You go grl!

I wish we could eat more home-grown produce but the reality is that most of what we eat is store bought: onions, carrots, celery, squash, peas, green beans.
What I am good at is tomatoes and freeze the extras to take us through the summer. The last time I grew pole beans the whitefly epidemic exploded but am successful with collards and lettuce when the weather is cool enough.

You are SO lucky to have a Farmers Market as well as Whole Foods in your city. I buy organic carrots and eggs from Publix but the rest is regular old veggies. It is great that Publix and even WalMart are now stocking organic fare including milk.

We eat much less meat now but still haven't been too successful with our fishing attempts lol. That seems to be more of a career than hobby.

I love the seed exchange that Garden Web fosters and of course the plants I've been given. What an education it has been.

Good luck with your chickens. Martha Stewart would approve.

Denise

Hi Denise!

In reality, most of what we eat of course is bought as well. However, with every tomato you pick from your garden and every bean I pick from mine, we are voting for eating locally. If each of us grows a little, or buys locally when the opportunity presents itself, it is voting for community based agriculture. As the demand increases, there will be more farmer's markets and your town will have one too. Write a letter to your newspaper editor. I bet there are others like you.

We are eating less meat also. That's great that you are too. That's a biggy. So you are definitely changing the world! I was at Publix this morning. I always try to talk to the managers about what's local, but find very little to buy. Today I bought some 'wild' grouper caught off the coast of FL. It is sad when we have to call non-farmed fish that eat what fish were meant to eat, (normal, usual fish), 'wild.' I don't buy too much fish either, but I don't like the idea of buying fish that has been fed corn from Iowa (GMO corn) to fatten them up quickly.

Anna

Publix does have (sometimes) local shrimp but now I have been reading that shrimpers destroy a lot of the seabed and aquatic environment with their drag nets.

What are we to do?? We LOVE Florida shrimp. Sometimes I want to know less because more knowledge is paralyzing. Now we will be eating less shrimp :-(

DH bought some local tomatoes today. Mine are ping pong size on the plant, many months before harvest.

We do eat fish 2-3 times a week. Took some detective work but found a fish seller of local supply.

Good for you! Each little baby step you take is another step in changing the world...

"I am thinking about chickens now!"

Be careful, next, you'll be wanting to start your own little backyard Tilapia farm...
:>)

Here is a link that might be useful: Fish Farming

Good for you Anna!

You can expand your veggie garden in the future and may end up with an overabundance as many of us do. Then we have to learn about how to preserve/process our harvests (very interesting), and it goes on from there into eating mostly fresh/raw foods and depending less and less on grocery stores.

Using what we grow makes so much sense!

We can grow most of what we spend $$$ on. Cukes for $2 each? Lettuce for $3? Peppers for $4 a lb? Avocados at $2.50 each? Those are easy to grow here, in the right season.

Chickens are a blessing and a pain in the butt! The eggs are great, they require minimal food and need clean bedding at least every 3 weeks. But, they destroy everything they can. They get into my pots, my raised beds, eat my fruits, poop on everything, steal from the dogs, dig huge holes, and are extremely nosey.

I can't do anything in my yard without being spied upon by beady little chicken eyes!

Lisa

Hi, I had forgotten to check back again!

Denise, that's great that you eat fish 2-3 times a week. We need to try to eat more locally caught fish. Our farmer's market has a seafood stand with 'mostly' locally caught seafood. There's always such a long line, and I always seem to be in a hurry, and truly, we are not that fond of fish, but wish we were!

I've found local milk and eggs (in Sarasota, but from myakka city) at a produce stand that is on the way to my mother's. I've been getting those there, and they usually have at least a few things that are locally grown, or at least Florida grown.

Jetstream and Lisa, I've been thinking about chickens for a couple of years now but haven't done it. I think my neighbors would be very upset if they found out. My HOA does not support that. It would have to be only 2 or 3 and they would have to be confined to a smallish space. I also have little grassy area that is not visible to the neighbors, so there are problems with the chicken idea. I also would be nervous about leaving them if we went out of town, and would never be able to ask neighbors to tend to them. I keep thinking.... but so far that's the only thing I've done. It would be great to have fresh eggs and fertilizer.

Lisa, you were probably the first person on GW to inspire me to grow veggies. I loved seeing your gardens and fruit trees. I thank you for that. I wish you would post more and show us recent shots of your garden. I miss seeing it.

I'm with y'all on this, with my ever expanding veggie bed, trying to fit in more each year, hoping to get enough one day so that I have to freeze or can the extras and thus can start actually providing for us in a more year-round basis.
And I agree, every tomato and mess of arugula and broccoli stalk we eat from my back yard contributes to fewer chemicals in the environment and less fossil fuels going to feed us, and a more secure food supply. Even just the herbs I grow mean I don't buy fresh or dried herbs, and that helps.
We don't use chemicals in the garden, and despite what some people say, we've been able to harvest a good bit. Sure, we lose some to the creepy crawlies and the critters, and I'm sure we would lose less, and could do this whole organic farming thing much more successfully, if we both didn't have to work. If someone could be out there non-stop picking caterpillars and snails, while turning compost and keeping the watering schedule on schedule, I'm sure we'd harvest more. But each meal that I make that includes something I grew means that I didn't buy something that had to be transported with fossil fuels, or refrigerated, or fertilized with chemicals and coated with pesticides. That helps.
And I also see Lisa as an inspiration - I've planted a grapefruit on her advice.
And I still want chickens, which are perfectly legal in Miami, where I live. But between the cats and the dogs and the neighbors, I just can't see it yet.
It's always nice to remember that 40 percent of America's food was grown in victory gardens during WWII. Of course, that was during a time when most women weren't able to work outside the home and many spent hours a day on their victory gardens - not an economic model that works anymore. But we can always keep trying to work towards that goal.
NOt to mention, the tomatoes and arugula and broccoli taste so much better!

Hi
Would love to come back in say a hundred years or so
and see what really happened lol. All I can see that this trend is going to accomplish is to send basic commodities MUCH higher and still not expand the supply in fact just the opposite.. The whole concept is so laughable from world population alone let alone projected expansions.standing armies etc. etc. etc.
Let's all gang together and shift ALL the wealth to the orient!!
Oh well off my soap box .. A homegrown tomato does taste good but I can't delude myself to thinking I'm also saving the world.. I think it's real impact will be to mess it up even worse lol gary

Susannah, that's how I feel too. In that I also include the veggies that I buy from local growers. Although I still go to Publix, I find that I spend less and less there (and almost nothing in produce save some organic pistachios I like), and am always looking for ways to buy more from local businesses and the farmer's market if I am going that way. There is actually a local family-owned restaurant that I love that uses mostly locally grown organic produce and bread from the local bakery I like. It happens to be very close to my house! I think the trend is on the upswing and I'm happy to see it.

Gary, I don't understand why having a veggie garden or buying from local growers and businesses, and keeping the money in our own communities is not good. In terms of commodities, are you talking petroleum or corn and soybeans? If the demand for those is lowered and the supply is high, then wouldn't the price come down? If the demand for locally grown organic produce goes up, wouldn't that shift the market toward having more people wanting to supply more of that product? Please explain. I still think we are changing (not saving) the world... a little bit! But the more people pitch in, the bit will become larger. That's what I'm hoping for.

Anna

Anna
Pay no attention to me I'm just a grouchy old man.lol
All my views on agriculture are based on growing up on a small farm in SW Kansas.
Always find it interesting that all the "advanced" thinkers either ignore or play down the staggering world population growth . No matter what all these new people do the ONE thing that is guaranteed is that they will eat??
Given the surface area of farmable land they CAN"T make a living as farmers.
This basic fact alone means that the available land MUST produce more food "WITHOUT" elevating prices . Certainly in reverse of world trend today.
When you think about it most of the world made most of their living as "survival farming" Didn't work work in 5000 BC but it is going to work in the 21st century ??lol.
Have always thought the only thing the US has contributed to the world of lasting value is "Farming and marketing techniques."
How in the heck is the world going to feed 9 billion people?? With smaller gardens ,designer products , "NEW ideas lol
Okay will shut up now LOL gary

I just must chime in here. I hate it when I see "imported from where ever" on produce in the supermarkets. Who knows what pesticides/fertilizers they use. Many countries don't have the EPA or FDA policeing them. Anyone who grows and buys locally is helping to change the way our food trends are going.

Gary,
This is really an issue of resources and conserving them. More municipal water is used (and wasted) in Dade County on lawns than for drinking and bathing or agriculture. Instead of watering a lawn, I devote some of that area to a mulched vegetable garden watered mostly with a rain barrel and with soil that is being improved every year with compost.
So, some rain water doesn't drain off my property, running over oil-slicked roads and over-fertilized lawns before draining into the Bay - where it pollutes. Tax dollars end up paying for storm-water treatment, to keep the Bay clean and the fish and wildlife there surviving. Instead some of my excess rain helps me grow tomatoes, beans, herbs, cukes and the occasional melon.
Kitchen and yard waste that would end up in landfill go into a composter and then it's all ultimately spread in my veggie garden, under newspapers that could also go in the landfill. This reduces hauling and landfill costs that all taxpayers share.
No harsh pesticides are used on my garden because a) I don't want to eat stuff with pesticides on it b) I certainly don't want my garden to contribute to polluted run-off and c) I'm not a professional farmer skilled in the ways those chemicals should be used. I use soap and water.
And I haven't exactly withdrawn from the global economy. Just got back from Publix, in fact, where I bought pork chops and paper towels and dog food along with my organic eggs.
While other people have other hobbies, this is mine. It does nothing to harm anyone and does a little to reduce the resources I'm using - resources we all pay for. Then, when I buy a Florida grapefruit instead of a California one, I'm supporting my neighbors, and in some cases, my family.
I'm descended from a long line of farmers, including a grandfather who saw his land fouled by a nearby phosphate mine. There are still citrus groves in my extended family. My grandfather would be proud of my hobby and pretty confused by your concern that I'm endangering the global food supply by growing a little bit of my own. I am too.
S