Possible frugal prodcue source

**sdrjeolsen** · 10-08-2008, 11:40 PM

Monday I went with some gals from church to a U-pick-it farm. Since its the end of the season and a frost is inevitable soon, they let us pick all we wanted. Normally there is a 10 10-lb bag limit (which is still great) but I got a ton of stuff.

Just thought I'd share the idea since there are so many produce farms around the country. Hopefully someone here can find one close by and take advantage of the bargains.

Here's what I got for my $10. I've been canning for the past two days, but glad to have a bit more stocked up right now.

**Laura2** · 10-09-2008, 12:06 AM

That's awesome! I've got to check around here if we have anything like that.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 10-09-2008, 10:24 AM

Goodness! You sure did your money's worth with all that. I'd love to find something like that around here.

**allenwrench** · 10-09-2008, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by sdrjeolsen

Monday I went with some gals from church to a U-pick-it farm. Since its the end of the season and a frost is inevitable soon, they let us pick all we wanted. Normally there is a 10 10-lb bag limit (which is still great) but I got a ton of stuff.

Just thought I'd share the idea since there are so many produce farms around the country. Hopefully someone here can find one close by and take advantage of the bargains.

Here's what I got for my $10. I've been canning for the past two days, but glad to have a bit more stocked up right now.

Fantastic haul!

I'm into growing as well as foraging.

Foraging is for those that love to reap what they have not sown...

I supplement my garden with foraging. There are lots of fruit trees in my local and some of em are abandoned or neglected so I make good use of their produce.

Lots of these blew down with the remnants of the last hurricane. Even if they have trouble ripening from being too green, they can be cooked.

This summer I have added many new fruit tree to my 'adopted orchard' that others planted then abandoned.

I got 3 mulberry trees, 6 apple trees. 4 big juicy Europeans and seckel pear trees, an apricot tree, 2 peach trees, 7 black walnut trees, 3 pawpaw trees, hickory and butter nut trees, yew bush and a hawthorn.

Also some wild brambles and herbs like purslane and dandelion and rocket. And not to forget lots of wild grapes.

Now, foraging does not always yield Martha Stewart quality produce. But that is the beauty of being a forager. We can take what others may overlook and get nourishment from it. And it yields some sort of strange satisfaction is stealing food back from the ants after they have stolen so much food from some of us.

Take this nasty looking apple. When I play doctor with it, I get half an apple and it taste good.

So if your local is conducive to foraging, study it up and have many options for food production available to you if the world starts decomposing around you.

Edible landscaping will be most important to feeding what is left of us when TEOTWAK arrives.

Here are 3 good books for those interested in developing an urban homestead.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Food-Not-Lawns-Neighborhood-Community/dp/193339207X"]Amazon.com: Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community: Heather Coburn Flores: Books[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X"]Amazon.com: Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series): Steve Solomon: Books[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Self-Sufficient-Suburban-Gardener-Jeff-Ball/dp/0878574573"]Amazon.com: The Self-Sufficient Suburban Gardener: Jeff Ball: Books[/ame]

I think we have a real food crisis brewing for the world. Not enough young farmers replacing the old, we will run low of fertilizer as the NG dries up and that food which is grown is devoid of nutrition and not healthy. And to make matter worse, fewer people can even afford to buy produce.

With the recent food shortages in the news I have to wonder as Richard Heinberg brought up "Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?"

"The average American farmer is 55 to 60 years old. The proportion of full time farmers younger than 35 years of age has dropped from 15.9% in 1982 to 5.8% in 2002. Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?" from "Peak Everything" by Richard Heinberg

"Amish farmers can't compete in conventual agriculture farming. 40 years ago 90% to 95% of the Amish were farmers. Today less than 10% are farmers." from: "How the Amish Survive" DVD

And even if the farmers keep up with production, many people cannot afford the high prices of produce. At Krogers a butternut squash was $7, a large apple was $1.85, a rutabaga was $3, one medium size potato was $1.04, an artichoke near $5 and a lemon was $1.35, a bag of cherries was $14.75, ONE organic yam was $8.25.

And these high priced produce are being offered when times are still relatively good What will this stuff sell for when gas is $10 or $15 a gallon? Peak oil, peak NG, peak water and food as well as peak uranium will fuel mass starvation as our artificial and unsustainable world decomposes around us.

As people buy less produce due to affordability issues and the produce stops selling and rots on the shelves, the farmers will grow less produce that just rots unsold and less potential farmers will be entering that field.

Book and DVD list. All available from your local library.

Beyond Oil: the view from Hubbert's Peak
by Deffeyes, Kenneth S.
http://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/

The Coming Economic Collapse - how you can thrive when oil costs $200 a barrel
by Leeb, Stephen

A Crude Awakening - the oil crash
Lava Productions AG, Switzerland DVD
http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/

The End of Suburbia - oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream
by Greene, Gregory DVD
http://www.endofsuburbia.com/

Fed Up
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Fed-Up-Angelo-Sacerdote/dp/B000CNGC6G"]Amazon.com: Fed Up !: None, Angelo Sacerdote: Movies & TV[/ame]

High Noon for Natural Gas: the new energy crisis
by Darley, Julian
http://www.highnoon.ws/

The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century
by Kunstler, James Howard

Oil Apocalypse
History channel DVD

Peak Oil Survival: preparation for life after gridcrash
by McBay, Aric

Powerdown: options and actions for a post-carbon world
by Heinberg, Richard

Resource Wars: the new landscape of global conflict
by Klare, Michael T
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Resource-Wars-Landscape-Conflict-Introduction/dp/0805055762"]Amazon.com: Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author: Michael T. Klare: Books[/ame]

A Thousand Barrels a Second: the coming oil break point and the challenges facing an energy dependent world
by Tertzakian, Peter

Twilight in the Desert: the coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy
by Simmons, Matthew R.
Well written book examining 12 of the key Saudi oil fields.

Who Killed the Electric Car?
Sony Pictures Classics release
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/

Zoom:the global race to fuel the car of the future
by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran.

**allenwrench** · 10-09-2008, 10:49 AM

Did you figure the food market cost of that haul? At Krogers one butternut squash was $7

**DonnainME** · 10-09-2008, 08:34 PM

WOW I wish we had farms around here that would do that. We can get apples for like $10 a bushel right now though. I have to be careful eating them with my Diabetes/Carb limits.

**HandyMom** · 10-10-2008, 12:23 AM

Great! You probably did better in this one haul than I did for the entire season with my community supported agriculture (csa). And I paid over $300 for my meager produce rations. I got a total of 4 worm-infested ears of corn for the entire summer.

(never again!)

**Darlene** · 10-10-2008, 07:22 AM

Wow that table looks awesome! I know you'll be enjoying the bounty for a while.

**allison** · 10-10-2008, 08:05 AM

It looks great. What a bargain!

**shadowfax** · 10-10-2008, 11:39 AM

Allen I keep looking around at the various plants I see and wondering what I can harvest and use. We have walnuts and butternuts I can access but no idea how to get them cleaned for use.

I am really interested in foraging some. Would love if you started a how to thread with pics naming the more unusual plants and how you use them.

Perhaps we can start a thread on foraging?

**frugalfriend** · 10-10-2008, 11:49 AM

Denise ~ Wow, what a haul! You did AWESOME!!! All that for $10.00?!

Can you take me with you next time, pretty please?!

**Contrary Housewife** · 10-10-2008, 12:13 PM

You sure got a great deal! That reminds me to check out the orchard near us and see what they have. It must be close to the end of their season, too, though I can only store bags of apples for so long...

We have CSAs here too, but they are expensive ($800 for a 4 person family pack, for 6 months) and I would have to drive across town on a weekday to pick it up, which means I'd also have to drive my husband to work (in a different direction) , then pick him up, in order to use the car.

**mrsfoamy** · 10-10-2008, 01:56 PM

We don't have any U_Picks near me, but some of the mom and pop fruit and veg. stands drive to the farming areas to buy their produce. It's usually very cheap.