Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["McBride & Putnam" <dragonhill2@netzero.net>]

Corn is a good use of space if it's flint or dent corn, for making flour or for feeding livestock.  If you were suddenly to have to provide most of your own food, you would need a good grain crop that could be ground for flour--corn, wheat, rye, oats--the choice would depend a great deal on what part of the country you live in.  Developing an open-pollinated variety of field corn that does well in your area would be a good endeavor.  And you're right--tomatoes may be a great market garden item but they don't strike me as a terrific storage vegetable.  You can dry them, but preserving them by freezing and canning may not be options someday. Beans can be strung and dried to make "leather britches", most root crops can be stored either in cellars or in prepared areas in the ground.  If we have to begin producing most of our own food (perhaps I should say when) we will undoubtedly learn why turnips, rutabagas, parsnips and all those other root crops were once so popular. Cold hardy collards and kales will be grown more too.  And the need for small livestock to fill the need for protein, quickly becomes obvious. Chickens, rabbits and pigs will undoubtly be the first additions to the homestead. These all can be kept in small spaces, fed on scraps or easily grown small grains and butchered by the family. 

 

Claudia

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: E. E. Mitchamore Jr

To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 5:40 PM

Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Shattering Myths: ?Can sustainableagriculture feed the world?

These kinds of conversations always make me question how much of our food I can grow.  Jeavon's work is the only quantitative information I have found on our needs vs. what a home gardener can do, and I'm not optimistic that I can produce a healthy, diverse, year-round, diet.  Most of us on this list are growing gardens; some are raising animals, but I'll bet most would like to have some discussions about what, and how much, we should be producing in order to feed ourselves.  Currently I only have about 10% of the garden space that Jeavons says I need, but I don't think I can add more than about 10% a year.  Yeah, I'm ahead of most folks, but I don't think that's good enough for this situation.

 

True, Tomatoes are the #1 market garden item, but they don't offer many calories.  I've never eaten a Turnip, or many other root crops.  Beans, squash, greens, tomatoes.  Corn is not a good use of space.  What else?

 

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz

----- Original Message -----

From: TradingPostPaul

To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 4:44 PM

Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Shattering Myths: ?Can sustainable agriculture feed the world?

In modern famines people don't form wild mobs and go pillaging. Hungry
people don't have the energy. What we see happening instead is gradual
migration from the havenot countries to the haves. We see it and Europe
too. What was the old saying - don't beggar your neighbor?

On so many lists people fret over what they'd do if hungry hordes came
after their own supplies. They stock up with guns and ammunition. Bunker
mentality. The last thing they worry about is learnning to produce their
own food in cooperation with neighbors. Yet they always seem to assume they
won't be one of the hungry themselves. Hmmm.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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