A Community Growing its Own Food

13 years ago

I thought this was really fascinating. Imagine an America where individual towns and villages grew their own food for local self-sufficiency. Click around the website to see what all they're doing...it's wonderful. I'm more than a bit envious of their initiative. I stumbled across their website through checking if an etsy order I placed a couple days ago had shipped. Speaking of etsy...I've supported individual artisans from America, Canada, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, and Uruguay instead of big corporations. Fun.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Local - Todmorden, England

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

mabeldingeldine_gw
13 years ago
Thank you so much, tricia for sharing that site! It is fascinating, and a great example of where we could grow in this country.
Mabel
triciae
Original Author
13 years ago
Makes me want to get out in my own village and start organizing something similar!

/tricia
Related Discussions
Anyone else in 10b growing their own food?
Q
Comments (3)
I'm not an expert on fighting mildew, but I agree with this article that it seems to come in cool, or damp, or shaded conditions: Preventing Powdery Mildew On Cucumbers, Squash & Melons They do discuss organic approaches. More generally, the thing I notice talking to friends is that they'll eat around town, including the salad at any random restaurant, but would like to maintain control of their garden. They'd like that serving or plate to be organic and safe. That's fine, and they are finding value and reward in it. My approach is only to do somewhat better than those restaurants ;-), which is maybe shooting low.
...See More
Why I Process my own Food!
Q
Comments (27)
Thanks - I will probably use the big crockpot then, esp. since it has a "Keep Warm" option that might be perfect to maintaining the 115F. I do have to get some powdered milk. I wish stores here would mark down milk - the cheapest I can find it is $2.52/gal at BJs. Still lots less than yogurt though (and last week DD was on a yogurt kick, I had bought some store brand on sale and then discovered it had artificial sweeteners in it, so DH ate that and I bought her a quart of organic and was adding blueberries, homemade jam, etc. to it). Now, don't get grossed out but I have about a quart of whole milk that "sell by" date was Jan 2, I bought a half gallon for baking at Xmas and we don't drink whole milk, it smells a little sour (I was thinking of using it in place of buttermilk) but isn't chunky - could I use this for yogurt?
...See More
guests bringing own food
Q
Comments (13)
lydia - I agree with you to a point about bringing kids' foods. When my daughter was very young she was a very picky eater and there were certain foods she couldn't not because of allergies. I always fed her a dinner before going out if we were invited to a friends' or family's home. I even did it if we went out to a restaurant. I felt better because she had/has trouble gaining weight, and I didn't want to insult my hostess, especially if it was someone who didn't know of my daughter's health issues. I also enjoyed my dinner knowing that nutritionally she was fine even if she could eat nothing at the dinner party. I guess what I don't understand about your post is that these children of your brother's are your neice and nephew. That is about as close as family members get. The fact that they came and you had a special family dinner I think is more important than the fact that your brother brought some things for the kids. You don't mention a wife so I am thinking he really didn't think about it being rude, and that it wasn't an intentional insult. I am sure your lasagne is delicious, but you know how little kids can be with foods. My 7 year old neice doesn't eat a thing when she comes for any event. Things can't touch on the plate. It's nuts, but my SIL is in charge of teaching her and is surely lacking in that regard. Thirteen is a bit different. I do think children need to be taught to take a little of what served at a dinner party despite whether they like it, save allergies or other health issues. Perhaps if you and your brother are close, and he doesn't have a proper mother for the children, you would be helping him out by letting him know a better way to do it prior to a family dinner party, i.e., feed the 7 year old a little dinner before attending a dinner party rather than bringing snacks. If the mom isn't in the picture or is clueless herself, that's a big problem. The parents are the ones responsible for teaching the children the rules of eating out. I guess I am much more tolerant since I have so many family members that are vegetarians, vegans, special diets, etc. that bringing what you eat isn't so insulting to me. If I am entertaining one of the family members who is following a different diet than most of the guests, I make a couple of extra dishes that they can and will eat - most times everyone enjoys a different dish as well. Since cooking is my biggest hobby, I look forward to crazy eaters as it stretches my culinary muscles finding unique things to serve along with usual foods to make everyone feel special. I hope the next dinner party is better! I know you must feel like you went to alot of trouble to make a very nice dinner and your brother essentially ruined it for you. Maybe the kids could learn a little something before the next invitation. Best regards.
...See More
Growing multiple tomato plants in one community box?
Q
Comments (8)
Digdirt2: I bough a packet for less than 1€ or 2€ and there were a tiny bit of seeds at the bottom of the packet, so I just sprinkled them into that plastic container after adding bags of soil into it. 2 days later all the seedlings appeared. The packet just say just sprinkle into a container. Not good info on the packet. I did not want that many plants, but I thought not all will germinate. I did sprinkle such packet before into the rough soil outside and they germinated here and there, but I had to dump soil over them in order to plant bananas and oranges later, so that spot was destroyed. Wormgirl: Thanks, I will. Right now I dumped most of the seedlings with their soil next to the stone wall onto the stoney ground in long rows leaning to the wall and ground. I will plant some of the remaining ones into small cups as well. Thanks very much for the advise. I have nursery cups with holes in them, all kinds of, but good potting soil is hard to come by here. Or it is extremely expensive. So I am making my own compost from food remains, but that will take years. The soil in the photo is from supermarker at 1€ per smallish bag and is probably not the best potting soil and even that one is not available in big quantity. I bought a few trucks of local soil, but it is a poor soil, light brown with many stones in it, some tiles, weeds, lots of new grass in it. 10€ per cubic metre plus delivery. On a small island the shopping kind of sucks. Giving away to friends, everyone has their own garden here. I am new here, they are not :-) They give me lemons, oranges sometimes. I dumped a lot of these seeds into the stoney ground soil all around my place to see what will come up. Will take time and lots of money to slowly make space for garden and fill up soil by trucks. Now you know my situation. Lack of potting soil and lack of gardening space. We are now getting 22-24C with (16)19-20C at night, but never hot or freezing cold. I noticed that during "winter" tomatoes don't grow here because most of the time it is 10C to 13C (50-55F) night and day, with only occasional 16-18C. I will now hunt for more potting soil to fill up one 40L container for one single tomato plant.
...See More
mabeldingeldine_gw
13 years ago
Sounds like a plot to me! (Yuk yuk) In 2010 I weighed everything my garden produced, and calculated its value at the closest comparable rate I could find -- usually my local Farmer's Market. It was over $2,000. Imagine if more families tried gardening. Even if they had small gardens for mostly fresh eating it could be a big savings.

I'm going to be tracking my garden again this year, and working on a journal article with my Master Gardening Instructor -- maybe it will convince more people to try home grown food.
Teresa_MN
13 years ago
People in England are really into gardening. Someone I work with is in our London branch. She just has a tiny apartment, Two of the windows have flower boxes in which she grows radishes and lettuce. At one time she and some friends had a little plot outside the city. She just marvels at pictures of my yard and how many vegetables and berries I grow. And it's only 1/4 acre!

This past Saturday one of the local shows featured a local guy and his book that came out recently. It's called Straw Bale Gardening and the author is Joel Karsten. People from Alaska, Dubai, Saudi Arabia - everywhere have shown interest in it. It lengthens the growing season and is perfect for places like Dubai that don't have good soil. Joel grew up on a farm and moved to the cities and bought a house with really bad soil. That is what led him to come up with this idea. That and sometimes the growing season in Minnesota can be considerably shorter than others.

Basically you treat a bale of straw with nitrogen for two weeks to condition it. Then you dig holes in the top and side and put in plants. The bale starts to decompose feeding the plants. In addition the bale is 35 degrees warmer than the temp outside because of the composting affect. You can start your plants earlier and tent on chilly nights. I ordered the book. I might try 1 or 2 bales this year seeing as our season is late getting started. I think I will plant tomatoes and compare the plants to my ones in pots on my deck. Tricia - seeing that your soil was damaged by Sandy this might be something you want to try. As soon as I pick up the book I'd be happy to share the info with you if you are interested. Two words ......... heirloom tomatoes!
User
13 years ago
This will be my first year with bale gardening our season is so short being in zone 2 plus we only have clay not helpful for growing. We still have 3 feet of snow. I can't imagine any community near here that would be self sustaining with just gardens. I set my bales out in the fall so they would be ready to plant when the snow melts I can't loose precious days waiting for them to cool down when they start to decompose. Setting them out in the fall speeds things up. I hope it yields a bumper crop I have 6 bales in one spot and 2 in another.

Here is a link that might be useful: bale garden set up
mabeldingeldine_gw
13 years ago
I've used the straw bale system in the past for cucumbers and melons, it worked really well. I now have a small hoophouse but I might try that system again for a later planting of cukes, thanks for the reminder!

A Community Growing its Own Food

Comments (6)

mabeldingeldine_gw

triciae
Original Author

Related Discussions

mabeldingeldine_gw

Teresa_MN

User

mabeldingeldine_gw

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

A Community Growing its Own Food

Comments (6)

mabeldingeldine_gw

triciaeOriginal Author

Related Discussions

mabeldingeldine_gw

Teresa_MN

User

mabeldingeldine_gw

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

triciae
Original Author