Food desert

My rural area is known as a “food desert.” There's not a lot of food shopping options. Most folk just drive over to the regional big box store. I'm not a fan of that store myself. When people shop at that particular chain very little of the money spent stays in the area. Most goes back to headquarters, and I think there are already enough mansions in that part of Arkansas.

A local group is pushing for a co-operative food store. That's great and I went to a local meeting to show my support. A co-op would promote local food production and provide some decent local jobs. I wish them well and would definitely do a significant part of my shopping there.

Speaking of local foods: nothing is as local as a home garden. My lovely wife went through our saved seeds today. We took a trip to the local garden supply to fill in a few gaps. Our garden area is small, but we are expanding it, using even narrow strips of land to plant food.

We had some tall trees cut this past winter that were blocking the solar panels. In their place will be hazel nuts and sun-chokes. While tall plants, they won't get so tall as to block the sun from the panels.

There still snow on the ground here and there, but we've already used some chives from the garden. Wild greens will soon be ready for harvest. My plan is to eat more wild foods this year. They seem to thrive even during harsh years when cultivated plants suffer.

It's funny, they say we are in a food desert, but the woods and fields are full of useful food items.

-Sixbears