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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Tillage is tillage

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  • From: "David Inglis" <mhcsa AT verizon.net>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Tillage is tillage
  • Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2007 23:19:21 -0500

Mr. Tradingpost said:
> No amount of green philosophy is going
> to make people work 40 hours a week on an outside job to pay bills, and
> then work another 40 in the garden just because they believe in it.

... and no amount of 40 or 80 hour work weeks on the farm without a 'green
philosophy' will sustain the 'bottom line' of a farm enterprise beyond the
first few decades, or even years.
I learned my farming on a place that had been worked continually for over a
thousand years. This was not achieved by focusing exclusively on annual net
margins or the like though they knew exactly what they were.

You have asked "I want
> to know all the ways people cut inputs and costs and raise production on a
> yearly basis -"
To which I have replied: husband the soil. Well, this is my experience and I
could elaborate endlessly on it, but just because it is not the answer you
were looking for does not mean it is not a thoughtful and sincere response
to your perfectly valid question. It is true that it is an approach that is
not Annual which is what you were requesting but neither is Agriculture.
There is no annual fix for problems that are perennial.
I, like anyone else who has been doing this for a while, have endless
'techniques' for making a success of any one season but I learned a long
time ago that putting a bigger pump on the irrigation line will only drain
the pond quicker unless I find a way to get more water to flow into the
pond; and that comes first.
David
Mahaiwe Harvest CSA
Massachusetts








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