Ever since we started reading about this local food stuff I have been trying to think of a way to provide some of my own food. My first thought was creating a garden in the back yard of my house, even though it's pretty small. But I don't really know what I would grow. To be honest I don't like vegetables that much. The one vegetable I could really see my family growing and enjoying would be potatoes. Every single day we have potatoes with dinner. Its kind of ridiculous. Even my dog enjoys eating them, and he's pretty picky when it comes to food.
My mother's obsession with potatoes is pretty amazing. When I was about five years old she told me I needed to grow a potato plant. So she hypes it up and finally talks me into going outside, finding a good place and planting this potato. So every day I would go out there and water this patch of dirt and watch for my own little potato plant to come sprouting up, and then there would be something of my own creation. Well weeks passed and nothing happened. No sprouting potato. I asked my mom what could be wrong, why hadn't I seen any growth yet. She walked out there with me and looked at my dirt patch and acted confused. She said she didn't know what was wrong, but thought that my dad probably ran over the young plant with the lawn mower.
I didn't really give no, because I was five and it was a potato. Last year however, I brought the story up to my mom and she just started laughing. It turns out, the night I planted that potato we were running low on our stash of potatoes. Of course, we had them for dinner, but when my mother was preparing dinner she realized we didn't have enough for dinner, so she went outside and dug up my potato just minutes after I plant it. I ate my potato for dinner that night but had no idea.
So a potato garden is one option, but I should probably learn from the mistakes of our past which brought my family here to begin with and branch out a little. Maybe I'll plant some carrots or something....
Another idea I'm working on is getting some chickens. We have a little bit of land about 100 yards beyond our city limits where my dad has his shop. Since it's outside of the city you are allowed to have animals and stuff there. I'm thinking it might be nice to have some fresh eggs, and I could always sell any excess to the locals. The only problem with this is that my family isn't hard like me and probably would feel sad having to kill a chicken once it gets too old or sick or whatever. My uncle lives next door to me and he grew up on a chicken farm with hundreds of thousands of chickens. He and his brothers went through the chicken houses everyday grabbing sick birds and swinging 'em till dead. He strongly advises against the chicken idea.
Even if I don't go through with any of these plans I know for a fact I am going to start to frequent my local farmer's markets. Eating food that is grown near me seems like a better idea now that I have some understanding of the importance of it all.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
Exploring
I was bored the other day so a friend and I ventured across the river to just see what was there. After checking out Alabama Outdoors, we followed the signs to Deerlick Creek Park. On the way there we passed what seemed to be a dam that I'm sure has something to do with that Hydro Electric Plant that is nearby. I had never seen a dam before and it was kinda cool to see where our electricity comes from, assuming that's what I was looking at.
After talking in class about how different means of producing power are pretty bad for the environment it was cool to see that an area which not only functions to help power our area, but also serves as a park and place for outdoor recreation. In addition to the parks I also saw several stands for deer hunting, as well as fishermen on the lake.
We also passed an old church built in the 1800s as well as "Dog trot cabin" which was built in 1837 by settlers and lived in until fairly recently. We stopped and checked both of those out. Pretty cool to see some local history. Weird to think about how this cabin which I drove up to along side a major road was built almost 200 years ago when there was nothing here.
We got to Deerlick Creek Park and paid the 2$ fee to the old pipe-smoking, tattooed old man and his wife. The Park was small but nice, and has places for camping as well as beach access! I'll probably go out there again sometime since it is only about twenty minutes from campus and is pretty secluded. It's nice to get off the busy campus every once in a while.
These are "Life Jugs" and are not to be played with. "Throw these to a drowning person, they may save a life."
After talking in class about how different means of producing power are pretty bad for the environment it was cool to see that an area which not only functions to help power our area, but also serves as a park and place for outdoor recreation. In addition to the parks I also saw several stands for deer hunting, as well as fishermen on the lake.
We also passed an old church built in the 1800s as well as "Dog trot cabin" which was built in 1837 by settlers and lived in until fairly recently. We stopped and checked both of those out. Pretty cool to see some local history. Weird to think about how this cabin which I drove up to along side a major road was built almost 200 years ago when there was nothing here.
We got to Deerlick Creek Park and paid the 2$ fee to the old pipe-smoking, tattooed old man and his wife. The Park was small but nice, and has places for camping as well as beach access! I'll probably go out there again sometime since it is only about twenty minutes from campus and is pretty secluded. It's nice to get off the busy campus every once in a while.
These are "Life Jugs" and are not to be played with. "Throw these to a drowning person, they may save a life."
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