Hi I am new

Hello Bunnykins dear Iowan—

You sound like you are in such a bind that you’ll never get free. Feeling like that’s ones problem often makes it so. Creative minds seek escape from bondage, so here’s some examples I’ve run across in my young lifetime that I hope may give hope.

Where you live may provide solutions.

Do you live in a community? If so, cooperative shopping may help. On a visit to the Soviet Union in the old days when Russia and her satellites were still USSR, I visited a state farm where fresh produce was not the problem. Manufactured goods were. The nearest shopping areas were in Moscow some several hundreds of miles away. If one had an automobile, it would be a day’s drive simply to reach the capitol. But no one had an automobile.

Here’s how the community housewives solved this problem. The state allowed each household to own a few chickens [so they wouldn’t steal eggs from the state run poultry houses]. The family chickens laid on average an egg a day, just 7 per week each, usually 3 to 3.5 dozen total for all the chickens. A dozen housewives combined their eggs which provided about 32 dozen eggs per week. They took turns going to Moscow to shop, each housewife getting the opportunity every 12th week. They carried the eggs on the street corner in a shopping basket, refilling the basket when empty. Once a week a housewife:
bought airline tickets to Moscow,
stood on the street corner of Moscow,
gave one egg to the secret policeman
assigned to keep peddlers off the street,
sold the rest of the eggs one at a time
to citizens desiring fresh eggs from the farm
[not cold storage eggs far from fresh
by the time they reached the stores],
in less than an hour sold all the eggs at one ruble each,
deducted air fair from the proceeds,
divided the rest into 12 allotments,
took her share and enjoyed shopping all day.

If other housewives needed something immediately, the shopper picked it up for her, but unless it was needed immediately, the women waited for the pleasure of doing her own shopping when her turn came.

So, if you live in a community, perhaps you could find a few others to trade favors with to get your fresh produce.

Do you live in a rural location? When I was growing up during the Great Depression, my dad was a carpenter, but planted a backyard garden. He showed me you don’t need a lot of space to plant a few hills of beans, a row of squash, a row of carrots, a row of onions, a row of eggplants, etc. The only fresh vegetable not given to backyard cultivation was corn. But then that’s one of the five no-nos.

Many, many herbs lend themselves to window box and flower pot cultivation. Even folks like me with a brown-thumb [as opposed to my mother’s green-thumb] can grow things in the modern environment.

There are long strips of black plastic which cut down on weed growth. You just lay it along the row you wish to plant. Punch holes far enough apart to permit plants to grow to maturity. Make a hole in the ground. Drop the seedling in the hole and cover it with earth. Sprinkle about a cup of water around the little rascal and move to the next place to plant a seedling. Elapsed time: about a minute.

I grow seedlings in egg cartons. Fill each cup in the carton with potting soil. Place a seed in each cup. Follow seed package for depth of seed. Cover with that much soil. I use growth solution in a spray bottle and keep the soil damp by spraying several times a day. Place the egg carton where it gets plenty of sun. Transfer seedlings to the garden when they are mature and healthy.

This exercise to keep fresh veggies available is not time consuming if done on schedule. Also, check around. Someone may already be doing backyard gardening and would share with you. If they are growing zucchini squash, they might even pay you to take some off their hands. 8-D

I love you [with brotherly love].

Larry Winebrenner, RM
larryscell.com