Market Farming

["Lion Kuntz" <lionkuntz AT email.com>]

I was emailed from an agricultural missionary in Swaziland South Africa about 
suggesting references for cultivating mushrooms as a self-help project for 
desperately poor elderly women. It seems that there is no social security, 
and the average income of $100/month is insufficient.

I returned a group of website addresses which give some how-to-do-it 
directions, but it was intersperced with sites which rely on 
computer-controlled environments and high upfront capital investments which 
scared the correspondant. He wrote again asking for other ideas for lower 
tech income projects. Again I sent off some ideas on backyard or cottage 
industry growing of sprouts, baby greens, chickens and/or rabbits. But I 
decided to go back and revise the list of links to mushroom growing to 
concentrate only on the easist and lowest tech ideas.

I thought I would share these with the general public, as they have virtue in 
promoting higher living standards obtainable while recycling agricultural 
waste products. If the biomass is headed to the compost pile anyway, what do 
you have to lose if 50% of your low-tech mushroom crops fail? The worst that 
will happen is the stuff goes into the compost pile a little earlier than it 
would have. The potential reward is 50% of your efforts turn wastes like 
straw, corn stalks/cobs or water hyacinths into $5/lb exotic mushrooms, and 
the spent mushroom compost is turned into an edible, palatable, and 
digestable food for chickens/pigs/cattle. 50% of something is better than 
100% of nothing.

Anyway, here's the link:
http://homepages.msn.com/VolunteerSt/lifesaviors/low_tech_mushrooms01.htm
===============================================

See other high-yield integrated biological systems webpages: 

http://efn.org/~lkuntz/microfarming.html
Source of references to illustrate an integrated micro-farming concept of 
growing all your own fertilizers-IPM-herbicides while producing meat, fish, 
vegetables as cash crops on small plots of land. 
http://efn.org/~lkuntz/index.html
A unified conceptualization of perpetually sustainable microfarming, with 
emphasis on saving endangered species by human retreat from unnecessarily 
wasteful and polluting practices. Includes many scientific references to the 
size of the ongoing species extinction tragedy. [Not frequently updated -- 
see alternative page below.] 
http://lionkuntz.mybravenet.com/castings_01.htm
LINKS to references for the fertilizer values of cultured earthworm castings 
and vermicompost. 
http://lionkuntz.mybravenet.com/earthworms_01.htm
LINKS to references for the fertilizer values of cultured earthworm castings 
and vermicompost. 
http://lionkuntz.mybravenet.com/growing_earthworms.htm
Growing Earthworms: an overview of the sources and methods for using 
earthworms to increase fertilizer values of agricultural wastes, and other 
beneficial aspects of castings. 
http://homepages.msn.com/VolunteerSt/lifesaviors/chicken_manure01.htm
LINKS to references for the fertilizer values, and animal feed values, of 
waste byproducts from raising chickens on the farmstead. Beyond the value of 
meat/eggs, these links illustrate the contributions of a chicken flock which 
is processed on the farm. 
http://lionkuntz.mybravenet.com/sms_01.htm
LINKS to references for the fertilizer values of using Spent Mushroom 
Substrate (SMS) as feed for earthworms, or as animal feeds for 
chickens/pigs/cattle, and its contributions as fertilizer to the wormery or 
compost bin. 
http://lionkuntz.mybravenet.com/mushrooms01.htm
LINKS to references for medicinal and edible Mushroom Cultivation which can 
be used as an integral (and profitable) part of a farm wastes recycling 
program. 
http://homepages.msn.com/VolunteerSt/lifesaviors/low_tech_mushrooms01.htm
LINKS to references for low-tech mushroom cultivation, with special emphasis 
on Paddy Straw and Oyster mushroom cultivation, based of recycling farm 
wastes like grain straw, corn cobs and corn stalks, or pond water hyacinths 
you can grow for nothing. 
http://homepages.msn.com/VolunteerSt/lifesaviors/rabbit_manure01.htm
LINKS to references for the fertilizer values of waste byproducts from 
raising rabbits on the farmstead. 
http://homepages.msn.com/VolunteerSt/lifesaviors/index.html
The most currently updated copy of the Life Saviors endangered species rescue 
and protection concept by human retreat from unnecessarily wasteful and 
polluting practices. Includes many scientific references to the size of the 
ongoing species extinction tragedy. 
http://homepages.msn.com/VolunteerSt/lifesaviors/synergy1.html
Summarized overview of strategies for high-yield, intensive farming 
productivity by using the Integrated Biological Systems approach. Includes 
exposures of widespread myths. Links to further detailed information. 
http://homepages.msn.com/VolunteerSt/lifesaviors/MarketGarden.html
Practical ideas for growers with small fields to increase productivity. An 
illustrated description of raised bed intensive cropping which can increase 
yields 20% higher, to over 1,000% in some cases, compared to conventional 
row-cropping. Includes links to extreme productivity sites from several 
continents showing the reality of using these kinds of high-yield intensive 
ideas. 

Contact Author: LionKuntz AT email.com 

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