We received a very nice note last week from a member of the [Grow] Network named Vera D. Vera is 72 years old, and she lives on a small pension in the post-communist Czech Republic. She subscribes to our newsletter, and she follows our blog and our Facebook page.
Vera wrote in to apologize that she can’t afford to buy our products or contribute to our crowd-funding projects. She regrets not being able to support us financially, but she wanted to let us know that she appreciates all of the work we are doing to encourage others to grow their own food and medicine at home.
Growing Gardens Around the Globe
We get similar notes from people all around the world, who support our cause – but for one reason or another can’t afford to support us financially. A few recent notes and comments that come to mind came from Gia in Japan, Elena in Germany, and Harriet from Finland. The [Grow] Network has truly become a global organization.
By sharing strategies and tricks from all areas of the world, we can all learn about new methods and solutions that are being worked out by people far away. And sometimes the growing conditions in two places can be very similar, despite the two places being on opposite sides of the Earth. For instance, there are many similarities between the climate in Central Texas and the climate in parts of the Mediterranean. Temperature fluctuation is a bit more extreme in Central Texas, with higher highs and lower lows. And drought is a bit more extreme in the Mediterranean – they might get 20 inches in a year when Central Texas gets 30 inches. But we can definitely learn from each other – varieties that withstand heat and dryness in one area are likely to work well in the other area as well. And strategies for water collection, building, and earthworks developed in one place are usually just as effective in other parts of the world.
So, for everyone around the world who supports the [Grow] Network but can’t afford to contribute financially – we send out a big, heart-felt “Thank You!” to you all. Your participation and contributions are always very much appreciated by us.
Ways You Can Contribute to the [Grow] Network
If you can’t contribute money, but you want to help, there are many ways for you to get involved with our purpose. Here are a few ways you can help:
• Participate on Our Blog: Use the star rating system to rate blog posts. Your rating votes help others to find the best and most relevant content on our blog. Votes are also taken into consideration in picking the winners in our ongoing Writing Contest. When you have something to add to a post, use the comments section below the article and share your thoughts with the community. There’s no telling who might find your input to be helpful – you might help someone else who is half a world away…
• Use the Social Buttons: At the bottom of every post, there are buttons you can use to share the article with your network on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, or by email. The last button on the right is “More Options” and you can use it to select from a huge number of other social networking tools like Digg, StumbleUpon, and more. Use these buttons to help spread the word.
• Follow Us on Facebook: Follow Marjory’s Facebook page, like our posts, and share them with your Facebook friends and family.
• Pin Us: We recently started a few Pinterest boards for The [Grow] Network. Pin your favorite posts and pictures to help get the word out.
• Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel: Marjory’s YouTube Channel has about 10,000 subscribers. The more, the merrier! Having more subscribers means that our videos will get recommended more often and reach a wider audience. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the YouTube Channel and help us reach more people.
• Take Part in our Content Creator Program: We have a program at The Grow Network that is designed to give you a way to monetize your writing and boost your online exposure with a large international audience of gardeners, farmers, homesteaders, herbalists, and preppers. It’s called the Content Creator Program. It’s a way for you to inspire others by sharing your experiences, knowledge, and stories!
• GROW!: The biggest thing anyone can do to support us is to start growing your own food and medicine at home. After all, this is what we’re all about. We want everyone to produce as much of their own food and medicine as possible. So whether it’s a multi-acre homestead, a square foot garden in your back yard, or a few containers on your balcony – get growing!
COMMENTS(17)
Hi Vera, from the cold Northeast U S!
Note to Vera.
Hi Vera, I am delighted to see people from other parts of the world contributing to Marjorie’s site. You have so much to contribute to all of us. I personally would love to hear of how you grew up and how you manage today. Maybe you could share with us how your Mother and Grandmother managed during the war years and or the depression. We know what people did here in the US but there is little out there about what people in other parts of the world did to survive those years. I hope we get to hear more from you. Lois
Vera, I totally agree with Lois! I would love to hear how you (and your mother and your family) garden, etc. over there. Please let us know!
Hi Vera! My father came to the United States from Jalubi in about 1930. We would like to visit sometime. I would love to hear about your way of life in the current Czech Republic.
Hi, Vera! I am in the same situation as you. We do what we can with what we have. I live in the state of Indiana, U.S.A. I enjoy this wonderful website, as well. So much helpful information to be found here and I am so grateful to learn about it all. My Mother always was coming up with ways to heal and soothe us when we became ill. I can remember when my own children were small, we went out into the yard and picked bright yellow dandelion flowers. They were delighted to learn that we were going to eat them for dinner. Just wash, batter them up and fry in a skillet. They were good and my kids still talk about eating flowers to this day, almost 40 years gone by. Like the others, I would love to hear your stories. Blessings to you!!
Vera, most people don’t even take the time to thank others for their time and effort in trying to help people. As Marjorie said, financial support is only one of the ways to show support for the Grow Network or any other entity. Keep sharing all the great information you get!
Hi Vera! I’m in neighbouring Germany. Have a great day!
Hello, Vera! I live in an area in Northern Wisconsin where many Czechs and Slovaks settled. I am not sure when they arrived, but many Europeans arrived to establish homesteads in between the 1860’s and 1930’s. Their descendants hold a Czech-Slovak summer festival annually near where I live. We look forward to a taste of kolache and other treats and the sight of traditionally dressed folk dancers from the two cultures. When I moved to this area I eventually realized that many of the “wild edible weeds” growing in this area are themselves descendants of the treasured herbs European settlers wisely brought with them when they left their homeland. Many, many of these are extolled for their importance and included herbal first aid remedies Marjory has been teaching us about. You have much to be proud of in your heritage, and we have a great deal to be thankful for in your ancestors. Best wishes for a serene and safe winter! Sandy
Hi Vera it’s so lovely to read what you are doing, you are on a very small pension, but I bet you know just what to pick, like my grandmother, I was born in Austria, her & I always used to make trips into the forests, or fields to pick natural growing foods , just like you would have done,weeds, that just tasted wonderfull, good on you Vera, you are a very special person, you would have been thru so much, keep on gardening, it keeps you young, & healthy too, take care, yes I would also live to hear some of YOURE storys, they would just be so awesome, take care , with love peter,
Hi Vera,
We live im Poland and read growyourowngroceries.
We can’t afford to buy the dvds but plan to try in our little garden some of the great ideas from this site.
By the way we are looking for collard as it seems it can grow here, but it is hard to find as they don’t know this plant here.
Last week we bought topinambur, that was the first time I tried it, we even plant some in a pot indoors, we will see what happens next.
Take care, Sim
Hi Vera
I am one in Australia who too lives on a fixed income. Sometimes it can be very hard. I grow all our fruit and vegetables and sometimes have enough to share with others.
My health doesn’t allow me to eat lots of things, especially produce with pesticides on them, therefore the reason for growing my own
Take care
Jim
Hi, Sim, topinamburs – croop is not big, many too little bulbs (or roots) and when you decide not to grow, itś difficult to extinguish them. WHAT IS COLLARD? We grow mangold (there are so many varieties), cook it like spinat, grow very good outdoors and from fall in cold greenhouse (with a PVC plane tents over rows), running beans (preferrable with yellow or other not green pods -are more visible :)), lettuces, japanese salad greens – mizuna, mibuna etc., broccoli (lot of little flowers), – vegetables, who croops all season round (tomatoes, paprika, zucchini (the man-flowers are delicious fried)) or are too expensive to buy (česnek), and some herbs for tea – mentha, mellissa, verbascum, hypericum etc. Good speed!:)
Hi Vera, Collard greens are vegetables of the cabbage family, close relatives to kale but the leaves are not the same. they are available year-round, and I read that they are at their best from January through April. I can’t find any translation in Polish langage about it. Verbascum is new for me, I will check what it is. Thank you for your advices.
Verbascum is czech “divizna”, very tall with gray-green rosette of plushy leaves and over 1 m high stem with very much all summer every day new yellow flovers, “Kaisers Krone” or “K. Kerze” in Deutsch, very popular farmaceutical herb, dried flowers are good expectorans.
Friends, I am so touched by your posts from heart! But – I must say – I am not poor, I only need to rate and utilize possibilities. My husband and I have a nice flat in Prague center, a small hobby garden in periferia, a dog (quasi dalmatian) – we are typical old czech city people. Our sons lives in Prague with their children too. Our state of life is enough for lot of people, namely in our country – not rich, not poor, but very happy for our 26 years of freedom (thanks, pres. Reagan!) and possibilities for our children.
Hi Vera – Thanks for chiming in 🙂 Sounds like you and your family have a lovely life there in Prague. Wishing many more years of happy gardening for you and your family!
Thanks, Michael, you are welcome to see it, Prague is very charming city.