permaculture

["Kathy Evans" <evansdk@earthlink.net>]

I would like to order some of your brown rice, too, Raquel and Greg. And a
question for Lawrence....you've talked about rock dust several times on
this list...is its value in the minerals it puts back into the soil? What
does it do for the soil that compost doesn't? It sounds magical, I just
want to know more about it. Also can you tell us more about your
sustainably grown spinach, what that means exactly. Thank you, Kathy

Kathy Evans
evansdk@earthlink.net



> [Original Message]
> From: Lawrence F. London, Jr. <lfl@intrex.net>
> To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
<SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
> Date: 11/5/2006 1:56:27 AM
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] [SANET-MG] soils and flavor/nutrition
>
> Raquel & Greg wrote:
> > Hi all.  As some of you may remember, I started marketing my own
organic 
> > brown rice this year.  The reasons we took the leap are many--wanting
to 
> > escape the commodity system, wanting more connection with consumers, 
> > tired of letting other companies put their name on my rice, etc.  One
of 
> > the great benefits of doing this has been the feedback I get from
people 
> > who have eaten my rice, because they love it.  People regularly tell me 
> > that it is the best rice they've ever had, and didn't know rice could 
> > taste like that.
>
> How can I buy 2 25 lb. bags or 1 50 lb. from you and get it shipped to me
> here in North Carolina?
>
> > This is great, but now I want to figure out why, so that I can repeat 
> > it!  One reason could be that I let our rice mature and dry down in the 
> > field, as opposed to the normal practice of cutting it green and drying 
> > it with air and heat in the bin.  Like tree-ripened fruit, I think it 
> > allows the flavor to more fully evolve.
>
> That's probably it.
>

> Great topic. I grow vegetable crops on four acres using a finely tuned
grid of raised beds
> that cover slopes, curves and flat terrain. This system of parallel rows
of beds has water/erosion breaks/dams every
> 50-150 feet to contain rainfall and prevent erosion. Half of the beds are
very tall with deep furrows between and the 
> other half are lower and wider with shallower furrows but with more
growing area and less water impoundment between 
> them. So, I get a lot of free irrigation and almost no loss of nutrients
and micronutrients to runoff or leaching.
> When the furrows fill with rainfall and runoff from the tops of the beds
this water will be absorbed laterally
> back into the beds before going into the subsoil. So, I keep my nutrients
on site and recycle them.
>
> I grow a lot of "sustainably-grown" spinach each year. Stores I have sold
to have told me their customers have
> commented on its good flavor. A world traveller gourmet diner friend told
be that my spinach was the very best he has 
> eaten, anywhere, ever. My arugula, lettuce, squash, cilantro and collards
also have exceptional flavor.
> My crops also look great with robust color, size and yield. I get
excellent germination, rapid growth, drought 
> resistance, almost no insect predation and no fungal or bacterial
diseases or blight of any kind so far.
>
> I think the good flavor of my produce is due to:
>
> 1) The extensive use of finely ground rock dusts from rock quarries as
soil amendments:
> When I have manure or compost to put on the gardens I always mix it
50%-50% with rock dusts before applying
> with a skid loader along the tops of the beds; I then rototill it all in
- this leaves the rock dust in the top 12-16" 
> of the soil.
>
> I have applied hundreds of tons of this over 4 acres:
>
> Quarry #1 - volcanic tuff (basalt?)
> Quarry #2 - granite (grom grey rock with the little reflective sparklies)
> Quarry #3 - other powdered grey granite
> Quarry #4 - pyrophyllite screenings (an aggregate no larger than 200 mesh
containing some talcum; .2% potash)
>
> I have noticed that the root systems of my crops are huge and penetrate
very deeply. Today I pulled a half inch carrot 
> with a 3" taproot and a 3' turnip green plant. The extensive rosette of
fine feeder roots that develop on most of my 
> crop plants is astounding. If plants are spaced correctly with plenty of
room, light and water they will grow to 
> enormous size.
>
> Some of these rock powders are so fine that when put into solution with
water it turns cloudy and stays that way for 
> quite a while. Some people living in high country near Hunza area drink
white/grey cloudy water from pure, clean cold 
> mountain streams. A high percentage of them live to a hundred and beyond,
in robust good health.
>
> 
>
> 3) highly aerated, highly mineralized, well drained raised bed culture of
crops, eventually highly biologically active
> once I kick the rotovator habit (when I have reduced the weed seed bank
to the point that I can get a food crop rather 
> than more humus from having to till everything under to keep the weeds
from going to seed.)
>
> 4) I haven't tried enhanced compost tea (Soil Foodweb recommended), EM or
IM or Gil Carandang's methods but I feel this 
> will eventually be necessary and will make a huge difference in crop
flavor and yield.
>