Special contributor to Real Mama, Inc.

Quick Facts: Tending a vegetable garden was once a common skill in America. Families would grow much of their fresh produce for the year, preparing their own healthful meals and sharing the abundance with neighbors and friends. For several decades gardening fell by the wayside as our country mass produced more and more of its food, and people worked more and cooked less. Today, as the resources of our planet reach their peak, once again, people are looking to become more self-sufficient and are planting their own gardens. They are also sharing their knowledge, their yards and their food within their communities, reaching the more synergistic goal of “self-efficiency”, a state of interdependence among friends and neighbors.

At one time we all had gardening in our blood. Most families kept a garden to provide their own fresh produce for part of the year. Some stored their produce by stocking the root cellar, canning, drying or freezing. Over the years Americans who didn’t live on a farm began to depend more on what the local grocer had to offer and no longer opted for the homegrown. Once we began to depend on the local grocery store we no longer had to worry if we could grow enough to sustain ourselves. As the generations passed, many of the skills were either lost or no longer passed on.
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