There were several news stories this week debating whether conventional or organic farming could really feed the world. Yet just two weeks before, it was announced that 1 in 7 Hoosier households had difficulty providing food for their family. How can we worry about feeding the world when we can’t even feed ourselves?
I still contend the issue is that we rely too much on convenience. Too many people don’t know how to provide food for themselves without going to the store and buying ready-to-eat, prepackaged food. Instead, we need to learn to provide for ourselves and our neighbors as much as possible.
One of my favorite examples of self-reliance is the house in which I grew up. I was raised in Union City, a small town in east central Indiana. The rain gutters of the house, as well as the barn, drained into the cistern, which was piped into the basement of the house. (Yes there was a barn in town. They still had carriages when the house was built.). The lady of the house had a vegetable garden, an apple tree, a pear tree, and a small cherry grove. The family also had a sizeable chicken coop. All of this on just a half acre lot.
Before we moved to the farm, we lived in a subdivision in town for nearly fifteen years. Our lot was only a quarter acre lot. On our lot, we had two vegetable gardens, an herb garden and several other herb beds, a plum tree, a peach tree, a strawberry bed, raspberry bushes, grape vines, and blueberry bushes. That didn’t include our inedible bushes, flower beds, sycamore tree, white pine tree and compost pile. All that, with a 16 x 16 deck, on a quarter acre lot and I still had to mow the yard.
The opportunities of our greenspace abound. The only way we are going to feed ourselves, and the world, is to stop relying on corporate farms and chemical companies to produce our food and to begin providing as much of our own food as we possibly can while working with our local farmers to provide what we individually cannot.
New this week, Betsy’s Kitchen will be offering Paleo pumpkin treats as well as the Paleo sandwich bread and Paleo Spicy Chocolate Brownies.
We will be at two markets this week:
Farm to Fork Market at Normandy Farms, Friday, September 27, 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. – 79th Street and Marsh Road
Zionsville Farmers’ Market, Saturday, September 28, 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. – corner of Main Street and Hawthorne. This is the last market of the season.
Decatur Township Farmers’ Market is closed for the season.
We also sell all of our products at the farm.
Full Circle Farm 
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