Turning Ground

My awesome man turned the ground for our garden this weekend, and it was a blast to watch him with that tiller. I’m so excited to get my hands in the dirt again. I’ve loved growing things since I was a little girl. I always had my hands in the dirt planting seeds, or making sun-dried pots out of clay I found in our dirt driveway (Some of them still exist!). I relished the time being in the dirt gave me with my dad. He’d be fishing, and I’d be making little houses for the mill worms on the creek bank out of sand and mud. He taught me how to grow things, and I loved to work with him in the garden he always had.

I have some of our seeds already and will be ordering more today. It’s important to us that our produce is organic and non-GMO. As I have mentioned before, we are eating a Traditional Foods diet based on the recommendations of the Weston A. Price Foundation (www.westonaprice.org). My man was reading a Foxfire book in the gardening chapter and one of the old-timers said that garden food don’t taste as good as it used to because things are hybrid now. Amen! Our produce is going to be yummy. I’d love to get a hold of some heirloom seeds.

Organic food is hard to find for us in the mountains. I’m assuming because of the cost (which is an obstacle when also buying pre-packaged foods) and the fact that most don’t feel it is a necessity. Again, another area where commercialism and pop culture has changed our people from embracing our folkways. My dad even believes that the hype surrounding organic foods is a ploy between doctors and organic farmers. I don’t know. I don’t think he has thought that opinion out fully. The main grocery chain here carries limited organics, and I’m thankful for that right now. For the future months, I’m super excited about growing our own.

Our economy is on everyone’s minds, and in moving off-grid my man and I knew it was partly to separate from dependency on the larger world/economy. We live as artists on a very limited income, which is fine. We have found that by developing self-reliance in many areas and going back to a more natural way of living/parenting, we are being more environmentally friendly and saving a ton of money. Growing our own food and having the ambition of having our own laying hens is just one way. I’ll be writing about some of the other ways in future blog entries. Those topics will include cloth diapering, breastfeeding, traditional foods, natural health, and no cost entertainment. In the meantime, I’ll be giddy deciding what seeds to order and dreaming of a plate full of real veggies slathered in bacon grease or real butter this summer.

Turned Ground - progress so far

Here is what I got from www.fedcoseeds.com for only $47.30. I’ll be adding to it some that I bought at the Dollar General Store. OG stands for organic and I tried my best to stay away from hybrids.

Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean, Painted Hills Multicolor Sweet Corn OG, Sunsweet Watermelon, Calypso Pickling Cucumber, Cocozelle Zucchini, Scarlet Nantes Carrot, Prisma Shallots, Safrane Onion, Salad Bowl Lettuce,Thompson Broccoli OG, Danish Ballhead Cabbage, Safir Cutting Celery, Rosita Eggplant OG, Heirloom Tomato Mix OG, Lemon Queen Sunflower OG