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Post by synergy on Feb 20, 2013 1:40:41 GMT -5
Okay, so I will check out what Salt Spring seeds has for quinoa and amaranth and millet and other things .
How rainy is it here? I named one of my kids Rayne and the other Forrest. I am right along the southern side of the Fraser Valley along the border away from the mountains so I have less rain than most areas up here. This has been a relatively mild winter here so far, we get a far amount of rain but the ground is not as saturated as last winter . My garden bed area soils are worked reasonably loose with years of manure and not too clayish. I have limited the amount of land I have worked up to plant because I truly know I will not be able to maintain as much as I would wish to grow . Every year I hope to do a bit more .
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Post by steev on Feb 20, 2013 2:05:07 GMT -5
Keep on truckin'; plant those perennials where you can't work things more frequently; bit by bit it gets more productive and sustainable, even as we decline.
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Post by synergy on Feb 20, 2013 14:28:59 GMT -5
Steev, your last comment brings me full circle to my thought that my family should be working on a multigenerational estate, pulling together to build and maintain things that last, plant groves of trees , stock ponds , homes and buildings built to serve centuries and discard the financial systems with each generation adding on to what they are handed . I know that system would not work for everyone but I slays me when I see lovely old homesteads or permaculture food forests someone spent a lifetime adding to, be sold and ripped apart for development . My proximity to the urban lands will likely see that happen here too but I still keep planting wee trees .
I have been trying to transplant some 3 foot high walnut saplings today and good grief those things are already almost impossible to dig out . I feel like I need a nap before my next attempt and I am only 48 .
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 20, 2013 15:32:06 GMT -5
Yeah, it would be nice if some of the younger generation would step up here and take a hand to help. I'm not getting younger...well except in my own mind. I can see them now, planting houses where I plant corn. It's an ugly thought.
I'd love to see the farm continue through the generations, getting better with each one. Leo and I have worked so hard here.
Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh.
Steev, if that Glaskins Perpetual makes flowers, save me some seed.
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Post by steev on Feb 20, 2013 23:30:23 GMT -5
Oh, you betcha, Holly; seeds for you and Joseph. Flowers on Glaskin's? I'll be amazed if there are leaves; damned gophers! I'll re-seed this year, for planting out next. I've wired the rhubarb I put out this year.
Houses as a crop! Yes, the family farm of 160 years ago is now condos, having been pissed away though the generations, lastly by the duplicitous cousin who had moved to Texas. He now has the finest marker in the family plots, thanks to his grateful widow, who never had any connection whatsoever to the family land. Do I piss on that headstone whenever I'm in the cemetary (which the family gave to the town in 1870)? Nobody knows; nobody sees, but me. No, I don't wear a long black veil, nor can I sing like Joan Baez. I heard her a few years back in SF, at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival; she still had some serious pipes.
I'll have no grandchildren, a great disappointment to me, but there it is. I'm banking on one of my nephews having enough sense to see that I'm building a foundation on which the family can continue to build and rely, not a sure thing, at all. If it doesn't work out, I won't know, anyway.
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Post by bunkie on Mar 12, 2013 11:52:00 GMT -5
Rhubarb is pretty darn easy to grow. Used to be almost ubiquitous. LOL!!! Ain't that how it always is in the garden? One person's falling-off-a-log-easy is like climbing-a-mountain for another. I have planted Rhubarb roots many times. I'm going to try again this year, but from seeds. Hopefully there will be enough genetic diversity in the seed lot that something will survive for me. like horseradish is easy to grow, and will takeover your garden...i finally have a nice patch coming back this year. only took me 15 years to get it right!  Florida freeze hammers corn and beans, increases priceswww.agprofessional.com/newsletters/agpro-weekly/articles/Florida-freeze-hammers-corn-and-beans-increases-prices-196478501.htmlLow temperatures have damaged as much as a quarter of south Florida’ spring sweet corn and harmed the region’s green beans.
The temperatures sunk into the mid-20s during the overnight hours of March 4 affected demand and sent bean prices soaring.... |
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 12, 2013 17:40:33 GMT -5
We have no rain. I'm in an area that usually doesn't start irrigating until late April. It's dry dry and drier.
And the price of gas went up 40 cents here. That's nothing to the price of beef though....
I'm setting aside 1/4 acre for my own chicken food. I will not be robbed by the ag store again. $35.00 for a 50lb sack of organic chicken food.
Well, today they're going to eat the shells of "little green seed" and like it. Sheesh, rice at Costco was cheeper than chicken feed.
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Post by davida on Mar 12, 2013 20:25:04 GMT -5
I'm setting aside 1/4 acre for my own chicken food. I will not be robbed by the ag store again. $35.00 for a 50lb sack of organic chicken food. Holly, What are you planning to plant for the chickens and how much of each? The organic feed here has alot of dried field peas to raise the protein. My chickens really love wheat. It is not organic but at least it is not GMO. I do not worry that much about protein since they get all the extra milk products. David |
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Post by steev on Mar 12, 2013 20:31:27 GMT -5
It is indeed dry. I'm planting more sorghums this year because of that, and to begin focussing on food for critters that I will want to eat. I'll be more attentive to planting by irrigation needs, as well as moving my irrigation to be more efficient, like running tube along new corn plantings, but shifting to only between rows as the corn establishes roots. More mulch!
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Post by Drahkk on Mar 12, 2013 21:32:19 GMT -5
I'd share my rain with you guys if I could. My yard is about as soft as it can get, and I'm still waiting on the standing water from this weekend to go down enough that I can cut our winter weeds and clover. (Grass is still asleep, but the weeds are up.) That, and I need to start tilling all the ground I'm planning to plant in a couple of weeks, if the mud dries up...
MB
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Post by bunkie on Mar 13, 2013 12:40:58 GMT -5
... I will not be robbed by the ag store again. $35.00 for a 50lb sack of organic chicken food.... holy cow holly! we pay $18.83 for 50 pounds of organic duck/poultry food! must be the area, huh? i've been working on a plan to grow our duck and goat feed also. this year we'll have wheat, corn, oats, barley, etc... in an area behind the barn to grow, that was summer-falled last year. ducks ar more difficult to feed than chickens. they can't break stuff up easily cause they don't have that pointed beak. also, on the generational front... Farm On- It's Our Turnwww.youtube.com/watch?v=2TsQs40EoIk&feature=youtu.beinteresting read... When agriculture stops working: A guide to growing food in the age of climate destabilization and civilization collapsewww.resilience.org/stories/2013-03-13/when-agriculture-stops-working-ten-recommendations-for-growing-food-in-the-anthropocene2 parts. Part 1,outlines the issues. Part 2, offers 'Ten Recommendations for Growing Food in the Anthropocene....... |
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 13, 2013 15:31:04 GMT -5
For the chickens, I'm growing wheat, corn, camelina (thanks Oxbow),
Buckwheat, sorghum, sunflower seeds, and turnips. The turnips are really cool, because if you move the chickens quick enough, and irrigate, they come back.
I met this woman who was working with Hedgerow Farms. She's a farm advisor up North somewhere, she was going to work with me on planting a permanent hedgerow for chicken grazing. This consists of things like perennial wheat, forbes, and root crops. The chickens must be moved daily.
She never got back to me, so I'm working on it alone. This is supposed to be something we run the chickens on through the summer and early fall. It re-seeds in fall, and re-sprouts in Spring.
Meanwhile, we're harvesting the wheat, corn and sunflowers for winter.
I noticed those field peas in those mixes for protein. I'm actually thinking of using lentils. The folks at CAEB are thinking about making a small combine that runs off the BCS. Any of you interested, please e-mail them and encourage them!
On my want list:
1. Still
2. Mill
3. CAEB round hay baler
4. New BCS.
5. Berta Rotary Plow
6. Tater digger.
Along with some solar panels and water tanks. I think Leo will probably get these, before I get the above. Of course, he brought up the still last week, so I think I'm getting closer.
Just in case you were wondering, I want to process some of my potatoes into 100 proof to make my own tinctures. Right now I buy 100 proof to do it, and that stuff has also gone sky high.
As you can see, each year, I'm looking to integrate more bottom to top of what I grow.
Organic tinctures are now running $11.83 for a 2 oz. bottle. Hey I can chop my own valerian for $11.83 and make a pint!
Back to work
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Post by steev on Mar 13, 2013 21:49:36 GMT -5
CAEB? Vas ist das, bitte?
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Post by oxbowfarm on Mar 13, 2013 23:41:47 GMT -5
I think a BCS combine would be excessively complex and thus expensive. What I'd love to see is a BCS compatible stationary threshing machine. I can get my crop to the BCS, I just need it to clean it for me.
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Post by steev on Mar 13, 2013 23:47:46 GMT -5
Good point. The few small thresher-harvesters available are grossly expensive, due to meager market and low demand. Certainly seems there ought to be something available meant for low-volume usage from the start, rather than only stuff "downsized" from agribusiness.
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