This year we’ve seen a lot of headlines on the price of diesel and how it could disrupt our food supply and/or make groceries much more expensive.
In Minimalist Gardening I wrote:
“For most of us backyard vegetable gardeners, the point of our gardens is to grow food. We also embrace a secondary point in food-growing: we want food for our family that is not contaminated with herbicides and pesticides. We would also like that food to be as nutrient-dense as possible. Additionally, we view our gardens as our in-ground survival food supply. It’s a big savings account of calories which works as an insurance policy against hard times, should they come. If they don’t, at least we’re eating excellent food and saving money.”
Most of our country’s food is very dependent on diesel for growing and harvesting, as well as trucking it to stores. At our little Atmore Farm & Garden store, we’ve seen the price of multiple items jump as the cost of fuel has increased. It’s hard on our little business, and it’s even harder on people with fixed incomes.
This is a good time to be growing your own calories. When life got crazy back in 2020, my book Grow or Die: The Good Guide to Survival Gardening ended up rushing to the top of the Amazon gardening charts – until the printers ran out of copies and slowed down due to restrictions. Then the book was unavailable for weeks! Once life stabilized and it came back into stock, book sales fell off as people started relying on grocery stores again.
When times are good, gardening is often just a hobby. When times are tough, it becomes much more important.
Some of you live in climates where the gardening season is coming to an end. Others live in the Deep South and in other places where the fall season is just getting started. Wherever you live, it might not be a bad idea to get a few extra seeds, some solid tools, and some good physical gardening books, just in case things get a little weird. And of course, start a big compost heap.
We’re going to be putting in some fall gardens and planting more fruit trees now that the heat is dropping off.
One final tip: as I cover in Grow or Die, if you’re gardening from a preparedness standpoint, focus on your calorie crops first. Things like potatoes, winter squash, rutabagas, dry beans, sweet potatoes, true yams, etc. Staying full is paramount. After that, focus on your lower calorie high-nutrition crops.
It’s always good to have homegrown food, whether times are good or bad. We do our best and trust the rest to God.
Have a wonderful weekend.