Do they EVER cook from scratch? or garden?

[Arete]

You do not need a college education and classes in soil microbes to keep a garden.  Poor and uneducated people all over the world keep gardens, but somehow fundies are suppose to get a pass because it's "hard".  No it isn't.  They are lazy.  If you are going to have kids in the double digits, you better have a plan on how to feed them well.  No excuses about not having time or not liking cooking.  NONE!  Don't bring children into the world and feed them crap, and don't go on and on about women being homemakers unless you are actually turning out excellent homemakers.

If you think your daughter's only purpose is to grow up and keep a home, you better teach your daughters how to cook, garden, can, sew, and budget correctly.  And while we are at it, teach your sons how to make a living so that you can at least BUY fresh and frozen produce.

[Percy]

I vaguely remember one of the boys cooking in the kitchen. I can't remember which one.

[OodOnTheLoo]

Gardening is not that hard.  You learn by trial and error but seeds are cheap so dig in.  

I just just don't understand how the fundies are as healthy and fertile as there are on processed foods.  I know Michelle exercises but after all those pregnancies and poor diet shouldn't her bones start to crumble?  

 

[Percy]

I was looking at recipes on their family site and I found a recipe for James' pickles. The comment was that James had grown a vegetable garden and they had to come up with ways to use the vegetables that he grew.  I hope he continues.

[SoybeanQueen]

Given that one can find a recipe for just about anything online nowadays, and probably even super-sized amounts of said recipe, it's odd that they seem to have the same canned crap all of the time. Surely one of them could purpose to find some new dishes on Pinterest!

[theilnana]

As mentioned before the girls don't seem to eat the same food as the rest of the family because being overweight is seen as ungodly. The current family diet leads to weight gain after the active childhood years are over, see Josh, John David and of courseJim Bob himself. In a lecture Michelle put up on their old their old website about what a man needs and wants from a women the main message was: stay pretty and don't get fat. Getting fat makes you less attractive to your husband so if he then cheats its your fault because you got fat. the lecturer went so far as to say the God wants women to be thin and attractive and if your not your going against God's plan. These people are unreal, the current family diet of processed crap is simply made to sustain the children. The older gils however must stay thin. I remember the episode where Michelle took Jana to a weight watchers meeting, I didn't get it then but now I see that so much of being a women to them is tied to the way they look. 

[nastyhobbitses]

4 hours ago, AreteJo said:

You do not need a college education and classes in soil microbes to keep a garden.  Poor and uneducated people all over the world keep gardens, but somehow fundies are suppose to get a pass because it's "hard".  No it isn't.  They are lazy.  If you are going to have kids in the double digits, you better have a plan on how to feed them well.  No excuses about not having time or not liking cooking.  NONE!  Don't bring children into the world and feed them crap, and don't go on and on about women being homemakers unless you are actually turning out excellent homemakers.

If you think your daughter's only purpose is to grow up and keep a home, you better teach your daughters how to cook, garden, can, sew, and budget correctly.  And while we are at it, teach your sons how to make a living so that you can at least BUY fresh and frozen produce.

Silly AreteJo, who needs to know how to make a decent living and be a functioning adult when you have younger siblings and offspring who will do everything for you, and entire websites designed to help you beg strangers for free money? And fresh, organic vegetables don't come from a brand who will pay you for mentioning their name on camera!

[nokidsmom]

6 hours ago, AreteJo said:

You do not need a college education and classes in soil microbes to keep a garden.  Poor and uneducated people all over the world keep gardens, but somehow fundies are suppose to get a pass because it's "hard".  No it isn't.  They are lazy.  If you are going to have kids in the double digits, you better have a plan on how to feed them well.  No excuses about not having time or not liking cooking.  NONE!  Don't bring children into the world and feed them crap, and don't go on and on about women being homemakers unless you are actually turning out excellent homemakers.

If you think your daughter's only purpose is to grow up and keep a home, you better teach your daughters how to cook, garden, can, sew, and budget correctly.  And while we are at it, teach your sons how to make a living so that you can at least BUY fresh and frozen produce.

I got thrown quite suddenly into gardening when a plot in our community garden opened up and no, it's not hard to keep one.  Yes, it's work weeding and all but it's not rocket science by any means.

And it gets me how so some of our famous fundie familes who preach that a woman's purpose is to be a keeper of the home but  they are turning out daughters who have nearly zero skills when it comes to actually doing it.    Back in the day when women were keepers of the home, they ran it like it was a business.

This is the downside of the so called buddy system.  The daughters get an education in child care but everything else falls by the wayside because it's up to the mom (or someone) to actually teach them other homemaking skills.   The mom either doesn't have them herself or is too busy with things like homeschooling or birthing more babies to be able to do it. 

[HereticHick]

The Bontragers are a fundy family who do gardening right.  [although to be fair, they are fulltime farmers]. They've got big gardens & do lots of canning. The kids work in the garden & help with the canning, & they post plenty of pictures of kids weeding & all the jars of salsa, tomato sauce, jam, etc. that they've put up.

If the Duggars do have a functioning garden/greenhouse/fruit trees, they'd be smart to post pictures of the results. But they never do, which makes us all assume that that the gardening has failed. 

Lack of follow-through is such a theme with the Duggars.

I hope that the greenhouse that the boys built is still actually functioning, but the Duggars never post pictures of its produce because they only think that BABIEZ are worth photographing.

 

[Sundaymorning]

I'm not a 100% sure, but I think I've read here on free jinger that the Duggars live in an industrial zone with a garbage dump nearby? If that is the case, gardening might not be such a good idea, since the soil could be contaminated.

I've googled a bit, and radar online has an article about it http://radaronline.com/celebrity-news/duggar-family-home-faces-city-dump/

However, I don't think that is the reason that the Duggars don't have a proper garden. They are simply lazy af and too busy promoting their wicked cult.

[gustava]

There are local farmers' markets.

[choralcrusader8613]

7 hours ago, Percy said:

I vaguely remember one of the boys cooking in the kitchen. I can't remember which one.

I know we've seen Josh making breakfast (when he lost that fitness challenge to JB), and Anna acted like it was surprising a grown man could make breakfast.

[quiverofdoubt]

I can't garden. At all. I may have a lot more luck in Arkansas. But I live at 8000 feet, and my growing season is June. Assuming I water like crazy, every day.  We have snow and hard freezes through May, and freezes and snow again in september. June is super dry, under 20% humidity, sometimes 10%.  This year my zuchinni started to flower and bud in June, only to have 2 feet of intense  hail dumped on in in just under 25 minutes during a july monsoon.  Those that survived that hail, didn't survived the next one.  I could invest in a greenhouse, but it just wouldn't be cost effective for us.  I could probably make it work with tons of hours of labor, ingenuity and dollars, and make mini greenhouses etc. It's just not worth my time or any more of my money at this point.  I may try some herbs in a pot at some point, but I burned out.

However, there is no excuse for them not having veges bought in bulk (as mentioned above, carrots, onion, potatoes etc).  All of those things fresh are a lot cheaper than frozen or premade. Why aren't they shopping the meat sales, stocking up and filling freezers? Even with just three of us, my husband and i will hit costco or whatever and get roasts, chicken and what not, then freeze what we can't use right away.  Canned veggies are the lowest in terms of nutrition the highest in terms of cost. 

They have a false economy going- they see a can of peas or soup on sale for 60 cents or whatever and think "ah so cheap!" and get all the cans.  cheap upfront.  But if you actually do the math fresh is almost always cheaper in the long haul.

Also, this is rural arkansas. Maybe it's different than my experience in rural alabama, but trying to grocery shop there was... a joke. the veggie dept was a banana and a thing of iceberg. that was it. The duggars may have to drive further to have access to a decent grocery store where they can find fresh foods and meat.

[Mrsaztx]

I wonder why, since they have that commune of pasture land, they don't run down to the local auction, buy 2-3 feeder steers, and just pasture them for 6 months in some hot wire and then custom harvest them? They would have essentially no feed costs and the upfront purchase cost and harvesting would result in about $1800-$2000 for 800 lbs of meat, plus bones for broth and such, that pencils to $2.50 per pound on the high side. 3 beeves would cover their protein needs for the year easily. Or freaking hunt, it's Arkansas, there's deer all over the damn place

[OnceUponATime]

10 hours ago, DuggarsTheEndIsNear said:

That said, the number one priority for mega families like there's is to pop out as many kids as possible. The number 2 priority is to make sure no one does anything outside of the house where they could be under the influence of heathens. And the number 3 priority is to keep costs down because you can't have number 1 and 2 while still spending lots of money. Therefore, it's all about keeping it cheap, not keeping it healthy.

But that is the thing I don't get. Grow your own veggies - keep your own seed, make a compost and your only expenses are the initial seeds and occasional spray (if you do that). Seriously growing your own veggies if you have space/time (which they do!) isn't that hard and would keep down their living costs.

 

9 hours ago, DuggarsTheEndIsNear said:

Theres a lot that goes into successful gardening. First you have to know your soil's pH, movement of the sun and shadows, wind patterns, animal and insect patterns/threats, growing zones, drainage and water patterns, and other natural elements of your plot of land. Then, you have to make sure you have a healthy soil full of healthy soil organisms because soil organisms need to be fed first before the plants can benefit from any kind of fertilizer (man made or natural). You also have to make sure you're growing the right plants during the right part of the year -- a cool weather plant will either whither or bolt if it gets too hot. And, you have to make sure that the plants are in soil with the right drainage -- some plants need much wetter soils while other plants need much dryer ones -- and getting the right amount of sun throughout the day. Proper spacing is also important, as is understanding how the plant pollinates (for instance, corn should be grown in circles or squares to ensure the best chance of successful pollination of all the ears). And, you have to make sure that your pH levels of the soil AND any kind of fertilizer you use match the plant's requirements.

Sure if you want a really bountiful garden. I would like to polity disagree though.

I'm a bit more carefree and have been growing veggies here for the last 3 years. This is how I do it: I group all my seeds by the 1st month they should be sown ( my first bunch is for next month - yay!) At the start of the month I fill up pots with potting mix and sow my seeds that can/should be grown in pots first. I move all seeds I want to sow again that year to the next applicable month's package. I water my pots occasionally. I get my bf to use the machine in the garden to prep the soil. When the risk of frost gets low (May) I put up my string so I get straight rows, and start sowing whatever should be sown directly into the soil (aka carrots, parsnips, radishes) in half rows and plant the seedlings out when they look large enough. I garden from the back of my garden to the house. Then I weed. Every 15 days I sow my next lot of veggies until I have reached the last month (which is about August). Then I weed,  sprinkle slugbait and spray my cabbages twice a year. If we don't get rain and the ground cracks I may water the garden but usually that is only once a year. Oh and sometimes we add a layer of horse manure or use some sort of fertiliser.

Is it the most efficient way of gardening? best for the plants? no. I am aware of that (and have plans to move to a crop rotation scheme). But it does work for me.

Does everything survive and flourish? hell no, but I accept that (and I have such a large garden that I have excess all the time so I don't care). This is also why I sow things multiple times. Sometimes the weather sucks and the first batch hardly grows; usually one of them does ok.

Do I ever run out of veggies and *need* to go buy some? not in the last 2 years. Not even during the winter (I can tomatoes and beans and have lots of frozen stuff). Currently in my garden I have 350+ leek, carrots, beetroot, endive, celeriac, parsnip and savoy cabbage (and have  20+ squash in storage). Admittedly by now we are usually eating self-canned/self-frozen veggies half the time but this winter has been mild. Sometimes I do buy veggies to get out of season stuff for a bit of variety - that is a luxury not a necessity

I like gardening, mostly experimenting in the garden. This is why I may have 20 pomegranate trees (grown from seed) in little pots. Apparently they don't/shouldn't grow here, I said I wanted to try so I did. I learn what does and doesn't grow well here and I adapt to that. I also do look up things if I want tips/ see weird things happening

 

TL;DR - gardening doesn't need to be over-complicated as long as you aren't too fused about having awesome results and you live in an area where the climate is ok.
I can imagine that some Duggars may not liking the flavor of fresh food simply because they aren't accustomed to it.
 

I really can't get my head around why a homeschooling family with a large property wouldn't have some sort of veggie garden. They are awesome learning tools. If something fails you set a research assignment for your child to find out possible reasons why. Stupid [non]wisdom booklets and their terrible curriculum. As for knowledge there is a lot out there - there are some uni's in the US that do agriculture research about veggie growing (applicable to home growing too) and there is a lot of good info out there to help you plan your gardens and deal with problems.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

8 hours ago, AreteJo said:

You do not need a college education and classes in soil microbes to keep a garden.  Poor and uneducated people all over the world keep gardens, but somehow fundies are suppose to get a pass because it's "hard".  No it isn't.  They are lazy.  If you are going to have kids in the double digits, you better have a plan on how to feed them well.  No excuses about not having time or not liking cooking.  NONE!  Don't bring children into the world and feed them crap, and don't go on and on about women being homemakers unless you are actually turning out excellent homemakers.

If you think your daughter's only purpose is to grow up and keep a home, you better teach your daughters how to cook, garden, can, sew, and budget correctly.  And while we are at it, teach your sons how to make a living so that you can at least BUY fresh and frozen produce.

I never said you need a college education. But you actually need to know shit before you're going to be successful. If you stick an alkaline plant in an acidic soil, it will die. If you stick a plant that needs a lot of moisture in an area that doesn't hold moisture, you will either need to water it often (which isn't economical) or it'll wither. If your soil isn't healthy, your garden will not grow. If your garden area gets too much or too little sun for your plant of choice, the plant will not thrive. If your garden gets a lot of wind and there's nothing to break it up, your weaker plants may be snapped, uprooted, or otherwise destroyed. If you don't take into account the type of animals you have and their behaviors, you can come back to a completely decimated garden. If you get a garden pest that has a natural predator in the area, but you've not done the work to attract the predator or to provide them with a way to access your prey, you will be stuck having to use chemicals (assuming there are any that target the pest in your area -- for instance, my house and garden were overrun with green stink bugs which don't respond at all to any of the stink bug chemicals because those are made for brown stink bugs) or risk losing your crop. If you try composting, but you don't keep the right ratios when doing so, your compost will not be useful and may not even break down properly. Also, if you compost using worms, but you give them foods they can't break down, problems will arise; same goes with composting with BSFL, who can break down meats and some bones, animal/human feces, animal products, and many things works can't, but they struggle with cellulose. 

I could go on, but I won't. 

Also, there's a huge difference between hobby gardening, which most people here are describing, and gardening to feed 21+ people, as the original poster and others since then have suggested they should do. As has been seen on the show, there have been a few attempts at hobby gardening, but hobby gardening isn't going to supply them with more than a handful of servings for a handful of people. 

[jacduggar]

I kind of hate when people suggest that other people take up a garden, especially if they've proven (Duggars) that they just aren't into it or good at it. There's a reason people farm for a living.

 

While I agree that they should have accounted for feeding their kids real food and they should buy healthier options, I think assuming someone with a lot of kids should garden is similar to saying someone who commutes a lot should do all of their own car maintenance. 

[Mela99]

This still infuriates me. They have all that land ... and a huge commercial kitchen. They could train their kids as pastry chefs or caterers, they have all the tools... Work for other fundie weddings? 

[nokidsmom]

22 minutes ago, jacduggar said:

I kind of hate when people suggest that other people take up a garden, especially if they've proven (Duggars) that they just aren't into it or good at it. There's a reason people farm for a living.

 

While I agree that they should have accounted for feeding their kids real food and they should buy healthier options, I think assuming someone with a lot of kids should garden is similar to saying someone who commutes a lot should do all of their own car maintenance. 

If the Duggars are unable or unwilling to keep a garden, one excuse that they do not have have regarding providing fresh food to their children: lack of money.   Which they live in NWA there's plenty of supermarkets, Costco, etc. where they can purchase fresh food.   Yes, it can be expensive for a large family, but frankly they have the money.  If providing fresh food to their growing children were a priority they could do it.  But they don't.  

I think why folks think the Duggars should garden is because they have the property and JB is cheap.  Doesn't mean they should garden, but many folks see them as having the resources, mainly property, to do it.   They don't work so have a lot of time at home, so they have the time to do it.  And it could save money.  

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

18 minutes ago, Mela99 said:

This still infuriates me. They have all that land ... and a huge commercial kitchen. They could train their kids as pastry chefs or caterers, they have all the tools... Work for other fundie weddings? 

Honestly, I am positive they have the commercial kitchen because TLC gave it to them. I think the Duggars had some kind of idea of that serving area, but TLC decided it would be best to stock it with commercial grade equipment. If JB and Michelle had been left to their own devices, I doubt any of that stuff would have made its way into the house. It's just not something I see as high on their priority list. Or anywhere on it. 

1 minute ago, nokidsmom said:

If the Duggars are unable or unwilling to keep a garden, one excuse that they do not have have regarding providing fresh food to their children: lack of money.   Which they live in NWA there's plenty of supermarkets, Costco, etc. where they can purchase fresh food.   Yes, it can be expensive for a large family, but frankly they have the money.  If providing fresh food to their growing children were a priority they could do it.  But they don't.  

I think why folks think the Duggars should garden is because they have the property and JB is cheap.  Doesn't mean they should garden, but many folks see them as having the resources, mainly property, to do it.   They don't work so have a lot of time at home, so they have the time to do it.  And it could save money.  

There are a LOT of people who have money who don't eat well. Being cheap isn't the problem. Some people were never taught that healthy foods can taste good, and more so they were never taught how to make said foods. I have A LOT of friends with money who don't eat any vegetables that aren't swimming in gravy because they've never had good vegetables, and they never will because they're convinced that they hate vegetables. I have some friends who won't eat fruits, either, unless they come from a can and are swimming in syrup. One of those friends won't even eat them then. 

[silverspoons]

We have seen them go to Sam's club many times on the show in pictures  and on social media. I don't recall them ever buying fruits and veggies there? I remember a pallet of junk food. I have few options to buy produce and gardening is hard in our climate. Costco is one of our only options but with a family of 4 I usually share with a neighbor. How hard would it be for the Duggars to buy the 5 packs of lettuce, the 12 packs of apples, or a large bags of oranges.

Since Jim Bob and Michelle seem to be stuck in a teenage mentality , did they take any home economics classes? Don't the basic ones 25 years ago stress a meal was a protein , 2 veggies or a veggie and a fruit and a bread product. I know the food pyramid has changed but even if they followed 25 years ago, they would be better off then what they eat. Target has some nice Melamine "prison trays" for .89. It would be easy with the slots to have a fruit , veggie, protein and roll for each kid and clean up would be easy.

I have always been surprised the kids did not fight to use the industrial dishwasher. My kids both have worked in the school cafeteria, my son now  for 7 years everyday and the industrial dishwasher is what everyone wants to use. I guess spraying off the dishes is fun and my son is started at 10 and is now 17 and everyday the kids still fight for that job. It could be a boy chore since it seems to me the boys learn very little if any responsibility. Grandma does their laundry, their sister makes their bed, and a sister vacuums so why not have them have a  real everyday chore like dishes.

[19 cats and counting]

52 minutes ago, jacduggar said:

I kind of hate when people suggest that other people take up a garden, especially if they've proven (Duggars) that they just aren't into it or good at it. There's a reason people farm for a living.

 

While I agree that they should have accounted for feeding their kids real food and they should buy healthier options, I think assuming someone with a lot of kids should garden is similar to saying someone who commutes a lot should do all of their own car maintenance. 

Some of the Duggar kids have shown interest in it (I believe one of the Howlers).  Why not let a kid do so if that's his interest?  Bonus is homeschool lessons and feeding their many mouths something not from a can.

[nokidsmom]

9 minutes ago, DuggarsTheEndIsNear said:

Honestly, I am positive they have the commercial kitchen because TLC gave it to them. I think the Duggars had some kind of idea of that serving area, but TLC decided it would be best to stock it with commercial grade equipment. If JB and Michelle had been left to their own devices, I doubt any of that stuff would have made its way into the house. It's just not something I see as high on their priority list. Or anywhere on it. 

There are a LOT of people who have money who don't eat well. Being cheap isn't the problem. Some people were never taught that healthy foods can taste good, and more so they were never taught how to make said foods. I have A LOT of friends with money who don't eat any vegetables that aren't swimming in gravy because they've never had good vegetables, and they never will because they're convinced that they hate vegetables. I have some friends who won't eat fruits, either, unless they come from a can and are swimming in syrup. One of those friends won't even eat them then. 

I get that there's a lot of folks with money that don't eat well and won't touch anything fresh because they are convinced they won't like it.   My niece, who grew up in a fairly well to do household, will only touch creamed corn.   But there are people for whom money is an obstacle to obtaining fresh food.  Just saying that for the Duggars, money is not an issue for them.    

[MoonFace]

Don't they tend to have the kids fill up on pretzels and goldfish type snacks?   (lots of healthy carbs and sodium! )  
 

[jacduggar]

10 minutes ago, 19 cats and counting said:

Some of the Duggar kids have shown interest in it (I believe one of the Howlers).  Why not let a kid do so if that's his interest?  Bonus is homeschool lessons and feeding their many mouths something not from a can.

I wish they would foster his interest, but it's worth mentioning that feeding 21+ people even one complete garden grown meal is a lot of food. Also, their land (that everyone is speaking about) is in no condition for a bountiful garden. They might be able to put some beans and zucchini down and get a plant or two, but they would need to work that ground over, add some compost, some kind of fertilizer, mulch, and possibly even bring in a more nutrient dense topsoil. As previously mentioned, gardening to feed a standard family takes more than planting seeds and hoping for a harvest. I keep four gardens and a greenhouse, it's a lot of work and start up is costly and time consuming.