Old take on shortages

[Blanket]

My father was a product of the Depression and no money, went off to war in 1942. Talked of buying 22 shells a couple at a time to get meat for the family, chopping roofing lead into shot to use in old civil war muskets with home made black powder to hunt in the 30's. After he came back from the war him and my mom who was also a barefoot starving depression farm kid pressed into me and my siblings to always prepare for hard times. We don't understand that anymore.
I am lucky enough to have ground to raise a huge garden and some livestock. I have offered several times to people a spot to raise their own and I will do the ground prep with my equipment and using my well to water, no takers. Give away truck loads of vegetables in our excess and offer that they can come out and pick their own, no takers. That is our current world

[silverado]

Unfortunately it is easier to take than produce.

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[Winger Ed.]

Several years ago, our little suburb of North Dallas offered a area on city property for any resident to use as a garden.

They plowed up a big plot, sectioned it off with strings & stakes, put all the right kind of dirt on it, etc.
You could sign out spots, plant what ya wanted, tend your spot, and they'd water it every so often.

A month or so later- The whole place had weeds as high as your head.
If anyone harvested anything, it was a well kept secret.

[rancher1913]

we have offered to people to come pick produce, the usual response is "can you just pick it and bring it to me".

[CLAYPOOL]

MY local village has a miss guided woman wanting to do a "COMMUNITY GARDEN". I think its a wonderful idea that is going to be a flop. I'M just probably just stating a fact.... UNFORTUNATELY.....

[Jniedbalski]

I use to plant big gardens even when I first got married in 87. Gave a lot away over the years. Haven’t canned or put out a decent garden in five or six years. Last year I put out a 15’ x15’ got a little from it most sun flowers and flowers . Something came in and ate all my tomato plants right down to the ground stalk and all never seen that. Deer I guess but in June with everything growing good ? Al least the radishes and spinach did good

[Hogdaddy]

Some folks are plumb lazy ; ) PS While other folks prepare
H/D

[gbrown]

Yep, it is what it is. All I can say. Sorry it is what it is.

[dverna]

Did the livestock and garden thing growing up. Then started gardening again about 20 years ago.

Not worth the effort. I have almost a year of food prepped. There is a market that has great deals and we stock up during sales: some recent examples...

Canned veggies.....$.19-.29 a can
Pork loin...$1.29/lb
Pork butt.....$.79/lb
Chicken quarters....$2.99 for 10 lb bag
Butter....$.99/lb
Tuna...$.25/can
Spam...$1.50/can
Porterhouses steak...$5.99/lb
Eggs...$.69/doz
Taco kits....$1

Growing stuff is not always less expensive and certainly not needed to be prepared for hard times.

Folks spend a lot of money eating out, and complain about not having money. If they are too lazy to cook, they are not going to raise food. On TV, I see folks in car lines waiting to get food driving $40-50k vehicles...that pisses me off.

I stopped giving to the church food bank when I saw what was going on.

[granville_it]

Good food is cheap!!.

Mark

[Gewehr-Guy]

On Shortages, like Blanket, I also raise a decent size garden, but unfortunately most just goes to waste. I usually can or freeze a good supply of tomatoes, beans, carrots,and beets. A few friends and family will come and pick some , and I get some satisfaction from that, as they do really appreciate it. But having a garden, and not needing it, is better than the other way around.

The people that don't have a decent supply of food at home, probably don't fill their car with gas before the ice storm, and are always paying late fees on their credit card balances.

Years ago my Grandmother said they were always short on stove fuel, this was during the drought years in South Dakota. So she would use a pitchfork to flip over cow pies so they would dry faster, and gather them before the got stepped on and broken. I always remember that story when I get my propane tanks filled in July. There are seldom real shortages, just poor timing.

[Garyshome]

Hey at least the rabbits/deer/insects don't go hungry around my garden.

[mroliver77]

I grow a large garden. It not only provides good clean food it does a lot for my mental and physical health. My garden is up against pasture fence so all the extra goes into the cows and they turn it into meat!

[10-x]

Talk about LAZY, friend in another state found a guy selling off his deceased fathers reload stuff. Called the guy and asked exactly what he had, he said maybe 50 molds with handles! Asked him which ones, he said he didn’t know so told him just write the mould numbers on piece of paper and call me. He said that was to much trouble and wanted someone to come over, look each mold up online and give him about half, Give me a Break!

[Rcmaveric]

They have community gardens here in Jax. Surprisingly people use them. But think it's older people looking for company in honesty.

I would rather see community and church gardens than food stamps. I loved when Florida passage legislation that if you were on food stamps, you dont need a fishing license. I think they should extend that to hunting also.

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[ascast]

I'm with dverna on this one. I grew up with depression era parents. My dad farmed so was never accepted in the army until very late in '45 and never left home. He had a pilots license in '38, but not enough teeth. Go figure. Raised chickens here and dairy at gramps 1/2 miles up the road. Assuming you have the land with water near by, you can put in one or two hours a day-every day- to make it work. Add in a tractor with plow and drag, or tiller, some tools, rakes etc,. Now you need a fence, eight foot. A four footer is just a mild inconvenience for a white tail. It must be stout as well as they will fly into chicken wire and ruin it. Chicken wire is OK on the bottom for rabbits and woodchucks, but you havew to spike it down or weight it down. Moles seem to be run off with those battery vibrators that stick in the ground. You should gt in the habit of buying every garden you see at yard sales etc. You'll know why later. These are off the top of my head. Now on the harvest side, a canning pot, oddles of jars at a buck each (get more now for next year), rubber seals, new freezer, bigger, maybe a root cellar, you get the idea.
food is cheap in our country. gardening is a lot of work and can be wiped out in one overnight raid by Bambe and friends.
I still garden some,
I wish I could grow bell peppers

[Thumbcocker]

My Grandfather who was born in 1918 used to tell this joke: A man was losing his farm and was being taken to the poor house. He lay in the back of the wagon. A neighbor came by in his wagon and heard what was going on. The neighbor offered to donate a few bushels of corn so the man could have some food and get out a crop. The man raised up in the bed of the wagon and asked "is that corn shelled?" The neighbor replied that the corn was on the cob. The man turned to the men driving the wagon and said "drive on boys " and lay back down.

[Blanket]

Did the livestock and garden thing growing up. Then started gardening again about 20 years ago.

Not worth the effort. I have almost a year of food prepped. There is a market that has great deals and we stock up during sales: some recent examples...

Canned veggies.....$.19-.29 a can
Pork loin...$1.29/lb
Pork butt.....$.79/lb
Chicken quarters....$2.99 for 10 lb bag
Butter....$.99/lb
Tuna...$.25/can
Spam...$1.50/can
Porterhouses steak...$5.99/lb
Eggs...$.69/doz
Taco kits....$1

Growing stuff is not always less expensive and certainly not needed to be prepared for hard times.

Folks spend a lot of money eating out, and complain about not having money. If they are too lazy to cook, they are not going to raise food. On TV, I see folks in car lines waiting to get food driving $40-50k vehicles...that pisses me off.

I stopped giving to the church food bank when I saw what was going on.

well good for you and your processed food diet

[perotter]

About the only thing that can be grown in a back yard garden that I eat on regular basis would be for pickles and sauerkraut. Then annual cost of these purchased ready to eat is $66. So even with a old guys part time job that would be working an extra 4 hours once a year or work an extra full day and have an extra $66. But I guess that I would eat fresh home raised cumbers and home raised stringbeans in the summer. But seem to get by fine with them.

Plus a storage of what is grown in a vegetable garden isn't cheap. I think the current price of a medium sized freeze dryer is $2600. But a person could build one cheap. That would be fun and the only reason I'd have a vegetable garden so I could test it out.

PS
Opps. Remembered my asparagus plants. I do like it pick minutes before cooking it. So I have some of that I planted some years ago that I let grow more or less wild.

[perotter]

well good for you and your processed food diet

Besides the Spam, what is processed in his listed food items?