Environment and A Grand Plan

As I ponder my next alphabetical installment of "E", and pack my life away, I've been pondering the concept of environment. Not just my environment that is about to radically change. Not just the environment that houses species screaming toward extinction, not just the broken and bleeding  concept that keeps all of us alive, but our own personal environments too. In a conversation with a customer the other day, I shared my opinion that children are as much a by-product of their environment as they as they are by their genetics. I won't bore you with the whole conversation, but I was still mulling it over long after she left the store.

I am comfortable with the thought that children are shaped by their environment. Both the larger one and the one in which they're raised. I see evidence of this every day in our three sons. One is very much like his father, his mannerisms, his reaction to stress and even how he chews his nails! I find this interesting because this son spends no time with his father, only seeing him for about a half hour perhaps once a year when his father takes the time. This son has not had steady exposure to his father since he was four, and he's now sixteen (ack!) So did his formative years install all those similar personality traits, or are they genetic? Was there a tradeoff  between babbling when stressed and a  receding hairline? (If there was, son should be glad he got my hair!)
The youngest son is an interesting mixture of me, which can be seen in build, facial features and hair, and his eldest brother. The step-brother, in which there is no DNA shared. To look at our youngest is to see our eldest. In personality, in mannerisms, reaction to stress, joy and happiness, pain and  uncomfortable situations. In this example, I point to one's environment shaping the person. In our case, this has turned out to be a good thing.
But what about those people that go on to better themselves above their "lot in life", as it were? The children that go on to be astrophysicists from a farming background?  The politicians of old who went on to become presidents that were born to extremely poor parents? These people exceeded their environments while carrying their genetics with them. What makes these people tick? Do they have more determination than the rest of us? Are their goals clearer to them? Are they harder workers? I've often wondered what the difference was between myself and the famous actress who is only 9 months older than me. Besides the fact that she hails from a small-ish island. Her parents were no more rich than mine. She too was once a single mum. But her name is a household name, her face instantly recognizable, her voice too. I'm not complaining, merely pointing out that she and I are not that dis-similar.

Is there some grand plan somewhere that determines these things? Without getting too far into matters of faith, I believe we each have a role to play that helps shape the bigger picture, even if we don't know it at the time. Did Abraham Lincoln's mother know she would give birth to one of history's most influential and doomed figures? Likely not. All we can do is the best we can and hope it all turns out for the best.

But at the same time, we also have to keep in mind how the bigger environment fits into our own environments. The big one, the one that sees the loss of millions of trees each year, the one that is cracked and bleeding species, that one needs our help. We've messed it up in the race for convenience, for less work and for comfort. Our "normal" has changed, and it's our own faults. All of us, for the last  three generations. After WW2, the people of North America enjoyed a glut of cheap, easy and time-saving devices. Even was I was a child, we fluctuated between comfort and hard scrabble. I remember sunday drives that went nowhere, but they were fun. We'd have breakfast, pick a direction and drive till the parents decided it was time to go home. Or we would drive to see the Grandparents, or we would drive to see the countryside and count horses. Even then I thought it was fun, and I dearly wish I could do the same for my own children now. Having no vehicle and stupid-high fuel prices are two big reasons why I can't pass on that tradition. I remember camping too, and in time, this one tradition I can pass on.  Although in a different way. I remember sleeping in a tipi, I remember sleeping under a van at a rodeo and waking up to the smell of bacon cooking somewhere. I remember the pop-up tent trailer. I remember the old VW van with hammocks for my brother and I. I remember the tent that seemed  to need 5 people to put up with the crinkly floor. But then, camping season was clearly delineated. Spring, summer, fall and winter had distinguishing earmarks and one did not bleed over into the other. These days, we have mild weeks in March that  drives some people to plant weeks too early, summers that bring frost to kill apple blossoms and wipe out 85% of a province's apple farmers, and sometimes we seem to miss winter's bite entirely. Gone are the cold snaps  and 10 feet high snowbanks from my childhood. Our new normal is not normal at all.

Parents abandoning their babies in the middle of winter on concrete stairways, polar bears unable to find ice-floes to rest on, warm winters, normal people turning into face-eating zombie druggies, fuel prices insanely prohibitive, food that has next to no nutritional value, our own leaders making backroom deals to fatten their pockets at the expense of their neighbors, hurricanes in January wildfires that rage and decimate everything in their path, taxes that will eventually eliminate the former middle-class into poverty, an increasing number of people that cannot afford what I took for granted as a child ... this is our new normal, and it sucks. This is not what our children deserve. We can do better than this, as parents, as people and as stewards of the planet that's been loaned to us.

Time to get off our asses and start correcting our mistakes.

What If It Doesn't Happen? What If It Does?

This morning, I'd like to share something important to me with all of you. Even though I'm a writer, I could not have expressed this as eloquently as Gaye does over at Backdoor Survival. Please read this carefully, and all the way through. As you do, I ask you to think of the wildfires in Timmins, Colorado, California and all over the country. Think of Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. Think of all of the communities that have been wiped out by floods and hurricanes, think of the families who have no choice but to go to the food banks to feed their kids. Think of the rising unemployment numbers and how that translates to re-claimed homes or vehicles. Think of all these while you read with an open mind.
Thanks go to Gaye for making this letter available to share with all of you.


An Open Letter to Family & Friends
I’m writing this letter because I care about you. Please take a few minutes to read it and think about what I’m saying.


Why the Letter?

Our lives are crazy. We take care of our family, work, eat, play chauffer, pay the bills, etc. When we have a little bit of free time, we like to just veg in front of the TV and watch some brain numbing pictures flicker across the screen. We can go at it like this for days, weeks and even months, not knowing what is going on in the world outside our local community and just getting by with the talk around the water cooler.

And when we take life in these little chunks, separate blocks of our time and attention, it seems a little bit more manageable. We move from one task, event, errand, chore to the other.

The problem is when we look at our lives from a big picture perspective. What if our lives all of the sudden changed? What if the stress of the day came bearing down at you all at once? How could this happen? This can easily happen during an emergency. I’m not talking about your son just stuffed his GI Joe down the toilet, or the dog is out of food emergency. I’m talking about the BIG stuff.

The Big Emergency

The BIG emergency is the one that stops you in your tracks. It can be personal, based in your local community or worldwide. But it is the one that everything else stops and all resources and energy are put towards it.

The problem is that most people are not prepared for the BIG one.

Prepared?

Are you and your family most people? Do you have an emergency fund for financial emergencies? Do you have insurance for medical emergencies? Do you have food and water if there is a food supply/transportation emergency? Do you have other means of cooking and preparing your food if utilities weren’t available? Do you have first aid supplies and extra medicine on hand? Do you have basic skills that could help you: fire starting, water purification, gardening, first aid, etc.?

This is the whole reason for my letter. I want to help you see the importance of being prepared and to start being more self-reliant. It’s not too hard, but it does take time, planning and effort. But then again, what would the time, planning and effort that you put in ahead of time be worth in the middle of an emergency? You’ll be glad you did!

Action Steps

1. Make a plan – What are you preparing for? What needs to be done? Don’t look at the magnitude of the plan, that can be overwhelming. Take it in chunks. In reality, you will never be “prepared.” You can be “not prepared” or “overly prepared,” but never “perfectly prepared.” Consider the basics: financial, medical, etc. but also keep in mind your region of the country; hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, fires, etc.

• Set goals – When do you want _____ accomplished?
  1. Get a 3 day supply of food. Then move to a 3 week supply.
  2. Revisit insurance: house, vehicle, medical, life, etc.
  3. Start an emergency fund – 3-6 months of expenses
  4. Start a garden
  5. Take a class: first-aid, sewing, gardening, firearm, wilderness survival
  6. Watch some videos on YouTube (search preparedness)
  7. Read blogs and articles on “preparedness” and “prepping”
  8. Get active – go meet your goals!

Warning

The world of preparedness/prepping can be an addictive one. It can suck you in, mess with your emotions and get you seeing the world in the fragile states that it is in. It is always best to approach preparedness within community. You should go it alone only if no one else is willing. Eventually, they will realize that you were right, even if that is in the midst of a storm.

Fragile

It is not in the scope of this letter to discuss all the possible emergency scenarios that you should prepare for. But outside of regional, natural disasters, it is important to me to briefly mention our global situation. Things outside our local community have gone from bad to worse! At first, we might not care about what is going on in some Asian or European country, but the fact is that we are ALL tied into each other now. What happens over there, affects us over here.

There are many “End of the World as We Know It” type scenarios out there. One such scenario is an economic collapse. Someone recently replied to me and said, “Yes, times can get hard, but we have been through it before during the Great Depression.” The fact is that it is way different this time. Our country didn’t have the debt that we have now. And, if for some reason the world loses faith in our government’s ability to pay its debts, we are up the creek. It really isn’t too far-fetched to imagine this happening if you’ll look into it. The concern has gone beyond the foil hat people. Just research it!

Do Something

Please take this letter seriously. If you prepare and don’t need it, the worst is that you have some food (food costs are going up/buy now at cheaper prices) and other supplies. But if you ever find you are in a position that you do need it, you and your loved ones will be glad you were prepared!

For more information, visit Backdoor Survival

It Is The Age of Doing

I read a lot of blogs, but the ones that I tend to return to  time and again are the ones the authors try and live their truth. They DO.  There is much merit in ideas and theories but after a time, we have to get off our behinds and do something with those ideas. Whether it's to "beat the rush and collapse now" as the ArchDruid suggests or to start preserving, recycling and de-cluttering, we need to stop talking about it and start doing.
We here are following my own advice. We are de-cluttering, even though it's frightening, enlightening and blatantly shocking sometimes. (Note to self: de-clutter more often than once every dozen years)
When I first started planning on growing our own food, I learned all I could about season extension. But as I've been comparing the overall weather and temperature of the new homestead to where we live now, I find that I've neglected a very important factor in food production. Drought.

drought |drout|
noun
a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall; a shortage of water resulting from this.
• [usu. with adj. ] figurative a prolonged absence of something specified : he ended a five-game hitting drought.
• archaic thirst.

One of the ways we'll be dealing with drought is to store water in rain barrels. Over time, my Dad has been gathering the barrels and spouts, next comes the gutters and downspouts and screens to keep out bugs and other nasties. I'll be developing raised beds in which to grow our vegetables, instead of the traditional rows, because this will allow me to grow more intensively, rotate crops, grow green manure crops, grow sprouts for the chickens and even put a temporary chicken pen over temporarily fallow beds. I'll be able to cover the beds in case of frost, marauding birds or excessive sun, as well as keep out the friendly rabbit.

An important element of any homestead, I'm learning, is drainage,  whether it be in the garden or the septic leach field. I mention this because last week, I had an epiphany. The last time I lived on our mini-homestead, I didn't need to worry about the infrastructure of our place, my parents worried about that. But life has changed us and our circumstances. Now I need to know how well our land drains. I need to learn how the septic system works, where it is and how to manage it. I need to learn not only about this but about so many other things, and then I need to make the management of the homestead a working part of every day, while I learn about all the other things I haven't realized that I don't know yet.
I need to learn, to do. I need to do what it takes to build on what is there, do what it takes to build our success year after year, and teach others by demonstration, on both my You Tube channel and this blog and my freelance writing.

Indeed, it falls to each one of us to learn how to survive the coming decline of our economies as well as society. It is the responsibility of each of us to learn how to lives with less, do more with what we have and pass on our knowledge of these things. In this way lies our best hope.

It is time to do something.
What will you do?

A Difficult Conversation

I had every intention of posting that promised "D" post today, but something more pressing has caught my attention that I wanted to share with you. (I will be posting "D", just not today)
In March of this year, a woman named Carolyn Baker wrote wisely about current trauma to the middle class, and the future of that group of people, and emotional resilience. The more I read, the more I agreed with her, especially when she said this,
"Americans and billions of other individuals throughout the world, are not only terrified about radiation but about their economic future—an economic future which will be inexorably more ruinous as a result of the Japan tragedy and its economic ripples globally. By that I do not mean that they feel mild anxiety about embellishing their stock portfolios, but rather, are feeling frightened about how they are going to feed their families, where they will live after losing their house in foreclosure, where they might find employment in a world where having a full-time job is becoming increasingly rare, how they will access healthcare without insurance or the money to pay out of pocket, or how they will make ends meet in forced or voluntary retirement."

John Michael Greer has this to add, "The decline of industrial society is a reality we are already facing; as real incomes shrink, quality-of-life indexes stumble downhill, and high-end technological projects such as the space program wind down. As resources keep on depleting and wastes build up, in turn, the decline is accelerating, and it’s a safe bet at this point that much of what counts as an ordinary life in today’s industrial nations will go away forever in the decades ahead of us. The time to prevent that was thirty years ago, and we didn’t. It really is as simple as that."

Another voice in this conversation that so many are having is Dmitry Orlov, who adds, "There is an ever-increasing amount of mainstream media attention being paid to the looming energy crisis. At this point, very few people still argue that there is not a problem with the energy supply, immediately for natural gas, eventually for oil. There is also a viewpoint, which is ever more closely and persuasively argued, that what we have to look forward to is a permanent energy shortfall, which will cause economic and societal dislocations that will be monumental in scope, and will transform the patterns of everyday life. The current, consumer-friendly economy would be no more, replaced with a subsistence economy characterized by a good deal of privation and austerity."

So many are seeing the writing on the wall, and with the media finally being exposed little by little as untrustworthy, corrupt and manipulative, one cannot ignore the changing state of our world. When we cannot trust the media to report what is really going on...then what?
Then it is up to us to listen more carefully, read between the lines and pay closer attention to what we see, what we hear, what we witness and what we learn is not being talked about.
It's time to join in the conversation.
What do you think?

Brief Update

Just wanted to let you all know that I've not fallen off the face of the planet. With only 37 days to go until the big move, we're busy packing in between all the other aspects of our lives. I will posting  "D" in the next couple of days, hopefully tonight!
Hope all of you are well.

What I "C" From the Urban Trench

My apologies for the length of time between posts. Life has a nasty habit of getting in the way when you make other plans.
So the letter of the day is "C". It's taken me a couple of days to list some things that applied to our little world here, and then narrow that list down, but the most important for us is country. As in, we're moving out to it. We're finally getting out of the city, and none too soon. Now, I know that's not news to you regular readers, but it's a huge change for the boys and the dog. Moving from the city to the country will allow us  more freedom, more options, more self-sustainability, and definitely more security. The recent rash of "bath-salts" drug using has me more convinced than ever that we need to get the hell out of Dodge, so to speak. Yes, I know you can find pot growing in the bush because someone figured it was safe there, but at least someone high on pot isn't going to try and eat my face off!

Also a change for us will be the raising of chickens. We'll be raising layers in the hopes that we can keep our mini-horde of egg lovers satisfied, and  any extras (ha!) will be sold to generate money for feed. This is just one way to provide a bit more food security, and eat healthier too!

Compost is a big part of eating healthier in a way. Feed the soil, and you feed the plants, and in turn, eat healthier yourself. So I've been devoting a lot of time to learning how to make compost quicker and better.

Cover crops also help feed and protect the soil. They feed the soil by replacing nutrients and carbon mass, thereby building more productive soil, and increasing crop yield each year.

Speaking of crops, there's dozens that start with our chosen letter of the day. I look forward to harvesting all kinds of carrots, celery and cucumbers. I've never grown collards before, but since someone in the family wants them, we'll give them a go. I've been told they are similar to a cross between turnip greens and spinach. Well, I guess I'll just have to see.

Conservation of water and food has been a big thing for us lately, and will continue to be. I've taken to figuring out how much water we'd need for a week and setting it aside in sanitized 2L pop bottles here. Up at the new homestead, we're already getting rain barrels and eavestrophes in place so that we can save water there. Part of food conservation is canning, which I also look forward to. I've not been able make jam or salsa here, and honestly there's nothing like bright and lively homemade fruit salsa or crunchy pickles.

There's a lot to be said for home cooking too. Eating out has become fraught with super sized portions even I can't finish, preservatives I can't pronounce and a general feeling of dissatisfaction. Making our meals at home allows us a little more control over portion size, favor, spices, sodium and best of all, taste.  Not mention that the amount of food one can buy for $30 eating out is nowhere near the amount of food one can cook for $30. I feel sorry for all those folks at McD's, but my family has to eat better than questionable mystery meat, fries white with salt and drinks I can't finish.

Candles are important to those who like to prepare for emergencies. During thunderstorms, we gather candles in one place and make sure we adults know where the lighter is. Much better than groping in the dark. yes, cell phones give off some light, but I'm not sure I'd want to find my candles by cellphone light! Even if there is an app for that.

Well, this wraps up today's installment. Be sure and let me know about any "C" items I may have missed, in the comments. I love hearing from my readers!

"C" you all next time!

The Many Faces of "B"

When I first sat down to write this post, I had a hard time thinking of words relative to farming and agriculture and prepping that started with B. Clearly I just need more coffee, because once I put my mind to it, there were all kinds of ideas.
The obvious first choices are broccoli, beets and beans. Because my family enjoy both raw and cooked broccoli, I'll be planting some and we'll likely freeze it and eat it raw. Beets are enjoyed as well, though I imagine there will be fewer of these since it has fewer fans in our family. These will be easy to put up pickled. Beans are important to both homesteaders and preppers alike. Many people put up bags and bags of them in case they need to one day rely on their own food supplies instead of the grocery stores. Heirloom beans have as an interesting and varied a story as the history of North America. There are dozens of types, colors, shapes and flavors. I'll be growing green beans and yellow wax, and I'd like to grow butter beans and a new-to-me type called "Orca"
(That's them below)
I'm fascinated by the whole process of taking a seed that looks so interesting, planting it and watching it grow, and then discovering what the pod might look like!

Of course, along the way, there will also be bugs, both good and bad. I'll have to learn how to spot the good guys like Brown Lacewings, Ground Beetles and the bad such as the Mexican Bean Beetle, as well as learn how to take out the bad guys in a way that won't do harm to the ecosystem.
Let's not forget bees too. We'll be planting flowers and herbs throughout the yards (front and back) to encourage bees and butterflies to not only visit, but pollinate as well. It frightens me a little to think about the "dead hive syndrome" that so many bee-keepers are hit with. Whole hives suddenly dying off mysteriously, but there is a theory that chemicals insecticides are the killer. Just one more reason why Monsanto's greatest legacy is wrong for the environment and people.

One of our goals for next year is to plant a few more berry bushes. The fruit will help us produce reams of gleaming jars full of jams and jellies. Raspberries, strawberries, locally foraged blueberries, and high-bush cranberries. I always thought of grapes as berries when I was growing up, and those will be planted in a bright sunny spot as well.

One of my goals this fall is to prepare different vegetable beds throughout the yard. I've put a lot of thought into what size beds I'd like to plant. They'll be anywhere from twelve to fifteen feet long and four feet across. These dimensions should allow me to build enclosures to keep out excessive sun (for those cool weather crops like lettuce and peas), cold, and even the chickens on their free-range days. A bed that is only four feet across allows for much easier weeding from either side. In case you're wondering why I don't just plant traditionally, in rows, I plan on instituting a three year crop rotation plan. This will help cut down on soil diseases and pests, as well as allow for green manure plantings.

I suppose there are dozens of other "B" words that relate to life in the Urban Trench, but the goal here is to get you thinking.
What other "B" words can you think of that might relate?

The A B C's of An Urban Trench

The obvious place to start is "A", of course, and with agriculture.

Wikipedia says that agriculture can be defined as "the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life". The New Oxford American Dictionary  says agriculture is the science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products.

That's still pretty broad. There are dozens of  branches to get lost on in the study of agriculture. If one were to go to school to study agricultural sciences, we would be studying irrigation, agricultural productivity, plant breeding, agricultural diversification, pesticides, soil, agricultural techniques, and the list goes on. So, if we use the two definitions above as our starting off point, we can study how we use animals, plants and fungi in our day to day lives, how they're raised or grown and how we modify them for our own use. Our track record, generally, isn't good.

We have a bad habit of squeezing animals in massive numbers into cages or pens too small for them, denying them basic comforts, force feeding them so that rapid growth benefits us, and even feeding them in a cannibalistic manner because slaughter house floor scrapings are cheaper, never mind the health risk. All one has to do is sit through half of Food Inc. to really see how we treat the animals destined to become our food. Now, I'm not a vegetarian, and I have no plans to become one. My standpoint here is that we, as a higher life form, really should know better than to continue down this slippery slope. We already dance with danger every day. E. Coli and Mad Cow runs rampant, and usually it's because some member of the human race has done something they know is wrong. E. Coli in melons killed 13 people, because two brothers thought they could save a few bucks. 9 people died because of salmonella in peanuts back in 2008. The list is exhaustive, and not the main thrust of this post. You get the point I'm sure.

One way to live healthier is to eat healthy food. I've written here before about diminishing nutrient values in our fruits and vegetables, and while I'm still appalled by it all, let me say that the declining nutrient levels have caused many to start their own gardens. Indeed, it is the main thrust behind my passion for organic growing methods. Growing healthier food starts with healthy soil. Soil that is teeming with life in the form of worms, microbes, fungi and bacteria. Before you get grossed out, these tiny critters are the keystone to good food. If your spadeful of shovel has no worms, chances are it is bereft of the smaller soil-dwellers too. That's not good for the plants. To feed the plants, you must first feed the soil. No soil ... no food.

Massive industrial agriculture is not a viable option for the future as the model stands today. There needs to be a change in our habits, and while there is a revolution that marches on, it is still small. We need to get politics out of our fields so that monsters like Monsanto wither and waste away. We need to get politicians to stop paying farmers to let their fields sit empty, and instead pay them to think more organically. We need to educate more people so that they better understand soil and what should live in it. We need to spread the word about compost so that everyone knows what it does, what it should be and what it can do for us. We need to understand water and how to live with less, as well as how to conserve it both in a small scale and a large one. We need city councils to allow us to raise chickens in our backyards, and sell eggs and grow tomatoes in our front yard if we want; not take homeowners to court when they rip up water-guzzling lawns.

This conversation is a massive, ongoing dialogue, one I hope we can all wade in on and share our opinions. It is only through the exchange of ideas and truly listening to one another that we can learn. So tell me what you think of agriculture today, perhaps you'll teach me something or get me pondering some aspect of it that I had overlooked!

The A B C's of an Urban Trench

One of my fondest memories as a child was watching Sesame Street. I used to love  discovering what the letter of the day was, and learning the word that went along with it. Yeah, I had a sappy childhood, deal with it.
Anyway, I woke up from a nap a few days ago with that memory in mind and found myself pondering an alphabet that related to the things I'm passionate about; farming, agriculture, organic vegetables, human chicken-rearing, food security, being prepared, food politics and all of the other things I've written about here on the blog. So, starting tonight, I'll be starting a new series here in the Urban Trench. I'm also expecting a guest post in the coming two weeks, with an eye to possibly making my guest poster a monthly feature.
So stay tuned, there's a lot of great stuff coming down the Trench!

Why Worry About Sustainability?

Sustainable agriculture is food production through practices that can be continued indefinitely. In conventional, industrial agriculture, natural resources, such as water and soil, are used faster than they can be replaced. The results may include famine, pollution, and habitat destruction.

Benefits of Sustainable Agriculture
Food security: More than a billion people worldwide don’t get enough to eat each day. Sustainable agriculture uses fewer resources and has a lower risk of famine resulting from droughts.
Less environmental impact: Sustainable agriculture does not include the use of harmful pesticides that can pollute the water and soil. It does include reducing soil erosion. Also, fewer nutrients are depleted from the soil, so there is less need to expand farmland. This means that farmers don’t need to continually cut down rainforests and invade other natural habitats because of over-farmed land.
Urban improvements: In inner cities, sustainable agriculture means community and balcony garden projects. These endeavors increase access to fresh, affordable foods, and can make communities more tight-knit.
Health: Sustainable agriculture usually means shifting to a greater emphasis on a plant-based diet. You can lower your risk for heart disease when you eat less fatty red meat and more healthful proteins such as beans.
Cost: Unsustainable agricultural practices will inevitably lead to the depletion of resources like nutrient-rich soil and water. Developing extensive schemes—including irrigation systems—to mitigate these losses is expensive.


Although air and sunlight are available everywhere on Earth, crops also depend on soil nutrients and the availability of water. When farmers grow and harvest crops, they remove some of these nutrients from the soil. Without replenishment, land suffers from nutrient depletion and becomes either unusable or suffers from reduced yields. Sustainable agriculture depends on replenishing the soil while minimizing the use of non-renewable resources, such as natural gas (used in converting atmospheric nitrogen into synthetic fertilizer), or mineral ores (e.g., phosphate). Possible sources of nitrogen that would, in principle, be available indefinitely, include:

• recycling crop waste and livestock or treated human manure
• growing legume crops and forages such as peanuts or alfalfa that form symbioses with nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia

More realistic, and often overlooked, options include long-term crop rotations, returning to natural cycles that annually flood cultivated lands (returning lost nutrients indefinitely) such as the Flooding of the Nile, the long-term use of biochar, and use of crop and livestock landraces that are adapted to less than ideal conditions such as pests, drought, or lack of nutrients.

Sustainable agriculture depends on  inputs being as local to each farm's location as possible. In our case, the manure that will help nourish the soil will come from our own chickens and manure from animals within our community. The other elements that manure cannot provide will come from green manure crops such as nettle, clover and ryegrass. We will be developing a water preservation and storage plan, as well as a crop rotation and companion planting plan also. The more one's gardening can rely on self-produced inputs, or at the very least local ones, the more sustainable each property, farm or homestead will be, and in turn this will ripple outward to the community at large.

We can change our planet one farm, one property, one community at a time. Therein lies our future as a race. That's the only reason we need to apply ourselves to sustainable agriculture.

Sources:

Wikipedia Sustainable Agriculture

Eat, Drink Better

On The Humble, Sweet Tomato

The following information was found in a Lee Valley gardening newsletter from June 2008, written by Ron Rossini, Master Gardener. I'm sharing it here in the hopes that we all enjoy it, as I have.


"Textbook definitions of heirloom plants suggest that any variety cultivated before 1940, the first year of hybrid introductions, can be declared an heirloom. However, purists contend that the only true heirloom plants are those that have been passed down through generations, not just those that date prior to 1940.

The tomato is biologically categorized as a fruit and is similar to other seed-producing garden favorites such as peppers and melons. Gardeners have historically referred to it as a vegetable, and little effort has been made to change that distinction.

Hybrids Versus Heirlooms
 A hybrid plant is the result of crossbreeding two genetically different varieties to create a new one. Heirloom plants are open-pollinated. Their seeds are true to type, meaning they produce plants with exactly the same traits as the parents.
Many hybrids have built-in disease resistance; most heirlooms do not.
Hybrids have a generally higher yield than heirlooms.
Hybrid plants and seeds are easy to find and purchase in garden centers; heirlooms are not.



 Sourcing Heirlooms
 Heirloom plants and seeds are often hard to find at garden centers simply due to low demand. Organizations such as Seed Savers Exchange (www.seedsavers.org) and Seeds of Diversity (www.seeds.ca) are dedicated to saving heirlooms and are a great resource for gardeners looking to do the same. These groups provide information on companies that sell heirloom seeds and plants and many host seed exchange events.


Recommended Heirloom Varieties
 
Purple
'Black Krim' is a mahogany-colored variety with a true tomato taste. A very heavy producer that's prone to cracking. Second choice is 'Black Prince'.

Orange
'Mennonite Orange' is a large, bountiful tomato and truly one of the best-tasting orange varieties. Close second is 'Kellogg's Breakfast'.

Red
'Sioux' is a productive heirloom with smaller rich deep-red colored fruits that have a full-bodied taste. Others include 'Rose de Berne' and 'Costoluto Genovese'.

Green
'Green Zebra' is a smaller-sized milder-tasting variety, but it's a heavy producer that shows pink and yellow on its shoulders when ripe. Others include 'Aunt Ruby's German Green' and 'Green Grape'.

Pink
A tie between the 'Caspian Pink', with its mild sweet flavor and flat fruit, and the 'Pink German Tree Tomato', which has a mild but sweet low-acid taste and treelike stems.


Yellow
'Jaune Negib', a moderate yielding, early-season, small tomato with clusters of golf-ball-sized fruit. Second choices are 'Dr. Wyche's Yellow' and 'Limmony'.

Bicolor
'Northern Lights', with its inner rays of yellow, red and pink, is one of the most beautiful tomato varieties to cultivate and is a highly productive heirloom with a rich taste. 'Big Rainbow' and 'Marvel Striped' are other notable choices.

Beefsteak
'Giant Belgium' has a sweet-tasting fruit that can weigh up to 5 lb. The taste is so sweet that some use it to make wine. Other choices include 'Aussie' and 'Mexico'.


There are thousands of heirloom varieties available and a gardener's only limitation is the size of the garden. Cultivating a tomato that has a rich past adds historical significance to the vegetable garden and rewards the gardener with colorful, tasty culinary presentations. Once you have cultivated an array of heirloom tomatoes, you may never grow an ordinary hybrid variety again."

An East-Coast Fence Up North

One of the things I like to mull over during my more bored moments at work is the future dilemma of fencing. I know the yard up north has visitors of the wild persuasion (the occasional bear, deer and the like), and I'd like to find a way to  protect the garden without resorting to a jarring barrier that screams "A CITY SLICKER LIVES HERE!"
I think I've found a compromise!

The picture to the left there is a fence most often seen in Newfoundland, Canada. It's called a variety of names, Riggle, Wriggle, Riddle ... and it's bloody hard to find any info on the web! The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland & Labrador has this to say,
"The riggle rod (wriggle, riddle, lear, roddle) fence is the most unique fence type in Newfoundland and it is very rare today. It is a combination of a longer fence and a picket fence and has obvious roots in the wattle fences of Medieval England. The riggle rod fence was the most effective in creating a barrier to keep things in or out of an enclosure. This fence type was constructed using three horizontal longers with long slender branches woven alternately between the longers creating an over-and-under effect. The tops of the branches were usually left untrimmed at the top. The branches were pushed close together and once they dried, the fence formed a very strong barrier. This type of fence was economically practical because it did not require the use of nails
on the woven uprights."

While this seems to be an east-coast tool to keep out wind and wildlife, I think it will suit our yard and gardens perfectly. It not only allows me to build it as I can, but also allows me to build it cheaply with saplings from the surrounding forest. Natural, useful and inexpensive ... what more could a gardener want?

A Cup For Your Compost?

I hope I'm not the only one who finds composting fascinating. After all, any process that can take organic waste and break it down into nutrients is an awe-inspiring thing! Tonight I found out that even my morning coffee is nutritious twice!

From The Rodale Book of Composting;
"The nutrient content of coffee residues varies according to the type of residue. Grounds have up to 2% nitrogen, 0.33 % phosphoric acid and varying amounts of potassium. Drip coffee grounds contain more nutrients than boiled grounds, though the potassium content is still below 1%. Other substances found include sugars, carbohydrates, some vitamins, trace elements and caffeine.
Coffee processing plants sell coffee chaff, a dark material containing over 2% nitrogen and potassium. Chaff is useful either as a mulch or as a compost. Apply your coffee grounds immediately, or mix them with other organic matter. They hold moisture extremely well. Left standing, they will quickly sour, inviting acetobacters (vinegar-producing microbes) and fruit flies."

How cool is that! My coffee not only gets me going, but is healthy and helpful for my compost and plants too!

The World As Our Skin

Change is inevitable.
We all change, every day, every minute, every second.
We change our minds, our skin changes, our hormones....we're never exactly the same from minute to minute.
Plants change too. They get taller, or they wilt, or they go yellow, or a deeper shade of green, or they develop a seed pod...or not.
Our animals change. Chickens, dogs, cats, goats, snakes change their skins regularly...
Change happens.
It should be a t-shirt.

I used to hate change. I railed against it, I threw myself into fighting it, only to have to give in to the very thing I objected to. My attitude changed, see, there's change at work again, when I realized that in many things I don't have a choice, so I might as well see the benefit in change. There is a large change planned for our neighborhood. Developers are going to build 70-150 homes in two neighboring cornfields as well as build a water treatment plant down the hill.
It will be a huge change for those who live here. No longer will they be able to walk their dogs down the quiet dead-end street lined with stately cherry, oak and maple trees. There will be a wall keeping people out of the green space beside the river. It will be even more crowded, noisy and very few people will know the person walking down the sidewalk toward them.

Our world will no longer be here, but our world will be changing too.
Our world will soon be ruled, to a great extent, by little balls of peeping fluff, by germination and planting times, by yellow school buses and tides of the river. It will be surrounded by cleaner air and bluer skies, and food we can taste the proper essence of. We will be surrounded by old friends and family once more, and in time, it will be a positive change.

This change will bring with it growth, confidence, a firmer moral compass and clarity. In time, we will grow not only healthy vegetables, but better people.

I can handle a change like that.

The Shrinking Occupation: Farming

I was reading something today that I'd like to share with you, these points were written by Peter Holter, and in my opinion, more people need to see this.


"The average American farmer is 58 years old. The average cattleman is 61 years old.
According to Beef USA, 90% of all U.S. cow herds have less than 100 cows. So there is a declining population of people, with small herds, with growing challenges – and despite the current bubble — a disincentive to carry the ranch forward another generation, in the face of hunger and a growing demand for food.

The good news is there is a new generation coming on that wants to farm and ranch and they are exploring new paradigms – problem is they often can’t afford the land, and there are programs with land trusts, USDA and others to assist — and they desperately want training — not only in production but management to run a smaller, efficient, profitable healthy enterprise. And interestingly many are doing it. Many of them are women – 30% of the 3 million farms are operated by women – today, women are twice as likely to take over an existing enterprise or starting a new one than men."

“The Women and Food Agriculture Network has information indicating that – since 2002 – the agriculture industry has seen a 30 percent increase nationally in the number of women running farms and ranches.  If you look at demographic, social, and economic factors, they indicate that the number will continue to rise in the coming years.”

I have a banner on my Facebook page that says "No farms=no food".
It is true now more than ever with shrinking availability of land, fewer and fewer programs to help new farmers and a retiring group of farmers. The U.S is ahead of Canada in their efforts to try and help the next generation of farmers, and this needs to be rectified. Every country needs to help their farmers, and in the end, help stem the food crisis we all experience.

Micro Mesclun To The Rescue!

Today I got the urge to plant something, and I wasn't at all influenced by the fact that I was hungry.
Right.
I turned the soil in the pot that I had allowed the peas to die, (yes, I did that for a reason). After turning the soil and breaking the peas green matter up, I watered gently with rain water from my bucket outside. I scattered a generous sprinkling of mesclun seed over all this and gently covered with a scattered handful of Miracle Grow soil. (I'm waiting for another handful of compost to be ready, but in the meantime, a mini-farmer's gotta do what she's gotta do) Apparently I should see green sprouts in as early as a week. They can be, and will be, trimmed when they are anywhere between 1 and 6 inches high. My plan for these is simple. Add to salads, wraps, sandwiches...anywhere lettuce is used, these can be used as well. All the knowledgeable sources  say Mesclun is a "gourmet greens mixture", but I just like the way it adds variety to my diet. I like Romaine and Iceberg as much as the next person, but it gets boring after awhile. Mesclun doesn't need as much sun as Buttercrunch lettuce, so maybe, just maybe we'll have a shot at this growing our greens thing, even here.
Oh, and my plan in letting the peas die back? Between my compost bucket outside, the rainwater bucket and micro scale green manure plantings, I am trying to see if my plan for the bigger land can be reproduced  in a north facing apartment. Because if I can do it without a windowsill, so can others.

No matter what gardening books and websites will tell you, not everyone can grow their own salads. I'm here trying to find an alternative for even basement dwellers.

What are you growing this week?