I enjoyed reading this article after I woke up. =)

With the world stock markets dropping like a stone, having a 'victory garden' (something I have been advocating on this site for years) is a bloody good idea.

It is worth thinking about that the majority of the North American population really has no idea of where there food comes from, or how it gets to thier tables.

Walk in peace.

Excellent! AND, a wonderful way to fight back against GM foods and agribusiness. Now, if the squirrels will leave mine alone this year, I'll try again. Maybe I'll build a small greenhouse this time to keep out the critters.

The First Vegetable was George Wanker Bush

The second is Barack Obama.

I'm a farmer and a gardener. I will double my vegetable patches this year. It's satisfying and tastes great. With the severe water shortages in California where a large chunk of our vegetables normally come from, we may see high prices this summer in an otherwise deflationary situation. An internet quest for amazing recipes adds to the simple pleasures.

don't forget the victory gin and victory cigarettes!

My folks fed friends and family with a victory gardan grown on two vacant lots in the suburbs of LA California.
Thanks mom and dad...I can grow my own!

Let's see, $2200 worth of veggies from each of 50M gardens = $110 billion dollars, or enough to support a hundred CEO's for almost a year!

Ok, I can't resist this comment about the progression of history we've been fighting.

1. Chauncey Gardner (Peter Sellers in "Being There") for president.

2. Ronald Reagan, the actor.

3. Dan Quayle (didn't take, couldn't spell potatoe)

4. George Bush Junior (Dick Cheny for President)

5. Sarah Palin?

It promises to be an interesting Spring and planting season in the heart of corporate agribusiness, with the credit crunch limiting $$$ to large-scale growers who must borrow huge amounts to get a crop in the ground. If no money is available and crops and yields fail to materialize, it's going to be fun for all at the Piggly Wiggly, Kroger, etc. If oil markets misbehave and prices spike dramatically...actually when, not if...corporate agriculture will be headed down the path being blazed by the auto industry.

Gardening productively is a skill not easily learned, and certainly not within the short time left before food becomes THE issue. The "uncivilized" folks in "primitive" cultures, who have practiced a simple but sustainable agriculture for millenia, are going to end up looking pretty smart, and fortunate, in times to come.

Theories and scenarios abound abouth the "die off" of an out-of-control and unsustainable population. Chances are good that one act of the drama is being rehearsed for a grand opening in American Suburbia. Put simply, lack of knowledge about home-scale food production and preservation equates to extinction.

Many thanks to Roger Doiron for this interesting and inspiring article. It may not be too late to mount pressure and initiatives in support of localized food production. The way the Cuban society coped with a sudden and dramatic food emergency in the 90s could serve as an example. With a tiny fraction of the pork that was buried in the recent "stimulus package", our benefactors in Washington could have supplied every American household with a state-of-the art rototiller and a year's supply of seed, as well information and training. Subsidizing small, local farmers might be accomplished by ending ridiculous gifts to wealthy landowners who are rewarded for NOT growing crops, and it surely would make more sense.

For certain, habits of food production and consumption are due to make a radical shift. It's time to get ahead of the curve.

Its a bit of an encyclopedia - but well worth it - Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke. The whole nine yards from suburban establishment of self-fertilizing, perennial edibles to forest scale. Takes some years to mature but can be planted with increasing scale production. Do it with a friend(S).

"Make the most of the hemp seed and sow it everywhere."

President George Washington.

t_g
Great idea and I'm sure a lot of us are already merrily gardening away! My husband and myself are retired urban professionals. Never in my life did I imagine that one day I'd tend a kitchen garden, have an orchard with lychee, mango, paw paw, orange, lime etc. trees and passionfruit on wines (we live in Tropical North Queensland, Australia). We do have tomatoes, capsicum, various herbs but we are still wrestling with cabbages and their family - but it'll happen. They'll grow and ripen one day! We also have a couple of chooks (chicken, for you in America) and ducks, which are ancient by now, but neither of us can bring ourselves to kill them (we have two German Shepherds and my husband kinda encourages them to go and have a chicken dinner, but they are not keen either...). But we do eat plenty of eggs! (All of us.) We have just acquired a pair of lambs, but they'll only serve to "mow" the grass - more than 10 acres of it. And maybe give us some milk down the line.
We also have a little billabong (pond) and a stream and we are planning to put in some barramundi (local fish, beautiful and tasty).
We don't call it "victory garden", but why not? Once we've found out what to celebrate, we'll give it a fitting name!

I have friends who think potatoes are either fries or powdered and wouldn't know what to do with a frozen turkey. I explain about growing tomatoes and melons and they say "Huh?" .After education, the best investment for the money is your own fruit tree, but they don't know how or don't have time, or don't...whatever.

I heartily endorse this endorsement. I've found a proper fence keeps the deer from the produce inside while simultaneously supporting the hops vines that help maintain my homebrewing habit.

Low-tech, folks. Learn some of it. Sooner is better.

Bravo!

This is a great idea, but how do we naive 'new farmers' avoid getting seed from the Agribusiness giants with all of their Frankenfood genes added?

In the old days, you could simply plant seeds from a tomato or other fruit from the local supermarket, but I don't think that's still possible. (Besides, the tomatoes from the local chain store are terrible -- thick skin and little taste.)

Anyone know of a reliable place to order real 'heritage' seeds with the taste of the tomatoes and fruits/vegetables of say 30, 40 years ago?

There's a company in Canada that has it right. They have developed a Greenhouse that can grow veggies year round with almost no heating costs or cooling costs. It's also safe from pollution and predators. The time has come to be more self sufficient and more community orientated. We're going to need each others help through this economic black hole. All the Best!!

Hi, I should have mentioned the website for this Greenhouse company.
www.pyramidsunstream.com

ezeflyer wrote:

"Make the most of the hemp seed and sow it everywhere."

President George Washington.

A low-profile comment, but probably the most significant one so far.

In 1942-3 the United States Department of Agriculture made a film called "HEMP FOR VICTORY", aimed at farmers in a drive to encourage them to grow HEMP for the war effort.
Yes, some five or so years after probably Earth's most valuable plant was illegally outlawed by criminal industrialists and corrupt politicians, it was briefly reinstated because the new, oil-based plastic fibres were too expensive, and inferior to the best natural fibre (for making ropes, clothing etc). So the HEMP plant helped allied forces defeat fascism.

The HEMP plant can be used to make more than 25,000 products, including biodegradeable plastics (Henry Ford proposed building a car made entirely from HEMP), and low-carbon footprint building materials, such as "Isochanvre".
Oil from the seeds is one of the best lubricants for fine machinery, and was used extensively, before the mass slaughter of whales.

However, the most important use for the oil (and the seeds that produce it) is as probably the most nutritious food available to humankind (and animals - ancient angler Isaac Walton swore by HEMP seeds as bait, and birds will pick out the HEMP seeds from a mix of different seeds).
We are advised to eat oily fish for the omega fats they contain, but HEMP seeds contain omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids in the proportion that is most suitable for utilisation by humans; and 34.6% protein.

Over a specific time period, one acre of HEMP will produce FOUR TIMES the amount of paper produced by an acre of trees. And without felling any forests.

Now we have an island of plastic the size of Texas swirlng around mid-Pacific Ocean, poisoning the ecosystem, and all courtesy of Harry Anslinger and his un-American, anti-mondial criminal friends.

Of course, the scapegoat for the 1937 MARIJUANA Tax Act was .....Marijuana, and the hapless souls who enjoyed its pleasant, calming and creative effects.
This scandal continues to this day, and not just in the USA, but in most countries around the world, where users have spent millions of man-years in prison for their "crime", as well as having their lives destroyed.

The scandal continues because, although HEMP was effectively destroyed as a major industrial crop, it has become more apparent over the years that the cannabinoid chemicals it contains form probably the safest, most effective medicine in treating a whole range of conditions. THC, the main ingredient, has been shown to shrink brain tumours, and Canadian Rick Simpson has made a 60 minute documentary (www.phoenixtearsmovie.com / www.phoenixtears.ca) showing how he cured himself and others of cancer, using an oil he extracted from female HEMP flowers (marijuana).
No, the powerful drugs companies don't want people treating themselves cheaply, safely and effectively: who would buy their expensive, dangerous, side-effect inducing chemicals? (Prescription drugs are the number one cause of death in the USA, by the way).

But at least in the US, state authorities have enough compassion to allow sick people to use this remarkable plant to their benefit - here in the United Kingdom seriously ill people are imprisoned for daring to grow and use God's gift from Nature.

If you doubt anything I have written here, please visit www.jackherer.com and read his excellent book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes". It may surprise you; it may shock you; it will probably make you VERY ANGRY.