permaculture

[Jennifer Nazak <jnazak@yahoo.com>]

I'm with you Lawrence. It's important, not only for the wellbeing of the 
farmers but also for the dignity of the recipients, that everyone contribute 
SOMETHING in exchange for the produce. And it's not just "dignity" in some 
nebulous sense, but skill-building and self-determinism that I'm talking 
about.


Even if they haven't a penny, they should contribute some labor. Having been 
penniless and unskilled, and survived by exchanging my work for farm produce 
during more than a few seasons in the past 10 years, I speak from experience. 
Not only did I survive, I ate really well and got healthy. AND gained skills 
that helped me feel more confident of my ability to feed myself and others.


Most local organic farm I know of, has some provision for work-trade which 
allows even a person with zero financial resources to get all the veggies 
they need.

Many folks are getting into the "Free Food" movement, growing free food on 
their own initiative, which is great. We planted a public free food zone in a 
corner of our front yard right along the sidewalk. First come, first served. 
Incidentally, the first thing that happened was that someone CONTRIBUTED 
food: She brought grapefruit from her tree, and put them next to the veggie 
containers for passersby who might enjoy a citrusy treat.

jenny
Jenny Nazak
permaculturist at large!

Ormond-by-the-Sea FL & Austin TX



From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
Subject: [permaculture] Full Attention: A Modest Proposal for Free CSA
    Shares

Full Attention: A Modest Proposal for Free CSA Shares
http://www.fullattention.blogspot.com/2011/12/modest-proposal-for-free-csa-shares.html

what about a scheme to offer them work on the farm,  perform other needed
services, barter in exchange for food

to give it away to people who can work with expenses paid by donations from
others seems strange
to give food away to those who cannot offer work or other services is
another matter - plant 6 acres, give harvest from one away

>From toby@patternliteracy.com  Wed Dec 28 12:11:45 2011
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        wHwQhBtyuStLsMbujJO+TB/Pv+8+50YJIoSubject: Re: [permaculture] 
[soilandhealth] Organic matter percentage
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I like Tom Ward's 3-phase system for implementing solutions: first, what he 
calls "quick fix", then "retrofit," then what he calls "ultimate 
permaculture." So in this case the quick fix would be to get a municipal 
compost program to deliver two 10-yard truckloads of compost per acre. That's 
the solution if you need organic matter right now no delay, (say, hungry 
neighbors needing food!) and thus you will be a little less than choosy about 
what's in it. It's taking advantage of the crazy abundance of resources this 
culture has at the moment. Then, "retrofit" would be something like cover 
cropping and tilling it in. (We'll be doing a lot of "retrofit," in this 
society, given the existing infrastructure that is so badly planned or 
damaged. We can't tear it all down at once, so we must retrofit what we 
have.) But ultimate permaculture, like Steve says, would be a rotational 
grazing program, tree crops, and perennial fertility builders. That will take 
a few years to get going, hence the hierarchy of approaches. It also works at 
various scales: quick fix on a small area to get a yield going, retrofit for 
medium size, and ultimate permaculture to transform the whole system.

This 3-tier system has broad application to a lot of design problems; I 
appreciate that Tom has given it some nomenclature.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com


On Dec 27, 2011, at 8:44 PM, Steve Bonney wrote:

> From a practical standpoint, 50,000 lbs of organic matter is a _lot_ of 
> material. That is 50 loads on a half ton pick-up truck, or about a load 
> a week per acre (208' x 208').  That would require  the application of 
> 1250  40 pound bales of straw per acre, for example. Since I only bring 
> chemical free organic matter onto my ecofarm, I have not found sources 
> for that much mass, and I really don't want to. Of my 63 acres, 20 are 
> tillable (the rest is hardwood forest), so I would need to bring in one 
> million pounds of matter to raise SOM by 1%. The most practical way to 
> increase SOM of any significance in temperate climates is by grazing 
> animals on grass. That is how and why the Midwestern tall grass prairie 
> (Eastern corn belt) and the central plains attained SOM levels of 8-10 
> percent. Louis Bromfield claimed he was generating 1" of topsoil per 
> year on Malabar Farm in Ohio, USA.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEBoAEb7Opw
> 
> Steve
> Indiana USA
> 
> 
> On Mon, Dec 26, 2011 at 11:12 PM, Toby Hemenway 
> <toby@patternliteracy.com>wrote:
>>> Although 50,000 lbs sounds like a lot, it's only about 20 cubic yards per
>>> acre, 40 at most. So it's not that hard to boost SOM using compost (even
>>> though I'm a big fan of mulches).
>>> 
>>> Toby
>>> http://patternliteracy.com
>>> 
>>> On Dec 26, 2011, at 3:13 PM, Glenn Gall wrote:
>>> 
>>> On 9/18/2011 2:03 AM, m_astera wrote:
>>>> How much compost or manure would one need to add to raise the Soil
>>>> Organic Matter SOM content of an acre of soil 6" deep by 1%?
>>>> 
>>>> SOM percentage is calculated by weight, not volume. The convention
>>>> used is that 1 acre of soil 6-7" deep weighs 2,000,000 (two million)
>>>> pounds. Or a hectare of soil 15cm deep weighs 2,000,000 kg. One
>>>> percent of that is 20,000 lbs/acre or 20,000 kg/ha
>>>> Compost and manure can be assumed to be around 60% moisture and 40%
>>>> dry organic matter. So
>>>> 
>>>> 20,000 / 0.40 = 50,000
>>>> 
>>>> To add 1% organic matter to the top 6" or 15cm of soil would require
>>>> about 50,000 lbs/acre or 50,000 kg/ha of organic matter at 60%
>>>> moisture content.
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> 
> -- 
> Steve Bonney
> Sustainable Earth
> a 501(c)3 not-for-profit membership organization
> to promote sustainable farming and food systems
> 
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