A sign of the times!

[Stimw]

Heard on the radio this morning that Freezer sales are up 100% from a year ago. I'm sure people are growing it, buying in bulk and freezer meat purchases.
It would be nice to see some reports on TV interviewing elderly who lived through the great depression and hear tips on how they used it up and wore it out. I heard them from my parents but they didn't talk too much about it.

 

[dave1949]

Heard on the radio this morning that Freezer sales are up 100% from a year ago. I'm sure people are growing it, buying in bulk and freezer meat purchases.
It would be nice to see some reports on TV interviewing elderly who lived through the great depression and hear tips on how they used it up and wore it out. I heard them from my parents but they didn't talk too much about it.

If you want to listen to an old lady talk - pretty much until your ears drop off, I'll give you my 83 yr. old Mom's phone number

But seriously, gardening seeds and supplies sales were way up last Spring too.
Dave.

 

[Western]

History channel had a show with people who where born 1900 or before, it was pretty fascinating. They sure learned to make due..

 

[Uncle Doug]

I guess over the past year when money was tight people did start to eat out less, buy in bulk, garden.

For me starting a garden this past year was more for my personal enjoyment. Sure I got fresh produce but in the end it would of been cheaper to go to the farmers market. Hours of tilling, planting, watering, fighting bugs and heat only to watch most of it dry up in the Texas August heat. Would I do it all over again, sure, already planning next years garden.

Some things you just cain't buy at the store like watching your 6 year old granddaughter come over every day to help "pick the garden".

 

[dooleysm]

I love to garden as well, and have a huge garden and lots of tractor attachments and gizmos to help. Even if I didn't have all the money sunk in my toys I don't think gardening would be a sound financial decision. I can buy canned veggies on sale for $.25/can. I can't grow and can or freeze vegetables that cheap. We are lucky to find canning lids for under $2/box (a dozen I believe) here.

Maybe it's cheaper to freeze vegetables in used cottage cheese containers (which we also do with corn and some other things), but I still think you can get by much cheaper by spending your gardening time working a second job and buying cheap vegetables.

I'm not complaining too loudly though, I've got it pretty good. I just think we're a long ways away from what my grandparents went through in the Great Depression.

 

[brin]

Shawn....I agree with you , we have had a garden for over 30 yrs. now and there is no way we have ever saved any money. In fact it is much more expensive to have a garden than just buying frozen vegetables on sale or in bulk or fresh veggies in season. The only way money could be made or saved would be to concentrate on one or two expensive vegetables and grow only those and freeze them. For instance Carrots...buy just one big bag for $2.00 and that would be equal to a whole row in a fair size garden . There are many other examples...but by the time you buy your tools, fertilizer, seeds and plants - look at all the groceries you could have bought. We just enjoy the work and being able to know what we are eating and choose the varieties of veggies we want.

As for being a long way away from the Great Depression our grandparents went through....It is not over yet...the fat lady has not sung yet...more shoes to fall I'm afraid..hold on !

 

[Chuck52]

It's probably true that most home gardens don't actually save money over store bought. You have to really want the homegrown taste to rationalize all the work and expense. Homegrown fruits are probably an exception, however. I'm still waiting for my apples to produce decent crops, but eventually they, the blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, plums, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, heartnuts, etc, will repay my efforts...I hope! So far asparagus and blackberries have way out produced their original and ongoing costs. I'd say I've also gotten my money's worth from my horseradish patch. Unfortunately, I put in raspberries too close to the horseradish, and since both are pretty invasive I may have to find a use for raspberry-horseradish sauce.

Chuck

 

[dooleysm]

The taste of that first homegrown tomato of the year makes all the time and money worth it.

Our garden was a complete bust this year due to nonstop rain and cold weather. Nothing tasted as good or produced as much as it should have. I'm still depressed that I didn't get a good tomato all summer. We had plenty to eat and can, but they did not have the flavor they normally do. Is it too early to start wishing for spring?

 

[Wayne County Hose]

It is nice to know where your food comes from. I would rather see it grown than try to guess which third world country it came from. As for the armegeddon end of it, you are better off with weapons than food. If I have superior weaponry, I will have whatever I want and thank you for growing it for me.

 

[keegs]

Heard on the radio this morning that Freezer sales are up 100% from a year ago. I'm sure people are growing it, buying in bulk and freezer meat purchases.
It would be nice to see some reports on TV interviewing elderly who lived through the great depression and hear tips on how they used it up and wore it out. I heard them from my parents but they didn't talk too much about it.

Growing up I remember we had a huge dry goods storage shelf in the basement. Mom and dad bought the place just after the war but they continued allot of the habits they learned during the thirties and forties (of course raising six kids has to be like living in an economic depression no matter what the national economy looks like .) They often waxed fondly of those times...saving the old ration stamps....retelling familiar stories...

Getting every ounce of service out of something before throwing it away, whether it's a pair of shoes or the toothpaste tube, may not be so good for the economy but it sure feels good.