What Is Honest Food?

Honest Food is food grown using sustainable farming methods. Since not everyone knows what that is I tell customers that we raise on the farm is grown pretty much the same way our grandparents grew their food. In other words, without synthetic chemicals and with a lot of composted horse manure.

We regularly rotate crops, and plant cover crops of clover and buckwheat once something is turned over to add nitrogen and organic matter to the soil. This creates the healthiest and richest soil for crops and the customers say, the most delicious food they’ve tasted.
http://honestfarm.org/what-is-honest-food/

WSJ clip: suburban farming, an idea whose time has come

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJbqOqSdpx4

Oh, what a beautiful Garden...

http://contrarygoddess.blogspot.com/

HOMEGROWN REVOLUTION ~ Take Root

So, just how much food can you grow in a year
on a 10th of an acre?

How about 6,000 lbs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPEBM5ol0Q

"They say that a head of lettuce travels an average of 1,400 miles - we decided to walk backwards, one step at a time and now it travels 40 feet to our kitchen table."

An Experiment in Back Yard Sustainability

25 Minute Video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOaPFt_ajvU

Produced by http://www.apple-nc.org/

Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy is a grassroots group concerned about the repercussions of higher priced or less avaialble oil and natural gas in Nevada County. APPLE is a local, nonpartisan citizen forum to develop practical solutions for the challenges ahead. Our vision is of a more self-reliant, sustainable local economy which is localized - the opposite of globalized: we produce locally what we consume locally, as much as possible.

We have been working in the areas of energy, transportation, food and water, preparedness, and the economy. APPLE is building alliances with local organizations, government, and businesses to share information and engage other groups in creating their own local sustainable solutions.
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The REALITY: This is a Long-Term Investment (and way of life)

Lehman's Non-Electric Annual Catalog

For over 25 years, we have published the Lehman's Non-Electric Annual Catalog®. Even though we now have our products on the Internet, the paper version of our catalog (168 pages) is still going strong. To lots of folks, it's like an old friend, filled with tips and hints for self-sufficient living, as well as detailed information on over 2,500 unique products for a simpler lifestyle.

http://www.lehmans.com/
http://www.lehmans.com/ Catalog $3

Build a Small, Very Low-Cost Greenhouse

PDF PLANS
Note: This was written a while ago and it will cost well over $100 today*
*why? http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl • $100 in 1980 = $260.71 today.

Guerrilla gardener movement takes root in L.A.

Stealth growers seed or plant on land that doesn't belong to them. The result? Plants that beautify or yield crops in otherwise neglected or vacant spaces. • http://www.latimes.com/

http://guerrillagardening.org/

Food For Everyone Foundation...

http://foodforeveryone.org/garden_store/
(seeds, books, downloadable books, manuals and free gardening info)

The Food For Everyone Foundation’s mission is to teach and assist families everywhere to grow successful and sustainable vegetable gardens, and really enjoy the experience.

Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation

(KUDOs to Germany for HALTING THIS NOW!)

Germany has banned a family of pesticides that are blamed for the deaths of millions of honeybees. "It's a real bee emergency," said Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeepers' Association. "50-60% of the bees have died on average and some beekeepers have lost all their hives."

Tests on dead bees showed that 99% of those examined had a build-up of clothianidin. The chemical, produced by Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of the German chemical giant Bayer, is sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho. It was applied to the seeds of sweetcorn planted along the Rhine this spring. The seeds are treated in advance of being planted or are sprayed while in the field.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies
Bayer = I.G. Farben http://profitoverlife.org
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Pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world's crop production, increasing the output of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide.













Out of the 115 crops studied, 87 depend to some degree upon animal pollination, accounting for one-third of crop production globally. Of those crops, 13 are entirely reliant upon animal pollinators, 30 are greatly dependent and 27 are moderately dependent. The crops that did not rely upon animal pollination were mainly staple crops such as wheat, corn and rice.

Strawberries, Fragaria x annanasa Duch.,

after open insect-pollination (left), passive self-pollination (middle)
and passive self-pollination and wind-pollination (right)

Fidencio Alvarez abandoned his bean and corn farm

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&refer=home&sid=aGxiawAqP0.w

World Bank `Destroyed Basic Grains' in Honduras

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Fidencio Alvarez abandoned his bean and corn farm in southern Honduras because of the rising cost of seeds, fuel and food. After months of one meal a day, he hiked with his wife and six children to find work in the city.

"We would wake up with empty stomachs and go to bed with empty stomachs,'' said Alvarez, 37, who sought help from the Mission Lazarus aid group in Choluteca in January. ``We couldn't afford the seeds to plant food or the bus fare to buy the food.''

Honduran farmers like Alvarez can't compete in a global marketplace where the costs of fuel and fertilizer soared and rice prices doubled in the past year. The former breadbasket of Central America now imports 83 percent of the rice it consumes -- a dependency triggered almost two decades ago when it adopted free-market policies pushed by the World Bank and other lenders.
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There now are 1,300 rice farmers in Honduras, compared with more than 20,000 in 1989, according to human rights group FIAN.

"The international lending agencies have destroyed the basic grains industry in Honduras,'' said Gilberto Rios, executive secretary of FIAN Honduras. "The best land now produces things like African palms, which are not for consumption.''
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Philippine President Gloria Arroyo now says the country has to change course toward being able to feed itself.

"We must move toward more self-sufficiency, not necessarily 100 percent, but more self-sufficiency, less import dependence on rice,'' she said last month
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(these same Federal and International scams, "laws," policies and rules (like NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO, CODEX, UN & other NGO programs, ETC.) are what causes food to cost more, while it's nutritional value is less, even toxic.).
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...AND THIS IS (and has been since the beginning of "man" kind) THE ANSWER and the SOLUTION. Self-sufficiency in the home, in the neighborhood, in your town, county and State. This should be the #1 Goal.

LOCALLY GROWN FOOD is the ANSWER
and the SOLUTION.

Backyard Beekeeping Course

First-time Beekeeping, Through the Seasons

You will be busy in the spring getting your colony off to a good start for the season ... feeding if needed, adding room, re-queening perhaps, starting new colonies from "splits," packages or nucs, taking care of any health issues, and generally getting your colony up to speed and ready for the summer ahead.

During the summer the work slows down as the colony grows in size by itself (one hopes), collects its crop of honey and pretty much takes care of itself, with only a little help from you by adding room as needed, preventing little problems from becoming bigger problems, making timely harvests, and checking up to ensure all is as it should be. Just like the garden.

Come late summer or autumn, you gather the rest of the bounty of your bees, again check for health issues and prepare the colony for winter. Your garden, too, offers much of it’s bounty in the fall, (but like bees, provides all summer long if you take the time to harvest). Like hives, gardens need attention after frost, to weed and remove residue removal, prepare soil, and put bedding down for the winter. http://www.beeculture.com/

FREE: Backyard Beekeeping Course
http://www.beemaster.com/site/honeybee/beehome.htm
(they do accept donations)
http://www.youtube.com/njbeemaster

Book: Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden

High gas prices drive farmer to switch to mules

MCMINNVILLE, Tenn. (AP/May 21) - High gas prices have driven a Warren County farmer and his sons to hitch a tractor rake to a pair of mules to gather hay from their fields. T.R. Raymond bought Dolly and Molly at the Dixon mule sale last year. Son Danny Raymond trained them and also modified the tractor rake so the mules could pull it. T.R. Raymond says the mules are slower than a petroleum-powered tractor, but there are benefits.

"This fuel's so high, you can't afford it," he said. "We can feed these mules cheaper than we can buy fuel. That's the truth." And Danny Raymond says he just likes using the mules around the farm. "We've been using them quite a bit," he said. Brother Robert Raymond added, "It's the way of the future."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90Q70M80&show_article=1
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Farming the old way
By: Susie Quick
Monday, July 17, 2006
Filed under: Sustaining (our farm blog)

There are still farmers in Kentucky , including the many Amish farmers in the state, who forego the tractor in favor of honest-to-goodness horse power. Milford Lowe of Taylor County is one such farmer who relies on a pair of mules to ‘git her done’ so to speak. Driving mules and draft horses through a field is better for the land as it doesn’t impact the soil the way a tractor does, which requires even more tilling, which kills beneficial earthworms and drives the healthy organic matter in the top of the soil further below where it can’t help the crops as much. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Plowing with mules is also quieter so you can hear someone yelling if you are about to disc the family dog. And there is the added bonus of creating your own fertilizer, saving money on fuel costs and helping the environment.

http://honestfarm.org/2006/07/17/farming-the-old-way/

Revive the Victory Garden...

http://www.revivevictorygarden.org/
http://www.revivevictorygarden.org/starting.html

Windowsill Herb Garden

I love cooking with herbs, fresh, fragrant, delicious. I used to be forever going to the grocers and other shops hunting for bunches of fresh mint, basil, oregano, bay leaves, chives, in fact most herbs…

My Windowsill Herb Garden

Now I grow my own herbs on the windowsill. Well, to be more accurate it is a table by the window and I still don't have corriander or oregano, but it has revolutionised cooking and taking care of, snipping and using the homegrown herbs is a great feeling.

Now I was suspicious at first, after all, growing herbs indoors seemed a bit lame…but I live in a sunny flat and I've always wanted to give it a go. I've gradually built up the collection but now have several basil plants, some mint and chives grown from splitting and repotting "growing herbs" from the Coop, and some plants from Dobbies (Garden Centre): a largish pot of garden mint, a small black peppermint plant, thyme, lemon thyme, marjoram, rosemary and parsley. In the kitchen I've also got my Bay tree and some chives.

All the herbs are a couple of months old now, and they are all doing very well. For the small expense at the garden centre, I've got more herbs than I need and they are growing strongly. Even my attempts to repot individual basil and mint plants from the shops has been a massive success. We've had plenty of basil for tomato sauces, cheese sandwiches and other pasta and vegetable dishes…we've also been drinking up plenty of fresh mint tea in the evenings and have made mint sauce and Laab (thai salad) with the growing mint too. In fact, the more I use the herbs, the more they grow…it's been a real time and money saver all in all, and a very tasty one too!

Where to grow them

I grow most of the herbs in a sunny (south facing) window of a small room - door closed most of the time, it's my personal greenhouse. The room is not draughty at all and gets quite hot in the summer sun.

The bay tree is happy in the kitchen, again by the window, although this is a North North West (ish!) facing window , it does get some evening sunshine, but only a touch - and it's loving it there where there is plenty of light. It has been growing like mad.

Growing Herbs anyone?

If you tend to buy pots of growing herbs, I would recommend getting them out of those poky wee pots and splitting up the best seedlings into larger pots of compost, 3 or 4 basil plants to a pot, more for mint or chives. I usually stick all the weedier seedlings back in the original pot and use them first, giving the better plants a chance to develop. When you're cropping the plants, remove a whole stem, say above the first two leaves…the plant literally grows two stems where you cut one off, so you should have loads of herbs within weeks. Basil and mint have worked particularly well as I use them most often. Of course you have to feed the plants once in a while, I've been recomended Tomorite and will be watering them with a weak solution once a week.

Herbs: The Windowsill Garden 8 June 2006
Posted by cath in Info and Cooks Notes, Recipes, general info, herbs, ingredients.

http://cookalicious.wordpress.com/2006/06/08/herbs-the-windowsill-garden/

Text info

http://someknowledge.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/indoor-herb-gardening/

Short videos...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39ZTdebKs5E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfnZ1CP5hPw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFb98tn4eQo

Banking on Gardening

Doreen Howard has quadrupled the size of her vegetable plot because of the economy.

Assandra Feeley prefers organic ingredients, especially for her baby, but she finds it hard to manage on her husband’s salary as an Army sergeant. So this year she did something she has wanted to do for a long time: she planted vegetables in her yard to save money.

“One organic cucumber is $3 and I can produce it for pennies,” she said.

For her first garden, Ms. Feeley has gone whole hog, hand-tilling a quarter acre in the backyard of her house near the Fort Campbell Army base in Kentucky. She has put in 15 tomato plants, five rows of corn, potatoes, cucumbers, squash, okra, peas, watermelon, green beans. An old barn on the property has been converted to a chicken coop, its residents arriving next month; the goats will be arriving next year. “

Seed companies and garden centers say they didn’t see the rush coming.

“This year,” she said, “we sold out the first show and literally sold hundreds. We never sell any corn; this year we sold out of corn by the end of the season. We saw the same thing in the mail order business.”

She said the greatest demand was for what she calls “survival vegetables”: peas, beans, corn, beets, carrots, broccoli, kale, spinach and the lettuces. “It was so different from what it has been in prior years,” she added.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/dining/11garden.html
Stephen Mally for The New York Times

Soil Minerals for Organic Gardeners

Compost and Minerals or Why Does My Garden Need a Soil Test?
By Agricola

We all know that a fertile soil grows better crops, just as we all know that nutritious food grows a healthier body, and the same minerals that make the soil fertile are the minerals that make food more nutritious.

The lack of essential minerals in the soil will have the same sort of detrimental effect on crops that the lack of minerals in our diet has on our health. The analogy goes even further: It is largely the presence of healthy soil microorganisms that make the minerals available to the plant, and it is largely the same sort of microorganisms in our digestive systems that make the minerals in our food available to our bodies. Neither the plants nor our bodies can do much with simple ground-up rocks; the minerals first need to be changed into a form that can be absorbed. That is what a healthy, biologically active soil does for the plants, and what a healthy population of probiotic organisms does in one's digestive system. http://www.soilminerals.com/index.htm

3 million acres of corn under water and probably 2 million didn't get planted

"Estimates show 3 million acres of corn under water and probably 2 million didn't get planted. So that gets you up to 5 million or over 700 million bushels, and that takes out the entire carry-out," he said, referring to estimates for grain stocks carried over to the next crop year.
http://www.rawstory.com

http://www.wikinvest.com/image/Corn_by_county.png

How A Midwest Flood Can Drag Down A Nation —> Dailykos.com

http://problemcat.blogspot.com/search/label/Food

Family seed business takes on Goliath of genetic modification

Control of world's food supply at stake, Montreal growers argue

For Meek and partner Frederic Sauriol, propagating local varieties is part of a David and Goliath struggle by small farmers against big seed companies. At stake, they believe, is no less than control of the world's food supply.

Since the dawn of civilization, farmers have saved seeds from the harvest and replanted them the following year.

But makers of genetically modified (GM) seeds -- introduced in 1996 and now grown by some 70,000 Canadian farmers, according to Monsanto, the world's largest seed company -- have been putting a stop to that practice.

The 12 million farmers worldwide who will plant GM seeds this year sign contracts agreeing not to save or replant seeds. That means they must buy new seeds every year. Critics charge such contracts confer almost unlimited power over farmers' lives to multinational companies whose priority is profit. They say GM seeds are sowing a humanitarian and ecological disaster.

Worldwide, GM crops have grown 67-fold in 12 years, now covering 690.9 million hectares in 23 countries, according to the industry's Council for Biotechnology Information.

Muller's words resonate with farmers Meek and Sauriol, whose four daughters help with the painstaking work of cleaning seeds over the winter. "Growing seed is a big job," says Meek.
"But if you don't grow your seed, you lose your power."
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/
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Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805
Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.

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