3 posts tagged “gardening”
The decline of cheap oil is inspiring increasing numbers of North Americans to achieve some measure of backyard food self-sufficiency. In hard times, the family can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden, requiring little cash outlay or watering.
Currently popular intensive vegetable gardening methods are largely inappropriate to this new circumstance. Crowded raised beds require high inputs of water, fertility and organic matter, and demand large amounts of human time and effort. But, except for labor, these inputs depend on the price of oil. Prior to the 1970s, North American home food growing used more land with less labor, with wider plant spacing, with less or no irrigation, and all done with sharp hand tools. But these sustainable systems have been largely forgotten. Gardening When It Counts helps readers rediscover traditional low-input gardening methods to produce healthy food.
As the technology of genetically manipulated food grows more and more controversial, it's always nice to know there are people doing it the old fashioned way. I have purchased many packets of seeds from SOC, and always look forward to receiving their colorful catalogs in the mail. - Scott
In 1989, Seeds of Change started with a simple mission: to help preserve biodiversity and promote sustainable, organic agriculture. By cultivating hundreds of open-pollinated, organically grown, heirloom and traditional vegetable, flower and herb seeds, we have kept to this mission. Click here for more About Us.
Seeds: Our seed list is like our extended family. They are the plants we live with day-to-day, nurturing them as they nurture us. So we choose carefully what we add to our list from year to year. In 2007 we welcomed 72 new intros to the Seeds of Change family and continue to cultivate more throughout the year.
Seeds of Change, PO Box 15700, Santa Fe, NM 87592; phone: 888.762.7333.
Catalog request - - eNewsletter - - Garden Seeds
Their website called providentliving.org has a wealth of information on topics such as: food storage, family finances, humanitarian services, employment, education and literacy, physical health, family and marriage counseling, adoption assistance, rehabilitation services, and more. To participate in some of these services, membership is required, but much of these resources are available to all.
With their pioneer heritage of self reliance and frontier spirit, building towns, settlements and families throughout the mountain west, members of the LDS Church have always been taught to provide for themselves and to serve their fellow men. Christian charity means not only helping the worthy poor with food and monetary aid, but with training, counseling, and education helps so that all are taken care of, and all can take care of themselves. So none are left behind if they truly desire to better themselves.
The section on food storage provides information on why one should store food, what to store, how to store, using food storage, home flour mills, emergency preparation, and home gardening. There are also suggestions on how to build one month food storage kits, how to dry-pack food, how to inventory your present storage, and locations where members of the church can do their own dry packing. (If you're not a member, find someone who is, and tag along with them.)
