"The tragic reality is that very few sustainable systems are designed or applied by those who hold power, and the reason for this is obvious and simple: to let people arrange their own food, energy and shelter is to lose economic and political control over them. We should cease to look to power structures, hierarchical systems, or governments to help us, and devise ways to help ourselves." - Bill Mollison
Rain rain go away, come again some other day! Record rainfall this month has put a damper on most outdoor gardening activities and with the ground still frozen solid under all that muck all I can say is yuck.:)
So meet the Guytons, looks like they have lots of sunny weather.
Here is another forest garden video for all you weed loving "hippies" whom, like me, never did care to color within the lines as a child.
Synopsis from YouTube:
The Guytons started planting their food forest in 1998 on two acres of bare land in Riverton, New Zealand. This style of gardening was new to Southland so their neighbours did not approve. Now it is an established food forest with hundreds of different plant species. Fruit and nut trees, berries and herbs and wild plants all blended together in a productive and sustainable way.
Not much going on around here, took a picture of some salad greens I picked late yesterday afternoon. It never ceases to amaze me how resilient some of these plants can be to the cold weather. The snow has come and gone a couple times now, the weather has been as low as 10°F (-12.22°C) with most of the month's lows being in the 20° and under range yet we are still able to pick fresh salads from the garden on a daily basis. The amazing part is that nothing pictured above was from under our row covers, but from the outside garden. I'm like a little kid in a candy store, even after all these years it still surprises me so much that I show my wife particular greens as I go through and clean them and we marvel at their tenacity.
In other "exciting" news, the grandson is learning to ice skate...or was, it has since warmed and started raining so the 4" of ice is now covered with another of water. That's OK, we noticed a flaw in our plan as the boy obviously is in need of a full hockey mask lest he knock all his front teeth out...after all, two of those teeth are permanent now.:)
"Nature's book always contains the truth; we must only learn to read it." - Sepp Holzer
I have been following the farming methods of Sepp Holzer for quite a few years now but only recently finished reading his most interesting book titled Sepp Holzer's Permaculture - A practical Guide to Small Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening. The book is a fascinating account of how Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer has, over the past 40 years, transformed his over 100 acres of steep mountain sides into a virtual paradise filled with fruit trees, vegetables, and free ranging animals like the wooly Mangalitza, endangered Turopolje, and other pigs he uses to help clear and till the land.
Diversity instead of monoculture and working with nature rather than against it has allowed him to build a farm that thrives at altitudes ranging upwards of 5,000 ft above sea level with an average (mean) temperature of 39.5°...similar to the average in Duluth MN but with slightly warmer winters.
It's really quite amazing what he has accomplished in this boreal climate. Over 30,000 fruit trees, including citrus, apricot, peach, eucalyptus, fig, and kiwi fruit varieties, dot the landscape. His cherry harvest extends from June all the way into October because the trees are grown at varying altitudes. The Holzer family also enjoys working with unusual crops like primeval grains, mushrooms, and even raise fish in some 70 plus ponds that Sepp has created over the years...the epitome of permaculture. Take a look at the video below and you will see what I am talking about.
(Ohiofarmgirl - pig tilling can be seen at 40:45 minutes)
The movie can be viewed in a larger format at the below link↓...warning, if your computer is as pitifully slow as mine it might be hard to load.
I watched these videos linked from the Homestead Revival blog this morning and thought I would share them here as well. While I do not consider myself to be a hard core doomsdayer (well, maybe just a little:) I surely can see some dark clouds gathering on the horizon and found all of the information put forth by Marjory Wildcraft in this presentation on food storage, water supply, and gardening to be very thought provoking to say the least.
For more information on the subject of food preparedness, my friend Lynn has written numerous excellent posts on her blog about food storage of late that include many useful links.
"Let us be in a position so we are able to not only feed ourselves through home production and storage, but others as well"- Ezra Taft Benson, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Nothing too exciting to report from our Northern Idaho garden as the lackadaisical tranquility of autumn slowly takes hold. Surprisingly warm, above freezing, rainy weather has allowed us an extended grace period in which to finish harvesting the few remaining root vegetables. Purple Top turnips planted in late August have turned into nice little egg-shaped orbs that we have stored away for winter fare. My flock of red headed step children seen in the background were beside themselves waiting in eager anticipation for the nutritious tops to be shared.
The rutabagas have also been packed into totes. We only grew a few this year as they always end up wormy but this season we planted them a bit later, sometime in early July I think, and ended up with a smaller sized but mostly blemish free crop. We planted both the turnips and the rutabagas late in order to avoid issues with root maggots that so often haunt our brassicas during the early spring months.
We also potted up about 15 containers of celery, 3-4 plants per pot, to be used for soups, salads, and stir fry during the cold months. They keep surprisingly well in the root cellar as long as they are not allowed to dry out...you would be amazed at what good use we make of celery around here.
We saw this wonderful video, posted as a reminder to myself, on how to make kimchi this morning. I liked the way she prepared it and am looking forward to trying out this method...I love how she dices her carrots. Unfortunately, with a couple gallons already made it will be sometime before we get around to this. I would like to use turnips in place of radishes and I will probably pass on the squid as we don't have any in our lake...as far as I know.:)
I envy anyone that might have had the opportunity to watch the BBC historical television series Tales From the Green Valley. Although I think I will take a pass on their choice of attire.:)
We have only two TV channels thanks to digital "government" television and, on the rare occasion, that I do or am persuaded to watch the box I am left with very little intellectually stimulating content. Dancing with the Stars (speed dancing?), Deal or No Deal (a mindless greed show?), and a huge amount of horrific sitcoms. Even the local news has become a comedy of errors. Is this really what people want to watch, is this how we stimulate ourselves in this day and age? I can understand why, after a long day, one might want to plop down in front of the tube for some non-thought provoking entertainment...but does every show have to be zombie inducing dribble? I suppose that it's just me and that I can always shut it off if I don't like it, and do. Honestly, I'm a hair's breadth away from tossing the box out the door and using it for target practice so that I could at least stimulate myself with loud noise as my neighbor does with his cannon.
For an un-hip person that has never even owned a cell phone putting up with these worthless boxes (TV, VCR, DVD, digital converter) has been most challenging. Fortunately, we now have to actually slap the larger box on it's side in order to get sound so perhaps when it finally dies...it dies. Oh jeeze, "Ya knows yur a redneck ifen ya has ta slap attair TV in order to make et work and then done threatins ta shoot et efen it don't."
As a child, I grew up watching the Waltons, Little House On the Prairie, and lots of good PBS shows...the only programs I was allowed to watch. All of these were decent forms of entertainment, nothing compared to a good book but still not too bad. Thank goodness for the Internet, at least I can decide on what type of content I choose to partake in, like a whole slew of most wonderful and often informative blogs. Thank you all for for sharing a version of "quality" and enlightening entertainment with us, and if I just bashed one of your favorite television shows I apologize. Really now, how many people besides myself care to watch Dick build a cabin or children in funny pantaloons chasing hogs through the forest...maybe I'm the strange one.
Here is part of a PBS show that was able to watch many years ago and again recently thanks to a video from the local library. When I grow up I hope to be just like Dick.:)
Weary of the world and its illogical ways my wife and I have chosen a path towards self-reliance in all aspects of our lives. Our main focus is on growing and gathering our own food. We hope to use this blog as an avenue to share with and learn from others with similar interests.
The Good Life (click↓)
"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." M. Gandhi
"Deep inside everyone of us is a call to the wild. Much of the impatience, discontent or violence around us is due to a lack of opportunity to reconnect with where we came from. For sanity and generosity of spirit, we should be able to witness nature at its unceasing, rejuvenating work." - Abdul Kareem
On Permaculture, Edible Landscaping and Garden Plants
"The fair-weather gardener, who will do nothing except when the wind and weather and everything else are favorable, is never master of his craft."--Henry Ellacombe
"Subsistence defines us. We battle the elements and sometimes risk our lives for the foods we crave. It is not an easy life, but it is ours." -- Arthur Lake, Kwigillingok Tribe
"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness." - Justice William O. Douglas
