Sharing with community

For many people having fresh produce like fresh green veggies or fruit is simply not in their budget so they stick to processed and bad for their health foods mainly because it's cheap. But what many people don't realize that there are many options that they can tap into - like asking their local CSA farms for left overs; checking with local farmer markets or even food banks when something is in season or even if there are local community gardens that they can participate and maybe grow their own produce. Now granted, for those in large cities this might not be as easy, but for those who are in suburbs it's very much an option.

In my area we have alot of farms and many people do gardening. Some are just flowers and some are orchards and many are interested in growing their own, but not all can afford to upgrade or maybe even buy new seeds or seedlings. So quite a few people have decided to join a subgroup of our Freecycle group and dedicate it to free exchange of seeds and seedlings and also anything else that is garden-related. Now I've used Freecycle in the past year quite a bit when I had more greens that we could eat and had people come and pick some directly from my garden. Having this dedicated group established gives me more options and also will allow me to trade with others for things that I probably wouldn't buy myself in the store. The group allows anyone to post on the group page what they have extra and what they're looking for in exchange. For example, I posted that I had too many strawberries and in exchange I wanted some flowers to improve my garden borders. So someone offered me to dig up their hydrangeas in exchange. Win-win for both. Come spring we'll be more active to exchange seedlings and plan is to meet once a week and see who has what. Since I will be planting my own seeds I'll be doing many heirloom seedlings for my garden but of course I always plant more than I will use in my garden - you have to plant more because never know how many will survive through transplanting process so when i have extras I'll be able to offer them to others in exchange for something else that I normally wouldn't grown on my own. Can't wait for spring :)