On Sun, 7 Dec 2003 23:40:59 -0800, "Steve" wrote:
I get the feeling that the OP here thinks that the gardening and canning
and preserving can be done in his spare time while working "flexible hours"
or he can work "flexible hours" in his spare time from working at gardening,
canning and preserving.

I was raise on a subistance farm (actual a regular farm where we raised 90%
of what we eat). We didn't have elect. or running water and my father farmed
with horses up until the mid '40s. Yes I even went to a one room school
house until I went into 5th grade.

Ok, my point. It is damn near a full time job to garden on a large scale
for full subsistance. My mother and father both worked in the family garden
in addition to tilling the soil to produce cash crops.

When it came canning time I was weeks of very hard hot work to 'put up'
hundreds of quarts or pints of fruits and vegitables. This is serious
business since we didn't buy any canned goods. For meat we would butcher one
hog for the year and split a beef cow with about 6-8 other families..
Without electricity we were forced to rent a freezer locker in 'the locker
plant' in the nearest town.. Chickens are a given on any subsistance farm,
mainly for the eggs. The only time we eat chicken was when they would get a
little older and stop laying.. By this time they were only suited for
broiling or boiling.. Nothing like KFC. Usually we could have chicken a
couple times a month.. With out refrig. it was difficult to gather and keep
enough eggs to sell commercially. Chicken feed was something that we often
had to purchase.

Just some of my memories.

Mine too. About the only things we bought at the store were salt, sugar,
baking soda, and coffee. Our way out was to rent enough land to actually
make a living at farming, and do all our grocery shopping at the grocery
store instead of trying to grow it ourselves. That was a much better use
of our time and resources. Eventually, the only things we grew for the
table at home were tomatoes.

Gary