Victory Garden Challenge

Over the past couple of weeks we have been spending time with our local Master Gardeners groups here in Hamilton County. Each year we visit the group presenting an herb program. And each year we come away renewed by their passion and vigor for gardening. This year the group is sponsoring several community gardens throughout the Hamilton County area. One in particular at the Chattanooga Food Bank is going to be extremely useful and from the discussion of their plan a very beautiful garden.

As my readers already know I am a pretty passionate gardener and it seems that now more than ever (and I won't spoil this post with talk about the economic situation) I see a need for more vegetable gardens to be planted for my family and for the community at large. Our grandparents had a name for those gardens. Victory gardens. Back during WWII people were asked to grow more of their own food so that that tin that vegetables were packaged in could be used in the war effort. People were scrimping and going without anyway so growing their own vegetables and then harvesting and preserving those vegetables were extremely important.

Last summer we had a small garden here in the backyard. It was more of an experiment to see if there was enough time to handle yet something else in the schedule along with whether there was enough sun to produce the tomatoes and peppers, fennel, basil, squash, cukes and lettuce. I found that there was indeed enough time in the schedule and plan to add another 500 square feet of beds this year. I even heard Pat mention she was going to add on to her 30x60 bed this spring as well. I think 50 tomato plants went into her garden last year. My plan with the raised beds is to grow tomatoes in one bed, lettuce in another, potatoes in another and so on. Leaving enough room between the beds to scrape away the grass and layer with mulch to keep the mud down will keep us from having to weed wack or mow around the beds. I will start blogging the operation once beds start going in. I am hoping the Master Gardeners will let me know how their projects are going or even email me some pictures of their new gardens.

So, back to the challenge as this blog was titled. I challenge anyone who wants to save a few dollars on their grocery bill, get some exercise, get their children away from the T.V. and video games to foresake some of their back yard, side yard or even front yard (which ever gets the most sun) and put in a Victory Garden. I would love to hear your comments on your plans, successes and yes, even the failures. Tell your story. Talk to your neighbors and see if they would like to build a garden for the whole neighborhood. Use a vacant lot or a portion of ajoining lots if you really like your neighbors. The great thing about gardens is the friends you will make, the food you will grow and share.

And for those of you who live in the Hamilton County, TN area, join us at the Chattanooga Market. We will have some wonderful herbs and vegetable plants to get you started.

Local Food Challenge

Earlier this year my family made the decision that we would try to eat more locally. This would include buying more locally grown or raised meat and vegetables, eating in restaurants that bring in local foods and buying locally from the grocery stores if that was possible. Local for us is defined by any meat or vegetable that is brought in to our area from a distance of no further than 250 miles away. I felt that number would keep us away from the produce one finds all year long at the local discount and grocery stores that comes from the warmer states out west. But, it would give us access to the fruits and vegetables from the southern region of the U.S. to a point. That distance number will come down as we get better at this. It would also force us to do several things. One, grow and preserve some of our own food. Two, frequent restaurants that bring in foods that do not come from thousands of miles away. And three, and you will probably snicker at this, cook at home more. More about this later....

I felt this was an important undertaking for myself and my two sons and one that others might enjoy reading about...even possibly getting on the local bandwagon. We'll blog our successes and failures here for you to read about. So, here goes....

Late spring and early summer are better times of the year to get a family started on eating locally. Winter time would be difficult if we weren't prepared by growing vegetables that will keep over winter. More about that as the season progresses. Back to the present.....here in the southeast spring comes early and with that comes early vegetables. Lettuces, cabbage, cauliflower (as pictured of Rainbow Hill's display this past Sunday at the Chattanooga Market), snow peas, radishes, new potatoes, green beans, zucchini and squash are now becoming plentiful. Salads are a staple at every dinner that we are managing to eat at home. We're on the road a lot right now with baseball games so planning ahead and taking it with us is working right now. Eating before or after a game at home is an option too. It has been tricky finding any restaurant that does not truck in their produce and meat from huge distribution centers thousands of miles away, but we do have a couple local restaurants that give a good selection of homemade and homegrown dishes on their menus.

We are very late getting our vegetable gardens in this year. A very busy wholesale and retail spring season here at Possum Creek pushed off a lot of work that should have gotten done earlier but just didn't. Pat is frantically trying to get the big "canning and freezing" garden installed at her family homestead. Most if not all the vegetable starts came from seed that she started over the winter and early spring. Most if not all the vegetables will be organically grown as well. Another huge plus for the families. Plans are that both families will come together to keep the garden watered and semi-weed free. Harvesting and preserving will be our jobs later this summer when the bounty comes in. Preparation here at home began with a purchase of a deep freezer for the basement. Vegetables that benefit from freezing will go in there as will the half of a steer we are currently waiting to grow larger and are expecting in a few more weeks. The steer is being raised on pasture only in Georgia. Two pluses are the steer is not being fed by-products, antibiotics and other harmful additions to its diet. The other plus is the steer is just a few miles away from us which falls into our local "mileage" specification. Score points for our team!

We didn't come by this decision lightly. After reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver at least three times in the past year we felt this was an important move for our family. I know you all read the newspaper and watch CNN. Can you blame us for trying this?

In the weeks ahead I will blog how things are going and each Wednesday I will be sharing some of the recipes we have come across and how they added to our challenge. And what has been working for us as a family. We would love to hear comments from you all and see who else is locally eating this summer. But for now....back to the garden.