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Post by synergy on Dec 14, 2010 13:49:51 GMT -5
Coastal British Columbia was speculated in the news to have the worst winter in a hundred years . But i am not seeing it. We had one bout of freezing cold and snow with temperatures to minus 16 ish overnight (wind chill) and besides that solitary week, not even not a single day of frost. It is a balm wet 5 degrees celsius and I am typically working outside in polar fleece top with a tshirt underneath . I know better than to hope to plant in a cold frame with so much winter ahead but man it is tempting! If I knew it was going to stay this way I would mound a lot of manure pile for heat and make a coldframe out of salvaged hay bales and old windows. Wishful thinking and fantasizing about fresh swiss chard ...
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Post by synergy on Dec 14, 2010 0:17:30 GMT -5
So temperature and leaching from decomposing matter seem to make a difference to the micro organisms ? Oh MY! That John Evans clip knocked my socks off! I don't know what was more exciting , the volume of production or the fact that he dug out all those potatoes with his hands! So no surprise John Evans markets his fungal innoculant mix and i have heard it is a bit of a scam , that the length of daylight in that microclimate allows for others to achieve that same type of growth : www.bountea.com/ I am tempted to try his ammendment though.
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Post by synergy on Dec 14, 2010 0:08:33 GMT -5
I hung onto shelves of Organic Gardening magazine from the 70's
I also believe eating low on the food chain to be a better strategy . But I am hedging my bets with ducks that eat slugs and flies and geese that eat grass and produce eggs, fatty meat, and down , just in case...
I deeply regret the money and energy I sunk into underground drainage and now I am racking my brain to turn it all to my advantage and combine that with swales and catchment ponds to conserve water for some kind of food production, carp, frogs, aquatic plants , irrigating plants?
The more you start connecting the dots , the more you get a clearer vision of the big picture of what is coming to be . I live a few blocks from the US border with a clear open view of anyone traipsing up the hill : )
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Post by synergy on Dec 11, 2010 16:59:25 GMT -5
I live in the valley suburbs of Vancouver B.C. in the agricultural land reserve. I don't have TV but I do think the majority of Canadians are saddly disillusioned consumers continueing for the most part in a business as usual manner to meet the status quo type of existance and I think it is barreling head on down the path to economic despair , breakdown and worse , environmental collapse .
I strive every day to live more sustainably in many facets of our life here.
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Post by synergy on Dec 11, 2010 16:35:10 GMT -5
I am wondering what the 'magic' or the essential element cooking or slow burning the fibre is , over just long term composting like a 'huglekultur ' bed does?
I find the lazy mans way to churn compost into clay soil is to confine large livestock on the area to be ammended each year , let them punch it into the ground while they play , in about three - five years you should have really nice soil . I figure earth worms can do their thing too , I top dress only. The other methods may work but they sound like intensive inputs of energy.
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Post by synergy on Dec 11, 2010 13:11:52 GMT -5
Just a brief clip of a documentary but mentions Amazone terra preta soils in some places to the depth of 6 feet, that is pretty substantial over a large area. I have been spreading manure from our farm for 15 years , before that in digging I did find middens where an earlier generation had buried glass and china shards , cans and it strikes me that human and animal waste alike would be retained on the property in the soil . I do indeed think that type of ammendment to form a layer of soil to that depth would take generations as 15 years of non till here I am just seeing glimpses of soil changes such as higher populations of earthworms, more fungi and I have just started planting trees in more earnest which should add to that in the coming decades if my land is retained by my family and kept in a permaculture type production that I envision. But 6 feet of terra preta type soil is very impressive. www.livescience.com/common/media/video/player.php?aid=24180
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Post by synergy on Dec 11, 2010 12:25:53 GMT -5
I found an interesting website that discusses the utilization of biochar today in agriculture as an alternative to oil derived fertilizes , many of you may be familiar with this premise. www.biocharsolution.com/about/Th website offers a formulation for the production of biochar based on the idea of baking wood or other sources of caron such as grass or manure at high temperatures in an environment with limited oxygen in a cylinder . www.biocharsolution.com/the-biochar-solution/make-your-own-biochar/But I will offer if you go to this website for anything, take the time look at the climate information posted , it is a very sobering confirmation of exactly why we need to be embracing a change in lifestyle to preserve our ability for large vertabrates to live on this planet as that is now in peril and includes humankind. peaksurfer.blogspot.com/2009/06/doomer-porn.html
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Post by synergy on Dec 9, 2010 22:52:46 GMT -5
I think maybe more than one of you is correct, like permaculture of the time may have been to use everything even cremated remains and feces, bones , ashes, charcoal distinguished after cooking or use for smoking . If my house was made of fibrous plant material and it started to mildew with humidity and infest with insects, well burning it and retaining the open area for either rebuilding or farming may be a better alternative to dealing with erradicating insects and molds and rotating the compost there after would then make it a nice garden plot. There is also to consider the phenomena of felled wood actually smouldering under ground slowly burning for periods of time like a peat bog fire ? Perhaps people took advantage of this ? People die, and epidemics arise and bodies need to be burnt perhaps on piers, neighbouring tribes attack and kill and burn the structures. Maybe there was some of cannabalism or sacrifice but I cannot imagine a society where it was practiced heavily as most societies need their family and community to live. Natives here in BC were known to use burning and cutting to fell and utilize wood for boat building , why not in the amazon too? Trees are struck by lightening and burn to the ground . Slash and burn of forest may have been employed to clear area for villages or agricultural areas? Maybe the role of mildew is not taken into account enough in how the materials may have transormed to soils? Maybe more than one thing contributed to the terra pretta type soil , sort of a permacultural phenomena.
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Post by synergy on Dec 9, 2010 21:58:59 GMT -5
Good find, I have been on that site probably 20 times and never noticed them, even reading on seed saving. Thank you : )
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Post by synergy on Nov 29, 2010 21:22:20 GMT -5
May I ask what do they taste like and in your opinion are they for cooking or raw consumption? Are they primarily for human consumption or are they grown for animal fodder as well?
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Post by synergy on Nov 29, 2010 18:31:17 GMT -5
Another eye opening thread for me, having never heard of oca before. It seems there are whole other worlds of food crops to explore we have never seen or tried here that might even grow in a pacific coastal temperate zone 7b ?
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Post by synergy on Nov 29, 2010 4:27:49 GMT -5
My investment has been into my soil. I for one really feel I can turn around how I live and provide for a lot more of my famillies needs right here on a small 4 acre farm . I think once we start expanding our farming repetoires we can do quite nicely, sesame seed can be grown containing 50% oil but takes 90 - 150 days to mature. I honestly think while we need fats and oils , I may be able to do without refined oils but it might take some adaptation to my eating habits and cooking skills, for instance using a mortar and pestle to grind enough sesame to contribute oil to a flatbread or houmus . www.jeffersoninstitute.org/pubs/sesame.shtmlThe more I open my eyes the more opportunity I see. All we can do is change our own actions but what a difference we can make in our own lives. And we can network with others right now who are complimentary to our communities.
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Post by synergy on Nov 28, 2010 12:47:09 GMT -5
Seedywen, why did you switch from geese to ducks? I am planning to have very small flocks rotating of each. The geese primarily for around the orchard type plantings and a few ducks for around the stableyard and gardens to keep down slugs , snails and bugs.
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Post by synergy on Nov 28, 2010 12:39:40 GMT -5
Joseph, your pictures on your website are really lovely depictions of what you grow and inspirational. Its a nice touch to see it is a family endeavour, it has an emotional draw.
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Post by synergy on Nov 28, 2010 5:04:52 GMT -5
Thats my question too .
I think it is challenging enough trying to grow food responsibly without pesticides, herbacides, fungacides and non GMO without government controling what I can grow that is open pollinated heirloom plant material.
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