I was telling some friend I had not seen in years what we are doing on Barefoot Farm and these were some of the responses:
You aren’t really putting in Butternuts, are you? They grow like crazy and will be dropping nuts all over the place. We cut ours down.
You can’t be serious about bees! They’ll be all over you flowers and you won’t be able to sit outside.
Raspberries are a terrible plant. It spreads all over and you will be forever digging it up.
I thought about asparagu but it takes 3 years before you can even get any to eat.
I would not even consider growing mushrooms. What if you got a poisonsous one mixed in?
My answers? Well I hope there are nuts for me to pick up. Bees all over my flowers is actually the point. I love it when my raspberries spread. I have a larger patch. Nothing that grows out of an innoculated shitake log is going to kill me.
I am always surprised by what one considers a hardship and another considers a blessing. It’s also pretty interesting how disconnected many are from relationships. For instance. One of the folks I was talkiing to was saying that the high price of gas didn’t really bother hime as he lived only a mile from his work. In the next sentence he complained about how high hi grocery bill was, not getting that the food had to be trucked in from California or flown in from Chili and kept cold for the trip.
I’m spoiled. The friends I see every day get it. We are all growing food and reducing consumption and concerned about the future of our economic system. We recognize the value of community. The folks who read this blog and leave comments are the kind of people I spend my time with. Then I step out of my immediate circle and realize that we are in the minority.
So thank you. Thank you for giving me a place where I can talk about my passions to an appreciative audience. Thank you for reading and responding and doing what you all do every day. It’s raining today. I am so grateful as the earth is parched and my peas and trees and bushes and vines need it. I will spend the day cleaning out my pantry and baking ome bread. It’s a soup night. I have a chicken carcass to use up and some root vegetables that have seen better days. All of you know that I do not consider this a hardship but a blessing.
April 16, 2010 at 7:10 am
Wow! Some people… Sounds like a pretty big disconnect with these friends. I suppose it’s one thing to have a completely different view of things. But to give so many negative comments on your life and your decisions – that seems pretty rude on your friends’ part.
April 16, 2010 at 7:17 am
It was more like I said I was living in a cave and eating bats. They really didn’t get it.
April 16, 2010 at 7:48 am
Thank YOU, Kathy, for creating a forum where goals and sensibilities can be shared.
My daughter is studying in London this semester, and, thankfully, she isn’t scheduled to return home until May when, I hope, the ash cloud drifting at altitude will have subsided. I’m reminded how fickle nature can be and how precariously we cling to our routines and expectations. Are folks in Europe going to have fewer grocery choices next week because planes were grounded this week? Will their loved ones be able to get home? Will their skies be darker and colder as the growing season begins? Another eruption could happen again in a heartbeat; this is why I prep. Donna
April 16, 2010 at 8:03 am
Same here Donna.
April 16, 2010 at 8:18 am
It’s been a long time since I talked to someone that out of touch with reality! I realized that my friends have changed now to ones who have common sense. lol
Glad to see a wee bit of rain too, my fruit trees came yesterday and a couple of days of soaking will be good for them!
April 16, 2010 at 9:21 am
Thank you for taking the time to blog. I have been so inspired by you. The little I do (and want to do more) is looked at mighty strange by many people I talk with. So I have sort of stopped talking about it. I continue to look for but haven’t found a community in my town. So I have a virtual community. Thanks for being there.
April 16, 2010 at 10:54 am
In almost any endeavor there will be nay-sayers. While I think it is generally a good thing to get several points of view when taking on a new project, the best advice seems to come from people who have some experience or interest in a similar area. That being said, it is soooo annoying to have someone raining on my parade.
April 16, 2010 at 11:05 am
The people I work with don’t get it, and only 3 people I know get it. If I didn’t have the internet, I would be lost. Thanks for doing this blog. Linda
April 16, 2010 at 11:23 am
Right back atcha guys1
April 16, 2010 at 11:29 am
It’s interesting how some people react to attempts to change things or do something. I find that my parents are the same way. No matter what plans I have, or how excited I am, the first thing that is said is all the ways things could go wrong, or all of the potential pitfalls.
I don’t know if it’s a desire to protect people, or what. Sometimes I think it comes out of fear; we’re a culture of convenience and people dismiss a lot of things as being too hard. So when someone else is doing it, that proves that they might be able to fit in after all, and that’s too scary, so instead they find the ways it won’t work, to make themselves feel better. Never mind the fact that it makes others feel worse.
April 16, 2010 at 12:22 pm
And I was just talking to a friend who is contemplating cutting down mature pecan trees-’cause the nuts make a mess’. I flat out asked him if he was crazy and mentioned free food. Then said I’d clean up the nuts(and leaves!) for him.
I have to mention I like your blog because it’s both calming and makes me think. That’s a very nice combo.
April 16, 2010 at 1:02 pm
thanks for all the people here and at some other blogs in cyber-reality who need to talk about this stuff!
I have a couple of friends who understand part of what is going on and can see how to connect some dots but like the man who lives close to his work but doesn’t like higher food prices, they can’t see the connections. Or maybe they just need someone to educate them as to the connections. I certainly did.
peace to all,
shamba
April 16, 2010 at 1:38 pm
The thing is, those 3 years are going to pass whether your friend plants those asparagus or not. Might as well plant that asparagus and have something to look forward to.
April 16, 2010 at 2:13 pm
There is a HUGE disconnect in my family. I’m called a doomer and people seriously think I’m a little crazed. I will be putting in a bigger garden this year and canning, pickling and drying. If something happens they will be happy they know me.
Thanks for a blog that makes me feel normal.
April 16, 2010 at 2:35 pm
I need to send out a thank you, as well, Kathy. It would be nice if friends, family, etc. spoke the same language, but sadly, all the comments you started today’s post with, could just as well have been from people I know. They think I’m just “strange”. Hubby get’s my need to do the things I do, but just smiles & loves me (and thank goodness, defends me!), but really doesn’t see the big picture, either. I accuse him of not being able to see past the grindstone he has his nose stuck to, lol. One DD is hoeing the same row I am… good to have each other to bounce things off.
April 16, 2010 at 6:23 pm
And on a day like this with volcanoes and Wall Street doing its slimy thing, preparedness seems like a plan to me.
April 16, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Yup, a big “thank you” from me, too. And a seconding of the “I like it here cuz it’s _calm_ as well as making me think”.
I come here last thing in the day because your gentle clarity is a reassuring end to anxious, frazzled days.
Gratefully,
April 16, 2010 at 7:31 pm
A big thank you from me also. People ask me if I ate all the stuff I grew last year (it was my first year for veggie gardening). All the people I know just put in flowers, I mentioned edible landscape and got the strangest looks, like are you crazy or even what is that. Nice to be able to connect even if it is just in cyber space with like people. Would love to have a couple of chicken and some mushroom logs. Maybe be the mushroom later this summer but a big no no with regards to the chicken with my hubby (and of course the city). Oh and a very strange thing where I live, is that the food prices are the lowest I have seen in years (Central On Canada). Don’t know what is going on? Chicken and pork and even veggies, are all lower. Rice and flour is up but not overly. The prices are still higher than what you guys pay in the USA, but still lower for us, even with gas being higher, and we pay a lot more for our gas here, than down south of the border.
April 16, 2010 at 7:47 pm
I also wanted to chime in and say thanks not only to Kathy but everyone that uses this blog. I find wonderful ideas and like the rest of you my husband, kids, and extended family thinks i’m more than a little crazy. But i’m very lucky because they may joke a little about it but they love me inspite of it. Cant say i have friends around here that believe the way I do but all of you make me feel normal in this crazy world.
April 16, 2010 at 8:48 pm
I made a whole CGI sitcom around these sorts of awkward exchanges. Truth is stranger than fiction.
April 16, 2010 at 9:00 pm
let me add to the chorus!
Amen Amen
Group Hug and back at it
April 17, 2010 at 12:14 am
i am a big fan of food home grown and more so now a days with my diet of necessity of no fat, no cholesterol, no hydrogenerates, low salt, low sugar or no most everything tasty……food the almost only thing i had to look foward to…
April 17, 2010 at 3:30 pm
I do love this site. And I do love the fact that it can be read at bedtime without fear of staying awake all night.
I also garden. I raise chickens, ducks and rabbits. And yes they are for meat.
As for the garden that would be a yes also. And I do canning, dehydration, and freeze some.
I know how to butcher pigs and then turn the meat into sausage, ham and bacon as well. I have spent a lot of years learning all of these things. But it all helps us get by on one income.
5 years ago my dh quit his job of 27 years. And took a job that payed half what he had been making. It was very tough to make it but the one big saving grace was that we had food storage and a garden. He is now up in wages to what he was making. And the place he left is now closed down. We made the right move but it sure wasn’t easy.
April 17, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Welcome Carol and I love the screen name. Hey Mike. What do you eat? Very cool youtube Gil.
April 18, 2010 at 4:06 am
can not eat much of anything while i try to figure out a routine to avoid bypass surgurys of arteriosclerosis and athersclerosis while unable to tolerate most cholesterol altering drugs and distrust inheirently most doctors….
April 21, 2010 at 12:42 am
I wish you were MY neighbor, kathy! You do good work
and I greatly appreciate you and your blog. I am surrounded by nay-sayers, too, but my family has the largest disconnect . Keep on keepin’on!