Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Pego Rice <firekeeper38@yahoo.com>]

As a home grower I'm free to research ALL the things that could possibly grow and produce and then experiment with them.  After generating this list I go foraging or plant trading or searching the rare plant nurseries or college Ag extensions and have actually managed to get a good quarter of my list (actually, well over half but then list expanded) to begin to work into the nooks and crannies of my garden..  I am finding that regardless of the "nativeness" of many of my root veggies, I like to grow them in raised beds better or in barrels for the ease of uprooting.

 

The Germplasm database is something I am barely touching on but is more critical to people like you, Paul, who are market growers.  This is where so many of the regional varietals of formerly commercial crops that worked very well at the time for long storage in root cellars, or which tasted fantastic but didn't ship across country well, and all the other (not good for uniform bland) corporate Ag considerations.  Unfortunately, some of these crops really did taste better or endure regional conditions better.  Fortunately, Corvallis will send out grow-able cuttings or seeds on request.  It may be a chore to turn a cutting or a sprinkle of seeds into a crop-sized portion, but it is the only way for many of these to be resurrected, even enough to trial for market consideration.

 

Yours, Pego

<<Impressive work. That germplasm repository is unfamiliar to me.

... those food sources could become major contributors to local food security. And obviously, local food security can't depend on big ag monoculture, ....Thing is, what's available from the list and what's practical to grow will vary enormously from place to place, and there are so many listed that some should be available in every area.

I'm not knowledgeable about most and don't have time to get into this big time, with market growing season on top of me. But it's an angle on local food security that needs a lot of work.>> Paul>>