How to Avoid the Grocery Store during the Pandemic

My grandfather, a huge influence on my young life, lived through the Great Depression and it shaped how he saw things in a big way. I learned how to avoid the grocery store, and lots of other kinds of stores because of the things he taught me in my young life. He taught me many valuable lessons, but my favorites have to do with gardening and self-sufficiency, how to make do with what you've got to get what you need and, better yet, how to barter with friends and neighbors as a way of caring for yourself and your community.

When we left Seattle and moved to Tennessee, I knew our new farm would have a garden, but having spent time at this property before we owned it, I had some very specific pictures of what my garden here would look like. But, I had to sell my tractor to help pay for the move, and I wasn’t too surprised to find out Tennessee clay is a lot harder to turn by hand than Seattle loam. I also sold my truck when we moved, so even if stores had been open during the pandemic and supply chains were functioning normally, I didn’t have a reliable way to get the things I needed for the garden, I’d been dreaming about, so I was faced with a choice- either have no garden at all, which seemed pretty silly considering what was going on in the world around me, ask for help from a few neighbors with the equipment I needed, and figure out a way to MAKE DO and adjust my expectations for this first year garden.

It is certainly not perfect, I learned a lot, which can also be translated I FAILED a lot, but I was still able to com out on the other side with tons of useable produce, and that’s how I was able to avoid going to the grocery store for 45 days and safely qurantine at home during the height of the first wave of the pandemic. The thing that ultimately made me cave was FAR from a necessity, but really, a desire for a little comfort in a crazy season, some potato chips.

In a time with lots of uncertainty, it feels great to have planted an imperfect garden that offers some level of security as to where my food comes from. Call it a pandemic garden, a victory garden, or just a first try in a new climate garden, I'm just happy to save money on groceries and have fewer reasons to go to the grocery store.

Below you can find a tour of my first garden in TN, a low-cost, low barrier to entry way to provide food for my family without having to go to the grocery store during the pandemic. I don't spend a lot of time weeding or watering, and my garden answers my need to save money and grow a good portion of the food we eat.