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Post by wolfcub on Mar 30, 2013 9:10:31 GMT -5
Circumspice every success or accomplishment starts with baby steps. Keep going don't give up. I enjoy your posts.
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Post by steev on Mar 30, 2013 10:24:15 GMT -5
Yes; so much to do, so little time, energy, resources.
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Post by bunkie on Apr 6, 2013 11:27:38 GMT -5
Rough news for Britain... Britain running out of wheat as cold weather crisis hits farmerswww.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/exclusive-britain-running-out-of-wheat-as-cold-weather-crisis-hits-farmers-8562648.htmlThe dismal harvests will increase the country's reliance on the secretive trading firms which dominate the international grain market
Britain will be forced to become a net importer of wheat for the first time in a decade this year, after the recent bitter weather devastated crops.
A disastrous 12-month cycle of poor weather has ruined harvests across the UK, costing farmers an estimated £500m, the chief economist of the National Farmers Union (NFU) warned.
The conditions mean Britain – traditionally a significant net exporter of wheat – will have to boost imports by more than a million tonnes.... |
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Post by galina on Apr 7, 2013 6:22:33 GMT -5
Rough news for Britain... Britain running out of wheat as cold weather crisis hits farmerswww.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/exclusive-britain-running-out-of-wheat-as-cold-weather-crisis-hits-farmers-8562648.htmlThe dismal harvests will increase the country's reliance on the secretive trading firms which dominate the international grain market
Britain will be forced to become a net importer of wheat for the first time in a decade this year, after the recent bitter weather devastated crops.
A disastrous 12-month cycle of poor weather has ruined harvests across the UK, costing farmers an estimated £500m, the chief economist of the National Farmers Union (NFU) warned.
The conditions mean Britain – traditionally a significant net exporter of wheat – will have to boost imports by more than a million tonnes....And next year will be no better. Winter wheat has not germinated properly due to the flooding and very late start to the season. This means that farmers have to sow again and it may be too late for this as March was a record cold month and April hasn't exactly started with spring weather either. Normally Oil Seed Rape (aka Canola) flowers late April/May, this year the plants are non existent to sparse due to flooding and those few that made it are a couple of inches high only. If summer is as bad as last year and these crops need much longer because they have been held back by this very cold spring, farmers will run out of growing season before they can harvest in 2013. Vegetable prices are going up definitely - let's hope Spain has a good growing season because a lot of our vegetables are imported. This mitigates against disastrous price rises here to some extent, but it is no good if Spanish desertification and irrigation problems get worse too in this changing climate. Growing our own food, especially a wide variety of different items, is a very good idea indeed for gardeners. |
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Post by bunkie on Apr 7, 2013 11:18:00 GMT -5
...Growing our own food, especially a wide variety of different items, is a very good idea indeed for gardeners. Right on galina! Russians Proving That Small-Scale, Organic Gardening Can Feed the Worldreclaimgrowsustain.com/content/russians-proving-small-scale-organic-gardening-can-feed-worldWhen it's suggested that our food system be comprised of millions of small, organic gardens, there's almost always someone who says that it isn't realistic. And they'll quip something along the lines of, "There's no way you could feed the world's growing population with just gardens, let alone organically." Really? Has anybody told Russia this?
On a total of approximately 8 million hectares (20 million acres) of land, 16.5 million Russian families grow food in small-scale, organic gardens on their Dachas (a secondary home, often in the extra urban areas). Because growing your own food happens to be a long-lived tradition in Russia, even among the wealthy.
Based on the 1999 "Private Household Farming in Russia" Gosmkostat (State Committee for Statistics) statistics, these Dacha families produced:
38% of Russia's total agricultural output
41% of the livestock
82% of the honey
79% of the sold cattle
65% of the sold sheep and goats
59% of the milk
31% of the sold poultry
28% of the eggs
91% of the potatoes
76% of the vegetables
79% of the fruits
If Russian families can manage such production in their region's very short growing season (approx. 110 days), imagine the output most parts of the world could manage by comparison. Unfortunately in just the US alone, lawns take up more than twice the amount of land Russia's gardens do (est. 40-45 million acres). |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 11, 2014 23:18:10 GMT -5
I am paying more attention this year to growing staples: Things that are easy to grow and that can be stored long term without refrigeration and that are highly nutritious: Corn, beans, peas, potatoes, squash, etc. I'm intending to store and eat more of my own food. Accordingly I made a bean/pea and sweet corn soup this week. It was flavored with Egyptian onions and a few spices that I have no hope of ever growing. The corn is Astronomy Domine, and LISP Ashworth, and anything else that was left over from a breeding project.  |
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Post by longhorngardens on May 12, 2014 5:43:36 GMT -5
That looks tasty.
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Post by MikeH on May 12, 2014 18:01:56 GMT -5
Yep. Our experience has been that the relationship to the what you are growing changes dramatically. For example, a couple of years ago I was walking up to the house from the garden and had just bitten into the first tomato of the season. I suddenly had this thought "What if the skies open and the hail destroys the tomato vines? You've just eaten next year's seed." So now the first of whatever annual we harvest is always saved for seed. You see the garden differently when you try to put it on your plate as much as possible.
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Post by steev on May 12, 2014 19:31:35 GMT -5
True, that. Here in the SF Bay Area (where the 12 near counties hold as much population as the entire state did when I was born), the average yard could largely support at least 10 people, worked intensively for productivity year-round, if not preference (that would force trade and community, maybe even broader appreciation of foods to which one is not yet accustomed. Wow!).
Given that the Bay Area is overdue for the next Really Big Earthquake, wouldn't it be good if our urban landscape were bulging with produce that didn't need to be trucked in? How could other urban centers profit from this sort of "emergency preparation"?
As it is, the average urban yard around here supports two people: me and my helper, maintaining the landscaping, not that I'm complaining; landscaping has been very, very good to me, freeing me from more stressful, though more lucrative, work and giving me the freedom to develop my hobby-farm and to try to perfect the blending of the hunter-gatherer and farming lifestyles.
As for having just eaten next year's seeds, not always that big a problem; so many plants routinely (some obligatorily) send their seeds through critters' guts that the solution is obvious: crap in your field. There are reasons why tomatoes grow in cornfields, often quite vigorously. Granted, not as pleasant in wintry climes, wind-chill and all; one must adapt practice to prevailing conditions, like the visibility of your garden to the neighbors and their degree of repression about natural life.
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Post by 12540dumont on May 12, 2014 21:46:42 GMT -5
Well, I'll tell you, I haven't found a way to put up turnips, or the larder would be overflowing. Joseph, I'll pm you a photo of your turnips. Talk about a bumper crop. One 25 foot row has easily given me 75 pounds of turnips.
I agree, corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onions and herbs. I can eat them in a thousand variations. We are down to the last 3 jars of spag sauce and 3 jars left of ench sauce. But there's still a dozen jars of jam and a dozen jars of pickles leftover from last year. And of course, beans/squash/corn.
And if Steev ever gets a gun, plenty of squirrel pie.
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Post by Walk on May 14, 2014 16:20:03 GMT -5
Well, I'll tell you, I haven't found a way to put up turnips, or the larder would be overflowing. Talk about a bumper crop. One 25 foot row has easily given me 75 pounds of turnips. Turnips can be fermented into "sauerkraut." Our favorite "kraut" is made from kohlrabi and winter radish. We've also used rutabaga. Any combination is good, but then I'm of German descent. ;>) |
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Post by raymondo on May 14, 2014 17:10:20 GMT -5
I love homemade sauerkraut and homegrown kohlrabi. In fact, homegrown is about the only way to get hold of kohlrabi. It's not popular here though I can't think why. It's delicious. Anyway, next time I have a batch of them I'll use them instead of cabbage in the sauerkraut. Thanks for the idea Larisa.
As far as staples go, I grow quite a few dry beans, squash, potatoes and recently a little corn. I have trouble using the corn as I'm not familiar with it as a grain. Thanks to this forum and the internet though, my knowledge base is widening.
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Post by steev on May 14, 2014 18:36:30 GMT -5
Turnips and radishes, daikon, are a staple in kimchee: plenty of garlic and chillies; get you through a rough Winter with no scurvy, you betcha! Got clothespins?
Had I a gun, here in Oakland, I could put it to more profitable use hunting the pigeons, possums, raccoons, turkeys, and even deer that are pests in the urban East Bay, except it's prohibited to discharge a gun in urban areas, which is why these critters are so pestiferous.
Or, I could take off the occasional liquor store and buy food at the supermarket, but the competition is stiff in that lifestyle; people act like they're doing it to survive or feed their Joneses. Nah, I'm too lazy for that; can't run fast/far enough, these days; I'll garden, gun-less. Maybe I'll get some gopher traps; protein is protein; dirt-rat may be tasty; only one way to find out; with a little kimchee, might be great.
Oh! Now I'm wondering, what if gopher is delicious; what would I plant to attract gophers? So far, my best guess is anything I don't want the little rotters to eat.
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Post by 12540dumont on May 15, 2014 14:25:37 GMT -5
Want gophers? Potatoes and Sunchokes, onions, carrots, squash, eggplants, peppers, an occasional tomato, cukes, strawberries, artichokes, broc, cauli, peas, beans...Actually the only thing they do not eat on the farm is asparagus and tomatillos.
Why don't the bastards die when they eat digitalis?
Steev, you can hunt gopher on my farm all day. I'll lend you a gun. In 30 years I have NEVER caught a gopher in a trap. And no they don't eat gum, burning sulphur doesn't work...it's a little like Caddy Shack here. What works...bow and arrow, pellet gun, cat, pitchfork....and a 57 Chevy with the exhaust pumped into the hole. Unfortunately I don't think the last is "organic" approved. Anyway, I don't have a 57 Chevy.
My gophers are fat and sleek. Leo calls them golden backs. Their fur shines in the sun. Their beady little eyes sparkle in the shade of the peas...
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Post by blueadzuki on May 15, 2014 17:23:39 GMT -5
Why don't the bastards die when they eat digitalis? You might as well as why, when the squirrels and chipmunks gorge themselves on the leftover senna seed I toss out (and they do), it doesn't behave in the same laxative manner as it does on people and they don't s**t 'till their little rodent anuses rupture (even if that didn't happen, you think they could at least pay me back for the seed with fertilizer.....) |
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