Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

My thoughts exactly on the "bird flu" thing. I put that in the same compost
pile as mad cow and e.coli. Wherever it crops up it's because of industrial
overcrowding and unnatural feed. 

Also sane advice on canning. Storing in a cool place or in the ground under
mulch is also a lot less work, and cutting out unnecessary work is serious
business when we're trying to do so much. 

On that subject of "non-traditional" foods we've barely skimmed the surface
on this list and we should probably go into a lot more detail, hmm?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 1/26/2008 at 1:50 PM Harvey Ussery wrote:
snip
>I'm highly skeptical about this issue of H6N1 and the backyard flock. 
>Don't get me wrong--I think there's *plenty* of threat coming in from 
>commercial poultry operations, the world over. But I don't know 
>*anybody* practicing poultry husbandry in more traditional ways who has 
>had the slightest problem with highly contagious diseases (or who is 
>concerned about it), my own flock included (for many, many years now). A 
>few years ago when an AI outbreak here in Virginia led to the bulldozing 
>of ten million broilers and turkeys in the Shenandoah Valley, no 
>responsible "flockster" of my acquaintance had any contagion, despite 
>the fact all their flocks were outdoors and they weren't fanatic about 
>"biosecurity" (forbidding public access, moon suits, and all that). Two 
>of those producers had sizable pastured poultry op's right in the heart 
>of the outbreak. (Joel Salatin was one--produces tens of thousands of 
>broilers and hundreds of layers on pasture.)
> 
>
>> Look thorough old books and old cookbooks to see what people used to eat

>> in the days before frozen foods and year round "fresh" fruits. Learn to 
>> can if you don't already know how.
>>   
> 
>In the coming energy crisis maybe canning won't look like such a good 
>option, really. Much better to make friends with those vegetable crops 
>that store without artificial processing: onions and garlic and winter 
>squash in ordinary room conditions, cabbages and root crops stored in a 
>protected hole in the ground (or even right where they grew under a 
>heavy mulch), nuts, many varieties of apples and other fruits, etc. And 
>don't forget lactofermenting of many vegetables and fruits--some 
>processing, to be sure, but not energy intensive: or rather, the energy 
>is provided by you (lots of shredding) and our microbe allies.
> 
>
>> Look into a winter garden. See what you can grow in a cold frame or, if 
>> you have one, see what you can make produce in a small greenhouse.  
> 
>Now you're talking! Learn to appreciate just how cold hardy some of the 
>salads and cooking greens are. Eat fresh right through the winter chill. 
>(If you don't have room for a small greenhouse, think cold frame.)
> 
>
>> I 
>> have heard that you can "heat" a greenhouse with rabbits. 
> 
>I keep mixed a poultry flock in my 20x48 greenhouse in the winter--250 
>lbs or more of live warm bird *has* to moderate the chill somewhat. And 
>their exhalations increase the ambient CO2, a boon for the crop plants. 
>For more, see the pages starting at:
>       http://themodernhomestead.us/article/Greenhouse.html
>      
>>
>> Look into expanding in to "non traditional" uses of foods. I hate okra, 
>> but I am going to grow some and grind the seed into flour and see if I 
>> like to eat it in breads.
>>   
> 
>A further take on "non-traditional" foods: Think of plants you can plant 
>"around the edges" that both feed your face and provide multiple other 
>integrative functions:   
>    *flowering medicinal and culinary herbs enhance insect diversity
>    *"fertility patch" plants like comfrey, stinging nettle, dandelion 
>provide potent nutrition for us and our livestock as well as their role 
>in fertility applications all over the homestead
>    *cover crops grown to improve soil can do double duty as livestock 
>fodder
>    *don't forget local wild tree crops like hickories, black walnuts, 
>mulberries, native persimmons
>    *I'm currently writing an article for Mother Earth News about living 
>fences. Many benefits of living fences, including provision of livestock 
>fodder; support species diversity; furnish us with foods, medicinals, 
>"superfoods" such as hawthorn fruits, rugosa rose hips.
>
>~Harvey
>
>-- 
>Harvey in northern Va
>www.themodernhomestead.us