger, a stolen car maybe.
Darn it, they switched channels and I lost them.
Thanks, I made a note to me to check it.
If you see something there that should be here, please bring it over. Please.
This is not a rigid thread, what I think might be interesting, will bore some to tears.
Food, is food.
Survival is many things, from being so simple, that now is a good time to buy extra shoes and warm coats, to storing food and medicine.
Thanks for the bump.
Welcome.
” Have you ever checked out mylar bags for long term storage? “
I have — and, for better or worse, I made my choice as a compromise between cost and convenience...
And, parenthetically, I can afford a few bucks a week adding a few items to my shopping list, better than a large cash outlay all at once for a bulk-pack, even though I know that in the long run, bulk is a better bargain....
(Besides, I’m naturally lazy, and I’d much rather spend my off-work times here on FR than repackaging bulk goods... ;~))
We bought two. One is for a backup. This is where we got ours.
A good site.
That’s the way to do it. Just but say five dollars more each week and store the extra. I have a bunch of those 18 gallon plastic storage thingies full of you name it, Top Ramens, Knorrs soups, Oatmeal, crackers, whatever.
As far as gardens grow, I seriously doubt most folks could grow enough to live on (and I include myself in that), but there are a few things I would recommend:
Lettuce (it’s a freakin weed. a 3 foot by 3 foot piece of ground will grow enough to choke a goat)
Cabbage a very prolific plant. Quite hardy and very, very nutritious
Potatoes anybody can grow them. and they are the highest yielding crop there is, weight wise.
Tomatos another easy to grow item. Also high yielding
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