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Fearing Shortages, People Are Planting More Vegetable Gardens
NPR ^ | March 27, 2020 | Alan Yu

Posted on 03/29/2020 6:01:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway

People still struggle to find food at grocery stores during this pandemic, but Jameson Altott is not as worried. He grows more than half the food for his family from his large garden at home, outside Pittsburgh.

"We are lucky to have preserved a lot of food and we still have canned fruits and vegetables and jams and berries in the freezer and meat in the freezer," Altott says.

There has been a surge of people interested in growing their own food. Oregon State University's Master Gardener program noticed this, and made their online vegetable gardening course free through the end of April. Their post on Facebook was shared more than 21,000 times.

"We're being flooded with vegetable orders," says George Ball, executive chairman of the Burpee Seed Company, based in Warminster, Penn.

Ball says he has noticed spikes in seed sales during bad times: the stock market crash of 1987, the dotcom bubble burst of 2000, and he remembers the two oil crises of the 1970s from his childhood. But he says he has not seen a spike this large and widespread.

A group of college students, residents, and activists in Cleveland have crowdfunded a community garden. They have been running a free meal delivery service for those in need, are running out of donated fresh vegetables, and are planning for the long term. They say they were thinking of Victory Gardens, which started in World War I when President Woodrow Wilson asked Americans to plant vegetable gardens to prevent food shortages.

Leah Penniman already teaches people how to farm, and has adapted her team's programming online. She is co-director and farm manager at Soul Fire Farm, a community farm in New York state that fights racism and injustice in the food system.

She says her farm's mantra is "to free ourselves, we must free ourselves," which comes out of the teachings of civil rights activist and leader Fannie Lou Hamer. Hamer turned to agriculture in the late 1960s, launching a "pig bank" for black farmers, and the Freedom Farm Cooperative, buying land for black farmers to own and farm collectively.

"We can't fundamentally have freedom and autonomy and dignity and community power without some measure of control of our food systems," Penniman said. "I think this gardening interest arises from a visceral understanding of that truth."


TOPICS: Agriculture; Food; Gardening
KEYWORDS: defundnpr; defundpbs; gardens; npr; pbs
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1 posted on 03/29/2020 6:01:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Become self-sufficient ala Good Neighbors.

The Britcom.


2 posted on 03/29/2020 6:02:53 PM PDT by wally_bert (Spend like you were going to the electric chair!)
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To: nickcarraway

I miss my tomatoes.

How do you clean a tomato of COVID ?


3 posted on 03/29/2020 6:10:11 PM PDT by George from New England (escaped CT in 2006, now living north of Tampa)
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To: nickcarraway
Leah Penniman already teaches people how to farm, and has adapted her team's programming online. She is co-director and farm manager at Soul Fire Farm, a community farm in New York state that fights racism and injustice in the food system.

Oh, gag......

4 posted on 03/29/2020 6:14:50 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: nickcarraway

In WW2 they were called Victory gardens. IIRC they grew so much food they allowed the food from the big farms to feed the military and meet other needs.


5 posted on 03/29/2020 6:36:27 PM PDT by ealgeone
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To: nickcarraway

More self reliance - good


6 posted on 03/29/2020 6:43:32 PM PDT by taxcontrol
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

p


7 posted on 03/29/2020 7:15:22 PM PDT by Liz (Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: nickcarraway

Can’t plant a garden till the end of May. Snow still on the ground and frost can happen till June 5th.


8 posted on 03/29/2020 7:26:24 PM PDT by hondact200 (Lincoln Freed the Slaves. Obama Enslaves the Free. Trump 2020 - Keep America Great)
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To: George from New England
How do you clean a tomato of COVID ?

Wash it with a bit of dish soap and rinse. The dish soap will wash away the virus and also will dissolve the lipid layer which holds the virus together.
9 posted on 03/29/2020 7:42:30 PM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: metmom

metmom wrote:


“Leah Penniman already teaches people how to farm, and has adapted her team’s programming online. She is co-director and farm manager at Soul Fire Farm, a community farm in New York state that fights racism and injustice in the food system.”

Oh, gag......”

Yeah I hear ya.

But we are -all- in this war.

Victory gardens redux.


10 posted on 03/29/2020 7:49:43 PM PDT by WildHighlander57 ((WildHighlander57 returning after lurking since 2000)
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To: WildHighlander57

Hey, I’m all for gardening.

Been doing it myself and canning tomatoes from it for decades.

But racism and injustice in the food system????????

As if there aren’t enough REAL problems in this world to deal with, they have to virtue signal and make some up?????


11 posted on 03/29/2020 8:05:32 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: AnotherUnixGeek; George from New England

I use Dawn, but not the stuff with the lotion or antibacterial.

Just the plain stuff.

My d-i-l was aghast that I was using regular Dawn to wash some produce (anything smooth, not broccoli for example) and I said, *Well, we wash our dishes in it and rinse them off and then eat off them. How is this any different?*

One of the few times I’ve left her speechless.


12 posted on 03/29/2020 8:08:38 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: metmom

metmom wrote:

“Hey, I’m all for gardening.

Been doing it myself and canning tomatoes from it for decades.

But racism and injustice in the food system????????

As if there aren’t enough REAL problems in this world to deal with, they have to virtue signal and make some up?????”

I agree, that social justice gardener lady —is— a goofy liberal.

But the veggies will grow just the same; the goal of —our— new Victory Gardens is self-sufficiency.

And freedom.


13 posted on 03/29/2020 8:36:33 PM PDT by WildHighlander57 ((WildHighlander57 returning after lurking since 2000)
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To: WildHighlander57

AMEN!!!!


14 posted on 03/30/2020 3:25:58 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: ealgeone

All my young life my mother had a big garden and us youngins had to help in it. That is what fed us.


15 posted on 03/30/2020 4:19:11 AM PDT by weezel
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To: George from New England; AnotherUnixGeek
I miss my tomatoes. How do you clean a tomato of COVID ?

Dip it in 3% hydrogen peroxide (food grade is best) for about a minute and let it dry, rinse and eat. Same ingredients as water. See post 31 here .

16 posted on 03/30/2020 5:20:28 AM PDT by daniel1212 ( Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: metmom

To get Dawn off fully you need a lot of scrubbing or hot water. Instead see above post and link.


17 posted on 03/30/2020 5:23:05 AM PDT by daniel1212 ( Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: nickcarraway

This I don’t get. Our stores are stripped of tp, paper towels, canned foods, rice, pasta, bread, etc. But the produce sections have all remained fully stocked. No one is buying it because you can’t really store it, or they don’t know how.


18 posted on 03/30/2020 6:25:50 AM PDT by sheana
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To: daniel1212

I barely use a drop, but you can tell by the feel if it’s all off.

The problem is, sometimes there’s food grade wax put on produce and H2O2 won’t cut that like soap will.

Maybe after the thorough washing, then the peroxide.


19 posted on 03/30/2020 7:01:31 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
By the end of the year it will be spun differently, claiming that the Trump administration's border measures and quarantine turned everyone into paranoid heavily-armed survivalists.

20 posted on 03/30/2020 9:06:20 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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