Here are a couple other books to get people going, too:
Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation (Paperback)
The Solar Food Dryer: How to Make and Use Your Own Low-Cost, High Performance, Sun-Powered Food Dehydrator
Are you a member of the condo board? Think about becoming one.
You can try to get your neighbors, other condo owners, in on the act.
Get them involved in making a rooftop garden and other container gardening (and composting and root cellaring) options.
See what you can get started. You'd be amazed at what you can accomplish for less time that you currently spend going to the supermarket. (The food's fresher/better and usually cheaper too once you get it going.)
Joining a food co-op with a local farmer is also a good alternative.
It seems to me that most condos are eventually going to have to transform themselves into something more like co-housing communities, whether they want to or not. The book Supurbia! has some good ideas on how such a transformation might gradually be brought about. I am doubtful if the vision of the authors would work in most suburban neighborhoods, for for condos it just might.
Hi, msbpodcast. I realize I used the wrong word, technically we belong to a homeowners association and we live in a non-detached unit with two floors, sloped roof -- and no land owned by each unit holder.
We actually have a bit of land around us that the association owns but there is no soil at all. It's a mix of clay and rock (and it's on a slope!). Some neighbors and I looked at it and just shook our heads. We could build some raised beds, perhaps, but I decided to look into local CSA's that encourage participation by the partial owners first. Thanks for the encouragement, I'm not giving up yet. In fact, I'm on the steering committee for The 10,000 Garden Project, which I'll write about in a future Campfire post.
I would like to proceed with building the solar food dryer per the plans in the book, but am hung up on the steel plate that it calls for. Have you built one? Did you have any trouble making it yourself? Or is there someplace or somebody I should look to? (I'm OK with the woodworking part of it, but have very little experience or skill when it comes to metal work.)
Try Biltmore Metals they deal in scrap and would know who fabricates locally. Alternatively, call AB Tech they might do it or they will know who can do it.
Thanks for starting us off, Jason.
Here are a couple other books to get people going, too:
Now I just need a garden...(in a condo, no land).
Are you a member of the condo board? Think about becoming one.
You can try to get your neighbors, other condo owners, in on the act.
Get them involved in making a rooftop garden and other container gardening (and composting and root cellaring) options.
See what you can get started. You'd be amazed at what you can accomplish for less time that you currently spend going to the supermarket. (The food's fresher/better and usually cheaper too once you get it going.)
Joining a food co-op with a local farmer is also a good alternative.
It seems to me that most condos are eventually going to have to transform themselves into something more like co-housing communities, whether they want to or not. The book Supurbia! has some good ideas on how such a transformation might gradually be brought about. I am doubtful if the vision of the authors would work in most suburban neighborhoods, for for condos it just might.
Hi, msbpodcast. I realize I used the wrong word, technically we belong to a homeowners association and we live in a non-detached unit with two floors, sloped roof -- and no land owned by each unit holder.
We actually have a bit of land around us that the association owns but there is no soil at all. It's a mix of clay and rock (and it's on a slope!). Some neighbors and I looked at it and just shook our heads. We could build some raised beds, perhaps, but I decided to look into local CSA's that encourage participation by the partial owners first. Thanks for the encouragement, I'm not giving up yet. In fact, I'm on the steering committee for The 10,000 Garden Project, which I'll write about in a future Campfire post.
Slopes? Orchards!
aangel: I have both books, they are good.
I would like to proceed with building the solar food dryer per the plans in the book, but am hung up on the steel plate that it calls for. Have you built one? Did you have any trouble making it yourself? Or is there someplace or somebody I should look to? (I'm OK with the woodworking part of it, but have very little experience or skill when it comes to metal work.)
I own the books, too, but they are currently on the shelf waiting for their project day to arrive!
Try Biltmore Metals they deal in scrap and would know who fabricates locally. Alternatively, call AB Tech they might do it or they will know who can do it.