Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

I've never seen it grow wild here, but I'd sure listen to anyone whose family 
has gardened here since the 1600s. Must have been some of the earliest 
Spanish settlers in NM. As for hybrids we do allow some special cases. 
Haven't heard much about Kent since the big mess at Seed Savers.

For those outside this state, a Mayordomo is a man selected to take charge of 
maintaining an acequia, which is an irrigation ditch to water a number of 
farms, an old tradition in this area, and a legal system of apportioning 
water rights. The acequia system has been the lifeblood of farms and families 
along the rivers since Spanish settlements in the 1600s and is enshrined in 
state law, and I believe in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Which Lynn knows 
more about than I do ;-)

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 1/11/2010 at 12:21 PM Lynn Montgomery wrote:

>Dear Paul,
>Don't have to plant purslane over here. Even in drought years it covers
>the garden when it does rain some. And just about any other open, fairly
>level space. Our wild kind is just as good as cultivated. Simply
>delicious. My neighbor and fellow gardener, who's family has been here
>since the 1660s, grew up here in the 30s. She says they used to pick and
>dry it and fill paper bags all summer long in bad years, and add it to
>everything, especially beans and soups. She claims it helped them from
>starving to death. They didn't know anything about omega-3 back then, but
>that good old native wisdom is always to be respected.
>    I would also like to say that hybrids aren't all bad. Most are simple
>crosses of particular parent lines and are nothing more than the breeding
>humans have done with plants for thousands of years. Wheat and corn are
>complex hybrids orginally. I couldn't grow tomatoes here, because of
>disease, if it weren't for hybrids. Don't tell me I have disease because
>of bad cultivation. Once these get into the soil, they are there and
>that's that. I rotate, let lie fallow, and cover crop, but that doesn't
>rid the gardens of them completely. There might be other methods, but I
>certainly can't afford them.
>    The best and most efficient way to breed your own varieties particular
>to your own garden is to plant F2, and sometimes even F1 if they aren't
>sterile, which they usually aren't, hybrids, plant the seed from these,
>and start selecting. You get a much broader gene pool to start with than
>with a heirloom. If you want heirloom traits, just plant some along with
>the other selections. I learned this from Kent Wealey, a founder of Seed
>Savers Exchange. I planted some sungold hybrid cherry tomato plants in my
>greenhouse a few years ago. Many fruit fell to the ground and volunteered.
>I have a plant from these that goes all over the greenhouse that is
>several years old and has tons of ripe, delicious fruit in the dead of
>winter. So, lets be realistic. GM is very bad, hybrids can be most useful.
>Regards,
>Lynn Montgomery
>Mayordomo, Acequia la Rosa de Castilla
>Las Huertas Creek, NM
>
>To Grow a garden is to believe in tomorrow
>- Eleanor Roosevelt
>
>Message: 8
>Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:11:40 -0700
>From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
>Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] 11 Best Foods You Aren?t Eating
>To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>Message-ID: <201001101711400604.011FB8FB@mail.lobo.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
>
>
>Unfortunately we do get down to 0 degrees, no root cellars in this part of
>the country, and no room in the fridge for a lot of cabbages. I am
>exploring the golden purslane this year tho, for the Omega-3s. Mother
>Earth is handy but you have to know the variety to search for seed
>sources.
>
>paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
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