Saturday, September 5, 2009

Tradin', Tradin', Tradin'!!!

Ok, so barter is alive and well in rural America.

When we moved into the house we are now in, the former occupants had left 3 big pots out front full of growing walking onions! I have used some, and I will use some more, but onions aren't something I use a LOT of. I have dogs, and I have a husband who beleives the dogs should have everything we do. So I tend to not keep a lot of things on hand that the dogs can't eat. Grapes, onions, macadamia nuts... on and on.

Anyway, what I did (and still do) need is canning jars! Pints or Quarts.

Enter "the swap". Driving through town yesterday on my way out of town I noticed someone up here had set up some tables and had some stuff up for sale. I went back once we got home and found out it was a nodding aquaintance of ours! Whee.. chatted some, bought a couple of books mentioned I had some rabbit cages to trade and that I was looking for some canning jars. They didn't need the cages, but they do have a plethora of jars. I also was talking about where we moved to and about what was left here by the former occupants. They jumped all over the onions.

So, today I went back and I swapped one of my largish flower pots (about a 3 gallon pot) full of onions for 3 dozen quart size canning jars. Which I have now been putting in the dishwasher so I can dry them out and put away some of these beans, rice, and other stuff that is in bags. Whoot! Now the food will last longer and it's much more rodent and bug proof!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool! I'm here in a big city and have done a lot of Freecycling, but it's not the same.

Acorn Seasons said...

I have done freecycle in the past. And it's ok. I have both given and recieved. :) The closest freecycle available to me is about 50 miles away. hehe... But barter is very alive and well here. So what happened is no biggy to the locals, but to me it is. I was really pleased with my trade.