Back To The Land

ABINGDON, Va. – Kelley McClanahan never grew things. But last year, for the first time in her life, she planted a garden – and she canned pickles, tomatoes and sauerkraut.
This year, she’s going to do more.
“We’re making the same amount of money we made two or three years ago. Nobody’s getting a raise, but the cost of everything is going up,” McClanahan said. “We have to cut corners any way we can.”
More and more, folks being squeezed by the recession are looking for a safety valve remembered from the days of the Great Depression: In hard times, you can always go back to the land.
“I know my
great-grand-mother had a garden … and whatever she got out of the garden was what we had for dinner that night,” McClanahan said. “Essentially, if we can eat it, we’re going to can it.”
Adjoining her backyard is another new garden, planted by neighbor Pam Stewart, a city girl who says the resurgence of gardening in her middle-class Abingdon neighborhood is more than a trend – it’s becoming a way of life.
“My grandmother canned,” Stewart said. “She grew and canned. I asked my mother, [and] she said it was cheaper to buy a can of corn. … Now we’re coming full circle. Our generation is having to learn this all over again.”
In addition to a vegetable garden, planted for the first time last season with heirloom seeds, Stewart planted berries and fruit trees to provide future nourishment. She wants every plant she has to produce something edible.
Both women say it was high food prices – more than $1 for a head of lettuce when a whole row of lettuce can be planted for $1.50 – that sparked their interest in gardening last year. As the economy continues its downward spiral, they’re learning by trial and error to prepare for an even more depressed future.
As they get ready to till expanded gardens this spring, they’re hoping they’ve won the battle against the garden-eating groundhogs their husbands battled last summer – and to put up enough food to offset their families’ rising cost of living.
Others say not only are they looking to meet their current needs in an uncertain time, they also want to pass on to their children knowledge that’s lain dormant for a generation.
“When the economy gets bad, it helps to grow your own vegetables; plus it’s better for you,” said Vickie Lewis of Lebanon, Va., adding that she remembers her grandparents’ stories about families working together to survive the Great Depression.
“With the economy the way it is, I can teach my children how they should do one day when I’m not there,” Lewis said.
She’s not the only one; employees in the garden center at the Lowe’s store at Exit 7 in Bristol, Va., say a lot of people are coming in with similar comments.
“We’re seeing more fruit trees [sell] than ever, and people are mentioning that they’re buying them because they can eat the fruit,” said Barbara Hall, a store cashier. “A lot of people comment on growing gardens for the first time.”
Lowe’s Zone Manager Mike Geffers says business is up at least 20 percent over a year ago on vegetable plants and vegetable gardening supplies, and people are shopping for plants earlier this season than in past years.
“Our sales on vegetables are up. I guess because of the recession and everything, there’s more people growing their own vegetables this year than in past years,” Geffers said. “The way the economy is going now, it’s cheaper to grow your own.”
Southern States also has seen an increase in demand between 15 percent and 20 percent for vegetable seeds.
“Even Mrs. Obama at the White House is planting a garden,” said Rich Schneider, spokesman for Southern States. “And with the tightness of money and the difficulty of buying products fresh and natural, the whole thing just sort of came together this year as the right thing to do for your family: raise a garden, serve some products that you know where they came from, and have some fun, too.”
While gardening has really taken off in the past year, a few folks who grew up gardening have started back in the last few years – and some say they’ve always gardened in one form or another. They say it’s positive – for them, for the earth and for society as a whole – that others are starting to relearn those skills.
“You know what’s going into your food, there’s no chemicals, there’s no additives,” said Debbie Trueblood, a single mom who grew up gardening and has gotten back into it in recent years to help stretch the budget for herself and her two children.
A full-time administrative assistant and part-time server at a local restaurant, Trueblood says there are days when she comes home exhausted – but gardening is worth the time.
She said investing in a garden in the short run saves on health expenses in the long run – by eliminating the unknown effects of processed foods and providing a place to help relieve stress in a rushed world.
“It just feels good, from the start to the end, and I get a lot of satisfaction out of that,” she says.
R. Dean Barr owns a small Main Street business that he said is affected by the economy. He’s concerned about business, but he also says he’ll survive even if his business doesn’t.
“You have to look toward your security and toward your future, and a lot of people are growing their garden as a way of securing their future,” Barr said. “If something happened … like you see these salmonella outbreaks … we don’t have to worry about that stuff because we grow and can our own food.”
Eddie Saltz, who lives south of town in the Green Springs community, was born in 1937 and grew up working in a garden; he’s never quit.
“Especially the way times is looking right now, you never know when you’re going to reach that time again,” he said of the Great Depression, which he thinks is where the nation is headed again.
“If we ever reach it again, there’ll be a lot of people I say would just about starve to death because they don’t know how [to garden],” he said. “It’s just like any occupation: It takes time to learn how to raise stuff … and how to put it away.”
Saltz remembers a time when most people produced just about all their own food, and he says everyone should follow the example of those who have begun moving back toward self-sufficiency to ensure they have enough to eat.
“I feel like everybody should [garden] that’s got the space for it,” Saltz said. “Store everything away and can, and you’ll be surprised just what it does for you.”
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