From karen at rootsfarm.info Sun Mar 4 16:10:38 2018 From: karen at rootsfarm.info (karen sutherland) Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2018 17:10:38 -0400 Subject: [Market-farming] Help for Roots Farm, Dominica Message-ID: So many of you have asked how you could help us survive and recover from Hurricane MARIA which in one night in September 2017 destroyed our farm, an investment of some 17 years, along with almost all Dominican agriculture. Apologies that the rigors of day-to-day survival here and the difficulties of communication have delayed my response and also keep me from answering individually. Brief recap and update: Category 5++ Hurricane Maria packing winds in excess of 220 mph danced a ( beginners) Argentine tango down the spine of Dominica. Our farm at 1600-1800' got kicked to death. 17.5 acres of mostly interplanted tree and root crops just reaching 1st year of commercial productivity after 16+ years of hard labor, intermittent weather catastrophes (like the terrible landslides from TS Erika in 2015 followed by the damages from the winds of TS Matthew) and heavy financial investment which effectively converted all assets (except land) into now unpayable loans. (Other undeveloped rainforest land will have to be sold to pay off those loans, hopefully to someone who will treasure and preserve what is left of the postMaria forest). Government assistance in the past has been limited to treated seeds, synthetic fertilizers and Ag chemicals along with discounted prices on treated seedlings. 5+ months post Maria, we have not received any aid to rebuild. We have cleared the rubble and replanted a market garden with short term crops for some income to keep our and our long time farmworker's family eating and paying (some) bills. We are now about ready to start cleaning and replanting the farm proper. We have no financial resources left to rebuild (or income to repay the crushing debt required to establish the farm). Weather has been very difficult and challenging since Maria: WIND! RAIN! Continuing lack of any electricity, of infrastructure, including communications, of supplies in local stores that have been able to reopen, frustrations and time sinks at every turn, stress everywhere, further increase the difficulty of recovery. Market conditions are dismal both due to infrastructure failure and the exodus of people post Maria without the usual tourist and snowbird influx. Lack of refrigeration and income keep people from buying vegetables. Only a handful of restaurants and eco-inns have reopened, further depressing market opportunities. Hirable farm workers have been lured out of agriculture by the bigger bucks in building and road reconstruction. Disheartened landowners allow their land to be used by immigrants who abuse the land and produce with herbicides and pesticides and erosion-producing methodologies, while flooding the local market with produce being sold at under true production costs. Government aid to farmers has distributed treated seeds, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. We have as yet been offered nothing we can, in good conscience, use. What would help us most is actual experienced physical help with clearing land of fallen trees, with weeding, with pruning, with carpentry. We have a 2 bedroom guest apartment (see Facebook: RootsFarmGuestApartment) -- currently no electricity but otherwise comfortable and clean -- in which helpers could stay. (Andwe do expect electricity to return in next few months.) Perhaps potential contributors might wish to donate to a fund to help defray transportation expenses for a volunteer worker. I have just set up a Paypal account for RootsFarm at protoscape.com to receive any such help. And, of course, there is the matter of the worker(s) themselves. Anyone interested in a few weeks or more of hard work amongst beauty and hope in Dominica? If no one is able to come, any moneys raised would be used instead to purchase and ship untreated seeds or phytosanitarized replacements for at least some of our hundreds of lost fruit and nut trees (mangosteen, lychee, rambutan, mamey, etc. etc. etc.) that will not otherwise be available in Dominica; and/or such organic supplies as iron phosphate slug bait or bird and trellis netting; or farm/marketing tools/equipment such as coolbot storage, Ez-up market protection, etc. Other helpful actions: Come to Dominica and tell your friends. A work exchange at our farm would be great and allow us the pleasure of meeting you, but even a standard "vacation" here or elsewhere on the island would help the economy in general. Help us find ethical conscious buyers who will continue to share with nature our (was and will be again) gorgeous rainforested land we have to sell and who will not be developers who open up the land and with it the entire surrounding area to standard development. We have a Facebook page (written before the storm): Gorgeous Tropical Rainforest Land for Sale. Sometimes good things emerge from tragedy -- Dominica is currently proclaiming itself on a path to be the world's first climate resilient nation. (Whether this is fund-raising verbiage or path to a real change that includes not just technological "fixes" but also changes in peoples' consciousness, hearts, minds and behaviors remains to be seen). We are pushing the understanding that resilience must include LONG TERM self-sufficiency, which means regenerating so land remains full of life, and that resilience requires diversity in crops and techniques and solutions. We would be so grateful for help demonstrating that naturally based farming systems can be key to both short and long term survival, sanity, resilience. Without successful demonstration, people will continue to rely on the short term, narrowly-measured-productivity enhancing chemicals and techniques which are destroying the health of our earth. I am thankful to you all for your concern and support. All best wishes, Karen Sutherland Roots Farm Organic Produce -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From martyk at allspecies.org Wed Mar 21 21:45:01 2018 From: martyk at allspecies.org (Kraft Marty) Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2018 20:45:01 -0500 Subject: [Market-farming] Light Needs of Various Plants In-Reply-To: <5A85FA1DC3DB524491801C112E78A5738055BA6B@CITESMBX2.ad.uillinois.edu> References: <0B3D4CA6-69C3-4662-8018-47407A7661C9@att.net> <815166F3-B0B6-4A07-8284-1B2C20615B53@att.net> <5A85FA1DC3DB524491801C112E78A5738055BA6B@CITESMBX2.ad.uillinois.edu> Message-ID: <2109777C-866A-4730-AF28-B581148A967F@allspecies.org> Our garden has a row of trees to the west. Our beds run parallel to the trees. We are planting lettuce closest to the trees, then collards then cabbage then broccoli assuming that the amount of light they get in this order matches each plant?s need best. Is this true? I?m hoping for knowledge coming from science or experience. Thanks Marty From organic87 at frontiernet.net Sun Mar 25 16:48:22 2018 From: organic87 at frontiernet.net (Road's End Farm) Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:48:22 -0400 Subject: [Market-farming] Help for Roots Farm, Dominica In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Karen ? Hope you had some success with the appeal. My own finances are still in midair but hope to be able to send you a small amount before too long. -- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 6A now I think Fresh-market organic produce, small scale -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From elainegranata at msn.com Sat Mar 24 20:29:35 2018 From: elainegranata at msn.com (E C GRANATA) Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2018 00:29:35 +0000 Subject: [Market-farming] Light Needs of Various Plants In-Reply-To: <2109777C-866A-4730-AF28-B581148A967F@allspecies.org> References: <0B3D4CA6-69C3-4662-8018-47407A7661C9@att.net> <815166F3-B0B6-4A07-8284-1B2C20615B53@att.net> <5A85FA1DC3DB524491801C112E78A5738055BA6B@CITESMBX2.ad.uillinois.edu> <2109777C-866A-4730-AF28-B581148A967F@allspecies.org> Message-ID: Marty: I don't have any direct experience with this, but it makes sense to me to put the lettuce in the shadier part of the field and collards next because it's about the leaves and not the "fruit"-- like it is for broccoli and cabbage. Hope it works out. Elaine Denver -----Original Message----- From: Market-farming [mailto:market-farming-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Kraft Marty Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2018 7:45 PM To: Market Farming Subject: [Market-farming] Light Needs of Various Plants Our garden has a row of trees to the west. Our beds run parallel to the trees. We are planting lettuce closest to the trees, then collards then cabbage then broccoli assuming that the amount of light they get in this order matches each plant?s need best. Is this true? I?m hoping for knowledge coming from science or experience. Thanks Marty _______________________________________________ Market-farming mailing list Market-farming at lists.ibiblio.org https://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming Market Farming List Archives may be found here: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/market-farming/ Unsubscribe from the list here (you will need to login in with your email address and password): http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/market-farming From karen at rootsfarm.info Mon Mar 26 07:15:42 2018 From: karen at rootsfarm.info (karen sutherland) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2018 11:15:42 +0000 Subject: [Market-farming] Light Needs of Various Plants In-Reply-To: References: <0B3D4CA6-69C3-4662-8018-47407A7661C9@att.net> <815166F3-B0B6-4A07-8284-1B2C20615B53@att.net> <5A85FA1DC3DB524491801C112E78A5738055BA6B@CITESMBX2.ad.uillinois.edu> <2109777C-866A-4730-AF28-B581148A967F@allspecies.org> Message-ID: Why not mix it up within each bed? Lettuce can happily come between the others and be out of the way before the others require or shade its space or need less water. That way too you'll diversify a number of conditions that should enable better overall harvest. And a more natural beauty. Best wishes to all, Karen On Mon, Mar 26, 2018 at 12:02 AM E C GRANATA wrote: > Marty: I don't have any direct experience with this, but it makes sense > to me to put the lettuce in the shadier part of the field and collards next > because it's about the leaves and not the "fruit"-- like it is for broccoli > and cabbage. Hope it works out. > Elaine > Denver > > -----Original Message----- > From: Market-farming [mailto:market-farming-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On > Behalf Of Kraft Marty > Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2018 7:45 PM > To: Market Farming > Subject: [Market-farming] Light Needs of Various Plants > > Our garden has a row of trees to the west. Our beds run parallel to the > trees. We are planting lettuce closest to the trees, then collards then > cabbage then broccoli assuming that the amount of light they get in this > order matches each plant?s need best. Is this true? I?m hoping for > knowledge coming from science or experience. > > Thanks > Marty > > > _______________________________________________ > Market-farming mailing list > Market-farming at lists.ibiblio.org > https://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming > > Market Farming List Archives may be found here: > http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/market-farming/ > Unsubscribe from the list here (you will need to login in with your email > address and password): > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/market-farming > > _______________________________________________ > Market-farming mailing list > Market-farming at lists.ibiblio.org > https://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming > > Market Farming List Archives may be found here: > http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/market-farming/ > Unsubscribe from the list here (you will need to login in with your email > address and password): > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/market-farming > -- Karen Sutherland Roots Farm Organic Produce fruits, roots, vegetables & herbs Cochrane, Dominica 767-449-3038 (before 7 P.M.) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From martyk at allspecies.org Mon Mar 26 08:36:40 2018 From: martyk at allspecies.org (Kraft Marty) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2018 07:36:40 -0500 Subject: [Market-farming] Light Needs of Various Plants In-Reply-To: References: <0B3D4CA6-69C3-4662-8018-47407A7661C9@att.net> <815166F3-B0B6-4A07-8284-1B2C20615B53@att.net> <5A85FA1DC3DB524491801C112E78A5738055BA6B@CITESMBX2.ad.uillinois.edu> <2109777C-866A-4730-AF28-B581148A967F@allspecies.org> Message-ID: Thanks to you and Karen. I appreciate your thoughts. We?re thinking alike. Marty > On Mar 24, 2018, at 7:29 PM, E C GRANATA wrote: > > Marty: I don't have any direct experience with this, but it makes sense to me to put the lettuce in the shadier part of the field and collards next because it's about the leaves and not the "fruit"-- like it is for broccoli and cabbage. Hope it works out. > Elaine > Denver > > -----Original Message----- > From: Market-farming [mailto:market-farming-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Kraft Marty > Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2018 7:45 PM > To: Market Farming > Subject: [Market-farming] Light Needs of Various Plants > > Our garden has a row of trees to the west. Our beds run parallel to the trees. We are planting lettuce closest to the trees, then collards then cabbage then broccoli assuming that the amount of light they get in this order matches each plant?s need best. Is this true? I?m hoping for knowledge coming from science or experience. > > Thanks > Marty > > > _______________________________________________ > Market-farming mailing list > Market-farming at lists.ibiblio.org > https://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming > > Market Farming List Archives may be found here: > http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/market-farming/ > Unsubscribe from the list here (you will need to login in with your email address and password): > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/market-farming > > _______________________________________________ > Market-farming mailing list > Market-farming at lists.ibiblio.org > https://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming > > Market Farming List Archives may be found here: > http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/market-farming/ > Unsubscribe from the list here (you will need to login in with your email > address and password): > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/market-farming