This weekend, I had some pretty cool bartering opportunities and with everything changing so quickly, it occurred to me that we have not talked much about barter around here and how you can build it into your lifestyle, as well as why you should consider doing so… LFTN Highlights this week Holler Roast Kickstarter Green Chili Weekend Sign Up Mama Sauce is coming to town! Tales from the Prepper Pantry Shopping in the neighbor’s freezer Shared Neighborhood Pantry concept Putting up tomatoes and beans this week Increasing efforts on forage  Ball Jar and Lid shortage - will put the word out when they can be ordered again Featured Forrage: Wild Sumac The waving red berry tops reminded me of this wonderful wild forage - wild sumac. This is definitely a plant you want to cultivate in your food forest. Edible uses: Young chutes and fall roots Berries to eat and for tea Nutritional Source of tanic acid, iodine (What if you could not get iodized salt?), calcium and lots of other important minerals that your body needs Medicinals >>A word on poison sumac<< Operation Independence Did a barter this weekend that added at least $500 to the independence fund. And the result us less dependence on shipped in energy. Main topic of the Show: Barter Builds Community How can we set ourselves up for stability no matter what the powers that be decide? How can we be ready for the coming economic downturn or depression that is certainly coming our way? How can we help those in our community make it through tough times? These questions have been rattling around in my head as well as my email inbox from all of you for weeks.  Right now you cannot buy ball jar lids anywhere for a reasonable price. But last spring, we did an LFTN bulk buy and some of us have lids, so we have been offering a few dozen to people who need them at a reasonable price or for trade. There have been som significant crop failures this year and with the oligarchy shutting down trade to a trickle in some parts of our trade system, this will mean price increases in the future -- unless you do not need to buy those crops, or unless you find another way to weather the spare time. Our money is limping along, trying not to inflate too rapidly or deflate suddenly through lots of strings being pulled by those in power. And it looks more and more like they really do want to crash our economy. Scary isn’t it. Yet here we are, with a powerful community of doers, all communicating, getting things done despite what is happening, doing our best to build the life we want to live on our terms. So back to the question - how can we increase stability in our network. Well, why not barter more. The monetary system can go screw if you don't need money to get what you need or want. Buying $5 in squash gives me about 5 squash. Buying $5 chicken eggs gives me about a dozen eggs. Trading 5 squash for 12 eggs, then is a wash, no matter what inflation or deflation does to their value. If a year from now the $5 amount becomes $20,000, a direct barter is still a squash for eggs trade, no matter what we decide to call the value. But barter is much more than a more stable way to exchange value for value, it is also a great tool for building community. So many times people ask me how to build community. They see what we do here and want to have that in their life. A strong community takes effort, trust and strong relationships. When I can really trust you, it is easier for me to want to invest my most valuable resource, my time, into interacting and transacting with you. If you think about it, the same goes for bartering. If I do not trust you, how do I know you will live up to your end of a barter agreement? Especially if we are trading non-tangible things like video production for web development work. Now sure, the crypto world has some create tools to address the trust problem. But here we are at LFTN. A solid community that over the years has developed strong relationships. A strong community wher