Taking control of your food supply

In October 2010, I began talking about learning to feed yourself: tastefully-done home food gardening.

NOT ROWS. NOT BOXES. Something your HOA or city would like.

(back then, it was called "edible landscaping" but not that kind of edible)

I had a 400+ page website on it: a directory of courageous landscapers who were trying to break into the field, interviews with landscape professionals, chefs, and professional garden designers, information on dozens of gorgeous food plants, landscaping techniques using ornamental plants you could eat, photos, recipes, even a course on redoing your entire yard.

As usual, I was way too early, and I didn't know how to monetize it.

I have always grown food in suburbia - enough that when we lived in southern California, my family of five didn't have to go to the store for fruits and vegetables - and on a shoestring. I wrote extensively on how to do that. In return, I got tons of haters saying that simply growing your own food in your own yard was elitist, ableist, unrealistic, and too expensive. 

(even though just about every other country in the world, in every socioeconomic class, does it already)

After losing money four years in a row, people stealing my articles, and landscapers pulling out of my site, I got really fucking discouraged. I closed up shop, leaving only my blog open.

I've got one question for you: Is it time now?

You tell me. Food recalls, cuts in regulations, food-borne illnesses, supply chain disruptions, skyrocketing prices ...

But sure, growing your own food in your own yard is too expensive. *eyeroll*

Yeah, if you do it using Miracle-Gro and buy everything, including "gardening outfits." (wtf)

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO ANY OF THAT.

(you don't even need a yard - right now, I have five large containers that I already had that are now full of dirt from cleaning up around the outside of my house, and sweet potato vines ... which I got from a bag of sweet potatoes I bought at the store where one was sprouting: extra cost $0.00)

(I did have to water them, but water left over after a bath does just fine, assuming you didn't just give yourself a UTI with how much soap you used)

(and yes, I am beyond pissed off, mostly because a lot of the suffering right now in the United States around food has been completely unnecessary)

Maybe I'm still too early. Maybe people would like to continue to believe the "growing your own food is elitist" op.

(there are lots of people who benefit from you paying exorbitant prices for fruits and vegetables you can easily grow at home and feed your own damn self instead of being dependent on billionaires for your food)

But my books and courses are still there. I'm willing to write about what I know. If there's enough interest, I might even consider putting the site up again.

What I'm not willing to do is to keep screaming into the void.

So you tell me. Is it time yet?

 

Honestly, you don't even have to grow your own food if you don't want to.

You could barter with (or buy from) people who DO grow their own food, right in your city. When we lived in California, we didn't have to buy fish, because our neighbor went deep-sea fishing once a month and brought us huge slabs of fish in exchange for all the grapes we were giving them. We gave pomegranates to a lady across the street who had an apricot tree, and whose lemon tree liked her yard. 

Sometimes farmers' markets are more expensive than what you can get at Walmart, but if they get to know you, if you make actual friends with them (instead of just trying to get something from them), you might be able to trade.

The climate's changing. Gardeners everywhere are having to adjust to new times. Good news is that you're not behind. You can learn your yard, where the light falls in your apartment, what will grow where. You can find information on how to do something pretty much anywhere. 

What you won't find online is what to ask. What you need to know, what you actually need to get, and how to think about getting it. Reasonable timelines and expectations.

(you WILL kill some plants, maybe all of them that first year, while you're learning - the concept of the "black thumb" is another op)

You'll find very few people who are willing/able to teach you how to do this without using pesticides and chemicals, both of which are going to be in short supply if things keep going the way they are.

I'm here to help. Just reply below, or contact me.