Welcome to the list. There is a lot of good advice from the Growers
on this site!
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, May 26, 2000 6:21 PM
Subject: newcomer from mississippi
hi y'all...this is nan
at dancing goats farm in north mississippi (zone 7b with 35 acres of RED CLAY
pastures...nice for goats, but a wee bit difficult for the
vegetables)
i am new to the list and
reading it is one of the highlights of my day...you are all so generous with
information, which is great for a beginner such as
myself
i am planning to start
my organic (soon to be certified when miss. gets their program finalized)
salad greens business in the fall (the dept of public health said no problem
with marketing them as an "unprocessed" food item so no need for commercial
kitchen)
since i am so new, i
will mostly just listen carefully...but i do have information on KENAF, since
Miss. Extension grew trials of it here and i can get seeds to pass on...they
have told me that it would be excellent in a market garden because beneficials
such as lady bugs LOVE to eat every single part of it...and we need all the
beneficials we can get here!
i grew organically in
massachusetts - in retrospect, it was heaven to grow there, compared to
the challenges here...however, thanks to folks such as yourselves, i am not
giving up (though tempted to at times) and hope to stay here and grow till i
fall down in the field and need to be composted out
back.
i do alot of workshops
on the farm and in the public school systems on composting, organic gardening
and also bring all my farm animals into the classrooms, libraries, nursing
homes, etc....for healing and joy, and to teach where food comes from, and
also to nuture empathy in folks so they will stop eating factory farm meat (i
am vegetarian but married to a carnivore).
depending on how many
KENAF seeds i can get (unless someone else has a regular supply) i would be
happy to mail some to interested folks...i am anxious to grow it myself, but
the person didn't get them to me in time this year (should be planted in early
april or may in our climate)
again, thank you so much
for taking the time to post all the incredicably helpful messages that you
do...i am listening carefully and sharing with other folks all over
mississippi!!!!
nan at dancing goats
farm
(they are dairy goats and they do
dance, but only as the spirit moves, not to any set
tune!)