Getting Off the Grid

Hundreds of thousands of people in this country live "off the grid." If the power fails, food runs short or drought hits, their families won't be hurt. Their houses have solar panels and electric generators; their shelves are stocked with canned food and seeds. They have wells in their back yard so they'll never go thirsty. Some are retreating into farms. Others are bringing the countryside into their homes.

You'll see vegetable gardens growing where once there were pools and barbecues. Bahia grass, golden rod, and azaleas have fallen to tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, onions, squash, and carrots. If they don't have yards, people are growing vegetables indoors in a study or on the window sill. Heard of square-foot gardening? For a few dollars you can try it yourself. A professional square-foot gardener will send you prepared sod, seeds, and a prefab grid of small squares in which you plant your seeds. It doesn't matter any longer if you don't have yard space. And you don't have to deal with bad soil, mulch, or pests. Apparently, you can grow twelve-inch carrots in six inches of soil on your office desk. You can grow luscious strawberries between your coffee-maker and your dish-rack. Last year, seed companies and garden shops saw the strongest uptick in sales since inflation took off in the 1970s. The biggest sellers were survival vegetables – peas, beans, corn, beets, carrots, broccoli, kale, spinach and the lettuces.

I have to laugh. It's what I've been living on all along, even in the boom years. I love making salads with kale – a humble leafy vegetable that costs a dollar and yet has more nutrients than most others. Nature gives us everything we need cheap, but wastrels that we are, we'd rather kill ourselves fighting for what's bad for us in the first place.

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