[Image] Square Foot Planting Guide Via Farmer’s Pal
[Image] Square Foot Planting Guide Via Farmer’s Pal
Tag: farming
Earth Eats: Interview w/manager of the Local Growers Guild
contributor Gabrielle Price
This is an excerpt from a broadcast featuring the manager of the Local Growers’ Guild [and my housemate at Sunny Branch Farm], Megan Hutchison. The Refreshment Center Radio Show will have Megan on as our guest, along with many other locals involved in the food movement here in Bloomington in future. I’m excited about this new direction and hope you’ll enjoy the sounds [and sights] TRC plans to deliver throughout the year.
With the internet so prevalent as a teaching tool, my wish is to connect other local food movements to share data, especially as the climate continues to change and perhaps help other growers in areas where some crops used to do well but growing seasons may have altered. I’ll also have folks on from other countries, some who are doing incredible things with keyline and permaculture techniques – to see how that works in places here in the U.S.
Not to mention recipe swaps!
I thought this Earth Eats broadcast would be a good segue into what our local focus is, the direction we intend to go, not to mention it’s a fine introduction to Megan; a friend and fellow foodie you’ll be hearing more about! There is a very active food movement here and I’m excited to share it with you.
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Earth Eats is a weekly podcast, public radio program and blog bringing the freshest news and recipes inspired by local food and sustainable agriculture, featured on Indiana Public Media on the web.
The Local Growers’ Guild is a cooperative of farmers, retailers, and community members dedicated to strengthening the local food economy in Southern Indiana through education, direct support, and market connections. The LGG’s mission is to create a local food system that provides quality food to communities through direct markets and retailers; preserves the viability of family farms; improves the quality of life for growers; makes food issues visible; and promotes practices that preserve and protect the Earth.
http://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10151331062459877
New Mexico WOOFing Trip Pictoral
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| View from kitchen window in the WOOFers quarters |
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| WOOFers quarters, outside |
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| Weeping willow out front is where the turkeys roost at night. |
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| Biochar stove – just fired up today |
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| Hothouse/greenhouse |
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| Potatoes, squash, melons and raspberries |
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| Solar water pump, pump house and cistern |
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| Second solar water pump, in front of goat house |
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| Yummy asparagus patch behind WOOFers quarters |
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| View from the fire pit |
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| Another fire pit view |
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| The goats, L to R, Bella, Lillian and little Peanut |
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| My host’s straw bale house |
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| Two of three turkeys that like to follow you around |
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| Lillian is quite a ham |
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| The solar oven – first try with beans but it was overcast |
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| The outdoor kitchen |
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| Wood-fire cobb oven in outdoor kitchen |
It is indeed rare for me to find myself speechless when visiting a place — but this is something that needs to be absorbed and savored [and I’m also learning and working every day!] Valuable life skills to take back to Indiana that I hope one day to build upon with a like-minded community.
"We Forget That Dinosaurs Go Extinct"
h/t Moyers & Company
Bill Moyer talks to scientist and philosopher Vandana Shiva, who’s become a rock star in the global battle over genetically modified seeds. These seeds — considered “intellectual property” by the big companies who own the patents — are globally marketed to monopolize food production and profits. Opponents challenge the safety of genetically modified seeds, claiming they also harm the environment, are more costly, and leave local farmers deep in debt as well as dependent on suppliers. Shiva, who founded a movement in India to promote native seeds, links genetic tinkering to problems in our ecology, economy, and humanity, and sees this as the latest battleground in the war on Planet Earth.
Moyers remarked that Shiva is facing an “uphill battle,” being one woman against some of the most powerful corporations on the planet. Shiva replied that under the teachings of the sacred Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gita, duty comes before any thought of outcome.
“You do not measure the fruit of your actions,” she said, “You have to measure the obligation of your actions. You have to find out what’s the right thing to do. That is your duty. Whether you win or lose is not the issue.”
Who Am I To Farm? Excerpt from The Permaculture Handbook
“The emergence of garden farms is at hand. Under the pressure of necessity as unemployment rippled through the economy, millions of North Americans turned to gardening or expanded their gardens in 2009 as evidenced by a 40% increase in vegetable seed sales. Urban homesteading is spawning its own literature as energy descent forces more and more households to adapt in place. With income constrained and energy and materials shortages looming, the only resources capable of filling the gap in livelihood are imagination, information, and knowledge, in particular a deeper understanding of the material cycles and energy flows of nature. For that understanding, we look to permaculture, a language derived from the patterns of the world around us.”
Read more about Peter’s new book just uploaded at Permaculture Activist.
Who Am I to Farm?
by Peter Bane
by Peter Bane
from issue #82, GROWING STAPLE CROPS • NOVEMBER 2011, excerpted from Peter’s new book: The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country.
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