Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
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Rules for General Chat
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In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Serious question, pedes, please share what you're doing/planning on doing to get your family, especially growing pureblood kids, safe fruits to eat. With the doubts on "organic" and its permitted "safe and effective" untested (or tests were hidden) resin coatings instead of old fashioned natural wax, not being in an area that naturally produces citrus or bananas for example, what should we do? What are all of you doing?
Pull back and only get whatever is locally grown and verified clean? Order or buy more expensive frozen or freeze dried? Try to travel and procure fresh then dehydrate or freeze dry or jelly/can our own? Thanks all for your thoughts and input.
I stopped eating citrus, if I lived down South I would still eat it, when I lived in Fla for a short time, I rented a house that had 2 orange and grapefruit trees, very old and mature trees, that was something. But for the past few years I just eat fruits from the northeast and from the market where I know they are strict about organic. Apples, blueberries, raspberries and black currents I grow, and I pick a lot more at organic farms for freezing and applesauce. I do love those Amish peaches though, from PA, and there are organic options for those, cost a fortune but its the best part of August.We have an enormous food co op right in town and I trust them and their produce. I buy by the bushel and pick by the gallon, from trusted sources and freeze, and make jams, the black currants are an acquired taste, but so healthy!
Okay, so local or known to you. Maybe a special trip or two is in order. Yeah, I grew up in SFla, once upon a before-Andrew time we had an avocado tree, a pink grapefruit tree, a limon tree, and a Valencia tree. Best backyard ever. A different place, after, had mini banana trees we planted ourselves. Ah well.
Do you live south? Papayas and guavas should be safe, mostly imported from Mexico. People will advise against them for not being up to "USDA standards" but that for me is a selling point. And so far, even the papayas I buy from walmart have no coatings or pesticide feel/scent
We are in NC now, so have started trying to plant berries and table grapes. Avocados, lemons, etc ain't gonna happen unless we get super rich and build a big greenhouse lol
Been looking at frozen pulp fruit and frozen juices, but those are sort of blind purchases too
Well, one thing I’m doing… I pet sit for a couple who has their own chickens. Eggs are part of my payment. My mom loves the eggs. They’re delicious. There are also women in my Bible study who grow some of their own veggies. Anytime somebody bring some thing from the garden. I definitely grab a few. We have been growing our own herbs, which I really enjoyed. I didn’t know how great it would be to have fresh dill and fresh basil to cook with. It really makes a huge difference. I also heard of a butcher in our area that only carries clean meats. Haven’t tried that yet, but probably will soon because we have a new freezer. Starting small right now, but every little bit counts.
Absolutely. We decided to start our little food garden some years ago, to learn and have clean veggies, and we found local farmers for other things and to learn from. Both our moms always grew fresh herbs and other little things, we've been slowly expanding on the ideas. But veggies and herbs are one thing, fruits kind of get into a different territory. We've had bad luck with our six little fruit trees, peaches plums and apples, in that we've got wooded area and are still clearing space... Wind storms brought down surrounding trees that smashed our little guys and they're still recovering. But we can't do citrus in this zone, or bananas, avocados et al.
We source or meat from people we've gotten to know personally, we built a coop last year and raised chicks that are producing happily now. Wound up with two roosters and learned why that wasn't a great idea, so then learned how to render one (who was being a real ass to the hens, they're still recovering too, aprons...).