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  • From: "Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] gas prices
  • Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 22:40:20 -0800

----- Original Message ----- From: "Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>


Say what? We have a longer growing season here than we used to, but
the ground is too cold for seeds to germinate before the middle of
April and hard frost is possible any time after the middle of
September. That's a temperate climate.

***No, actually, the temperate climate is that area between the tropical and polar climates. There is no such animal as "a" temperate climate which is clearly shown by the two adjoining counties that I've spent most of my life in. The one, on the coast has well over 300 growing days a year and NEVER has hard frost. The other, where I live now, where we have June to October for growing but have been known to have snow in June and as early as late September. Yet, both are considered to be in the "temperate" climate zones.

But as James, for one, has pointed out, you can't start a commercial
crop in a greenhouse. Hemp grows wild and in profusion all over the
Middle West since it was used during WWII for rope. It reseeds itself
efficiently. Still, I'm not sure how many cuttings you'd get if you
mowed it and let in grow back. We generally get 4 cuttings of alfalfa,
if that helps the calculations.

***Okey dokey, here's where the disconnect is coming from. You are thinking midwest (wheat, corn, alfalfa) and I'm thinking valley. Lots of commercial crops are started in greenhouses and then stuck in the ground under long rows of "low tunnels." Thousands upon thousands of acres are done that way out here by mega-factory farms.

Forgive me for being uninformed, but which part of the hemp is useful
for biofuel? I thought it was mainly the stems and leaves. If you have
to wait for the seeds, then you can only get one harvest a year around
here.

***The hemp grown for rope isn't the hemp you'd grow for seed and it's the seed you need for the oil. The "seed" hemp is a "short season" crop. The rope hemp is a long season crop. 30 days in the green house, 60-75 days in the ground to seed for the "seed" hemp.

But do they have water? Right now, the Midwest is, if not in a
drought, extremely water stressed. This has become the usual pattern
over the last decade, if not longer. In Mason County, where they have
lots of groundwater, the irrigation pumps have been running since
early in May, which is way early. My sister got the electric bill for
irrigation the other day and had to lie down and fan herself.

***On the coast you wouldn't have to water. You get plenty of rain AND the water table is real close to the ground. Up here you'd have to water but the price of electric is the lowest in the nation. Lots of areas of CA simply use flood irrigation from the canals and the rivers, no pump required.

And, speaking of irrigation, I've seen a interesting new, at least to me, way of irrigating pastures up here. Since, in a lot of areas, the water table is high, they ditch through fields and run water through the little ditches and it spreads below the surface and keeps a whole area green. I'll have to take some pictures. And, again, no electricity needed. They divert creek water for a period each day.

It's an area that does get several crops a year because with reliable
irrigation, truck crops are possible: peas, green beans, pumpkins,
cukes, etc. So far, our high-value crops are sweet corn and seed corn
because they don't have to sprayed once a week with whatever pesticide
the contracting company thinks is right.

***No need to spray hemp. In fact, hemp is used to make organic pesticides.

It really depends on what you leave behind. Top soil has improved
immensely since no-till farming was adopted and everything but the
grain is left behind. If you strip off all the biomass, you're mining
the soil, just like everyone else.

***Nitrogen fixing and extensive roots which hold soil. It is used for erosion control. You cut it, strip off the leaves and they go back into the soil. You keep the seed and the stocks which are used to make a charcoal which you use to run the plants to make the oil. Very efficient.

It's amazing how quick they learn when the price of energy goes up. So
far as I can tell, price is the only thing that gets people's
attention and influences action. Right now, Illinois is in a crisis
because electric rates, which were frozen for years for several
companies, have been allowed to float. OMIGOD. It's kind of fun to
hear the moans of people who didn't give a thought to their electric
or gas bills for years; I've been paying the higher rates for years
because I'm in a co-op (and co-ops are not regulated by the Illinois
Commerce Commission). I'm sort of used to only air conditioning the
exact space I'm in and only when temp and humidity are both above 98
percent. As for winter settings, I rarely set the thermostat below 50
unless the wind is extremely bad -- and then only to keep the pipes
from freezing.

***One can only hope. That's what they said about cigarettes and how everyone would quit smoking if the price went to $3/pack and the taxes would run the tobacco farmers out of business. Well, it hasn't really made much of a dent in cigarette sales.

Change of habits and getting over the ignorance of "OMG hemp is weed" and we
would be 90% of the way to self-sufficiency in this country.

No, not 90 percent -- but it could be part of a mix.

***You could be right. About the time they make industrial hemp legal, the crunchy folks will discover that health benefits of the oil (quality Omega 3 and 6) and all the other good dietary effects and they'll decide to eat the blooming stuff instead of running it in their vehicles <g>

Lynda




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