Food skyrockets to highest prices ever. Yep, you read that correctly.This is why I am so very vocal on the subject of growing your own food. When your life depends on buying all your food and imports from other countries, how can you survive for long? What happens when a loaf of bread goes from .35 a loaf to $5? It's not too far from that now, I see commercial sandwich bread on sale at the grocery for $1.99 right now. On sale!
What you see in the picture is enough to make a stew pot of chili for my family with a side of fried zucchini. The harvest from 2 tomato plants, one pepper plant, one zucchini and 2 bean plants. The cost? 50 days of plant tending, a few minutes a day. For me, the very best part of it is, no chemicals! No wax on the fruits, no pesticide residues, no growth hormones and no PCBs from a can or MSG or any other preservative. I remain unaffected by the price of commercially produced food.
Spring is coming, the new planting season is right around the corner. Will you keep buying high priced poisons or will you work toward providing healthy foods for yourself? It's all up to you and it's just a little dirt away.
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Spot on MM,All I can add is that people NEED to wake up and smell the coffee, get some work ethic back and grow their own food. Even if they live in an apartment, they can grow a container garden, maybe not enough to support them through the winter but to help off set some of the ever raising food prices.
ReplyDeleteThe one problem is that many people just don't know what to do with fresh produce, they become indoctrinated by all the processed foods and literally don't know what to grow or how to make meals from it.
I had a lady tell me she never cooks roast because there is to much left over that she ends up throwing away, YES, you read that right! I gasp and said don't you eat leftovers? She said no we don't like leftovers. I said why not remake them, make a roast beef hash over mashed potatoes( using the leftover potatoes) she say she don't make ptoatoes or carrots with the roast this woman needs help I'm thinking so I suggest some other recipes to use the roast( BBQ sandwiches, soup, noodle casserole, etc.....), ALL of which she turns up her nose and says we don't like that sort of stuff. Now I'm thinking what kind of STUFF do you like and it dawned on me already prepared stuff and fast food stuff. It soon became clear it wasn't a matter of her family not liking these type of dishes, it was that she didn't want to prepare them *sigh*
Keep your chin up and look toward Spring, I know we ar and planning and replanning*wink*
Blessings,
Kelle
Hi Kelle & Kat,
ReplyDeleteI'll take the lefovers! You made me hungry with your descriptions Kelle! (lol)
Mike
I am guessing that you add some ground veni-burger or some bunny-burger when you make that?
ReplyDeleteI just read that article this morning... downright disturbing, but so is the fact that people are seeing more and more violent riots because of it. When you are scraping to get by the last thing you need is the cost of food and fuel to rise(with no end in sight apparently). I just started my onions and broccoli the other day and the broccoli is already sprouting. As soon as we get a few bucks I am going to get some more supplies to extend my raised bed gardening(cinder blocks and logs). I just ordered dried bean seeds and corn for cornmeal the other day...just keep expanding. I have a feeling it is really going to get interesting this year....
ReplyDeleteMy fiancé and me are going to start with our pot garden on the patio first... When we get ourselves a house, I'm fairly sure 90% of the garden is going to be used for gardening, and my greenhouse project. Your blog, among a few others remains an inspiration with our future plans for a self-sustained homestead in mind. :)
ReplyDeleteWell said! :)
ReplyDeleteHey Kelle! Hmm, sounds like a good topic for our blogs, eh? Teach society how to cook again! LOL
ReplyDeleteHey Mike! Oh, I know, it's a good thing I'm the cook here or I'd be slobbering all over the keyboard! We do our best to never waste anything around here, if the family is done with double left overs, the critters will gladly help out with them. Cats will eat veges too!
Hey Coley! Oh yah, it's going to be really interesting! Welcome to the third world, eh? Don't forget the little packs of dried beans at the grocery, the product of mexico beans are not GMOs and they sprout right out of the bag ;) Cheaper than some seed pack prices.
Hey Milton! Yep, meat of the day around here. Even turkey and chicken can make it into the chili pot here.
Hey Penny! Outstanding! Keep me posted on how it goes! Thanks for stopping by, I'm glad I can be of assistance!
MM, I didn't know you the mexico beans were not GMO's. Thanks for the tip. I try to add more and more to my garden each year. I also try to get more recipes for canning and preserving. It's going to get bad people.
ReplyDeleteAs a family of 14 our grocery bill has jumped from under 1000 to nearly 1400/ month
ReplyDeleteI kept wondering how that was happening as we haven't changed our eating habbits recently. But I found some reciepts from this time last year and it turns out I am paying more than 1.00 more per can of peaches and almost 1.50 more per can of pears alone!!!
Anyway. I was wondering if you can ALL of your vegitables for the winter. How do you maintain fresh fruits and vegies? Do you have a green house or something? I think we're gonna double our garden this year!
Also, do you put back somof your produce for seed or is that even possible with all the genetic stuff they do with the seeds these days?
I would love any info you can share!
Hi Leschornmom! Most of my produce gets canned, fruits too. It finishes just like what you would get from the store only in a glass jar. I do dehydrate apples and bananas, I cook with those(short breads). I choose a good fruit or vege off of a strong plant to save seed from and I let it get over ripe before I pick it to save seed. That way I can be sure the majority of seed contained inside is mature. I only save seed from open pollinated stock, no hybrids even get planted here. I also collect rose hips from my wild roses for the vitamin C, just in case I might need a little extra! They're wonderful steeped in Earl Grey Tea...
ReplyDeleteWith the three nights of freezing temps here in FL in Dec, produce prices have skyrocketed. Most of the green beans, lots of tomatoes, strawberries, summer squash and some citrus were killed. There is time to replant for crop harvest in March-April but it will be tough going till then. Green bean prices yesterday at our Publix $2.79 per pound - last week $1.99.
ReplyDeleteJust one more reason to grow & preserve your own.
We lost our beans but our tomatoes, peppers, chard, broccoli and sugar snap peas are OK.
Now if we could just have some rain - the rain barrels are getting very low and city water is so expensive we just won't use it.
As comes to the "learn how to cook again" bit, I've been thinking of a food blog for a long while, and thought about talking about the basics... so many things people buy in cans are cheaper, and easy to make on your own! (if I ever get a specific food blog set up, I'll share a linky!)
ReplyDeleteThe canning, preserving and dehydrating are part of what I've learned to do, thanks to a grandmother who knew the importance of letting a curious kids help her, even if it took a little extra time to prep the produce from her garden while she was teaching someone the skills she learned from her mother...
I found a picture of my great grandmother (still alive and well at 88 years old!), which was taken over 20 years ago, she's plucking a chicken outside her country house kitchen in a small village in Southern France.
My fiancé's a town boy, whether he admits it or not, horrified by the idea of killing "pets" for food. I'm less worried about such, but I guess he'll get to get used to the idea while the chickens are only kept for eggs... he told me that if I serve chicken if we get any, he'll want to check the coop before eating, to make sure I'm not serving him one of his animal friends...
...which is why he'll likely get to be in charge of the garden, while I tend the animal friends. He's still very happy about the prepper lifestyle, and I'm sure he'll enjoy setting up the "bail out kit". :)
I'm not 100% sure if you've had any specific posts about making specific products, like cheese, but a series of how you put away your harvest might very well be appreciated by more people than just me.
Hey Kat:
ReplyDeleteWondering what kind of beans you recommend growing for dried beans? I feel like an idiot asking this, but do you let the beans dry on the plant, or is there something you need to harvest and screen dry or some other method?? Thanks for your patience with this beginner! :-)
Hey Bellen! This winter weather is messing everything up, even in the deep south! I hear ya on the rain, we could use more moisture here too!
ReplyDeleteHey Penny! LOL on the pets thing, I had to have somebody else do the honors on my "pet" sheep, I just couldnt do it myself. He tasted so darn good tho! I have a post with full directions on soap making and one on making a cheese press, I'll work on a few more this year.
Hey Kelly! I grow kidney beans(red) and northern beans (white) to be used as dry beans. I let them hang on the plant until the pods are brittle and brown, then I harvest them and let them set on a paper sack for around a week before I store them, just to be sure there's no moisture that will rot them in the jars. A screen set up for air dry would work just as well, I just don't have one ;) You could even set them in the dehydrator for a few hours too.
We grow a garden every year ,last year two gardens,this year I am going to try more,organic fertilizer,than commercial. I also can my vegs, and some fruit,i agree the price of food at the market is terrible! And going higher almost by the hour! i for one am sick of it, Oh well,blessings, jane
ReplyDeleteI can fend for myself and cook from scratch. I worry about my daughter and her two growing children getting enough of the right thing to eat with rising food prices. She swears there isn't even a window sill to grow anything...sigh. Probably she is right. Mailing her boxes of food gives her more food for less since prices in my area of the South are not out of sight, and I shop sales, and use coupons. I only worry about her being single with two children. Since I am very parsimonious,yet have a disability, I can actually help her a bit. Sending her coupons helps to bring the cost down on every thing she buys with one.
ReplyDelete