Personal Resilience: Resources On Growing Food

oh shit - today?.jpg
Good morning. Could we gather and share some of c99's favourite media resources on growing food?
Let's have a link collection of resources for growing food you like:
Internet site links, magazine links, government links, community links, store links, etc.
Let's hear about where you find help and information to grow your own food.
More yummy goodness below...

Might as well hear from Willie Nelson and Farm Aid

Here are some topics I think about in growing food.
Homesteading - planning, siting, learning, DIY, animals, etc...
Gardening - planning, prepping, planting, growing, harvesting, post-harvesting, etc...
Seasonal matters - four seasons, calendar, gardening structures, greenhouses, sheds, tools, implements, pests and diseases, etc...
Food storage - canning, pickling, fermenting, drying, freezing, pantries, storage, etc...
Local food - Transition towns, farmers markets, CSAs, community gardens, restaurants, 100-mile diets, etc...

Let's hear about where you find help and information to grow your own food. I've made a few categories with one or two seeds (links) and I'll load all your links into the article as we go along. All we need is a link and one or two lines on what it's about.

If this works, then we could take another resilience topic for next weekend, like renewable energy, and so on.

Peace be with us, if we grow our own food and eat mostly locally, (I'm trying :=)
gerrit

Website Resource Links

Sunflower Farm http://www.cammather.com/
Cam and Michelle run a CSA in southern Ontario on a 100-acre farm run on RE. They've written numerous books and DVDs on growing food, sustainability, and RE, all from their practical experience.

http://geofflawton.com/
Australian permaculture guru. His free videos are very cool.

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/
Harvey Ussury - best chicken farmer in America.

http://perennialvegetables.org/perennial-vegetables-for-each-climate-type/
Eric Toensmeier knows all about perennial vegetables. His site flogs his book, but there's also some info there.

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/
Slow food is the only future for local sustainability.

http://www.instructables.com/
Nuff said.

http://www.youngfarmers.org/blog/
Great farm hacks

Books & Magazine Resource Links

Mother Earth News http://www.motherearthnews.com/
No introduction needed. I bought the 40-year collection of all MEN articles: the older articles use lower technologies. New issues are still great though.
http://www.barbarapleasant.com/
MEN's long-time gardening expert.

Small Farm Canada http://smallfarmcanada.ca/
A great magazine here in Canuckistan.

Farm Show http://www.farmshow.com/
This one is fun: they collect farmer's DIY innovations. The creativity and practicality will blow you away.

http://www.chelseagreen.com/farm-garden
CG's book section on growing things. (Use as a search; buy books used :=)

Government/NGO Resource Links

USDA http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome
You could get lost in there. All kinds of resources. But you have to hunt.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/
Here is it's plant database: enormous amounts of info on plants.

http://craftontario.ca/regions/
Farmer training organized and run by farmers in Ontario

https://attra.ncat.org/index.php
Sustainable agriculture. All kinds of plant/farming/food information and assistance.

http://www.sare.org/
Grants and education for sustainable agriculture innovation

http://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-canada-hardiness-gardening-zone-map...
Know your plant hardiness zones. I don't have an American link.

Community Resource Links

http://www.transitiontowntotnes.org/groups/food-group/
A screenshot of the town's Food Group to show all that happens in this amazing town. Also see the general Transition Totnes article I posted today.
Totness Food Group screenshot.jpg

http://www.inuvikgreenhouse.com/1_2_History.html
The Arctic town that transmogrified its hockey arena into a year-round greenhouse.

http://www.seeds.ca/
Seeds of diversity site: all about seeds - organic & heirloom, seed saving, seed swops, including huge directory of seed savers.

Stores and Product Resource Links

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/
Organic seed supplier

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
Seeds (organic and the other stuff) and gardening tools

http://www.rarexoticseeds.com/en/
My favourite!

http://cottagegardener.com/
Heirloom seed supplier

http://healthykitchens.com/family_grain_mill_system.html?menu_id=532
Our family's grain mill

https://toquetips.fantes.com/imperia/#sheets
Our pasta maker

http://theinductionsite.com/buy-induction/buy-6200.php
Our induction cooker

http://onescytherevolution.com/index.html
Our scythe

This is a link harvest open thread. Please send your favourite links in comments and I'll add htem into the article at the end of the weekend.

Peace be with us, if we grow our own food and eat locally, (usual disclaimer: we're trying :=)
gerrit

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

Someone mentioned Biochar. What is that? It is a 2,000+ year-old way of converting agricultural waste into a soil enhancer that can hold carbon and increase biodiversity in the soil. Here are a couple of resources.

International Biochar Initiative

Biochar: a new soil management tool for farmers and gardeners

Here is some info (PDF) on starting your own Permaculture garden....

And here is a family that takes Permaculture very, VERY seriously.

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First Nations News

Gerrit's picture

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Bisbonian's picture

decided to create a vegetable garden in our front yard (since our back yard is tiny, and very shaded most of the day...then intensely hot). She had read about "straw bale gardening" somewhere, and wanted to give it a try. It turned out to work fantastically well. She wrote a blog on the process, mixed in with a lot of local history, and some bird photography. I think it's best read chronologically, that is, bottom to top. So here is a link to the first ("Older") page...after that are several pages of "Newer" entries. I don't think she has added to the blog in a couple years, but the garden is still going strong. http://thedirtioccupy.blogspot.com/2012/01/bermuda-grass-lawn.html

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Ruth Stout style. You can google her and find book titles, Mother Earth articles, and I think there's a video about her system. She died in 1980 in her 90's and had a huge influence on the gardening community, she was the forerunner of all the mulching, lasagna gardening, etc.

I had 12 hundred-square foot raised beds and they just got too labor intensive for me. I started hay mulching and it worked GREAT! Sure enough, as she says, by the third year the soil was fantastic and the work load was massively reduced. All you have to do is fuss at it a little bit, keep adding a little hay here and there. We could taste the difference in the vegetables, and the production increased so much I had to start reducing my planting! We have plenty of farmers around willing to sell and deliver hay, and that's the only input we needed.

I'm sorry I haven't blogged about this, someday I will...I got laid low by lyme disease for several years and everything is on hold.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

the mystery writer and creator of Nero Wolfe. Apparently writing talent - and love of gardening, because he too was a dedicated gardener - ran in the family.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

he did fancy stuff like orchids and plant breeding, she did humble regular stuff, just growing food as simply as possible. In her own way she really was revolutionary. I love all her writings, she was very outspoken. Even the titles of her books are great: "Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy & the Indolent" for example. Delightful.

Making something that seems complicated simpler is a very rare ability.

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Lookout's picture

Ruth had several books...repeating her theme of mulching a garden. The one I have is "how to have a green thumb without an aching back" We are mulch gardeners. Here in the SE US I recommend using straw rather than hay to avoid importing aggressive weed seed. The progressive movement of the last century produced many of my favorite farmer/writers. Among my faves are Sir Albert Howard "The soil and health", Louis Bromfield "Malabar Farms", Faukners "Plowmans folly". Today the permaculture movement has my vote for the best hope in sustainable agriculture. Here's a shot of a garden bed from last month - greens, lettuce, and parsley. It hasn't been plowed in 25 years, just mulched.

IMG_4723.jpg

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Gerrit's picture

reminds me also to mention hugelkultur:
http://www.diynatural.com/hugelkultur-raised-garden-beds/?awt_l=7vmAk&aw...

Which reminds me (argh, everything reminds me of something :=) to work up a post in the coming weeks on garden structures, mainly photos or drawings, especially how folks have macgyvered their own contraptions that work well with scarlet runner beans or whatever. Whaddayathink?

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Beautiful garden. 25 years, wow. That's what I'm aiming for...I'll get back to you then!

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mhagle's picture

Is this the method where the mulch hay is about a foot deep?

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

Rather than using straw or hay as mulch, if you can get bales of it use "Salt Marsh Hay" as the mulch. It will stay loose longer than hay or straw, rot slower, and any seeds in it will not germinate as they require wet saline soil to germinate, without the twice a day high tide of salt water forget about germination...

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
mhagle's picture

Here are a couple of links to people who have helped me with gardening/homesteading type issues.

1. Our Half Acre Homestead on YouTube = https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMrsVolfie

They are in Canada and have made about 1500 videos. It is amazing all of the things they do on a small bit of land!

2. Dr. Deb Tolman = http://www.debtolman.com/

Dr. Deb became somewhat well known for her work with the keyhole garden concept. I sent her some $$ on paypal a couple of years ago and had a nice long phone consultation. She is in Texas, not far from here. She taught me how to build my own soil. Sometimes I hear them called lasagna gardens. You layer cardboard, mulch, manure . . . anything biodegradable . . . throw in some worms, and wow . .. great soil. I use 4 ft raised beds, and I have a small greenhouse where I plant in large trash cans.

In my view, gardening in Texas has become increasingly more difficult, because the weather has been so unpredictable. So far so good this year! Today is April 9, and I have been harvesting cabbage, broccoli, carrots and herbs outside . . . tomatoes peppers, malabar spinach, and more herbs in the greenhouse. I had to cover the outside beds once for a frost.

I might post a few pictures later ...

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Gerrit's picture

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

and I so miss my winter garden! Best broccoli I have ever had! Used to get free, well composted chicken manure from a local farmer.... damn it made things grow!

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First Nations News

Winter gardens are the best!
If you want to be a locavore, check out your local ag uni ...Aggie horticulture rocks!
Big pots make great square foot gardening in front yards!

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Also permaculturedesignmagazine.com - lots of books & other resources and you can read a couple of issues online. You can also subscribe to a little quarterly, Agroforestry News, there. It covers a lot more than trees, often in a lot of technical depth, & has discussed prehistoric European (sustainable) practices.

AcresUSA.com focuses on farming that rebuilds the soil, and lists a lot of books. I recently bought the first of three volumes on water harvesting, and was extremely impressed. Lots of low-tech (high sophistication) material.

Raintreenursery.com has a great selection of standard & nonstandard perennials, lots of information, and great quality. More varieties of honeyberries & seaberries etc than I've seen elsewhere. Shipping is expensive, but your plants arrive in perfect condition. Order early, because they run out of desirables.

Strictlymedicinalseeds.com has a big selection and he's written a really good authoritative book on what to do with them: teas, decoctions, tinctures, oils, salves, etc. How to and what to use when. Also a medicinal herb cultivation book.

JLHudsonseeds.net Ethnobotanical Catalog of Seeds. Nonprofit, extensive, and really wonderful.

Badgersett.net grows the ultimate neohybrid hazelnut bushes. He's crossed the European with two varieties of American for maximum genetic diversity, hardiness & resistance to our hazelnut blight. Then he's been selecting, recrossing, & reselecting them for 30-some years. Also some pecan-hickory and chestnut crosses that aren't as far along. Hazelnut is a high protein, potentially thousand-year crop (you coppice them). Great book out on it, there & at Chelsea Green.

Redfernfarm.com has a small catalog/newsletter with perennials, and I've bought goldenseal rootlets (only in fall) from them. They are $2 each and small but vigorous. Usually you let them grow for 4 years before harvest & then replant all the small rootlets in another location.

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Gerrit's picture

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Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

The Charles C. Hart Seed Company, in Wethersfield, Connecticut as a resource for "GE Free Seeds" both in individual package and in bulk, along with a large selection of heirloom seeds...

Here is a link to their Blog Home Page...

Here is a blog post on their website on GMO vs GE, which GMO is actually a natural process involving cross pollination of plants with desired characteristics, while GE is genetic engineering adding gene splices from things other organisms to gain things like bacterial pesticide or herbicide resistant proteins which cannot occur in nature.

Here is a link to their on-line store...

It may be of particular interest to those living in the Northeast US as many of their products have been in use there for about 125 years, and I have used their seeds since I was a child. Excellent people to deal with...

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
Bisbonian's picture

Here in Arizona, we have Native Seeds Search, dedicated to finding and preserving native seeds that have been used in our area for centuries (Tucson is one of the oldest continuously occupied towns in the country)...seeds that do well here, are local, aren't the same monoculture that the major catalogs are selling, and GMO free. http://www.nativeseeds.org/

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

Mostly grasses and flowers for the Eastern US...
Some suitable for pastures and haying...

http://www.ernstseed.com/

Great for grassland restoration after removal of invasive species...
Or grassland restoration after other things as well...

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
Gerrit's picture

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Lookout's picture

http://www.seedsofchange.com/Home.aspx

Lots of natives and heirlooms. all organic and GMO free.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Gerrit's picture

seed saving - those are super important things about seeds for us to learn more about.

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

At a discount Smile

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Thank you for all this work.
We have a few books that we use as our guides, but these websites look really interesting. I will bookmark this, but I wonder if there is a way we can keep this accessible and add to it from time to time.

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Gerrit's picture

Let's see what pops out. Meanwhile, it's in my blog. You're right, it'd be helful if it was accessible and folks could add to it.

If this is useful, 'll do a weekly link harvest on resilience topics. Let's try RE next week, eh? Please suggest topics too.

Cheers mate,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

Gerrit's picture

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
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mhagle's picture

by this Russ Finch guy. Citrus in Nebraska!!

Video below . . .

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Gerrit's picture

I bought the plans from Mr Finch and we can't wait to get going on it. (Soon universe, soon eh?) Enjoy your day,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

and, like everyone else, juggling multiple things in my life so it will take me quite a while to go through all this fantastic and useful information. Reading over the info here is definitely on my to-do list but I know it is going to take me a while to do.
I very much appreciate this broad topic of resilience but I would vote for spacing these posts at greater intervals than a week. However, if that doesn't work, I can also just bookmark them and attend to them when I can. Smile Either way, I am happy to see this subject discussed.

A book that I enjoyed is Joel Salatin's Folks, this ain't normal: A Farmers's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World. It's not so much a 'how-to-do' manual but a 'why-we-should do this' manual.

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Gerrit's picture

great stuff there.

I hear you on flooding you folks with resiliency resources. Sorry :=) I sure hope KtC can give us an index thingy where we can list resiliency resource articles in a findable, useable format. I dunno how.

Cheer my friend,

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mhagle's picture

I planted my greenhouse from seed in October (really should have been earlier). It is small . . . only 7 x 16 ft. But it lets me grow some tomatoes, peppers, malabar spinach, and basil. I have tomatoes and peppers in my outside beds too - plants from Walmart that I planted a month ago. Don't know if they will make it though, just depends on when it turns 100 degrees this year. Cold weather crops like cabbage, broccoli, swiss chard, carrots, parsnips, and garlic . . . I plant them outside in the fall and cover them with insulating cloth when it gets cold. When I uncover them, they have a head start. Potatoes have been planted for a month and just now are coming up. Looks like the 80 inches of rain we got last year killed all of the grasshoppers. Yay!! The orange stuff you see is there to keep my free range chickens out of the beds. The picture of the field (you can see some of our Texas wild flowers) is where I want to dig the Walipini. Hope we can harvest before it gets too hot!!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Gerrit's picture

way to keep your chickens out of the beds. Nice tomatoes, eh.

The heat problem is a big one though. I wonder if a dug-down, earth-sheltered greenhouse would keep your plants cooler. Will your walapini keep things cooler? Our basements are generally cooler than the rest of the house in our humid hot summers. But 100F is a big problem. Wow.

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mhagle's picture

The big reason for the walipini is to maybe be able to have it cool enough to grow things in the summer. And the last two winters it got into the teens, so being underground would help there too. Heating a greenhouse is expensive. We even have ours insulated = two layers of plastic with air space in between.

Northern climates would position an underground greenhouse with a southern exposure. We want less sun, so I think I am going to run it north/south with a peak roof to cut down on morning and evening sun. The logic behind the Walipini style underground greenhouse is that it is rough and cheap. You just dig a big hole, plan for drainage, and use earthbags to finish it out. The roof is double plastic.

Anyway . . . thanks so much for all of your posts and great information!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

mimi's picture

that I can't keep up with reading all your essays and great comments and I regret that, because at least by scanning them I can tell I want to read them really thoroughly.

Just to give you and myself a heads-up. I want to grow plantain in Hawaii as my base food supply in my garden.
Plantain in Africa:
[video:https://youtu.be/_QuifJnSYKU]

And if I can the the bitter leaf plant . I want an avocado tree, orange, lime and mango tree, macademia nut tree, oh ... now I am getting in pipe-dream territory. Sigh. But it beats any political news nightmares anytime. Smile

Thanks for your essays.

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Gerrit's picture

plantain in Hawaii. I thought it amazing what they have done in Tanzania; it's making farmers and local communities more resilient and free. Those folks are working hard on becoming more resilient and it's a lot more than we can say about us privileged westerners.

JtC taught me a trick for finding essays. I tag all my essays about these topics with "resilience." We can search for those essays using the tag "resilience." So that's how I'm going to look for essays now.

Sadly, here in Ontario, the only banana tree we can grow is this one:
Banana Tree Musa acuminate.jpg
Here are my notes on it:
(Musa acuminate)
Wild Dwarf Cavendish Banana
HZ 4-11 patio / 9-11 outdoors
8-10 ft.

I have the seeds and have to just get my sh*t together and get to it :=)
Enjoy your day my friend,

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Gerrit's picture

more about it. Here in Canada, we would have to grow it in a year-round, climate-controlled greenhouse. I'm going to see if folks grow it in Canada and how.

We've lost all the knowledge of plants that our ancestors knew from childhood. We live so divorced from nature in such an artificial bulls*t way (how the elites want it to be). We have to recover this lost knowledge to become more resilient. Thank goodness for the people, such as those of Africa and our own First Nations and seed saving co-ops, who still keep the plant knowledge.

Thanks Mimi,

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to add to our list. Again, not a practical guide but one of our best philosopher-poets.
The Art of the Common Place
by Wendell Berry

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Gerrit's picture

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.