Posted on 01/10/2009 6:05:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
I can remember my mother talking about the victory garden she had in the backyard of their home during World War II. My dad was in the Navy in the Pacific theater during the war and my mother felt that she was supporting the war effort with her little garden.
If you look up victory gardens you will find that during World War I and World War II, the government asked the residents of the United States to plant gardens in order to support the war effort. It was one way to bring the people together in support of a common goal and to make them feel that they were contributing to the war effort. It is estimated that millions of people planted gardens. In one article that I read it is recorded that “in 1943, Americans planted over 20 million victory gardens, and the harvest accounted for nearly a third of all the vegetables consumed in the country that year.” The article also stated “emphasis was placed on making gardening a family or community effort, not a drudgery, but a pastime, and a national duty.”
Jump forward to 2009. Given the not so rosy economic picture that the country and individuals are facing maybe we need to revisit the victory garden concept. If you go to www.revivevictorygarden.org/ you will find info on victory gardens. Victory gardens are not much different from vegetable gardens of today and the gardening principles and practices followed in the victory gardens are still the ones we use today in our gardens.
I would say that during World War I and World War II, everyone was encouraged to plant a garden, even if it was a small container on the patio or balcony.
Think if everyone planted some kind of a garden today. The amount of produce produced would be considerable and would dramatically increase the consumption of fresh and locally produced nutritious vegetables that would add to the well-being and health of our society, not to mention the positive impact to the family budget.
I am sure that many of the vegetables produced in the victory gardens were also canned and put up for use during the winter months, which in our society today is a dying art, but one that could be revived.
I see many positive aspects of encouraging victory gardens today. It seems to me that they hit the nail on the head when they said, “emphasis was placed on making gardening a family or community effort, not a drudgery, but a pastime, and a national duty.”
It seems to me that we need more of that kind of activity, commitment and spirit in society today. Make plans to have an economic victory garden in 2009.
Geeez! Think I need some rest.
A very interesting thread! In Miami, we have something called Sea Grapes. They get big and purple and are pretty sour but you can eat them. They grow all over the place. Also sugar cane is fun to munch on. Whats the quickest and sturdiest plant to grow for food? I do not have a green thumb at all...
The REAL Mr. Victory Garden
James Underwood Crockett
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/number500/JamesUnderwoodCrockett.jpg
2 Problems here:
(1) HOA. Many “gated communities” frown on them.
(2) Deer. In residential neighborhoods, you just can’t kill ‘em. Sigh.
Self ping for later read.
“There’s wild fruit, free for the picking: raspberries, blackberries, blueberries..”
And usually it’s on some farmers’ fence rows.
On Government owned land it is illegal to just go picking fruit.
And then it’s not free, it’s theft.
We started working on our garden area yesterday! We have about a 3 acre section of our propety that was covered with dead standing trees. A bulldozer came and knocked the trees down, and we plan on burning them this week. Part of the area will be for a field for some work we do, another section will be for a garden.
The wildlife people told us how to deal with the deer. He said put up an electric fence and every few feet attach a piece of foil with peanut butter on it. The deer will take a taste and get a whole new appreciation for my neighbor’s garden!
WTF is your problem! I said “wild”, not on farmland or “Govt owned land.”
Be sure to plant a few up-side-down tomatoes.
What I would like to see, for two reasons, is a home mycoprotein grower. Mycoprotein is your basic high protein mushroom or fungus.
It is used in a meat substitute called Quorn, and it has about the same texture as boneless cooked chicken. Not particularly flavorful, it can be flavored to taste like chicken, beef, or pork. Unfortunately, the way it is processed today is oriented to ova vegetarians, but it could be blended with animal fats and real flavors as well, to be far tastier and more nutritious.
First of all, it would provide more protein in hard economic times when meat is more expensive, but also when meat is in shortage. Thus high protein meals, even if you can only get real meat once or twice a week.
With a mycoprotein grower, and home beer making, and a vegetable garden, people would be not just more self sufficient, but have better quality nutrition as well.
“When the world worries and ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden”.......from a woodprint I bought in Vermont 33 yrs ago.....
Yep, I think the key is to make sure you have the basic of shelter, food and water and the rest will be easy. We made extra efforts to super insulate our home. Insulation is cheap and easy to install . Massive savings with just insulation , storm doors and windows and proper weather stripping. Our wood stove is about 75% efficient yet using hickory only makes that moot IMO as one load of hickory in the stove will heat for 24 hours due the insulation efforts.
As do you we use the ceiling fans to push the heat down for a constant warm feeling.
2 freezers full of fish, venison, beef, pork and chicken bartered for and harvested last fall will last us till next season. Our recent addition to the food storage efforts is a very nice root cellar with lots of shelves with clean straw. Potato’s , squash, onions etc all are doing well there thus far. Lots of string beans, pickles, okra, tomatoes, jellies, jams etc as well as case lots of canned goods from sams for soups and stews and chilies as backups in case we messed up the canning.
My next best effort to get frugal is a new VW Jetta TDI 6 speed manual transmission 4 door. I am 13 miles from work, all highway and figure just to and from work I can use around half a gallon of fuel a day if I drive that rig easy and hypermile it. As flat as the panhandle is all I have to avoid is a headwind........:o)
My efforts to use WVO in my cummins dooooge was a bad deal as piezo injectors don’t get along with that stuff. So best I can get out of that 2500 4x4 was 23-24 mpg average with programmers, cold air intakes, synthetic pol products , turbo back exhaust and a light foot..... crazy powerful yet I can do better this summer. I have a old mercedes 300D. Rebuilding the engine and transmission now with plans on making that a summer commuter car with WVO / Diesel combination of fuels.
Lots of ideas to stay off the grid, live off the land and avoid the disasters of man if at all possible.
Stay safe !
I grew up with several pecan trees in my yard. My parents still live in that house, and every other year they’ll have a huge crop.
I live in California, and we don’t have pecan trees around here. I just have to settle for frozen ones from my folks yard.
Zucchini is pretty easy to grow, and so is lettuce.
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