Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Much more thorough than I bargained for ;-) but real insight IMHO. Land 
degradation of course hits home with me but the undercapitalization thing is 
a problem. I mean the waves of humankind starting to refugee to greener 
pastures already are the poorest of the poor. (there I made a noun into a 
verb)  And can they even buy shovels & seed? Too, forced immigration will be 
even more unwelcome as they get more crowded. I foresee continual increase in 
conflict, crime, malnutrition & worse. In U.S. cities & states expect to 
layoff another half million by end of 2012. Vicious spirals.

So today's another market day here in the barren plains, still no rain since 
Nov & every day in the 90s. Last frost just one month ago. No wonder we 
almost have the market to ourselves. Others have some greens too but we have 
our Marconi peppers, snow peas, kohlrabi, turnips, carrots. Main sellers 
(tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, etc) have to wait a couple more weeks at 
least but we're still two months earlier than previous years. Season 
extension methods in extremis. We've been caught off guard by the way people 
snap up the specialty greens, and didn't plant enough six weeks ago. They buy 
up all the arugula & cilantro we can pick & want the kales over the Romaine.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 6/23/2011 at 10:19 PM John D'hondt wrote:

>This may be of use to some indeed.
>I think there are many reasons why immigrants failed and usually it is a
>combination of many.
>
>One big general problem is the underground hostility of the natives who
>see
>foreign nationals come in and buy land that has been in their "clan" for
>untold generations. Until not so long ago even immigrants from another
>county less than 50 miles away suffered this same hostility. Just two
>examples : you go to the farmers coop to buy chicken food and you are told
>that they are completely out of it while you can see a pile of bags lying
>there. If you push further that pile has all been sold to someone else.
>Another case where a new immigrant wanted a new roof put on the house they
>bought and the local contractor took the old roof down and then was too
>busy
>to start the rest of the job for over a year.
>
>Another thing is that there is a mutual inability to understand one
>another.
>When a native says "yes" this does not necessarily mean yes. Or if you are
>told : "you can count on it, I'll be there on Monday." This could mean
>next
>Monday or Monday in six months time or never. I am still amazed that my
>children who arrived here as babies and grew up here can actually usually
>understand what "yes" or "next Monday" actually mean. To me it is obvious
>that you need an enormous amount of background knowledge to do that and
>that
>is what my kids spend 12 years in school at.
>
>Then there are the bad soil in much of West Cork where agricultural
>produce
>has been exported from for 800 years with never anything being put back in
>the ground. And of course an unpredictable climate. When we arrived here
>early summer 25 years ago I started planting a garden and we lost just
>about
>every crop we attempted. In those early days you could fill a ten liter
>bucket with slugs in an hour after dark. Then there were rodents that ate
>the potatoes that were forming before they were anywhere ripe. And there
>were and still are gazillions of midges that drive man and beast to
>distractions by sucking blood. Every single bite feels like a mini
>electric
>shock. They get in your nostrils and ears and climb up into your pants
>legs.
>They cover every bare spot of your body in their thousands.
>
>Not difficult to see why most town folk have some problems with all that.
>When we started here we were broke after buying the property but we had
>burned our bridges and had to succeed. There was no way back. Our
>container
>with furniture took 8 months to arrive so we did without furniture of any
>sort for a long time. It is obvious that most relationships break up when
>times get tough. (I am extremely lucky that my better half is at least as
>tough as am I if not more so.)
>We saw some couples borrow money from the banks to keep up a certain life
>style and then waste it on frivolous things. Others took fairly menial
>jobs
>and then spend to keep up with the Joneses and failed.
>
>
>Most of the survivors obviously had plenty capital to fall back on and
>some
>even started thriving businesses but not one of them in farming or food
>production. Many started with food production or some form of farming. The
>ones that survived at all found another form of income, one even by
>starting
>a pyramid ponzi scheme. He got out to Portugal with a lot of loot just
>before everybody got wise. He would probably have been killed if he had
>not
>run away.
>
>That should be a start to think about Paul,
>John
>
>>
>> Instead of venturing my own guesses, what's your belief about the Cork
>> settlers failing? That's actually a serious point to explore.
>>
>> My feeling is people won't work at it hard enough or bend enough to make
>> it until they're forced to by the direst circumstances. If that's the
>norm
>> then they'll have zero time in preparation and hit the ground real hard.
>>
>> It'll be hard enough for those of us learning all the DIY and community.
>>
>> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>>
>> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>>
>> On 6/21/2011 at 8:29 PM John D'hondt wrote:
>>
>>>At least in the last five years I have put out feelers to people who
>>>might
>>>possibly fit in our almost self sufficient family community. No takers,
>>>except a few who would sink our communal boat in short order if they were
>>>encouraged or allowed to stay.
>>>A great many enthusiast who had read John Seymour's books about self
>>>sufficiency settled independently in West Cork, Ireland in the last 20
>>>years
>>>to live the "good life". I have seen most of them fail and that was in
>>>times
>>>when one could easily afford to make a few mistakes. We are now coming
>>>into
>>>times where one mistake can upset survival on the land.
>>>I have become seriously pessimistic over the years that a transition back
>>>to
>>>the land is possible for most.
>>>john
>>>
>>>>
>>>>   "Finding a place in the country is central to surviving the next few
>>>> decades, but the best land for gardening is both crowded and expensive.
>>>To
>>>> a very large extent, where we need to live is not where we can live. "
>>>>
>>>>
>>
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