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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Livingontheland Digest, Vol 268, Issue 7

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: dan conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Livingontheland Digest, Vol 268, Issue 7
  • Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 14:03:11 -0500

Paul said:
Some of his writing is a valuable springboard for discussion. Yet no one
among us can get everything right. It's too complicated.To me it seems those
nine steps are a very tall order for most people. Other than the sheer amount
of work and organization called for, some of it requires more money than most
of us can spare. We're in hard times already.

I'm skeptical about most people being able to "have a strong local community with
deep connections". There is no hope for this in the suburbs. Personally I wouldn't
want much connections to those I've seen in my sparsely settled area.
LOL, oh yeah, that's my area, too. ;-(

And IMHO a CSA is a poor model for local food security since most people
can't or won't pay for a season's produce in advance.
Agreed on that point, but the possibilities are there for more barter with the CSA (labor, repairs, etc) which are somewhere between a monetary economy and individual self-reliance. I accept your feelings about CSAs for the most part: in the current model, they are a luxury for people who are accustomed to luxury of travel and exotics for the most part. (But then, I consider lettuce an exotic food....it's what 'food' eats.)
A CSA which has been paid up for the year, though, may have a better chance of gathering people to it and weathering the next winter/spring cycle than a market farm which needs a secure town center area to sell produce and to (hopefully) gather a crowd. In a sense, the CSA is a sort of town already, with communication lines and friendships and interdependencies established (a good one, that is).

He's right, gardening is a steep learning curve. But I can't agree your
local garden store is a good source of information. Bad idea. Worse, getting
seeds for a complete vegetable garden is dumb when you're starting out.
Starting out is a dumb idea when you're starting out....;-)

Dan C.
Belgium, WI





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