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  • From: "adam @ ets" <adam@eatthesuburbs.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] What Food Should I Grow? Ask an Astronaut
  • Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 17:37:34 +1100

*[ Apologies for some only locally relevant content, but here's a taste of
the permablitz newsletter from Melbourne, Au ]
*
Take of your shoes and slip on into the info-chop-suey of this latest
permablitz newsletter. We've got gardening advice from outer space, we've
got mercenary microbes, we've got organics -- macho style, we celebrate
2008, International Year of the Potato, we've got a major report on
Victoria's food security, we bring you opportunities to be an urban share
farmer, and wise words from the Archdruid of the United States of America.
It's nothing if not eclectic. Plus some exciting new format upcoming
courses, and lots of upcoming blitzes. But first, words from the one who
dances with oak trees...

"A thousand, or two thousand, or ten thousand years from now, when people
look back through the mists of time to the 20th century and talk about its
achievements, the top of the list won't be moon landings, computers, or the
double helix, much less the political and cultural ephemera that occupy so
much attention just now. If I'm right, it will be something much humbler –
and much more important..."
-- John Michael
Greer<http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2006/07/feeding-deindustrial-future.html>,
Archdruid of the United States of America, author The Long Descent: A User's
Guide to the End of the Industrial Age

Just what does John Michael refer to? The science and innovations of 20th
century organic
agriculture<http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2006/07/feeding-deindustrial-future.html>.
Help us move it into the new millenium at any one of these upcoming
permablitzes...


~~~ Upcoming Blitzes ~~~

This Sunday, two for the price of none:

Noble Park's Noble Blitz (#55 by a
whisker)<http://www.permablitz.net/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,32/extmode,view/extid,255/>November
9, 1008 9:45am
All are welcome to come and enjoy some African cuisine as we help a mum with
5 hungry children (aged 5-16) settle into their new home. It's a big yard so
there's room for plenty of volunteers. You're encouraged to (but not
required to) bring along something to share - perhaps some food, some
seedlings, some seeds, some worm juice or worm castings, some musical
talent, etc. More...

"Meet You All The Way" Blitz: Rosanna
(#56)<http://www.permablitz.net/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,32/extmode,view/extid,244/>November
9, 2008 10am
Come and help Philip, Cathy and their baby daughter, Acacia get
permablitzed! This blitz will be a great example to those of you wanting to
create a permaculture garden whilst being constrained by a relatively small
parcel of land. We've got raised beds to build, fruit trees to relocate,
pots to prepare, and even a sculpture to paint! The house is a 10 minute
walk from Rosanna station.
More..<http://www.permablitz.net/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,32/extmode,view/extid,244/>

Kinglake Blitz
(#57)<http://www.permablitz.net/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,32/extmode,view/extid,243/>November
22, 2008 10am
Come visit the beautiful Kinglake and help start a community garden. Details
coming soon

Noble Park Blitz
(#58)<http://www.permablitz.net/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,26/extmode,view/extid,256/>November
23, 2008 10am
Please come along to help Mamta and Gopal, and their children Nishtha and
Leisha, turn their hot backyard into a fruit and vege producing haven.
Delicious Indian food will be available as you help to add shade creating
fruit trees and child friendly vege and herb beds.
More...<http://www.permablitz.net/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,26/extmode,view/extid,256/>


~~~ Upcoming Courses ~~~

Home Food Growing For Beginners (Free 2hr
seminar)<http://www.permablitz.net/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,26/extmode,view/extid,258/>Fitzroy,
November 13, 2008 06:45pm
Paul, Adam and Nathan from Permablitz are inviting all to this free 2-hour
seminar on how and why to successfully grow your own veges and fruit.
More...<http://www.permablitz.net/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,26/extmode,view/extid,258/>We're
going to run several short courses on topics such as chooks, compost,
water wise gardening over the next couple of months so stay tuned, or come
on the night to find out more.

Check out the permablitz calendar for more
courses...<http://www.permablitz.net/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,26/extmode,flat/>


~~~ 1000 Newsletter Subscribers ~~~

Congratulations to our 1000th Permablitz Newsletter subscriber Ms Marcella
Brassett from Prahran. Marcella receives a $10 discount of our next Intro to
Permaculture Course.


~~~ The Age: Call for action as state food security at risk ~~~

"Victoria is at risk of being unable to feed itself if the current drought
continues and governments fail to safeguard the state's food chain, a
leading group of land managers and conservationists has warned." Full
article...<http://www.theage.com.au/national/call-for-action-as-state-food-security-at-risk-20081101-5fxr.html?page=-1>

Read the full 185 page
report<http://www.apo.org.au/linkboard/results.chtml?filename_num=237045>


~~~ Potato 2008 ~~~

Amazingly, it's November and I only just acquainted myself with the acronym
IYP. We almost let the International Year of the Potato slip us by.
2008:IYP aims to "raise global awareness of the potato's key role in
agriculture, the economy and world food security". At the recent Gardening
Australia expo, Peter Cundall's closing remarks as he withdraws himself from
public life were to the effect that everyone should learn to grow potatoes:
'we're going to need to'. IYP have an inspiring 2 minute video on the
wonder and importance of potatoes:
http://www.potato2008.org/en/aboutiyp/video.html


~~~ Reason to Grow Your Own Veges #78: Be Beefcake ~~~
[image: http://www.hqh.com/UserFiles/325-Files/Image/CHEKPhilosophy-1.jpg]
It almost goes without saying that people that grow their own food are
smarter, healthier and better looking. Our innovative Passive Qualitative
Polling (PQP) techniques confirm it. (PQP techniques mostly involves
waiting for someone to say something and remembering the bits which suit
your argument). But what about more beefcake? Paul Chek is a bodybuilding
motivational speaker, health advisor and a consultant to the US Airforce
Academy and the Chicago Bulls. He has lots of photos of himself shirtless on
his website <http://www.paulchek.com/>. 100% Man. In the following 16-part
quite lucid YouTube lecture delivered to fellow bodybuilders he slams
nutritional supplements and talks instead of the need instead to "close
organic cycles" and build nutrition from the soil up, for optimum beefcake
health. He actually know his stuff too. Watch 'The Dirt Facts':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84otsNRkbDg


~~~ Share Cropper Wanted ~~~

Alastair, host of permablitz #46 in Preston is looking for help in the
garden for a share of the produce after lineup changes in the house.
Contact Alastair <usefuldesign.au@gmail.com>


~~~ When under attack, plants can signal microbial friends for help ~~~

Get out. "Researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered that
when the leaf of a plant is under attack by a pathogen, it can send out an
S.O.S. to the roots for help, and the roots will respond by secreting an
acid that brings beneficial bacteria to the rescue" to create a biofilm of
protection. Where exactly do you place that fact on the cool-to-super-cool
scale?
More: http://www.physorg.com/news143465448.html


~~~ The lettuce from outer space ~~~

[image: art.ceac16.ceac.jpg]
What are the best foods to grow at home? It turns out that researchers
from the University of Arizona's Controlled Environment Agriculture Center
looking at what hypothetical moon base colonists might grow have come to
pretty much the same
conclusion<http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/05/20/ceac.wheeler/index.html>we
have: fresh vegies. When you grow perishable foods like lettuce,
tomatoes, capsicums, you both benefit your tastebuds and your health with
naturally ripened food packed full of living enzymes. You might
conceivably, in their imagined outerspace grocery trade, move storable foods
like grains and beans around in the space-lorries, but imagine flying
lettuces to the moon. Their space and refrigeration requirements would mean
that the environmental costs would be astronomical, and their perishability
would result in a saggy nutritionless end product. The same holds true here
on Earth too. For these ecological reasons too the best thing to grow at
home are fresh vegies.

~~~

That's it for another newsletter, hope to see you soon at a blitz or a
course!

Adam @ Permablitz Decentral


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  • [permaculture] What Food Should I Grow? Ask an Astronaut, adam @ ets, 11/05/2008

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