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I love when I tell people that I garden and they say things like "that's a nice hobby". Growing your own food is not a hobby, you are literally participating i
by foxhop 7y ago
I love when I tell people that I garden and they say things like "that's a nice hobby".
Growing your own food is not a hobby, you are literally participating in the economy.
It is great exercise and really helps you understand just how much labor and time goes into making food from seed to harvest to storage and consumption.
I feel like there is a growing movement of more and more people trying to relearn these skills.
As for food waste, the way I compost kitchen scraps is to dig a 1-2 foot deep by 1 foot wide hole in my yard where I dump a week's worth of scraps into. I chop it with my shovel and bury it while chopping. In 1-2 months time it will be completely taken in by the soil life.
I use a 5 gallon bucket with a lid that seals in the kitchen to collect scraps.
Each year I pick a new place to dig my holes. I keep the holes about a foot apart and I remove rocks as I go.
They next year I plant a crop in the location.
I like this method of composting because it enriches the land and the soil life does most of the work without any smell.
I'm slightly tilling, preparing, enriching, and de-rocking(?) My land over the course of months. It takes about as much time as emptying the trash.
You end up doing a lot of work, but it doesn't feel that way because you are "eating the elephant one bite at a time".
- 18pfsmt 7y agoAs a renter I gardened for years, but I finally bought a condo and no longer have a yard. Early attempts at establishing a community garden program have been failures. I will continue the quest. However, I think you are overselling the idea, growing your own vegetables is not "part of the economy" even while it may have economic impact. You are not selling, correct?
- surfmike 7y agoSo if you sold it, then used that money to buy food, would it count?
- foxhop 7y agoThanks, this was what I was going to say. Anything you can do for yourself that _needs_ to be done, that you would have to pay for if you didn't do it, is participating in the economy.
- 18pfsmt 7y agoI noted the economic impact, but I was talking at-scale, not anecdotaly. There are many states that have over-regulated this market. It now costs $15/gal for raw milk. Most people are not able to have a garden was my point.
- clarkmoody 7y agoWell the Supreme Court grabbed a whole chunk of federal power with this decision[1] that pertains to the exact situation you describe, albeit on a larger scale. The short of it is that even if you grow something for your own use, the Court's opinion is that still affects interstate commerce. > Filburn argued that since the excess wheat that he produced was intended solely for home consumption, his wheat production could not be regulated through the Interstate Commerce Clause. The Supreme Court rejected the argument and reasoned that if Filburn had not produced his own wheat, he would have bought wheat on the open market. Good ol' Interstate Commerce Clause strikes again. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn
- thefounder 7y agoGrowing your own food becomes a full time job if it's the only source of your food.
- balfirevic 7y ago> Growing your own food is not a hobby, you are literally participating in the economy. I don't think hobby means "something that is not part of the economy".