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Re: I'm changing my ways!
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Posted by Bkeepr on May 20, 2008 at 04:21:04 from (140.139.35.250):
In Reply to: I'm changing my ways! posted by Paula on May 19, 2008 at 16:17:59:
Hi Paula, 1st off, I mildly disagree with your characterization of living "like an American." It is true that a great number of "Americans" (whatever that means) are wasteful and spoiled rotten, but a great deal also live just as you describe...my family is like that. My parents grew up during the great depression, and we were brought up to "waste not, want not." I think a lot of Americans do the same. More importantly, though: Love your idea, and wish you luck. We grow, can, freeze, and dehydrate a lot of our own food here, even though the kids are long gone. We could probably live off of our pantry for about a year after harvest is done, although it'd be fairly boring eating. I'd suggest you consider growing winter squash. The plants do take room, but you can get an awful lot of tasty food and it can be prepared lots of ways. We grow hubbards, "neck pumpkins," cushaws, and acorn squash mostly. Last year we harvested almost a half ton out of a plot about 25'x50'. I've never had much luck growing corn, but I try most years. Seems that pests always get more than I do, but I'll try again this year. We also grow a lot of potatoes. These keep well on their own, and can also be canned and frozen. you also get a lot of potatoes for not much investment, plus the big benefit is that they taste better fresh out of your own soil than any you can buy! We've always canned most of our tomatoes, and found they'll easily last at least 2 years if processed well. I typically plant about 50-70 plants each year, and some years we have a glut and others we barely get enough. Last year we bought ourselves a good dehydrator and wound up drying a lot of tomatoes (probably several bushels). Turns out we love them dried, too, so we'll probably go to a can every-other-year and dry the rest kind of cycle. ok, enough of my ramble. Good luck! Get to work!! :~) Tom A
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