permaculture

[jamesdavid Sneed <harvestcircle@hotmail.com>]

The sustainable gathering of nuts from a forest, be it planned or wild, 
reminds me a bit of our gathering of food from the shoreline in Alaska. Many 
forms of seaweed were easily available, and lots of protein from shellfish 
and other creatures in  the tidal pools. Heavily laden berries grew just 
above the tide lines, and feral turnips from old gardens have found a niche 
at just about the high tide line where there wild brassica ancestors lived 
before domestication.
One glitch can occur in each of these scenarios, though, forest or shoreline, 
if the area is "owned", "managed" or otherwise claimed by large corporate or 
governmental entities. In Washington state it was a rude awakenig to need a 
permit in order to harvest the seaweed that had been so easily had back in 
Alaska. Friends of mine in the south say the wild nuts and other foods often 
require a harvest permit or both public and private lands. Whether these 
entities are good stewards or not is often in doubt, but their powerful 
presence can inhibit the use of wild gathering to augment simple horticulture.

> Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 16:00:58 -0400
> From: venaurafarm@bellsouth.net
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] How Much Land Does It Take To Become      Food  
>   Self-Reliant
> 
> Rain Tenaqiya wrote:
> > I had a friend who was an apprentice of John Jeavons that was growing
> > all his own food for him and his small son on 4000 square feet, in
> > northern California.  I recounted this tale a couple years ago, but
> > as I recall it was about a half-time job.
> > 
> > A student at UCSC also tried growing all his own food using the
> > Biointensive method on 4500 square feet, including paths, propagaton
> > area, and compost piles (only 2500 of this was actually beds.  You
> > can read about this in the Winter 1997 issue of The Cultivar.
> > 
> > As I understand it, neither of these projects fully utilized the
> > potential of our Meditteranean climate to grow grains and legumes
> > during the Winter.  I've recently realized that I could grow most of
> > my food without irrigation if I wanted to do it all with annuals
> > (which I don't).  Annual gardening is hard work, and my plans are to
> > minimize it.
> > 
> > What hasn't been tried, to my knowledge, is to grow all of one's food
> > by maximizing the area covered by food forests.  These use
> > practically all the sunlight, resulting in greater efficiency and
> > less weeding.  They also require much less work and inputs and
> > fulfill more functions.
> 
> Great thought. A complex integrated permaculture food production system 
> on a homestead that emphasizes deriving preservable protein from nut 
> bearing crops and vitamin C sources from various fruits, which can be 
> dried. This is an often overlooked component of food production. Maybe 
> people think it is too much trouble or too expensive; it deserves more 
> thought and planning.
> 
> > These studies aren't purely academic.  It is useful to know how much
> > land needs to be devoted to growing food, whether you live in a small
> > household, a community, or a town.  Growing food without fossil fuels
> > will require labor intensive methods and minimal transport.  This
> 
> My documents address this need, adjusting to and fine tuning labor 
> intensive food production methods.
> 
> http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com/2010/05/permanent-biointensive-double-dug.html
> Permanent Biointensive Double-dug Garden Preparation & Handtool
> Information & Sourcelist
> 
> I plan to devote much more time developing the information resources 
> that go into this document. I have also started an online collection of 
> scans of old agriculture books, selected pages and covers. See this URL
> and stay tuned for updates. See: http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com.
> Look for my Picasaweb gallery, Books. Be sure to see the pix of pigs 
> feeding in the kudzu patch and especially that harvest and preservation 
> of forage plants (cut and bundled fresh daily for sale in local markets,
> or dried and sold - what a great idea for a product to be sold at 
> farmers markets or even csa's - forage crops for urban farms with 
> livestock, especially chickens, which need to eat fresh greens daily, 
> supplement what can be produced on site).
> 
> I do this myself, having recently sold all my fossil-fuel powered farm 
> equipment; all I have left are trucks and electric implements, lawnmower 
> and modular device with string trimmer, brush cutter and 
> micro-rototiller, all useful in their place.
> 
> We should keep this thread going.
> 
> > means that we will need to assess the ability of our local land to
> > provide for its inhabitants.
> 
> You will need to plan for having to work marginal land using a variety 
> of methods, including pre-preparation using heavy mulch, cover crops
> and relying on earthworms andother other creatures to begin the process 
> of improving soil quality; follow with double-dug beds.
> 
> > Make the least change for the greatest effect and start growing some food.
> 
> Less is better, keep the process simple and direct with minimal wasted 
> energy or materials, utilizing all opportunities (recycling, stacked 
> functions, intercropping) to best advantage in a timely fashion.
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> And: http://www.richsoil.com
                                          
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