Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Yes, we have much to learn. I don't have a heritage of my own to relearn.
And there are so many examples of traditional crops and cuisine in our
area. There are heirloom apples, dating from 400 years ago, collected and
grown in isolated valleys north of us near the upper Rio Grande. There's
the landrace of Chimayo chiles, unhybridized since the coming of the
Spaniards. There are fig trees brought with them, still propagated. We met
a market grower whose family has worked the same land for five generations.
 Garlic is again grown nearby on a land grant dating from 1625.  I'm
fighting my way out of a sterile supermarket culture and learning what I
can from anywhere. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 11/25/2007 at 8:14 PM Phil Bunch wrote:

>One of the nice things we have going is the village where our place is
>located. These people have been living on the land for generations and
they
>know how to do it. Very few of them are really dependent on the larger
>economy. They take advantage of it where they can but they know how to
live
>without it. 
>
>Also they are very willing to teach a dumb gringo how things work. One
>important social event is shelling corn together and making corn cakes. It
>sounds kinda primitive but I've made some very good friends that way and
we
>sure get all the news that matters :-) Of course there are a lot of
parties
>and music and all but it's mostly homespun and gets to the root of things.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
>[mailto:livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
>TradingPostPaul
>Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 1:18 PM
>To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Intensive Vegetable Gardening
>