Are you ready to grow your food instead of heading to the grocery store for the food your family needs? Whatever inspired you to think about this, you are not alone.
RunninginBoots.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on Amazon.com. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I don’t want to sound like one of those who feel like the world will come crashing down around them, but have you caught a glimpse of the news lately?
It makes me happy to live in the country.
Throughout this pandemic, a funny thing happened to me. I became one of those people who loves to be home. Saying “no” to social invitations rolls off the tongue more easily now.
Even going shopping has lost its luster to me.
My cousins introduced me to curbside at our local grocery store, and even that seems exhausting. The thought of having to leave the house and make idol chitchat with the always caring grocery attendant just seems like so much work.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not a hermit; I just don’t like to trade my time for things I don’t enjoy doing at the time.
Is it just me?
HERE COMES A DRAMATIC REALIZATION
With that thought, I decided to take on a big project and grow food for my family.
I have attempted this before, and if it were left up to me to feed my family, we would all be a lot thinner. My plans tend to end up more significant than the time or energy I have.
With that in mind, I decided to pick up on projects that I had already started.
I made a little list of food and income-producing animals we already have. My garden list is short. I have one parsley and basil plant that has survived the wrath of my lack of watering.
Are you beginning to see why this isn’t going to be easy?
LIVE MEAT
I don’t know when we stopped growing our food and started relying on the supermarkets for our nutrition.
My husband has raised pigs for local stock shows for the last ten years. With every litter, there have been a few that didn’t sell. These became our butcher pigs that we would grow for several months.
I am not handy when it comes to butchering. I usually show up when there isn’t anything left to do. My brother-in-law, however, is pretty good in the butcher house and the smokehouse. Every year, he cuts up and smokes any pig we ask him to do.
We have always raised cattle to sell through the local market. A few times, we would acquire a dairy-cross calf to grow on grain and grass and have processed at a local butcher house.
And then there are the chickens.
Father-in-law is the one who taught me how to love chickens. Not that he was a “love” kind of guy, but he taught me how to take care of them get the best results. Once you have had a pasture-raised egg, you will have a hard time buying them from the store.
Let’s not forget about the broilers my daughter raised for our local stock show. That was a fun project. A few days after the show, my husband and I loaded them up and took them to be processed.
The meat was divine.
We know how to raise all of these animals for food, so why aren’t we doing it?
THE GARDEN THAT NEVER GROWS
Let me start by saying, my mother has taught me everything there is to know about gardening, and I’m still not good at it. My mom has a garden that grows on a quarter of an acre. She grows more food than we can eat and sells a lot of it to her neighbors.
She didn’t pass down her green thumb to me. I got her good looks; you would think the thumb would come in the package, right?
The one thing that I could see that is different from my mother’s gardening is her passion for growing things. She makes it a big part of her day and never goes a day without stepping foot in it.
My desire to grow a garden in the past was the product of guilt. I live in the country. Growing food is something I should be doing to contribute to society.
Well, that’s what I thought anyway.
But now, I have an authentic desire to produce nutrition for my family.
Will that do the trick?
Taking the Leap
Yesterday, I had a long conversation with neighbors about gardening and producing homegrown food.
To my delight and surprise, my neighbors were having the same thoughts that I was having.
We wanted to take a leap into producing meat and produce for our families.
Why aren’t we already doing this?
Is it the fear of commitment or lack of trust in ourselves to follow through with something good for us?
So, here’s a little tip.
Talk about what you want to do. Write a list and start doing some research. Plan out your projects and your time. Find a book that will help you get to the level of skill you want to be.
If you are afraid you won’t finish these projects on your own, talk to your neighbors. You may be able to put together a community project that will keep you and your neighbors out of the store and on the right track to producing quality foods.
START GROWING YOUR FOOD
