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Home Gardening Becomes Even More Imperative
On Wed, 30 May 2007 15:34:28 -0900, Jan Flora wrote:
In article , Charlie wrote: On Wed, 30 May 2007 09:52:11 -0700, Bill Rose wrote: [...] Stock was taken to a local or regional processing plant and was processed and distributed to local stores. Stores sold local eggs and produce, in season. You see what we have now. People were trying to make a living and life for their families and communities, not trying to become quadrazillionaires. Some of us are still doing that. There are three gals right here in my little neighborhood who sell our eggs. About 50 dozen eggs a week, between the three of us, and we can't meet our market demand. A couple of gals sell raw milk, but do it very quietly, because it's not legal in this state to sell it. Another neighbor is a truck farmer and a founding mother of our local Farmers Market, which has grown exponentially in 5 years. And all of my Old Believer Russian neighbors grow a huge amount of the food they need for the year. Literally tons of spuds; cabbage; carrots; broccoli; lots of beets (for borscht), etc. (Lots of food crops thrive in our cool Alaskan summers.) They all have greenhouses -- typical size is ~20'x30', although one neighbor just built a new one that's at least 40' long. (I'm very jealous...) Those families average 12 children each. The kids help with the garden, the milk cows, the chickens (meat & egg), the horses, goats and other assorted & sundry animals. The kids also go out commercial fishing with their dads & uncles, and they go hunting in the fall for moose & caribou. The kids grow up with a real understanding of where their food comes from and how to make it all happen. Back in the fifties and sixties, the local farmers also provided good summer jobs for us kids. Before Monsanto, we walked bean fields, cutting out the weeds. We made hay all summer. We can't get "American" kids to work on the ranch, doing haying. The Russian kids are happy for the work. I've never heard a single whimper or whine, bucking square bales. Funny thing though, before using crop rotation and farm manure, you got 2 food calories out for everyone put in and the environment was a hell of a lot healthier. We sell our composted cow manure like crazy this time of year. The organic truck farmers and my Russian neighbors buy it. We started selling the cow poop simply because we're always broke in May. I needed money to pay the light bill & the phone bill. Now we sell I don't know how many tons of it every spring : ) Jan in Alaska Zone 3 and time to plant-out, right after this full moon (we have snow in the forecast for tomorrow night) Whoa.....are you alive? Is this post originating from heaven? Hello, is this god speaking? Is this a vision of the afterlife? Seriously now..... Charlie, to whom the angel spoke |
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