Trade your home-grown produce

10/25/08

Times are tough and are getting tougher. I'm sure you have noticed.

Some of our neighbors have lost their homes or are in danger of doing so. While the fat cats on Wall Street have been bailed out by our government using our tax dollars, public programs that support the rest of us are being cut. Jobs are scarce and the last time I opened my wallet I swear a moth flew out. Well, perhaps the moth comment is a bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I mean. Everyone's talking about the effects of this recession.

So, after months of daily commiserating with folks in my community about the hardships of paying bills, paying for health care, holding on to a job, and buying groceries I started thinking about how some of these hardships could be relieved. Don't worry, I'm not talking about politics at all. I'm talking about coming up with real solutions that we can implement ourselves in our community without having to wade through an ocean of bureaucratic bull-shit and double-speak.

I've noticed that like myself, many of my neighbors have gardens. My garden this past
summer produced more tomatoes than I knew what to do with. I canned, preserved, dried, made catsup and finally gave away to friends, coworkers and neighbors the bounty of my tomato patch. A gal I know told me that her zucchinis this year were so prolific that she ended up throwing a good portion of them in her compost. It broke my heart to hear that when I know there are folks out there who could really have used them. So...

The idea for this site was born. I thought: Hey, I wonder if any of my neighbors have some home-grown veggies, fruits or herbs that they'd be willing to trade with me for my tomatoes? Wouldn't it be cool if there was a website where me and my neighbors could post messages about our home grown crops we'd like to trade? A site like this could really help keep the cost of groceries down, encourage gardening, reduce use of fossil fuels, help people make sustainable choices when it comes to food and promote community cooperation. Right on!

So, please feel free to post your home grown food for trade on the Trade Forum page. For general questions please visit the Trading Q&A page. Get to know your neighbors and eat some tasty local grub. It doesn't get fresher than that!

Your neighbor,

Larissa Dahroug