Modern Victory Garden
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If you’ve been with me the past few weeks, you know I’ve got my eye on the thermometer, my garden is turned and little tomatoes, broccoli, and cabbage plants are started. Springtime, I’m ready and waiting.
Now, the president of the United States has announced that food shortages are “going to be real”. Please allow me to remind you of The Victory Gardens.
You see, the world has known famine almost from the beginning. America has seen food shortages before. In Egypt, Joseph prepared for famine by building barns, planting extra and storing up for the coming drought. In America, Charles Lathrop Pack organized the National War Garden Commission in 1917 when European farms were covered with trenches, palisades, artillery pieces and mud. Where crops should have been yielding food for a nation, enemies clashed and destroyed themselves and the land.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the Victory Gardens and I’ve been talking back to my TV asking why, in the springtime, we would just resign ourselves to hunger? I wonder, does no one remember Eleanor Roosevelt’s Victory Garden on the White House lawn? That first lady wasn’t going to be the first one starving, she was going to do something to prevent it! And she was going to lead a nation. According to History.com, in 1942 15 million families planted gardens; 5 million more joined that number by 1944. (For comparison, there were 35 million heads of household on the 1940 census – that means that half of all American homes had a garden!) In 1942 Victory Gardens produced 8 tons of food which accounted for 40% of the fresh fruits and vegetables Americans ate.
On April 1, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt said, “I hope every American who possibly can will grow a Victory Garden this year…[they] made the difference between scarcity and abundance.”
I asked my daddy if he were in charge of America, would there be anything he could do to prevent a food shortage. His answer was immediate – cut the cost of diesel for farmers and find a way to get them fertilizer. I can’t argue with him, nor could I come up with a better answer. I’m going to tag this article #HowToPreventFoodShortage and hope some bureaucrat resorts to Google in their policy-making.
Neither Daddy nor I have any control over fuel prices or availability of resources. However, I can remind you of what our ancestors did and encourage us all to be at least as smart as they were. Can lids are a little hard to find – and that may get worse as the season progresses. Bagged fertilizer is very expensive and may be harder to find – although you can raise something without it. Seeds are pretty easy to find, so get them early.
If fuel prices continue to rise, none of us will be able to afford to go on vacation this year, so your Victory Garden may rescue your sanity as well as your pantry.
I’m no expert gardener – despite a lifetime of instruction. I often make a good start and fall short later on. I’m hoping you will all hold me accountable since I’ve given you this rousing reminder!
While God himself controls the harvest, He will surely find me with hoe in hand, waiting for a blessing.
