We are at war.  The enemy is invisible, and we know the best way to fight it is to stay home.  It’s extremely hard, we’re all wading into the unknown together … apart.  We do know that lives and livelihoods are at stake.  There is one thing we can all do to help, and that is grow your own garden.  Like our grandparents, it’s time to grow a Victory Garden!

These symbols of self-reliance, food production and community resilience have not been seen in many areas since wartime.  Here in West Virginia, where plots of land tend to be larger, the victory-style garden has remained popular along with home food preservation.  It’s time to go back to the way our grandparents gardened. 

With empty store shelves, the ability to be self-sufficient is something that has moved up everyone’s to-do list.  I was reading an industry publication this week that said seed sales were up by 40% over last year, and I’ve been fielding website chats all week with folks asking what types of edible plants we have available now.  …  Right now we have cool weather crops like cabbage, lettuce, etc. along with seed potatoes and onion sets.

So where do we start when it comes to creating a modern Victory Garden?  Well, right here of course!  Over the next few months get ready for a crash course in gardening.  Instead of focusing on individual plants, we’re going to focus more broadly on the key skills that every gardener needs to give you the tools you need to keep growing.  Speaking of tools, next week we’re going to talk about essential garden tools.

These are interesting times.  This morning I was thinking about a quote by Benjamin Franklin, one of my favorite Founding Fathers.  He said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  It makes me wonder what he would think about the current situation. … I’m pretty sure he’d understand.

Through his almanac and other writings, Benjamin Franklin exerted his influence on the medical sphere. With numerous well-informed correspondents—including physicians and scientists on two continents—and, as a skilled writer, he was capable of writing letters, articles, collections of sayings and other works filled with medical commentary.

…

Franklin promoted a moderate diet, exercise, and self-control in all things, and sometimes even followed his own advice. In his youth, Franklin was influenced to try vegetarianism after reading Thomas Tryon's Way to Health and Happiness; he later returned to eating meat. He exercised frequently, favoring swimming and endorsing it not only as good exercise but also as a method to open pores, hydrate the body and maintain cleanliness. In his old age, Franklin continued to exercise, lifting and swinging weights when his health no longer allowed him to swim or walk.

Many of Franklin's medical writings showed the same spirit of public activism that characterized his civic and national projects. He repeatedly used his skills with pen and press in support of innovations that could make a difference in the public health. Most significant, perhaps, was his lifelong endorsement of smallpox inoculation.

Inoculation spread rapidly in North America and Europe after its introduction into western medicine in the 1720s. The practice involved exposing healthy individuals to the disease by abrading the skin and introducing a small amount of morbid matter. Typically the patient would contract a similarly mild instance of the disease and, once recovered, would have permanent immunity. Cases contracted the natural way would often leave victims disfigured and had a significant mortality rate.

Gensel L. (2005). The medical world of Benjamin Franklin. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 98(12), 534–538. https://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.98.12.534