Tuesday, October 28, 2008

A New way to look at the Victory Garden

You really must check out the Freedom Garden Movement! It is a new way of thinking of the Victory Garden concept of days gone by. Think victory over your food bill, victory over manufactured and genetically modified food, victory over your status of couch potato. Yes indeed, Freedom from all of the above and more!

Here is the press release from the FREEDOM GARDEN website....

Think of it as Facebook meets the Farmer’s Almanac: A social networking site for 21 st century pioneers who want to fight soaring food prices and global warming by growing their own food. On this site, novice and expert growers from all over the world can gather to post success stories, ask questions, and challenge one another to ever-increasing levels of self-sustained living.

That was Then, This is Now

In response to the heavy impact of World War II on the U.S. economy, Americans were urged to grow a victory garden (also called a war garden) in 1943. The gardens were planted by about 20 million families and would eventually provide nearly half of the fresh produce consumed during this troubled time. On rooftops, in back yards and even in containers on front porches, Americans produced eight million tons of fruit, vegetables and herbs in their own households.

Presently we are faced with a future that’s will be fraught with fuel scarcity, rising food cost and environmental implications.

As the world encounters hard times - there will be need of practical and back to basics solutions.

Freedom Gardens is growing beyond victory garden a food security movement person to person, blog to blog, neighbor to neighbor. A modern gardening era/movement for the 21st century resulting in efforts to become free of foreign oil, corporate controls, contamination and food miles while creating a sustainable future by promoting local food production.

Behind This Site

Freedom Gardens is backed by the example of its founders, the Dervaes family, the urban-dwelling “eco-pioneers” who have been growing most of their own food since 2001. On their one-fifth acre residential lot in Pasadena, Jules Dervaes and his three adult children, Anais, Justin, and Jordanne, grow over 400 varieties of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers-with enough left over to run an award-winning “green” business selling fresh organic produce to local restaurants and caterers.

Freedom Gardens is an offshoot of the family’s first website, PathtoFreedom.com, a seven year-old sustainable living blog that gets 5 million hits per month from 125 different countries. The new, more interactive site uses social networking software to connect visitors with other gardeners in their area. They can share tips about local climate and soil issues, display which challenges they are participating in on their profiles, and find others nearby doing the same challenge.

Through FreedomGardens.org, people everywhere can take back control from the corporate food system. In the process, they can improve their health, reduce their ecological footprint, and save money.

Funding for Freedom Gardens is from the Dervaes Family businesses (Dervaes Gardens, Peddler’s Wagon) and from their non-profit Dervaes Institute. Dervaes Institute is registered as a 508(c)(3) public charity and governed by the state of California.

6 comments:

Simple Sam said...

Hi Beth,
My husband Michael and I are really enjoying your blog. We live over in the TriCities area and are looking forward to seeing you at the contra dance tonight in J'boro.
We grow most of our food, it's taken us almost 6 years to get to that point, but it's our passion. I'd love to chat with you, or have you come visit while you're in town if you have time. We raise chickens and bees and love the freedom that raising our food has given us- NOT to mention that we only spend about $200 a month on 'store bought' foods.
Thanks for starting this blog. It's so critical for people to hear this message and see that it can be done. Growing food is empowering, healthy, frugal and has now been proven to be the very best way to sequester carbon into the soil, to prevent it's release into the atmosphere.If you google "growing food helps sequester the carbon in the soil" you'll get the results of almost 52,000 sources to confirm this! Need I say more?
Keep up the wonderful work Beth!
Sam and Michael Jones

Beth said...

Hi Sam & Michael,
Please DO introduce yourselves tonight! IT will be fun to meet you..
I would love to see your place sometime... but on this trip we are traveling with the band and it will be get there in time for the dance..
maybe next time...
See you tonight!
Beth

Alana said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alana said...

Hey Beth! I found your blog via Asheville Mamas, and just wanted to let you know how awesome it is! I am working on a website that has a free (forever) meal planner specifically made for people who get CSA boxes or grow their own veggies, to help make meal planning easier. What we're doing is in the same vein, so I thought I'd pass this info to you.

www.EatRealGood.com

Maybe you could let your users know about it. I'm tickled pink to be using my own meal planner, finally, to plan my family's meals around what looks good at the farmer's market. :)

Ronnie said...

Hi Beth,
I just discovered your blog today! And it couldn't be more on-page with my views on gardening and home food production and more!
I am adding you to my list of favorite blogs on my own blog!
From across the country in San Francisco,
Ronnie www.TilthyRich.com

rental mobil surabaya said...

You make me wanna cross to San Francisco

rent car surabaya | rental mobil surabaya | sewa mobil surabaya | surabaya rental mobil | persewaaan mobil surabaya