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["Gloria Morris" <gloriamorris59 AT gmail.com>]

We are gardening in one small plot this year. Over the course of this year
we intend to heap the future garden spot (different location) with manure,
leaves in the fall, etc. so that the soil there will be far better by next
spring. The future of the current garden spot is yet to be decided. It may
become a permanent herb garden.

As to the query about Small Farm Today, I subscribed to it for a short time,
back when I had a small farm. I thought the magazine was extremely basic,
aimed more at those who are dreaming about having a small farm than at those
in the midst of doing it. There were many articles on expensive, exotic
breeds, written by breeders, promoting the breeds for the small farm. There
wasn't much, back when I subscribed, dealing with the nitty gritty economic
realities of running a small farm. Hence, you could have multiple articles
promoting expensive exotics that you could ONLY raise profitably if you
wrote similar articles elsewhere and boosted sales. I also went to the
conference. The seminars I attended were mostly very basic. There were a lot
of people there promoting alpacas. I stopped and talked to one fellow.
$10,000 for one breeding female (not a particularly outstanding one, just
one with a uterus, presumably). What is their wool production, I asked?
Well, it was not much. Hard to shear them - a lot harder than sheep. They
could get a lot per pound, selling the wool to handspinners, but even
marketing every ounce, she could not pay for herself in a lifetime of wool
sales. It was clear that, like most of the other exotics promoted by the
magazine, this was a pyramid scheme - breeders promote vastly expensive
exotics to those who dream of getting rich quick, telling them that they too
can get rich selling the animals to others who desire great wealth. It was
buffalo, ostriches, emus, llamas, chinchillas, you name the past scheme, all
over again. The prevalence of these agricultural equivalents of snake oil
salesmen at the convention turned me off. The seminars were not very
informative, and were very shy on hard facts, being aimed at beginners who
were exploring concepts, probably not for people who were wanting to
implement concepts on their own farms. There were some displays of useful,
low tech equipment aimed at the small scale producer, which were helpful,
and there were some good suppliers that I hooked up with, so it was not a
complete loss.

Just my 2 cents,

Gloria


On 3/31/07, VAN DELL JORDAN <vdjor AT yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:
>
> > My recollection is that Ron Macher was the
> > editor/publisher. He
> > seemed a sound and useful fellow.
>
> You are correct on that.  He lives and works on a farm
> near Clark, Mo. about 15 miles from where I am now.
> There is defintatly a personal touch.  He put an
> insert into the copy I recieved today apologizing
> because health problems caused him to miss an issue,
> will extend subscriptions to make up for that.
> I do know if he has anyone else to take over, would be
> a shame if health problems keep him from continuing
> the magazine.
>
>
>
> > I once wrote a pamphlet that included beginning a
> > new garden. I joked
> > that if I were as rich as my brother I would select
> > a good garden
> > spot with good sun exposure and good drainage, would
> > till the ground,
> > then cover it with a foot or more of mixed mulch and
> > manure--
> > essentially sheet composting--add the various
> > minerals and lime
> > suggested by a soil report, then would take a trip
> > around the world
> > for a year and when I came back to begin gardening
> > the soil would be
> > ready.
>
> Thank you for the info Gene,
> I can't take a trip around the world but I do have
> space to put in this years garden and prepare another
> for next year as you suggest.  Or just work on
> improving this years garden spot?
> when I purchased the land there were a number of large
> hay bales left out to weather from year before I'm
> sure those would be excellent compost.
> Van Dell
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