This Gardening Thing is Spreading Like Swine Flu

Apparently our apocalypse garden is not only new to us. Recently I Facebook linked a USA Today article to Andrea and Hollie concerning what USA Today coined "economic survivalists." It is an interesting article you can find here. I think we would rate a 5 on the 1-10 economic survivalist scale (with a 1 you think milk comes from the refrigerated section and a 10 you are completely off the energy and financial grid). I immediately found some humor in it (as well as interesting real life examples and statistics), and had to forward it onto Andrea because, on top of the apocalypse garden, we are also going in on some hogs (I say we, but I have yet to pay for our pig). The picture in the article showed a family feeding their pigs. This is what Andrea emailed me concerning the hogs she and Alan got:

Average processing fee on 180 pounds (~250 pound hog) = $230 – 250

--this doesn’t include if someone wanted a lot of brats or patties made up – would be extra (but boy are Stanhope’s brats good).

Initial cost of hog and feed to go from 20 lbs – 250 lbs = $100

--hopefully we can lower this price; we are going to ask that everyone pays a $50 deposit/hog to help with feed purchase than we could buy in bulk which would help the overall cost of feed. I didn’t want to give too low a price in case we have something weird happen with grain markets this summer. We will only charge for the actual cost of the feed divided among the hogs.

Those of you who know me know I prefer pork over almost anything else on the grill. I consider a well prepared pork burger on a level with steak.

Some interesting things I gathered from the USA Today article was the boom in the gardening sector when the economy is tanking. Anecdotally, we experienced something similar to this with Christmas tree sales going better this past season during economic troubling times.

"Sales of vegetable seeds and transplants are up 30% from 2008 at W. Atlee Burpee, the USA's largest seed company. The National Gardening Association says 7 million more households will grow food this year than in 2008 — a 19% rise. A book on building root cellars is the top seller at Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine, supervisor Joann Matuzas says."

The article ends with a quote from Patrick Wojtowicz, who lives near Alma, Michigan that I thought was kind of cool.

"'The earn, spend, earn era has come to an end for us,' he says on truenorthfound.blogspot.com, their blog. 'The idea of living a fuller, more satisfying life seems simple to us now. ... Money, cash, credit, maybe they don't matter. Maybe, just maybe, it is those things that impede our ability to be truly happy.'

Whatever happens to the economy, the Wojtowicz family hopes to remain self-sufficient. Instead of spending their tax refund, as they usually did, they used it to pay down debt. They stopped using credit cards and they're trying to build up savings. 'I'm working harder than ever,' Patrick says, 'but it's more satisfying work and ... it's much easier to sleep at night.'"

There is something very true in that, whether you see it as "granola" or not. Patrick's words remind me of a couple things. First, of Paul's command to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4:11 (NIV)-

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands..."

Too bad Obama did not choose to follow up how he is his brother's keeper with 1 Thes. 4:11 during his biblical verse dropping on the campaign trail. Second, it reminds me of Solomon's wisdom on the meaninglessness of riches he dispensed in Ecclesiastes 5:12 (NIV)-

"The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
whether he eats little or much,
but the abundance of a rich man
permits him no sleep."