Answering Questions
Posted by Prof | Filed under Q&A
Shelia asks, via email, what’s the deal with with “Grow Your Own? Are you guys advocating that people grow pot in violation of the law?”
Short answer: No.
Long answer: we have a small garden for the growing of vegetables, and if we had the funds, we would be packing up and moving out to the country to farm full time. But let me tell you about a family I met just tonight.
Standing in line at our local grocer, the people in front of us had three shopping carts of groceries. It totaled out to about $460.00. The only, and I mean only, prepared food in their carts was one package of Oreo cookies and two boxes of cereal. They had cleaning supplies, bathroom items, dog and cat food, canning jars, aluminum foil, and a few other non-food items. They had ten and twenty pound bags of rice, flour, and sugar. They also had one, ONE, item of produce: a single hand of bananas. They didn’t have any meat. They didn’t have any canned goods. They didn’t have any eggs or sausage or deli meat or any of the hundreds of different things that folks buy from the store every day.They didn’t even have a single can of soda.
Being me, I had to ask about their shopping carts. I sometimes find myself stopping at the store every day just to pick up milk and wind up spending twenty bucks or more on things for dinner. These folks looked like they were stocking up. Since it Florida, this is what I said: “Wow, do we have a hurricane coming already?”
The cashier, the manager who was bagging things up, and the couple all started laughing. “No, honey. We only come shopping once a month to stock up on staples. You were just lucky enough to be behind us in line.”
We continued to chat while the cashier kept cashiering. It turns out that these folks own a farm just a few miles north of town and don’t need anything else. They come to town once a month to buy all the things that they don’t make themselves. Otherwise, they grow their own. They raise their own chickens (and eggs). They grow cattle (for beef and milk), ducks, all their own vegatables, citrus trees, goats, etc., etc., etc. All on sixty-five acres that have been in their family for three generations.
They are extremely self-reliant people. They grow their own. The things they do buy, they pay for in cash.
That, Sheila, is what we mean by “Simon Says: I Grow My Own.” Even if you are only growing some carrots or have a tomato plant hanging in your window, we should all try to get a taste for growing our own food. We should all know how to do it, we should be planning on doing it, we should at least be ready to try.
Updated to add:
Campbell Soup Company is giving away packages of seeds both to you (the individual asking for free, non-genetically altered seeds that are the same “Jersey” tomatoes used in their tomato soup) and to FFA’s across the U.S. This isn’t a plug for them, they aren’t paying us to mention it. We usually buy seeds from a few, select, heirloom, companies knowing that it helps keep old varieties viable. But if you are interested in free Campbell soup tomatoes, more info can be found here. There, I just took away one of your excuses, go plant something.
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March 30th, 2009
When I was small, Campbell’s would also sell their extra (small) tomato plants to locals. Jersey tomatos are the best, and Campbell’s were what we had in the garden every year.
March 30th, 2009
You can hard code your posts so they don’t show up like the one above as
/?p=37
but rather
/answering-questions
your path could also include a date
I’m excited about the potential of this blog, what I’ve read so far has been pure joy. Semper Fi, Hank
March 30th, 2009
Yes, we know, thanks. I can either make new t-shirt designs or fiddle around with the backend of this site.
March 30th, 2009
On the grow your own topic, can ya’ll suggest a resource (web or print) that would serve as a primer for us citified folk that have never raised so much as a tomato plant? Thanks in advance for any info!
-David in MN
March 30th, 2009
I’ll be glad to work up a little primer for the site here. Will let you know when it is complete.
March 31st, 2009
I tore up the back yard and turned it into a veg. garden, to give me something to do instead of fixate on the gov’t.
And to grow food.
David- check out Path to Freedom (sorry, can’t do linkies)
They urban homestead in Pasadena, I think.
Mother Earth News publishes an excellent Grow Your Own Food guide. Check your local bookstore/magazine seller.
March 31st, 2009
David, DON’T check out Path to Freedom. There is something very wrong with those frickin’ hippies.