Is it the End Times?

With world events spiraling out of control, things are going to be getting really bad, for every one. People are dying by the thousands in Japan, either from the earthquake/tsunami or they will soon be dying from radiation poisoning. People in Africa are being killed by their own governments. And this is not just in Libya, but all over the continent. Disease, famine, wars, gang violence, thousands are dying every DAY. And what are we doing about it?

Nothing.

Everyone has been taught by society that we should all look out for ourselves first and others second. How can we learn and grow as humans if we look out for ourselves first? It is just insane to think that we can succeed by only looking out for ourselves. Do we not learn compassion by seeing, not looking but really seeing, those who are less fortunate? Do we not learn what love is by loving others unconditionally? Do we not learn, well, anything important, by doing for someone else? Is it really surprising that most of us don't even think to donate to charities until there is a disaster of some sort?

Most of us do not see how current events will affect us in the long term. We are not prepared, none of us, for a global tragedy. We, as a society, have exchanged the ability to provide for ourselves for convenience. Take out is cheap so we no longer cook our own meals and in many cases wouldn't even know how. We do not know how to make clothing, grow food, preserve food, build a shelter, find water, protect ourselves and our families. We think Survivor is an entertaining show, but not anything we would ever have to do ourselves.

I am afraid that we will all have to be Survivors in the near future. When there is nothing left in the stores, will you be able to either do without or make it your self? You know where to look to see what is happening in our world and what it means for humanity. Will you be part of the problem, or part of the solution?

Aquaponics/hydroponics/greenhouse

This morning, I have been reading up on the biosphere aspect of the fish farm, basically an aquaponics/hydroponics set up where, in a greenhouse dome of 3 levels, fish ( in this case, carp of various species) are grown in above-ground swimming pools, they eat surface level vegetation on the pools, solar panels are used to run pumps that take the accumulated wastes from the fish and pump it to grow beds for vegetables and fruit on the upper levels where the now filtered and oxygenated water is gravity fed back to the fish pools. The solar panels are also used to run the ventilation system in the summer as well as a small heat source in the winter.

Between the fish eating vegetation and the compost and waste products from the fish to fertilize the plants, it is pretty much a closed system that supports itself. Another variation I read about had a worm farm incorporated into it and the fish being used were catfish that ate the worms and the castings were leached to fertilize the garden beds.

This particular system was built in Canada and maintained a temperate zone climate pretty much all year.

If I had to guess, I would think the cost for something like this would be somewhere between outrageous to astronomical. It would be interesting to see if it would be possible to do something similar using scavenged/reclaimed materials on a smaller scale.

Just a thought.

Will gardening be illegal?

There is a certain amount of idiocy you expect from city governments. And it seems, the larger the city, the more idiocy there is. Backing up heavily traveled streets for months to put in bicycle lanes, poorly timed traffic lights, ordinances on how often you must mow your yard, etc. Most of these do have some sort of reason behind them.

But when city governments start placing heavy fines on otherwise law-abiding citizens for having a food producing back yard garden, you are crossing over to the realm of the absurd. A gentleman in Atlanta has been fined almost $5000 for planting part of the 2 acres he owns in vegetables. These food crops are for his own personal use, he gives some to his friends, and any extra he will take to the farmer's market to sell. He isn't using his yard to grow cash crops, it isn't a business, and he isn't annoying his neighbors with heavy farm equipment. He has a garden as a hobby for his own enjoyment and just happens to have a bounty to share.

The City's stance on the issue is that his property is not zoned for agriculture. So this past Spring, after getting the citations in January and February, He applied to the city to have his property re-zoned. It was approved. The Code Enforcement officials are saying that he still owes the fines, and now the penalties for not having paid them, because there were food crops growing while the rezoning was still under consideration. And they are suing to get their money.

I am not sure exactly what their problem with this gentleman actually is. Did someone complain? Is the zoning commissioner some sort of Nazi who wants complete control over what the citizens do on their own property? Is this just a way for the city to collect money they otherwise are not entitled to? Or is it something bigger?

It is bad enough that the Big Three agri corporations (Monsanto, Cargill, and ADM) are trying to control the food supply through genetically modified food and the availability of heirloom seeds, but trying to prevent individual citizens from having a backyard garden is going too far. The vast majority of people who do have a backyard garden only do so to either have fresh produce during the summer months or maybe to can, or because they just enjoy gardening. They don't do it for money, because there just isn't enough money in it to justify the costs. They do it for the food and the love of getting dirty.

I worry about what this means for all of us in the long run. I guess I will have to get a fancy trellis for my tomatoes and call them landscaping.

Fall is "Falling"?

Now that the Labor Day holiday is behind us, it is time to start thinking about Fall chores around the house. Winterizing the windows, changing the curtains, maybe add more insulation in the attic, weather stripping, the list seems endless. I need to wash and dry the heavier bedding, get the furnace cleaned out, we need to replace one of the ceiling fans, change out a light fixture in the girl's closet, paint 2 rooms, and on and on.

This Summer was just so hot and dry that we didn't do as much outside work as I would have liked. We did finally get a new roof put on, so at least we don't have to worry about that this year. We also got the siding replaced in a spot that was rotting from rain splash, but we haven't gotten it painted yet.

I still need to get a fall crop planted, but that will mean that I need to finish cleaning out the garden of the dead or dying peas, carrots and okra. All of the squash plants are gone already (they did so poorly from the heat I ripped them out over a month ago) so those beds are empty already. I am thinking about putting greens, either mustard or turnip, there. I need to plant some more Green Peas since we like them so well. Maybe some lettuce and radishes in the main garden since they grow so fast.

But today it is raining, so no outside work will get done. I will probably just do some laundry and maybe bake some bread. I haven't done that in a while so it is time. I need to make some more soap too. I am down to 3 bars.

I have a couple of beef roasts in the freezer so I am thinking I will dig out the crock pot and start some dinner as well.

It will be one of those lazy, catch-up days where it will all get done, just not very quickly.

And I will start thinking about what I want to have ready for the holidays and for next Spring.

So much to do, but...not today.

End of Summer

School will be starting next week, but it seems that I still haven't finished with the canning thing for the year.

Last weekend I stopped by a farm market for some tomatoes to can. While I was there, I also picked up some new potatoes, early apples, a cantaloupe, zucchini, corn, and a box of over-ripe peaches.

Let me tell you something about peaches. They are best if you go out to the trees, cup your hand underneath it, and it falls off in your hand. That is how you know if it is ripe. The next best thing is to find a farm market that sells peaches and buy a box of their over-ripes. You can get them for almost nothing, and with the exception of a few bruises, they will be the best thing you have ever put in your mouth. They are the "bite-into-it-and-juice-drips-off-of-your-elbow" ones that those in the know will fight over. These peaches are the proof that the fruit you get at the grocery store is a joke.

I picked up a "lug" (about 1/2 a bushel) of these over-ripe peaches for $10. We ate several of them fresh and I put the rest in the freezer. There were only 3 out of the whole box that I had to throw out because they were too damaged. I still had 9 quart-ish sized bags for the freezer. My husband had never really had a "good" peach before and was simply amazed. Now I need to get some more.

I told my dad about them. He wants to do a swap of canned peaches for canned pears. He has a buddy with pear trees that gives him 5 or 6 5 gallon buckets of pears every year. So Dad is going to can up some pears for me and I will can some peaches for him. We are already swapping plum jam and preserves for purple hull peas, so the fruit swap is just a bonus.

But it will keep me busy for a few days. Not that I have a problem with that.

Squash is so misunderstood

I have been thinking a lot about nutrition lately. And how to eat healthier without spending a lot of money to do it. Usually all I really have to do is look in my garden.

This year that means tomatoes, green peas, snap beans, broccoli, and garlic. I have been reading about Native Americans and their gardening choices. They mostly grew corn, beans, and squash. It grows fast, can be planted together, and generally produces a lot of food for a small space. The corn is planted first, and when the seedlings get about 4 inches tall, they planted beans around each corn plant. As they grew, the beans would climb up the corn stalks. The squash (pumpkin is actually a squash) would be planted in hills around the field.

It also appears that when you eat these three vegetables together, it creates a complete protein very similar to meat protein. So Corn+Beans+Squash = Meat. Very useful for those lean times when hunting was difficult. And with a seasoning of herbs gathered in the wild, very tasty.

Anyway...we don't generally eat a lot of squash. The kids don't really care for it, and the only way my husband had ever eaten squash (yellow crookneck, BTW) was fried. Except for the annual pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. I grew up eating patty pan, crookneck, and butternut squash. Can't say that I ever really liked it. But I ate it anyway.

I picked up a butternut squash on sale, thinking that it was something different and that different is good sometimes. I sliced it in half, scooped out the seeds, and turned it cut side down on a baking sheet. 375 oven until it was soft. My husband actually ate half of it by himself. It seems that he had never eaten any type of squash except crookneck and even then it was fried. He didn't really like it much so he thought that a squash is a squash, and so he doesn't like squash. He was wrong. We have eaten it several times since then.

Now I have something to add to my garden. If I can find a place to put it.

Babies Cause Global Warming

I just read an article that said that having babies is causing global warming.

If that isn't the single most ridiculous thing I have heard this year, and I have heard some fairly ridiculous things, it is at least in the top 10. The article states that each child born has a "carbon footprint" exponential greater than that of parent. Horse Hockey, I say. Even if an infant could consume enough resources to have a "carbon footprint" there is no way it could be greater than the parent who is driving to work, burning electricity, and consuming resources.

The main issue of the article to that overpopulation is a major problem. And while I agree that in some places on the Earth, there are population problems, there are many many more that are underpopulated. Russia, for instance, for all of it's land mass, is having such a problem with falling birth rates that in less than one generation, they will not have a population density great enough to sustain basic services and food production. The government is actually paying women to have babies. Then in other places like India, the population is so dense that they literally cannot grow enough food in their climate to support themselves. Overpopulation isn't the issue, it is population density.

China has the largest population of any country on Earth, yet if you take the populations of the major cities out of the equation, that country would have almost no people. It all comes back to density. More people in a small area create bigger problems. From sanitation to pollution. 5 people living on 1 acre will likely not get sick. 500 on one acre likely will. And that is what cities do to us. That is why, historically, when you pack a bunch of people into a small living area, such as a slum, a barrio, or a ghetto, disease will spread. Think of the Black Plague. Too many people living in a small area invites in the rats and other vermin, people get bitten by fleas or get histoplasmosis from the droppings, and pass it to everyone they meet. Spread these same people out a bit and the infection rate drops dramatically.

"Oh, but we are consuming to many resources", you say. "We need a smaller population so that we do not consume so many resources and destroy natural habitats." "We are destroying the Earth." The answer to that argument is sustainability. 100 years ago, the majority of the population grew at least part, if not all, of their own food. They grew enough for themselves and maybe a little extra to sell. Nothing was wasted. Very few people anywhere on earth actually do that now. We are dependent on corporate farms that provide limited nutrition to feed us. No one actually wants to invest sweat for good healthy food anymore. That is why overpopulation is a problem. There are a limited number of jobs in the cities and no place to grow your own food. So people in the cities are dependent on other to feed them. If there are not enough people willing to grow the food, there is a problem.

As a species, we have gotten lazy.

For those of you who do not believe in God...We have evolved to the point that we are at the top of the food chain. We have successfully out-competed every other animal on the planet and our birth rates prove it. If we practice restraint, we will have the resources to continue to evolve forever.

To those God-faring folks out there, God created Man and gave him dominion over the Earth. We were given the mandate to go forth and multiply. We were also charged with the responsibility to be stewards over the Earth. That means we were told to take care of it.

Any way you look at it, stewardship, sustainability, husbandry, responsibility, whatever, if we do not take care of the Earth, it will not matter a hill of beans how many people there are. We will fail.

The answer isn't how many, it is just how.

Dreams of self-sufficiency

Trying to be self-sufficient is becoming popular these days. More and more people are trying to eat healthier and are paying more attention to their overall health.

I have noticed that online seed companies are selling out of vegetable seed more quickly and the seeds that are selling the fastest are the heirloom seeds. More and more people are getting scared of GMO (genetically modified organisms) and hybrid seeds. A lot of people, my self included, want to only buy seeds once then let some of the end-of-season crops go to seed for next year. There is a problem with that, though. Some vegetables, like corn, are so hybridized and so easy to cross pollinate, that it is almost impossible to keep the variety pure. Corn has to be planted like 2 miles from other corn or it will cross-pollinate from the wind. And some vegetables take more than 1 year to produce seeds, like carrots and asparagus.

There are a lot of little things people can do to become more self-sufficient these days. One of the easiest( for us at least) to do is to just stop buying things you don't need. You have to know the difference between a need and a want. You NEED food, water, shelter, clothing, and climate control. You WANT an i-phone, a big screen plasma TV, eating out every week or even every night, and Prada. Once you can deal with the difference between want and need, you will realize just how much money we all waste every month. With all of the money you save from cutting your spending, you can get yourself out of debt. You simply cannot be self-sufficient if you are in debt. Money has to come from somewhere and if you have debt, you cannot make enough to be SELF-sufficient.

You can grow your own food, raise animals for meat and/or eggs, cook your own meals, make your own bread, sew your own clothes, and you still will not be completely self-sufficient. You will still have a water bill unless you have your own well, electric bill unless you have gone solar or wind, fuel costs for your vehichles unless you can bike everywhere you need to go and are physically able to do so, and countless other things that nibble away at your money. There are even some things we would have to buy even if all of the other criteria have been met. There is simply no way to grow coffee where we live. It just gets too cold. And the same with sugar cane. Sorgham for molassas, yes, sugar cane, no. We "could" grow herbals for tea if we were really in a bind, and roasted dandelion roots makes a passable coffee substitute, but those would be desperate times indeed. And as long as we have access to enough dirt and/or pasturage, we could free up money from other food items to buy coffee, sugar, and tea.

Being truely self-sufficient is a complete dream these days, but cutting as much as possible, given the current economic climate, only makes sense.

Are you sick of it yet?

I have said it before and I will say it again, real food is healthier for you than over-processed, additive laden, profit driven food ever thought about being.

I grew up on food we either grew or traded for. Raw, unpasteurized milk, eggs so fresh they were still warm from being under the chicken, veggies you had to wash the garden off of before you could eat it, and the joy(sort of) of spending a weekend putting a pig or a steer in the freezer. And you can't forget the smell of hot wet chicken feathers, no matter how hard you try.

The studies are overwhelmingly in favor of organically grown food. The pesticides and other chemicals used in factory farms can kill you. That is why, just about every year, there are food recalls, and not just on vegetables. Government regulation of our food supply has resulted in marginally nutritional food-like products that only resemble real food in shape and color. If you haven't had a fresh peach that you hand picked, you have no idea just how much fuzz is actually on a peach. The fruit you buy from the store, even fresh peaches, has been processed to the point that there is almost no fuzz left on it. Not only that, it was picked so green that it barely has any color so that it can withstand the processing. When you bite into a peach and the juice drips off of your elbow, now THAT is a peach.

But the people who grow that kind of food these days can't sell it. Government regulation being what it is, if it hasn't been inspected, processed, packaged, and has a paper trail a mile long, it just isn't safe for human consumption. To that, I say, "Bollocks!"

It wasn't until the early 1900's that food went from being good for you to being a major industry. Regulation was mandated to protect the general population from being sold spoiled food products or products that had been adulterated with non-food products. At the time, it was a good thing. But as time went on, more and more small producers were bought out by corporate farms. When the corporate farms got big enough, they were able to enforce legislation to force the little guy to sell out. That was the downfall of real food.

With the rise of suburbia, more people were buying their food from stores than were growing their own. In the 1950's, store bought food was a status symbol. Kids were raised buying their food instead of growing it. These days, the closest most people get to growing their own food is the single bean they grow in 4th grade science. And just about every person in the US has some sort of physical problem, from obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, or asthma. And if you aren't sick now, you probably know someone who is.

Until we can stop the aggressive legislation that is preventing us from eating healthy, real food, we will all be doomed to be sick. Because food is big business. And so is the healthcare industry.

Garden fever

It is that time again. The time when the urge to plant a garden clashes with the fact that we still have 2 months of possible snow and ice.

Seed catalogs have been rolling in with alarming frequency, showing us all of the wonderful foods of summer. The plump juicy tomatoes, hundreds of types of beans, piles of squash and gourds, tender crunchy lettuces, and all of the other wonderful things that make an organic foodie have spasms of delight. But the problem, and I assure you it is a problem, is that it is still bloody cold outside.

According to Weather.com, we have a 50/50 shot at freezing rain today. That isn't really the best thing for growing beans. Even green peas will have trouble this early. So I have at least a month, maybe a month and a half, before I can even start my seed pots. And 6 weeks or so after that before I can even think about putting them out in the garden. It is enough to make you want to pull your hair out.

A couple of months ago, I had the idea that I would set up a fish tank with a grow light and plant lettuce or carrots or something in it. I never found a cheap fish tank. But that would certainly help with the urge that always hits me in early January. The seed catalogs are evil. They make my mouth water with dreams of fresh crunchy veggies by the pound and tree ripened fruits so juicy that one bite causes that explosion of flavor so intense that it makes your knees quiver.

I have even gotten so caught up in the fever this year that I have started looking at canning supplies again. I have cases of jars and boxes of lids and bands ready for filling, yet nothing to fill them with. I am afraid that I will have to buy produce from the grocery store soon just to get the itch out so I don't drive my family crazy.

Maybe it is just that Winter is so dreary and gray that makes me want to have green growing things around me. Maybe if I had more house plants...no, that won't work either. We just don't have enough light inside for them to grow. I suppose I could change all of my light bulbs to grow lights, but then I would have the police wondering just what exactly I was growing in here.

Oh, well. I guess I will just have to tough it out. After all, time flies when your having fun, right?

Raising rabbits?

OK, so today I have been learning about raising meat rabbits. Apparently, rabbit meat has fewer calories per pound than any other meat, has very little cholesterol, and *surprise!* tastes like chicken.

From my research, I have learned that meat rabbits can dress out around 4-5 pounds in 8-11 weeks. That is a lot of meat in a very short time. And considering that the average litter is 5-8 kits, that is more than 20 pounds of meat every three months with only 1 breeding doe. I have also read that to start a family sized meat operation you would only need 1 buck and 3 does. So that would be 60 pounds of meat every quarter, that is 240 pounds a year! I am thinking that is a very cost effective feed to meat ratio.

And rabbits can be kept in 5 foot square elevated cages to keep predators out and make cleaning the cages easier. They are also very quiet so as to not disturb the neighbors. Another little tidbit I learned is that rabbit manure is the only manure that does not have to be aged before use as fertilizer. So straw from under the cages can go directly into the garden or flower bed. Cool, huh?

The pelts can be tanned for numerous uses as well. I can think of gloves and hats just for starters.

So just about anyone can raise rabbits for meat. They take up very little space, breed like, well, rabbits, and are a very healthy choice when it comes to meat.

I wonder if I can talk my husband in to building me some rabbit cages?

Preparing for the Next Great Depression

80 some odd years ago, something really bad happened in our country. We had a series of catastrophes that triggered an economic meltdown the likes of which had not been seen in modern history. There were several years of droughts that destroyed most of the harvests in the Midwest. The stock market became unstable causing bank runs. And as a side effect of those issues, many people left their family farms and moved to the cities looking for work, causing food and housing shortages in large urban areas.

Then the Black Blizzards came and scoured literally millions of tons of topsoil from what was once the richest areas of the Midwest, and scattered it all over the country. This all but destroyed the fertility of the wheat belt for about 20 years. It took many years and thousands of tons of fertilizers and chemicals to get back even a fraction of the growing capability of that once fertile soil.

We have recovered the crop producing soil now, but the mindset that worked that soil is probably gone forever. A single farmer, with 80 or 100 acres, or even 200 acres, does not control what he produces anymore. He cannot decide to plant sweetcorn on his rice field anymore. Because of the specialized nature of modern farming, he would have to invest in a multitude of new equipment if he decided to change his crop. And most simply cannot afford it.

What does that mean for the average person? We depend on farmers to grow food for us. If they cannot grow it, we cannot eat. The cost to consumers for the lack of diversity in farming is that if we have another Great Depression, there are millions of acres of fields planted in crops that are not edible by humans. Corn crops these days are mostly grown to make ethanol or corn syrup and not to eat. Different hybrid strains of corn that produce higher starch content have been produced to increase the yield but not for food. So all of that land that used to grow food, now grows sweeteners for you sodas and additives for your car. If every farmer used 2% of his fields to grow food crops, like potatoes or beans, that is only 2 acres for every 100 he plants in cash crops, we would not have food issues in this country. A 2 acre plot of land could feed a family well for a year. And if every farmer in each community would get together and each plant his 2 acres in a different crop and swap with each other (one plant tomatoes, one sweet corn, one beans, squash, etc) they could easily feed the entire community. And if that was done all over the country, no one would have to go hungry.

Even if everyone who has at least 1/2 acre of space in town planted a garden, everyone that person knows would have access to fresh food. It is very easy to have more squash than a family can eat. And tomatoes are a very high yield crop as well. Peppers, okra, beans, peas, all of theses are very high yield for the space they use. Even melons and cucumbers can be run on a trellis so that they take up very little space.

If everyone planted something, anything, there would not be food shortages in the face of an economic depression.

Food isn't the only thing that will be needed if the worst happens. The basics we as humans need to sustain life are food, water, warmth and dry. Food we have already talked about. Water is an issue that most people take for granted. You turn on the faucet and there it is. But that water has to come from somewhere. If another Great Depression occurs, it is highly unlikely that municipal infrastructure will fail. So water shouldn't really be an issue except in very remote areas.

Warmth is something to be concerned about though. With the prices of heating oil and natural gas skyrocketing, it only makes sense to look at alternative sources for heat. Wood-burning stoves come to mind. As well as passive solar and geothermal sources. The technology is there now but the prices are still high enough to put it out of reach for most people. So wood stoves and fireplaces are still the cheapest, most efficient option at the moment. A wood stove can be used not only for heating the room, but also for cooking your food. So that is another plus to look at.

Shelter to keep you out of the weather, be it rain, wind, cold, or hot summer sun is always an issue. If you loose your job, and you home get foreclosed, where will you go? It is always a good idea to have a backup plan in the event of an emergency. Even natural disasters like tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes can take your home away from you in a heartbeat. Where will you go? A good backup plan can be the difference between surviving and subsisting.

Make a plan. Will your family be able to survive?

Gardening never ends

I have been ambitious this morning and worked up a new raised bed for spring planting. I took my compost pile apart and split it between my tumbling barrel, a plastic trash can, and an old tree pot. I have used the trash can and tree pot for overflow composting before, and with winter coming on, it seemed the best option. That left me with just enough well composted materials to fill a raised bed on the spot where the compost pile was.

That particular spot has been used as a "storage" spot for leaves and grass clippings for about 2 years now, and clay soil underneath has developed a nice healthy color. There were some mambo sized worms in there when I was moving it all around. That tells me that the soil has definitely improved since I started piling leaves there. My little cultivator loosened the soil very easily, another indicator that things are looking up there. I am thinking that will be a good spot for melons or squash or something in the Spring.

A couple of weeks ago, I worked up a really small area in the northwest corner of the yard. It is only about 2' X 5' and I am thinking I might be able to trellis up some cucumbers there or something. I don't think it will really be good for much else, but I did work in some finished compost so at least it isn't all clay.

I am also thinking that I might move the beans next year to garden and put tomatoes in the raised bed where the beans were. It should help to keep the critters out of it since the dog can get all the way around it. She knows that she can't get in the garden so keeping the rodents out has been difficult since it butts up against the shed. The darned things just crawl out from under the shed and go to grazing. I have lost a lot of tomatoes that way this year.

So the actual garden spot will be for beans I think. Tomatoes in the raised bed, squash and cukes in the new beds, and maybe some lettuce in pots or something. I don't know yet, maybe. After all, I have all of these seeds I will need to use.

If I can just keep the pests out of it, we should be good on veggies.

Good Food is Better Than Trash Food

I know that I have harped before on the quality (or lack of it) of store bought food. But the more I read studies and hear the news about food born illnesses and contaminated meat and vegetables, the more I never want to enter a grocery store again.

As a society, we have institutionalized every aspect of our lives, right down to the foods we eat. All processed foods contain preservatives and, for some reason, high fructose corn syrup. Why does our bread need high fructose corn syrup? It only takes a spoonful of sugar or honey to make a loaf of bread. Is sugar really so expensive that a loaf of white bread from the store has to use altered sugar(fructose, dextrose, and glucose and all of other 'oses) to make a profit? And why are we eating so much bread anyway?

Wouldn't it just be easier and cheaper to fill up on high quality proteins like meats and beans, vegetable fibers like salads and fruit, whole grains like rice, oats and barley, and starches like potatoes and corn instead of serving a lot of breads that have been over processed and nutrition-deprived?

Our grandparents ate maybe 3 or 4 servings of bread a day as biscuits and corn bread, but had a lot of meats, fresh veggies, and whole grains. And you know what, they were a whole lot healthier for it. They also didn't sit around watching TV after a day of work. There were chores to do right up until dark. Then there was always stuff that needed doing inside.

Going to the gym for exercise was just laughable. There was plenty of exercise to be had in everyday living. Want to life weights? Go move a couple of bales of hay down out of the barn loft to feed the cows and mule( they weigh anywhere between 50 and 80 pounds). Want some movement to tone down those "luv handles"? Use a pitchfork to clean out the barn stalls. 30 minutes on the treadmill? Try chasing down the chicken that got out of the hen house before the dogs could get her. That takes some running.

It takes a lot of calories to work even a small farm. Just putting in a small garden is more daily exercise than most of us get. But the side affects are higher quality and freshest possible food you can get. And you will know what is in it or on it. So you are burning calories and eating better.

I remember going to my grandma's house for a week every summer. Breakfast was always bacon and/ or sausage, an egg or two, biscuits and gravy, and maybe a bowl of oats. Lunch was something like brown beans and ham or a fried pork steak, fried potatoes, any biscuits left from breakfast or cornbread if there wasn't any, and a glass of tea. Dinner would be something like chicken and dumplin's or a pork roast, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn on the cob, and a slice of pie or cake. And even after eating all of that in 1 day, we would sometimes sneak back into the kitchen before bedtime and get some more cake or a glass of cold buttermilk with crumbled corn bread in it.

Now that sounds like a lot of fat and calories for 1 day, but every bit of that was burned in the course of the day. There was always something to keep us busy. Rght after breakfast we started working outside. Hoeing the garden, feeding and watering the chickens, picking beans or berries, washing dishes, washing clothes and hanging them out, cooking and canning, sewing, helping Pawpaw in the shop. We didn't have time to sit and watch tv or get into too much trouble. And maybe that was the point. But we were always hungry come meal time.

Anyway, the point of all of this is that eating real food, regardless of the fat content, is better for you than filling up on empty calories that has no nutritional value. If you are hungry, by all means eat, but don't reach for a bag of chips or a Little Debbie. Grab a piece of fruit or some carrots. Instead of eating a couple of loaves of the fresh baked bread they give you at the steak house, get a side salad instead. Fill up on good fresh foods instead of just something to fill up that empty spot.

And for goodness sakes, stay away from processed foods.

Ranting agaisnt the Man

Life in these United States is now more confusing than ever. $4 a gallon gas (though it has come down a bit), rising grocery prices, antibiotic filled meat, the worry over salmonella, E.Coli, pesticides, additives and preservatives, high fructose corn syrup in everything, labels with fat count, carb count, sodium count, Nutrasystem diet, Jenny Craig diet, Atkins diet, "berry of the month" diet. Eating healthy is darn near impossible.

And on top of all of that, the government will regulate everything to make sure that all of our food is just perfect. Uh huh, right. If that were actually the case, why does so much meat get recalled every year, how do tomatoes and peppers get E. Coli, and why does our milk have growth hormones and antibiotics in it?

It is almost daily that I wish for a simpler life, away from all of the grocery stores and gas pumps. Me and my chickens, pigs and cows could just enjoy the cleaner air of the country and can, freeze and/or dry the garden and orchard. I would know exactly what is in my food because I grew it all. We would have plenty, because again, I grew it all. And it would taste better and be healthier, because , you guessed it, I grew it all. I would know what is in it, how it was packaged, how it was preserved, how much salt is in it, and how long it is from fresh.

We have been told for so long that the government will take care of us and protect us that we just believe that if you get your food from the store, it must be good for us. But you just can't trust that any more. The government has been bought and paid for by corporate farms and industrial speculators whose sole purpose is to make money, any way possible. Including inferior food.

The only way to truly know is to grow it yourself.

Do it your self food

The other day, I saw a report on a national new program about a guy in Pasadena, CA that has turned his entire yard into an edible project. The front yard is landscaped into little odd shaped designs and filled with edible flowers and herbs. The back yard is entirely covered with raised growing beds with gravel walkways between them. There were a couple of chickens and a goat pictured in the feature as well. Apparently, he is growing everything his climate will allow. There were a couple of fruit trees in the front yard, and the space is filled with all manner of green leafies and flowering stuff.

I have gotten a pretty good idea of what I would like in the way of a garden. The raised beds would be perfect for me since it is hard for me to get up and down. I read an article once about how much easier it is to garden in the raised beds because the weeds have a harder time getting into them. I have one raised bed that I grow pole beans in that has done just fantastic for the last couple of years. We made it out of the leftover bricks from the flower bed(we bought way too many bricks) and filled it with purchased compost. So I now have a 6ft circle that is about 9 or 10 inches deep. Since these are pole beans I got creative. I saw in a seed catalog a handy little devise designed just for pole beans. It was a pole with several wires or strings or something hanging from the top and attached to a 6 foot or so metal ring. Put it down, plant your beans around the ring and they will grow up the wires. They wanted like $40 for it. So I cheated. I planted a wooden flag pole in the middle of my 6 ft bed. It had an eye ring in the top that we had tied the flag to, so I ran 8 pieces of waxed 12 cord through the eye. That gave me 16 strings. I then tied a galvanized nail to the end of each string and stuck it in the ground at the edges of my bed. I then planted 2 beans to each string.

My husband and my father were both telling me that it wouldn't work, that the strings wouldn't stay in the ground. But I persisted. And I was right. They didn't take gravity into account when they were poo-pooing my idea. I knew that as the beans began to climb, the weight of the pull from the beans would keep the strings tight and since there were beans on the opposite side of the bed pulling on each string, they would be pulling against each other. It was brilliant if I do say so my self. And the best part is that I can plant 32 bean plants in approximately 6 feet of space, much much less than in a conventional garden. And because it is circular, I can easily get all the way around it to harvest. My only problem is that my beans want to grow higher than the pole and I am not tall enough to get a taller pole and still be able to pick them. So it looks a little hairy at the top, but hey, I get loads of beans.

I would be willing to bet that this concept would work great for just about any vegetable. Anyone with at least 6 feet of space can put in a raised bed. Tomatoes, beans, peas, squash and I would guess, melons (you can tie the vines up to the strings with old panty hose or socks and support the fruit in a net) could be done the same way. Root vegetables like carrots, radishes, turnips, and potatoes would do great in raised bed. And if you use a compost or compost and sand mix, they would be very easy to harvest.

Our house has to be sell-able or I would put in the entire yard in garden beds. We spent a bunch of money buying sod for the back yard so I don't want to mess that up. If and when we get our place in the country, you can bet there will be garden beds all over the place. And an added bonus to the raised bed concept is that you can tailor the soil in each bed for what you are growing. Tomatoes and berries like acid soil, beans like it more neutral, root crops like a loose soil, where bushy veggies need a little more compact soil to support them.

I can already picture my onion and garlic beds, blueberry bushes, asparagus beds, strawberry beds, 3 or 4 different kinds of beans and peas, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, lettuces, cucumbers, and corn.

Born too late

I think I am the only person I know who would do just fine without modern technology. I love my clothesline. I enjoy growing my own food, canning, sewing, crocheting, and cooking. We have been living with the windows open for the last 2 months so no heat or air going. I like making bread. I can pluck a chicken and butcher a hog. I can make butter and, sort of, cheese.

I cook with bacon grease and plain flour. My pie crusts are home made. I make my own soap and laundry detergent. My skirts are down to my ankles and my necklines to my collar bone.

I believe in punishing the kids if they smart off to me or someone else, and giving them hugs and telling them how proud I am of them often.

I was just born too late I guess. I should have been living in the hills back during the Depression or something. I don't need a bunch of Madison Avenue execs telling me that I can't be happy without...whatever they are trying to sell. I am perfectly happy with the things I have. I don't need anything else.

Garden vs. Grocery store

I was browsing thru a seed catalog the other day and was really struck by how cheap it really is to grow your own food. Granted, there are other expenses besides just the seed. The most obvious being the cost of your time to do it. But even if you don't invest a lot of time into growing your own food, it is still an amazingly simple way to save a lot of money on food.

If you live in an apartment, you can still grow some of your own food. Place a potted tomato plant in a sunny window and when it blooms, set it outside for a few days to be pollinated. Or you can pollinate it yourself with a cotton swab. If your apartment building has a flat roof, ask your landlord if you can grow a container garden on the roof. You might even be able to convince a few of your neighbors to join you.

Lettuces, spinach, onions, carrots, parsnips, turnips, even potatoes can all be grown in containers inside without the need of a pollinator. Things like beans, peas, squashes, melons, and cucumbers can be grown pots but because they are vines, will have to have some heavy duty support so that they grow up instead of out. I have heard of people growing watermelon on an apartment balcony by tying the vine to a cast iron trellis and supporting each melon by tying it up with a piece of pantyhose. I guess it would work but I have never tried it.

Right now, I have carrots growing in a window box in my kitchen window. Granted, they are the short, finger length variety, But I will still have fresh carrots for a fraction of the cost to buy them.

Lets take a peek at the seed catalog. Bell Peppers. If you decide to buy a bell pepper at the grocery store, it will cost you anywhere from 50 cents to $1.50 each, depending on the size and variety. This particular seed catalog has packets of bell pepper seeds for $1.95 - $2.95 for 25 seeds. Over the course of the growing season, each pepper plant could produce anywhere from 1 pepper to 25 or 30 peppers. That would be just 1 of those 25 seeds. And they can be grown in pots very easily. Like red peppers better than green? Let them fully ripen before you pick them. Green peppers are just the unripened version of red or orange or yellow peppers. And if you become overrun with peppers and cannot find any one else to take some? Chop them up and spread them on a flat pan in the freezer. After they are frozen, put them in a freezer bag to use in recipes. Really good in meat loaf that way.

While all of this is well and good, but unless you are going to go for a full blown garden, you cannot expect to completely stop buying vegetables. But you can grow a few items that are really expensive in the store like the peppers or tomatoes. They are very high yield for the amount of space they need, fairly easy to grow and really expensive to buy. Garden centers will even have them as plants in the spring if you don't think you can manage to get the seeds to sprout. Just make sure the pots you put them in will be big enough for a mature plant. It will look weird having a little plant in a big pot but they will grow fast and having to transplant them again could shock the plant and you may not get any fruit from them. Better to plan big.

If you want to get adventurous, there are even fruit trees available these days that can be gown indoors. I have seen a tree that will bear lemons, limes and oranges all from one tree. It gets about 6 feet tall and can be grown in a container. Before you dive into that, keep in mind that fruit trees can take several years to mature and you will not get so much as a bloom until then. And they will need some outdoors time for the pollination.

Blue berries are a good choice for containers as well. The biggest plants only get between 5-6 feet tall ( but there are smaller ones available for porch pots) and will produce berries in the second or third year and continue to produce for the next 20 or so years. Not a bad investment for a hedge in the front yard.

I realize that not every one will want to grow their own food. But there really is nothing quite like the feeling you get by picking and preparing something that you make yourself. And the taste difference is staggering. Really fresh produce just can't be beat. And just how much fresher can you get than 5 minutes from plant to table. And the cost savings on those expensive tomatoes and peppers (or peas or lettuce, or whatever) really adds up. Especially if you buy organic.