Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Steve Diver <steved@ipa.net>]

Thanks for sharing, Carrie 

Mary Beth Lind's book "Simply in Season", also published 
by the Mennonite Central Committee, is another great title 
for the homesteader's bookshelf.

Can you find out what type of trace minerals and soil
activator the squash man got from the Amish neighbors? 

Steve Diver
Northwest Arkansas 


-----Original Message-----
>From: Carrie Shepard <carrieshepard@yahoo.com>
>Sent: Oct 2, 2006 8:20 AM
>To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
>Subject: [Livingontheland] seasonal eating
>
>This year I've learned a bit more about adding in macrobiotic knowledge 
>about foods -- like fruits cool down the body, so are best eaten in the 
>summer months only, winter squashes warms the body, so it's an excellent 
>food for cold winter months.
>   
>  The coolest info though about food in season is what we've been learning 
> about high brix foods NOT rotting, they only dry out, but are still 
> excellent.  In other words, we've got a whole group of people thinking that 
> preserving food is too much work, and really if we could get them to wrap 
> their minds around yr round growing projects and soil building, it takes a 
> lot of the work out.  I'm looking at an heirloom winter squash (I think the 
> gentleman who shared it with me for seed saving purposes told me it's 
> called a cimmarron squash) that's over a year old and it's beautiful.   
> This man's been using some sort of trace mineral and soil activator mix he 
> got from some Amish neighbors.
>   
>  He also shared a slice of moon and stars watermelon that lasted a lot 
> longer cut and in my fridge than any others I had this year -- best tasting 
> award of the season goes to his melon.  The only reason it lasted was that 
> I had served up all but a section to save for DH when he got home from work 
> and it got moved and forgotten for over a week.
>   
>  Another friend reported that for the first season -- even though gardening 
> was difficult due to the drought -- her bell peppers have not been rotting 
> or having black spots that then rot, they've been drying on the counter 
> waiting for her to put them up (she dehydrates and freezes and such).  She 
> was diligently applying all the soil building info she could.  We both had 
> been to a Westonaprice foundation meeting where the speakers stressed soil 
> building for produce that doesn't spoil, it only dehydrates.
>   
>  Our favorite simple cooking cookbook is now Extending the Table:
>   
>  http://product.half.ebay.com/Extending-the-Table_W0QQtgZinfoQQprZ765764
>   
>  These recipes support substitutions of ingrediants and still come out 
> delicious, allowing a lot of variation from whatever you have still growing 
> in the garden to what's in the freezer, etc... They also don't require too 
> many ingrediants and are from scratch.
>   
>  blessings,
>  Carrie