Well here we are at the end of a loooooong, weird road.
My experiment was about 75% successful, and I've learned some very important things.
Like ......
: Starbucks isn't the devil, but neither is Whole Foods entirely angelic.
: America doesn't grow grapes for food. ( we do...but it's nearly impossible to find 'grown in the USA' grapes in any east coast market.)
: The US government frowns on home growers. (How messed up is THAT?!?!?! Remember the concept of the 'victory garden'? That USED to be us...)
: Fresh, organic versions of food TASTE BETTER.
: HFCS is really hard to avoid, but REALLY worth avoiding. (Yes, sugar is sugar as far as your body knows....BUT the process for obtaining HFCS is ridiculously bad for humans.)
: You CAN buy Eco, sustainable, responsible products at roughly the same price as all the bad stuff, you just have to WORK at it.
: TRADING IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
: And lastly, for now, trying to eat locally in the summer and fall is awesome and easy....in the winter and spring...not so much.
So herein is my last post of the year long personal challenge.
Got up yesterday morning and went out to my little porch to water
the garden. Looking around at the variety of food coming in made me smile from ear to ear. I had proven to myself that not only could I grow my own food, organically and with NO GMO seeds or seedlings, I could figure out how to grow almost any fruit or veg IN POTS!Here's the rundown as far as June 8th:
Sweet peas
Cukes
Tomatoes (3 varieties)
Hot peppers (9 varieties...so far)
Basil, Rosemary, Peppermint, Lemongrass, Aloe, Sunflowers,
Blackberries, Strawberries (2 varieties), Raspberries, Blueberries (2 varieties),
Silver Mound Wormwood (yay Absinthe!), Nasturtium
Dwarf fruit trees: Macintosh apple, Sweet Cherry.......
Not to mention the non edibles in there.
The sweet peas were a bit of a coup tho, as I was told by EVERYONE that you just can't transplant peas from starter pots. They're too delicate and won't survive the root shock. BAH! BAH! I say!
I pulled the first 10 fat pods yesterday and MAN are they sweet! Mind you, 15 plants does not a great pea haul produce....but what we got was worth the hassles. ( if anyone is interested in HOW I pulled this off, let me know and I'll add it in the comments.)
So I am living proof that you can have a great, organic garden on a teeny little porch with just a little work, research and ingenuity. :)
(BTW: The shelves in the pics were made from old plastic milk crates and wood slats we found in the flea market dump pile. Cool no?)
As far as the locavore thing goes, I have discovered both a secret locavore club that meets once a month in different eateries for locally sourced dinners (it's sadly rather exclusive and therefore expensive,) and a not so secret group started by a friend of mine (Go Katie girl!!) recently!
Pot luck style in fact! I missed the first dinner due to bad schedule overlap, but I plan to attend ALL the rest!
And while the local Goodwill turned out to be a total bust, I have found that the flea markets around here are more than adequate as far as not buying new stuff goes. Sometimes even FREE stuff!
Almost all our porch furnishings are 'trash picked' pieces that are totally fine and useful, but were headed for the garbage stream. Sad actually. But now they have fresh paint and new lives!
The trading thing is going really well too. I had to ditch the Ning site as it was NOT drawing well, but facebook is amazing for it!
**OH!! If any of you out there are local to me, and have chickens for eggs....I WANNA TRADE!!!!**
In fact, let me know if you have homemade foods, crafts or whatever to trade! I'm a great conduit!
** I also need a wooden drying rack for clothes. The kind that folds up.**
In the near future I think I'll use this blog to post trade wants and haves, great hand/home made and eco products from different sources others may not know, and of COURSE goings on in the Steampunk and 'friends with bands' worlds.
SPEAKING OF THAT......FOLLOW THIS LINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (you will NOT regret it!)
Hopefully I'll see you ALL there! This is NOT a show you want to miss! Fire acts, burlesque (the real kind) carnival games, bowling (??) and MAD great music! BE THERE!
Till next time folks,
Keep strange!
3 comments:
What did you find is the best source for trading?? A certain page on Facebook, or? What about the other barter sites you were checking out other than Ning?
Well swapworkshop is GREAT for artists and crafters, there's a point system and it's mostly supplies and some finished pieces. The people are all over awesome, and Are also all over the world! LOL!
I have a FB page I need to update, but that was working really well, I want to add a food and plant section so people can trade their seeds and seedlings, jams, eggs and cheeses....all that kind of thing. I'll repost the fb site a little later in the feed, and here's a linkie!
http://www.facebook.com/Gypsycaster/posts/1929600773047?ref=notif¬if_t=feed_comment#!/group.php?gid=340041107860
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