Hi, I am wondering is anyone else out there feeling what I am feeling.
I grow my own for several reasons but one is because I prefer to be as self sufficient as I can. I can no longer do my eggs etc but veggies wise it is rare over many years I have bought anything much.
Having lost most of our crops this year I am beginning to get a sinking feel of doom. I know it is silly, as I have the cash and shops nearby to buy what I need bit I can't shake that feeling, I am not even remorely depressed but......
Is it a sort of grief or just that pioneer instinct that feels I am going to starve over the winter. It realy is daft but it just won't go away.
Anyone else feeling anything similar.
XX Jeannine
Jeanine, I am sure that it is to do with an age old basic instinct that drives you to provide for one's family. And sometimes when we are unable to do that, it can hit hard.
My Roma toms have got blight, but I am doing everything I can to get a crop so I can fill the freezer with tom sauce for pasta [a staple meal in our house, esp when coming in from work late!]. In theory I can buy all the toms/sauces etc from the shops............but it will not be the same. Mind you I am the one who will go and harvest crops in terrible weather despite it being easier to go to the greengrocer up the road.
Could go round in circles trying to put my thoughts down, but to sow, grow and harvest my own veg seems to be pretty vital to who I am.
Yup! I'm feeling the same way too :-[
This year I was determined to grow enough to last through the winter and into early spring. I even bought a huge chest freezer so I could store everything. The only things in there at the moment are Snickers Ice cream bars (NOT home grown!) and bags of potatoes I've dug up before the slugs/blight get 'em.
Just hoping the squashes come good and I can get some over-winter stuff in.
It's been a rotten year and there's nothing WORSE than buying fruit and veg from the shops when you've got an allotment.
Trix XXXX
I'm with you Jeannine... a terrible feeling of doom and gloom, very much like greiving for something lost, daft I know.
Things have been bad for a lot of us this year, :'(
but this is my first year of 'growing my own', so I can't really relate to how many of you are all feeling,.............
just do as I do, and buy local produce, and live in the belief that you are helping someone, I'm very lucky, we have a fantastic market near by, so I know what I buy is from local farms,
it's not perfect, but it is an answer :-\
John Seymour reckons that one of the reasons society is so unhappy is that for most of the existence of humans we have been mostly self sufficient and a little bit dependant on others. Since the industrial revolution we have become increasingly dependant on others, and now we feel lost and helpless because we're not capable of fending for ourselves.
So I think what you feel is completely natural and probably not very nice. I have enough to eat something home grown most days, so things could be worse for me, although I expected them to be a lot better!
It's not been a great year, has it? But when is it ever? ???
I think our motto should be "Nil desperandum"!!
I'm on the second sowings of carrots (me with the hoe), sprouting broccoli (rabbits), spring cabbage (rain) and french beans (weather too hot in April then lots of rain).
Still, I came back today with the first vegetable spaghetti, a lettuce, lots of courgettes, potatos, beans, cabbage and broccoli. That was after 4 hours out in the sunshine and away from "She who must be obeyed", so it can't be all bad.
The taste though - just think of the taste. When was the last time you bought veg from a shop that actually tasted of anything?
Hey guys. Chin up, just start planning for next year.
You could even try planting some more seeds now. I did last weekend and somebodys flippin cat has trampled all over them. So, no carrots this year, but I'm planning the anti cat defences for 2008 !!
Quote from: OllieC on July 29, 2007, 17:27:46
John Seymour reckons that one of the reasons society is so unhappy is that for most of the existence of humans we have been mostly self sufficient and a little bit dependant on others. Since the industrial revolution we have become increasingly dependant on others, and now we feel lost and helpless because we're not capable of fending for ourselves.
So I think what you feel is completely natural and probably not very nice. I have enough to eat something home grown most days, so things could be worse for me, although I expected them to be a lot better!
I couldn't agree more OC. But I think that self-sufficiency has been 'bred out' of our psyches for a long while and it's a damned shame
The 'war' was a great platform for growing your own and breeding chickens, pigs and goats etc but the whole phenomenon of self-sufficiency grew on the basis of that world event.
After 'the war' and zapping into the year 2000, growing veg and breeding animals was a little less exceptional or necessary.
So in 2007 it becomes 'trendy'
Maybe in 2008 it will become 'necessary' - who knows? But I'll tell ya what. I NEED to keep my allotment alive, my chickens laying, my rabbits breeding and my leeks sprouting!
I am not sad or unhappy, I just feel as though something is missing this year.
I am usually blanching and doing, making pickles, jams ,jellies, kraut and dill pickles etc .I make pie fillings for the freezer and stir fry bundles , plus I can (bottle)beans, tomatoes and corn etc, and drying some stuff. Even the shelves that my squashes stand on for the winter are bare.
I guess I am a squirrel as people say and have that need to' put things up' for the winter. I have done ot for so many years it has become habit now!!
I am glad I am not on my own.. no that sounds mean but you know what I mean
Bet you've still got a freezer full from last year, Jeannine- so you'll be able to make twice as much stuff next year! But I can imagine how you feel, even though I don't really grow enough to save much.
Actually Caroline I don't have much, just some corn and soft fruit. We always clear it out about Easter and give what is left away. I have all my asparagus though and a few caulis and brocs that we pulled the day the rains came down but that is all I think. I might take up wine making to have something to do!! I do have pickles and jams etc from last year too.
XX Jeannine
We still have last years pumpkin slop in the freezer, perhaps as well as we will get none this year...
How do you prep the spuds for the freezer Trixie? As we have quite a few that won't store...
???
I too am feeling it this year - I know we didn't get the floods like Jeannine or others but almost 6 weeks of being under 3 inches of water for most of it, I pretty much feel flooded out.
Pretty much summed it up today when i went to check my courgettes - first time in 4 days... and there was 1!!!! and just one baby growing - this is from 4 courgette plants so that is pretty dismal!
Its hard to accept when so much hard work and MONEY has gone into seed and sets and nothing out of it. The chooks are peeved as they don't have webbed feet, most of them are broody - keeps em dry out of the rain and wet flooded pen.
BUT on the other side of the road, opposite my plots they pulled sacks of onions and shallots today, the carrots are looking good and they lifted some second earlies which looked great.
Me thinks im on the wrong side of the road - wonder if I could move!
I think it's a combination of two feelings: helplessness and frustration.
The helplessness comes from being at the mercy of the elements - I mean, you expect to win some and lose some in every season of course, but who could have predicted such extremes? Combine that with the frustration of having to wait for the next season - after all the planning throughout the winter months and the hard work at the start of the season, that's a whole year that we don't get back.
Now who's for a chorus of "Always look on the bright side..."
;D
Da Da, da da Da da ....
;D
da da da da da da!
Early in the year, I think my heart gave up - blackfly (first time), bad chocolate spot on broadies, all that rain kept me indoors (wimp) from keeping up the slug hunts - lost almost all french beans, roots haven't been germinating well (or had they been mollusced?), brassicas with root fly/molluscs - had one broccoli, one cabbage remains and one sprouts look good. Perhaps I'll get round to transplanting some leeks...
Just spent the afternoon harvesting Jeannine, you're right it is good for the soul..
8)
Multiveg,
QuoteEarly in the year, I think my heart gave up - blackfly
Blimey, that's what I call an infestation!
;D
Quote from: Amazin on July 31, 2007, 00:23:56
Multiveg,
QuoteEarly in the year, I think my heart gave up - blackfly
Blimey, that's what I call an infestation!
;D
I think'll have to be more careful what I say! Having said that, I discovered that I have a white hair - I feel old though I am thirtysomething