Sunday, August 2, 2009
Home Grown in Pohatcong
Currently, the agricultural landscape in Pohatcong offers little to be optimistic about as most farming here still follows along the lines of cash-cropping, petro-chemical monoculture that produces no benefit for most of the people in this town. There are of course, bright spots- one of which hit me square between the eyes while shopping at the Shop-Rite in Clinton this past Saturday. There, at the end of one of the ice-cream aisles, stands a prominent display of "Pohatcong" honey from Dale B. Hills Apiaries. (Our purchase is pictured above). So kudos to you, Mr. Dale B. Hills, for doing your part for local food security.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Pohat vs. Lopat Boy's CBL Basketball
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Growing Your Own
This?
Or This?
Kitchen and vegetable gardens were once commonplace in America's rural communities and it would have been unthinkable for a family not to grow a good portion of their own food every year. Unfortunately, the green revolution, which was able to produce ever increasing yields per acre thanks to the inputs of inexpensive fuels and petrochemical fertilizers, also caused a decline in interest in this type home-based food production. Kitchen gardening was no longer an economic necessity for families who could now afford to give up their green thumbs and take up a new lifestyle of listless wandering through food courts, mega malls, and click n' play virtual reality worlds. No wonder we are now faced with an epidemic of obesity in this unhappy republic.
However, with apocalyptic horsemen beginning to ride hard on the public imagination, there is evidence that a bankrupt populace, enveloped in existential fear, may be developing a new understanding of what survival will look like in our post peak-everything world. While sales of SUV's, McMansions, and hand-stitched leather luggage may be plummeting, sales of seeds and gardening supplies are rocketing. It is never too late to dig up a patch of useless lawn and plant a life preserver of green crops instead. Expect success, expect failure. If you need good advice, here is one source I like and will continue to use this growing season :http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X
Things that I have grown (successfully): beans, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, cantaloupe, pumpkin, cucumber,broccoli, brussel sprouts, miscellaneous herbs, watermelon...
Had problems with: carrots, onions. Stay tuned.