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From Seed to Harvest: A Simple Guide to Planning and Maintaining Your Vegetable Garden.

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Embarking on the journey of creating a thriving vegetable garden is a rewarding endeavor that promises a bounty of fresh produce and a deeper connection to the natural world. However, success in gardening requires careful planning, diligent care, and a willingness to learn and adapt along the way. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the intricacies of planning, planting, and maintaining a flourishing vegetable garden, offering valuable insights and practical tips to help you maximize yields and cultivate a bountiful harvest.

1. Planning Your Garden

Choose the Right Location:

Select a sunny spot for your vegetable garden, ideally receiving 6-8 hours of sunlight per day. Ensure the area has good drainage and is easily accessible for watering, weeding, and harvesting. Consider the micro-climates of your yard, noting areas that receive ample sunlight and areas that may be shaded by trees or buildings. Ensure that your chosen location is easily accessible for daily maintenance tasks such as watering, weeding, and harvesting.

Design Your Layout:

Consider the size and shape of your garden beds, pathways, and spacing between crops. Companion planting and crop rotation can help optimize space and promote healthier plant growth. Sketch out a garden plan, taking into account factors such as the size and shape of your garden beds, the placement of pathways for easy access, and the spacing between crops. Consider incorporating raised beds or container gardening for improved soil drainage and better control over soil quality.

Selecting Crops:

Choose vegetable varieties that are well-suited to your climate, soil type, and growing conditions. Consider factors such as maturity dates, space requirements, and desired harvest yields when planning your crop selection. Consult local gardening resources or extension services for recommendations on suitable crops for your region. Consider factors such as the length of the growing season, frost dates, and any specific pests or diseases prevalent in your area when choosing your crops.

2. Soil Preparation

Test Your Soil:

Conduct a soil test to assess nutrient levels, pH, and texture. Amend the soil as needed with organic matter such as compost, aged manure, or mulch to improve fertility and structure. Obtain a soil test kit from your local cooperative extension or garden center to assess the pH level, nutrient content, and texture of your soil. Follow the instructions provided with the kit to collect soil samples from various areas of your garden. Once you receive the results, amend the soil as necessary to correct any deficiencies or imbalances, such as adding lime to raise pH or incorporating organic matter to improve soil structure.

Prepare the Beds:

Clear the area of weeds, rocks, and debris, and loosen the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches using a garden fork or tiller. Create raised beds or mounded rows for improved drainage and soil aeration.

Mulching:

Apply a layer of organic mulch such as straw, leaves, or grass clippings to conserve moisture, suppress weeds, and regulate soil temperature. Mulching also helps to reduce soil erosion and compaction, improve soil fertility, and provide habitat for beneficial soil organisms.

3. Planting Your Garden

Timing:

Consult a local planting calendar or extension service for recommended planting dates based on your region and climate zone. Start seeds indoors or direct sow into the garden according to the specific requirements of each crop. Keep in mind the specific requirements of each vegetable variety, such as cool-season versus warm-season crops, and stagger plantings accordingly for a continuous harvest throughout the growing season.

Spacing and Depth:

Follow spacing recommendations provided on seed packets or plant labels to ensure adequate room for plant growth and airflow. Plant seeds at the appropriate depth according to the specific requirements of each crop, taking into account factors such as seed size and germination requirements. Use a ruler or planting guide to achieve uniform spacing and depth for optimal plant growth and productivity.

Watering:

Keep the soil consistently moist but not waterlogged, especially during the germination and early growth stages. Water deeply and infrequently to encourage deep root development and drought tolerance. Establish a regular watering schedule to ensure consistent soil moisture for healthy plant growth. Water newly planted seeds or transplants gently but thoroughly to promote good root establishment. Use a soaker hose, drip irrigation system, or watering wand to deliver water directly to the base of plants, minimizing water loss due to evaporation and runoff. Water early in the morning or late in the afternoon to reduce stress on plants and minimize water loss through evaporation during the hottest part of the day.

4. Caring for Your Garden

Weed Control:

Stay vigilant about weed management throughout the growing season to prevent competition for water, nutrients, and sunlight. Use a hoe, hand cultivator, or garden fork to remove weeds when they are small and easy to pull. Consider applying a layer of mulch to suppress weed growth and conserve soil moisture, making it easier to maintain a weed-free garden.

Pest Management:

Monitor your garden regularly for signs of pests and diseases, such as holes in leaves, chewed foliage, or wilting plants. Practice integrated pest management (IPM) techniques, such as handpicking pests, using row covers or netting to exclude pests, and encouraging natural predators such as ladybugs and beneficial insects. Consider rotating crops annually to disrupt pest life cycles and minimize the buildup of soil-borne diseases.

Fertilizing:

Feed your plants with organic fertilizers or compost to provide essential nutrients for healthy growth and development. Apply fertilizers according to the specific needs of each crop, taking into account factors such as soil fertility, plant growth stage, and nutrient deficiencies identified through soil testing. Avoid over-fertilizing, which can lead to nutrient imbalances, excessive vegetative growth, and environmental pollution.

5. Maximizing Yields

Succession Planting:

Plan successive plantings of quick-maturing crops throughout the growing season to ensure a continuous harvest and maximize yields. As one crop is harvested, replant the same area with a new crop to make the most of available growing space and extend the harvest season. Consider planting cool-season and warm-season crops in rotation to optimize space and maximize productivity.

Harvesting:

Harvest vegetables at peak ripeness for the best flavor, texture, and nutritional content. Check plants regularly for ripe produce and harvest promptly to prevent over-ripening or spoilage. Use sharp pruners or scissors to cut fruits and vegetables from the plant, taking care to avoid damaging stems or foliage. Harvest early in the morning when temperatures are cooler to minimize stress on plants and maximize flavor and nutritional value.

Preservation:

Extend the shelf life of your harvest by preserving excess produce through methods such as canning, freezing, drying, or fermenting. Invest in basic food preservation equipment such as canning jars, a pressure canner, or a dehydrator to process and store fruits and vegetables safely for long-term storage. Experiment with different preservation techniques and recipes to make the most of your garden bounty and enjoy homegrown produce year-round.

Conclusion

By following these comprehensive guidelines for planning, planting, and maintaining your vegetable garden, you can cultivate a thriving and productive garden that provides a bountiful harvest of fresh, nutritious produce throughout the growing season. Remember to stay observant, adaptable, and patient as you nurture your garden, and don’t hesitate to seek advice or assistance from experienced gardeners or gardening resources in your community. With dedication, perseverance, and a little bit of luck, you can enjoy the satisfaction of growing your own food and reaping the rewards of your efforts for seasons to come. Happy gardening!

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Agriculture Anti-Monsanto GMO crops Organic Gardening Real Food vs. Fake Food

Can organic crops compete with industrial agriculture?

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organicharvest

A systematic overview of more than 100 studies comparing organic and conventional farming finds that the crop yields of organic agriculture are higher than previously thought. The study, conducted by UC Berkeley researchers, also found that certain practices could further shrink the productivity gap between organic crops and conventional farming.

 

The study, to be published online Wednesday, Dec. 10, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, tackles the lingering perception that organic farming, while offering an environmentally sustainable alternative to chemically intensive agriculture, cannot produce enough food to satisfy the world’s appetite.

“In terms of comparing productivity among the two techniques, this paper sets the record straight on the comparison between organic and conventional agriculture,” said the study’s senior author, Claire Kremen, professor of environmental science, policy and management and co-director of the Berkeley Food Institute. “With global food needs predicted to greatly increase in the next 50 years, it’s critical to look more closely at organic farming, because aside from the environmental impacts of industrial agriculture, the ability of synthetic fertilizers to increase crop yields has been declining.”

The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 115 studies — a dataset three times greater than previously published work — comparing organic and conventional agriculture. They found that organic yields are about 19.2 percent lower than conventional ones, a smaller difference than in previous estimates.

The researchers pointed out that the available studies comparing farming methods were often biased in favor of conventional agriculture, so this estimate of the yield gap is likely overestimated. They also found that taking into account methods that optimize the productivity of organic agriculture could minimize the yield gap. They specifically highlighted two agricultural practices, multi-cropping (growing several crops together on the same field) and crop rotation, that would substantially reduce the organic-to-conventional yield gap to 9 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

The yields also depended upon the type of crop grown, the researchers found. There were no significant differences in organic and conventional yields for leguminous crops, such as beans, peas and lentils, for instance.

Continue reading at UC Berkeley.

 

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Agriculture

Blossom End Rot And What To Do About It

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  • Why did we pick all these tomatoes when they are so green and so small?

     

     

    Turn them over for an unpleasant surprise:

     

     

    What we have here is blossom end rot. What a disappointment! After some research, and talking to other gardeners in my life (namely, Uncle Loren), I learned that this unfortunate condition occurs for mainly two reasons:

     

    1). Uneven watering

    2). Lack of calcium in the soil

     

    After the kids and I properly mourned our first harvest of tomatoes (for we had watched them since they first began to bubble out from their blooms and had very high hopes!), I set out to learn how to enrich the soil with more calcium. I found a lot of advice online, including feeding the plants with bonemeal, bloodmeal, and even Tums! Which makes some sense, since they are made of calcium. Eyeing the Tums container in the cabinet and wanting a quick fix, I almost followed that advice, but I just couldn’t. It seems like logical advice, and perhaps we’ll try it if we need to later, but for now I felt like there was just too much at stake for experiments…we really really wanted to save our tomatoes! So, I resisted the urge to head out and stuff Tums into the ground, and instead waited until I had a chance to go to the gardening center (aka Lowe’s) down the street to look for something else.

     

    Lowe’s has a nice little selection of organic plant feeds and sprays, which I find encouraging. Of course, the chemical selection is 4 or 5 times bigger, and the types of promises on those chemicals’ packages are quite enticing. Grow huge vegetables, eradicate any and all types of pests and diseases! I feel fortunate, however, that as a novice gardener, deciding to start out organically, I’ve never had a taste of the chemicals’ quick fixes and I don’t know what I’m missing. I am simply not interested in them.

     

    Even in the organic section, looking at the labels carefully is important. I had my mind set on bloodmeal when I headed to Lowe’s, even though the name makes me shudder. I looked at a couple different brands, both of which boasted “cow-free” blood, which I thought strange, so I looked at the ingredients: 100% porcine. How is pig blood any better? And where was this pig blood coming from? I was feeling woozy at this point, and realizing I hadn’t armed myself with any of the arguments of what type of blood is better, or with any knowledge whatsover about using bloodmeal (does the blood come from CAFOs?), I looked for something entirely different. I realize the importance of bloodmeal and bonemeal to organic gardening (I have read about the use of these two morbid-sounding substances countless times in sources I fully trust), but at the moment I was feeling completely unprepared to make any decisions.

     

    This package caught my eye (was it the giant tomato?):

     

     

    The one and only ingredient? Well-composted chicken manure. Plenty of calcium, among other plant goodies like nitrogen and phosphate. In fact, the percentage of calcium in this plant food was higher than in the blood or bone meal. Score!

     

    We fed the tomatoes by putting our fingers down into the soil around the roots to make small wells, putting a tablespoon full in each well (4 wells per plant), and smoothing it all back over. Then, of course, we gave the tomatoes a drink.

     

    But what about that water? What is ‘uneven watering’? Have we been watering the tomatoes too much, or not enough? Since we had been giving the garden a drink every single day, my instincts told me perhaps we could try watering every other day.

     

    Since we’ve implemented the new watering plan, and fed the plants, we’ve watched for healthy tomatoes every time we enter the garden. We still see this:

     

     

    And we also see tomatoes with less severe rot:

     

     

    AND! We have been finding beautiful tomatoes with absolutely no blemishes whatsoever!

     

     

    I think we may have hope!

     

    Now, I do want to mention something. We had been picking those black-bottom tomatoes as soon as we spotted them and tossing them into our compost bin. I felt like the plants would be wasting energy to continue growing a bad tomato. Lately, though, we leave them alone. For one thing, blossom end rot is not a disease that will effect any other tomato or the plant itself. It is a condition that effects only that particular tomato. The plant will potentially grow unblemished tomatoes simultaneously. For another thing, those tomatoes do not have to be wasted! Once they get large and ripe, the bottoms can be cut off, and the tops will be perfectly good. Since we want as many tomatoes as possible, we thought we’d let the tomatoes grow and see for ourselves if this is good advice.

     

    Hopefully we’ll see some red, soon!

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Agriculture Book Review Sustainability Urban Gardening

Book Review: The Earth Moved

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Earthworms are an especially fascinating topic for every child. Picking them up out of the yard to hold them, watch them (and hopefully place them back on the ground with their life still in tact), is a popular activity around here!

This book will teach you a lot more about earthworms so that you can share the tidbits with your kids the next time you hold squiggling worm with them. It may even motivate you to build a worm composter. I know that project is now definitely on our growing list of gardening activities!

 

 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A few surprises were in store for me as I read this lovely little book. Most of us know that earthworms play a crucial role in the fertility of our soil, but how many of us know that they can actually be quite destructive, too? Or that there are projects in which earthworms are helping to process our waste? Or that the world of earthworms actually holds more mystery than knowledge, for the simple fact that they can be so hard to study?

 

Amy Stewart drew me into her book with her obvious love of gardening. She describes her worm bin throughout the book with such endearment that I am convinced I must have one. Luckily, she provides plenty of resources for readers, who can choose either to make their own, or to buy a commercially made bin. The worm castings (aka poop) are wonderful for the garden, and as she says, worms can make the perfect pet. 😉

 

A little history on how our specific earthworms entered our country’s soil is included in the book, along with the disconcerting description of North American redwood forests that are dying due to the worms. Earthworms may have helped to create the fertile fields that our nation boasts, but they are also the cause of ancient forest land losing its important life cycles. This is the first time I’d heard about this crisis–and it’s good to know that groups of ecologists are working hard to find ways to minimize the effects of the earthworms in these endangered areas. But it brings up an important lesson for us, in that we are always humbled by nature’s forces; so much of what we put into action unwittingly changes those forces tremendously, with no turning back. One of the most important lessons for the average ‘worm consumer’? Never dump leftover worms on those wilderness fishing trips: the less help worms have in getting to wild areas that they are not native to, the better.

 

Even with the somber reminder that we need to minimize our effects on worm migration, there is so much good that comes from earthworms that it’s impossible not to get excited about the benefits in areas that  thrive with their help.

 

One modern project that I find intriguing–yet gross: the use of earthworms (in a large scale vermiculture outfit) to help process raw sewage. Stewart visits a sewage plant in Florida that is working on getting worms to digest waste and turn it into something more pure and ‘palatable’ for farmers and gardeners to use as fertilizer. I won’t lie…the idea makes me squirm, as it does almost everyone. But the fact is, there is no good place for human sewage to go, and many would claim that with the help of the earthworms’ digestion, we could be making good use of it. Hmmmm…I may need a lot more convincing on this one. What about, on the other, more pleasant hand, installing large worm bins behind delis, restaurants–anywhere serving food, really–to turn the scraps into fertile worm castings? There would be a lot of work involved to keep it going properly (just sorting the garbage alone would take a full-time employee), but these kinds of innovations might help keep waste that could be turned into something very valuable from filling up the dwindling space in our landfills.

 

Without even considering the large-scale projects, it is fascinating to look at your own backyard for ideas. The author herself has given thought to having a ‘chicken tractor’–a concept I’ve read about before–to create superior growing soil for her garden. The idea is to move the chickens around each year. During any given year, whatever patch of land is beneath the chickens will become worm heaven. They will burrow up and down and devour the chicken manure, loosening the soil, filling it with nutritious castings. Each spring when the chicken tractor is moved, there is a perfect new garden bed, filled with worms who’ve tilled the soil from within and filled it with all the microbes plants want and need. Not to mention, the chickens will have their fill of worms!

 

One of the most endearing parts of Amy Stewart’s book is her repeated reference to Darwin, who studied worms in his last days. Darwin really helped shaped a lot of what we now know about earthworms, and Stewart’s tales of the old man with his worms–along with his persistent dedication to learning– are a nice touch.

 

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the soil and gardening, but also for anyone who loves to ponder: ‘where exactly do we fit, as humans, into this whole picture?’ Oddly enough, the quiet power of the earthworm humbles us, especially when we realize the effect they’ve had on the planet for millions of years before we even existed.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Activism Agriculture Environmentalism Self-Reliability Sustainability Urban Gardening

Book Review: Omnivore's Dilemma

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 If you need a good starting point in your quest to understand our food system and how it relates to everything else in our history and culture, this would be a good read for you.  

 

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Now here is a book that I would recommend as a ‘must-read’ for everyone. There are many excellent books that focus on our present food issues, but Michael Pollan has clarity and a straightforward personality that will reach all audiences. Pollan writes about the concerns we are all starting to have, but remains extremely real and grounded. He is someone who you could imagine hanging out and having a beer with. He isn’t going to look down his nose at you for eating a hamburger, or lecture you about the evils of the banana you are putting into your mouth. Instead, he’ll sip his beer and tell his fascinating stories of his own discoveries; the journeys he has embarked on to find answers to those gnawing questions we have about our food. He’ll make you think a little, and perhaps change your mind about some of the ways that you eat.

 

I have to admit, I’d been putting off reading any of Michael Pollan’s book for awhile. Maybe I felt there was too much hype about them and was afraid I’d be disappointed if they weren’t as good as everyone claimed. Or maybe I didn’t want to read the awful truths I knew he’d be revealing. Now I realize what I have been missing. Omnivore’s Dilemma gives a lot of detail about the bits and pieces I already have learned about our food system—that part I was expecting. What I wasn’t expecting was his humor … and his humanness. Unlike some others who write about food and our culture, he never once ‘talks down’ to the reader, nor does he seem to live an unrealistic, purist lifestyle. He simply takes a long, hard look at the ways we, as a species, eat, and puts into words all the things we wonder about as human beings when we really begin to contemplate our food. Most amazingly, he finally admits that with everything having been said, he might still once in a while happen to eat a McDonald’s hamburger. Even though, he says, he is losing his taste and appetite for industrial food, just like so many of us are.

 

I love the 4 parts of the book and their focus on different types of meals: The Industrial Food Chain, The Big Organic Food Chain, The Local and Sustainable Meal, and the Foraged/Gardened/Hunted Meal.

 

The history of our Industrial Food chain didn’t provide me any huge surprises, since I have read so much about it already, but the history of corn was nice. I was amused by Pollan’s viewpoint of corn’s success as a species, and how the plant itself is, evolutionarily speaking, the winner in the whole deal.

 

I have been a little suspicious of Big Organic for quite some time, so it’s nice to have an author address the issue. Yes, Pollan writes, it’s good to avoid pouring chemicals into our earth and water…but growing organic food on a big scale to meet the demands of a national market has huge drawbacks. The techniques of cultivating the land, bringing in compost/manure if it’s not made onsite, and storing and shipping the harvested food turns out to be just as fuel-burning as conventional food production. Pollan claims that going organic on a big scale is an improvement, and gives us more choices…but that we can do better.

 

His chapters covering the Local, Sustainable food chain really had me sitting up in my chair, because it’s something I believe in. He spent some time living at and helping with Polyface Farm (a ‘grass farm’ in Virginia that produces sustainable chicken, pork, beef, eggs and produce) and goes into great detail describing the amazing ways this farm operates. Polyface Farm is the kind of agricultural operation that I imagine when I think of a future of sustainable agriculture. Joel Salatin, the owner, has incredible wisdom about what he is doing, and farms like his are quietly spreading the idea that we, as eaters and consumers, do not have to settle for the Industrial Agricultural system.

 

I’ll never view hunting in quite the same way after reading about his Gathered/Gardened/Hunted meal. Pollan really put into perspective some of the struggles I’ve had about eating meat in these chapters. I’ve been ‘almost a vegetarian’ for years…the key word being ‘almost’. Pollan brought a lot of issues up that resonated with me and my still-wanting-to-have-meat-sometimes struggles. He gives a lot of thought to what a person needs to be responsible for and have knowledge about if they are going to eat meat. What if the walls of our CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) were completely transparent? What if everyone knew exactly what was involved in getting that ‘inexpensive’ meat all the way to their plate? Pollan believes, and I full-heartedly agree, that if the business of meat processing were not ‘out of the way and out of view’, many more of us would completely lose our taste for meat.

 

My favorite part of Omnivore’s Dilemma is Pollan’s enthusiasm for the ability each one of us has to make choices and changes. In his Young Reader’s Edition of the book (which is highly valuable in its own right), aimed at middle/high school students, he includes an afterword called “Vote with Your Fork”. He states that “It’s an exciting time to be an eater in America. You have choices today that your parents couldn’t have dreamed of: organic, local, CSAs, humanely raised milk and meat. When they were your age, there was basically only one way to feed yourself: from the industrial food chain. You have the option of eating from a very different food chain—you can vote with your fork for a better world, one delicious bite at a time.” Indeed!

 

 

     I highly recommend this book by Michael Pollan, and actually, I recommend reading the Young Reader’s Edition as well.

 

 

Categories
Agriculture Environmentalism Self-Reliability Sustainability

Farmland as a Commodity

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     Farmland being treated like a stock-market bid, on which savvy businessmen hope to make as much money as possible.

     I am often inspired by my local paper, but this article has been haunting me ever since I read it a week ago. To me, it represents so much of what has gone wrong in our agricultural system. Farmland being treated like a stock-market bid, on which savvy businessmen hope to make as much money as possible, just strikes me as fundamentally screwed up. We are talking about land, of which the planet only has so much, that has the power to grow food and feed everyone. This land is being regarded as a means to an end–profit, and profit only. This disturbing article fits into the bigger picture of our farmland being used to grow primarily corn and soybeans–which in turn fits into the whole industrialized food system. Perhaps, as the article states, the idea of businessmen–often with absolutely no knowledge or interest in actually tending the land and growing food–coming in to take over farmland is nothing new. But, I am seeing these kinds of stories with new eyes, and a new discomfort.

 

 

 

Investors up on the farm as property values soar

 

Bernard Condon | Associated Press

 

Braden Janowski has never planted seeds or brought in a harvest. Yet when 430 acres of Michigan cornfields were auctioned last summer, it was Janowski, a brash, 33-year-old software executive, who made the winning bid.

 

It was so high – $4 million, 25 percent above the next-highest – that some farmers stood, shook their heads and walked out. But Janowski figures he got the land cheap.

 

“Corn back then was around $4,” he says from his office in Tulsa, Okla., stealing a glance at prices per bushel on his computer.

 

Prices rose to almost $8 a bushel in June but are now closer to $7.

 

The return of the gentleman farmer is shaking up the American heartland. In the past, investors with few or no ties to farming have been called sidewalk farmers, suitcase farmers or absentee landlords.

 

Lured by high crop prices, they wager big on a patch of earth – betting that it’s a smart investment because food will only get more expensive around the world.

 

They’re buying wheat fields in Kansas, rows of Iowa corn and acres of soybeans in Indiana. And though farmers still fill most of the seats at auctions, the newcomers are growing in number and variety – a Seattle computer executive, a Kansas City lawyer, a publishing executive from Chicago, a Boston money manager.

 

The value of Iowa farmland has almost doubled in six years. In Nebraska and Kansas, it’s up more than 50 percent.

 

“I never thought prices would get this high,” says Robert Huber, 73, who just sold his 500-acre corn and soybean farm in Carmel for $3.8 million, or $7,600 an acre, triple what he paid for it a decade ago.

 

“At the price we got, it’s going to take a long time for him to pay it off – and that’s if crop prices stay high.”

 

Buyers say soaring farm values simply reflect fundamentals. Crop prices have risen because demand for food is growing around the world while the supply of arable land is shrinking.

 

At the same time, farmers are shifting more of their land to the crops with the fastest-rising prices, which could cause those prices to fall – and take the value of farms with them.

 

And even if crop prices hold up, land values could fall if another key prop disappears: low interest rates.

 

When the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark rate to a record low in December 2008, yields on CDs and money market funds and other conservative investments plunged, too. To many Wall Street experts, the hunt for alternatives explains the rapid rise in gold, art, oil – and farms.

 

Those who favor farms point out that, unlike gold, art and oil, you can collect income while you own a farm. You can sell what you grow or hand the fields over to a farmer and collect rent.

 

In Iowa, investors pocket annual rent equivalent to 4 percent of the price of land. That’s a 60-year low but almost 2.5 percentage points more than average yield on five-year CDs at banks.

 

But that advantage could disappear quickly. If the Fed starts raising rates, farmland won’t look nearly as appealing.

 

As with stocks, U.S. farms can swing wildly in value along with the economy. Despite the fragile recovery, though, farm prices are nearing records now, capping a decade of some of the fastest annual price jumps in 40 years. In Iowa, farm prices rose 160 percent in the decade through last year to an average $5,064 per acre, according to Iowa State University.

 

Thomas Hoenig, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, oversaw dozens of bank failures when a farm boom turned bust 30 years ago. Today, he suggests prices may be in an “unsustainable bubble.”

 

Veteran bond trader Perry Vieth doesn’t think so. Vieth, formerly with Pan Agora Asset Management in Boston, started buying farms with his own money five years ago, when buyers with no farming experience were rare.

 

Now he’s buying for 71 wealthy investors. Ceres Partners, his private investment fund, owns 65 farms, almost half bought since November. He says he’s returned 15 percent annually to his investors overall.

 

Though Vieth says prices in some places have climbed too high – he won’t buy in Iowa, for instance – he says the price of farms elsewhere will rise as big money managers start seeing them as just another tradable asset like stocks or bonds and start buying.

 

“When Goldman Sachs shows up to an auction, then I’ll know it’s time to get out,” he says.

 

 

Locally

Outsiders’ interest in farms nothing new

Ritter Cox, an agent with Schrader Real Estate & Auction Co., said last October his Columbia City company sold a 5,000-acre Kansas farm to a Wall Street hedge fund.

“They turn around and rent it out and get the income from it,” Cox said. “It’s an excellent investment and better return than a lot of other” ways.

Randy Hardy grows corn, soybeans and wheat in Allen and Huntington counties. He and his brother work four farms. Hardy said city slickers scooping up farmland is nothing new.

“In the ’70s, you had quite a few doctors that were buying farmland,” Hardy said. “We are aware of it, but it’s hard for us to do anything about it. It’s been going on for quite a while.”

– Paul Wyche, The Journal Gazette

 

link to original article

 

 

Categories
Activism Agriculture Sustainability

Feeding People is Easy- A Book Review

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Colin Tudge’s Book  lays out a plan for ‘fixing’ our current food economy. 

 

  • This is a quick read (maybe a few hours), but it is pretty packed with ideas. In some ways, Colin Tudge seemed to oversimplify some political and social issues, but in all, this is a valuable book if you want to start thinking about how it’s possible to make changes in our current agricultural system.

 

 

 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

     Colin Tudge, a British scientist, lays out a plan for ‘fixing’ our current food economy. He explores the question “WHY? Why are we failing so miserably at feeding ourselves properly?” In a world of extremes, where millions of children go blind from, and die of, starvation–and millions more children are obese and developing diseases related to that obesity–how do we go about fixing the problems we face? Not only that, how do we develop an agricultural system that will sustain our species not only for our children, but indefinitely?

 

     He puts to paper some key ideas that make absolute sense. He emphasizes more than once that ‘taking on’ the power structure simply won’t work. A couple of chapters are devoted to the history of the corporation and why our global economy currently runs on the wheels of governments and corporations whose prime goal is to keep the cash flowing. Reform simply will not work, he claims, when there is so much to change and when the ‘powers-that-be’ perceive there is too much to lose. Flabbergasted by the apparent lack of concern for our obviously faulty agricultural system, and realizing that many of the world’s injustices are tied to this failing system, he says that if we can get agriculture right, everything else will start to fall into place.

 

     He eschews the idea of a revolution on the principle that the outcome can be totally unpredictable. Instead of reform or revolution, he describes a renaissance. In this renaissance of “Enlightened Agriculture”, many groups with like minded ideas of preserving the planet, avoiding cruelty to humans and animals, and creating a sustainable life for everyone on the planet will come together and just start LIVING that life. They will be part of a “Worldwide Food Club” of growers, bakers, cooks, craftspeople, and consumers, all who ‘give a damn’ about quality food and life. If enough people catch on and opt out of mass merchandising and junk food, the status quo may be forced to adjust accordingly.

 

     Tudge spends some time describing what constitutes nutrition for human beings, and how we have plenty of farmland to keep everyone in the world fed according to those basic nutritional tenets. He goes further than just making sure we are ‘efficiently’ and ‘adequately’ fed. He admits that for humans, nutrition is about much more than just being sustained–we love our food, we care about variety and texture and taste. He claims that part of the beauty of his plan is that we can get back to traditional cooking, and real food, and that we will never feel deprived. Everyone needs to know how to cook, at least in the most basic ways. Every country needs to get back to having a food culture that revolves around what can be grown, what is in season. Self-reliance is the most important thing for each country of the world if we are to fix our food problems(not necessarily self-sufficience, because some trading, within the guidelines of common sense, will go a long way to enhance life).

 

     He discusses the current organic movement and says that many of its practices can be a model for how we need to farm. However, the monocultures that exist today, even in organic farming, need to be replaced with many mini-farms, similar to the family farms thatexisted in our past; farms run by good farmers and that produce a huge variety of foods and a small amount of livestock. He welcomes technology to the extent that it enhances agriculture without overtaking it or without harming the environment.

 

     Tudge imagines an agrarian economy, where 20 to 50 percent of the population are farmers. These farmers will help ensure that our food supply is stable, and the rest of the population will have various livelihoods much like they already do, while supporting the farms. Just this ‘simple’ idea, to me, brings up a host of challenges and problems, for it would force a lot of our current economy to restructure. Tudge admits this is true and discusses some of those challenges. He suggests the idea of The College for Enlightened Agriculture, filled with sociologists, scientists, moral philosophers, and yes, politicians, who will work through the issues and find ways to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes in the future. He claims that his ideas follow capitalism in its purest form, and he believes that capitalism could have worked beautifully if corporations had been kept in check, but I admit I was a little unclear on how everything could fit together when so much of the world still firmly believes in the ‘bottom line’ and making as much cash as possible. His vision is somewhat utopian in that he believes so many people will appreciate getting by comfortably without needing to get filthy rich. I personally feel this way–I’ve never been driven by greed or money–but I am skeptical when I’m surrounded by so many who are. Still, the idea that a new agrarian society could work, and that we could just ease right into it with enough people wanting that change, is extremely appealing.

 

     It sounds like a revolutionary new world order to me, but Tudge seems certain that it’s attainable with few ‘growing pains’. In fact, he says that not only is this new approach to agriculture possible, it’s absolutely necessary, or we are all dead. Most people today are becoming very aware that the way we currently approach agriculture is completely unsustainable. He welcomes technology to the extent that it enhances agriculture without overtaking it or without harming the environment.

 

     What things can each person do right now? Find those farmer’s markets and support them. Learn the lost art of cooking. Treat food like it’s important. Start learning about groups that, in Tudge’s words “give a damn”, like those who support fair trade, organic farming, non-cruelty to livestock. Live life happily and as an example, and spread the word that we don’t have to continue eating junk and perpetuating a world of injustice. If enough people make their own changes, and start networking together, we can make the necessary changes without an uproarious revolution. Possible? Maybe. Reading books like this one is a start.

 

 

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Agriculture

Foraging: Finding Edible Goodies In Nature

  • Foraging

     

    Along with planting and growing food, it is an amazing experience to find edible goodies in nature. Whether you love finding mushrooms, berries, or edible weeds, it really is possible to supplement your meals with foraged food. Or at the very least, you can find a great snack!

     

    Meet our mulberry tree. It lives in the backyard, was probably ‘planted’ by a bird years ago, and it has been loaded with beautiful plump berries for a few weeks.

    The kids have all been searching for the perfect berries when we go outside, and each day we get a nice amount in our bowl.

     

    Here, Maggie and Rylee are finding lots of berries on the lower branches:

     

     

    And here, Simon is taking matters into his own hands when all the berries from the lower branches are gone:

     

     

    The mulberries have become a very popular snack around here, especially with 2-year-old Noah. We have found that if he gets ahold of the daily stash of berries, you will NOT be able to get near them without a fight!

     

     

    He is fiercely protective of his foraged snack!

     

    Finding berries on trees and bushes around your back yard (as long as you are certain about what they are and that they are in fact edible) is just the beginning of becoming a forager. Many books about gardening and living more self-suffiently/sustainably will have whole sections on foraging, and if you begin researching and learning what to look for, nature hikes will take on a whole new meaning.

     

    And, you don’t even have to go far into the wild to forage. What about your neighborhood? Are there any fruit trees that you notice on walks around your city streets that bear fruit…fruit that ripens and eventually falls to the ground to rot? My neighbor across the street has a plum tree that produces way more fruit than she can use. In fact, her plums become a nuisance in her driveway when they start to fall. She is more than happy to share the fruit with anyone who wants to come pick it. My boys look forward to her plums every year! You’ll find that many neighbors will be glad to share food that would otherwise go to waste. I’ve read about ‘neighborhood fruit tree mapping’ in a few books, and this site is an example of how it works:

     

    http://neighborhoodfruit.com/home

     

    See if your city has a system like this set up. Google your town along with ‘fruit tree mapping’. My city doesn’t seem to have an official fruit tree registration set up…which of course gets my mind working…I’d love to start one up myself! 🙂

     

    While it may not be quite the same as mushroom hunting or wild berry picking, foraging for food in the ‘wild’ of your neighborhood streets is an idea that’s catching on.

     

    If you just have no luck with the foraging idea, it’s also very fulfilling to go to a local pick-your-own farm. Kids ADORE going to PYO (pick your own) farms! Usually for a very fair price, you’ll leave with loads of berries or produce. A google search can help with finding farms in your area that allow you to come pick to your heart’s content. Here is a site that will get you headed in the right direction, at least:

     

     

    http://www.pickyourown.org/index.htm

     

    Maybe you’ll be surprised by something in your backyard, like we were. We never knew those mulberries existed until last year, and we have lived here 9 years! Take a look around, and look closer to your left and right the next time you take a walk through your neighborhood–you may just find a sweet surprise. Happy foraging!

     

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Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

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  • Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

    This is the book that really started me on my journey of gardening. It reads like a fantastic novel, but is filled with facts and eye-opening struggles involved with our current food system.

    Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food LifeAnimal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

    My rating: 5 of 5 stars

    After renewing this book over and over from my public library, they finally want it back. I can’t bear to part with it! I will be buying my own copy, which I anticipate reading and referring to until it’s quite shabby.

     

    Barbara Kingsolver sets out with her family to spend a year eating food within a 100 mile radius of her rural Virginia home. Whatever she and her family don’t grow or produce themselves, or cannot be found from local sources, they will go without. There are a few exceptions made at the onset (coffee being number one). However, the exceptions don’t detract from the project as a whole. Starting in April, the family goes week by week, month by month, eating what is in season and available locally. The goal: to prove that an ‘average’ American family can be part of the locavore movement successfully. Kingsolver acknowledges that most families do not have access to the land like her family does in growing food, so she focuses portions of the book on farmer’s markets and community supported agriculture (CSA’s) as well.

     

    The book reads like great fiction, filled with passion. Kingsolver is a gifted writer who breathes immense life into every story she creates, and this ‘true story’ is no exception. Each of her family members has a place in the book, as well. Her partner, Steven Hopp, includes timely, researched essays on pertinent issues effecting our current food economy (and points to valuable websites and resources for further info). Her oldest daughter, Camille, writes a section after each chapter with humorous observations and recipes (even though at times she comes across as strangely smug beyond her young years, and at times is downright annoying). The youngest daughter, Lily, while not credited as a coauthor like the others, is a huge presence within the family’s story as she learns to raise chickens and gains incredible passion about every growing project as only a young child can.

     

    I was surprised to read that the family intended to eat some of their own chickens (for some reason I pegged Kingsolver and her family as the vegetarian ‘type’…not the first assumption she shattered for me). I read about the process of butchering the chickens (and the turkeys), and was not horrified like I expected–Kingsolver brings humanity and respect to the life cycle of these animals–raised by her family with the best poultry life possible.

     

    Kingsolver introduces the reader to many of the families surrounding hers, who all play a part in the community. The idea of community is a central theme in this book, as Kingsolver and her family branch out with their neighbors, speak personally to area farmers, and learn valuable lessons from those in their little corner of the earth.

     

    If I tried to outline every important fact I learned from this book, the review would take up pages. Each time I flip through the pages another powerful idea pops out at me, and continues to inspire me on my own journey to attempt a more sustainable lifestyle.

     

    I finished this book months before I finally wrote a review about it, because it affected me so profoundly. I couldn’t seem to find the right words to describe how the book altered my perspective about many things in my life. Perhaps I am biased because Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors, and this a book about a subject very near and dear to my heart (sustainable living). Or maybe the book touched me because so many pieces of the story brought back strong memories of my rural past: details that I once found boring and unbearably quaint were unearthed with a new passion and desire to reconnect to my roots. I read other scathing reviews about the book that accused Kingsolver of being sanctimonious, but all I can feel in her words is pure passion, at times, wry humor…and a consistent sense of realness. This is not your typical ‘gardening book’, it is a book that has the ability to change your life.

     

     

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Agriculture Environmentalism Urban Gardening

The Outdoor Space

  • The Outdoor Space

    We have been dreaming of our garden for several years, and have run into difficulties each year. We do have a back yard, but it is small and is used primarily as the playspace for the daycare kids–as you can see, it is filled with playstuff:

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    The above picture is how the yard looks in very early spring. Looking at the picture I just took from the same view, you’ll see it becomes a much greener, happier space in the summer. But still, not much room for a garden:  :)

    We knew that for as long as we ran a daycare, we needed a separate, more protected area to grow food. Along the south wall of our house is a wonderful space, and we were inspired to turn this area into our garden.

    Photobucket

    It seemed like such a great area where we could just throw in some nice soil, put in some vegetable seeds, and watch the plants take over! HOWEVER. This is what happened every time we got some rain:

    Photobucket

     Yikes. Now that is what you call some flooding. This perfect area between the house and sidewalk has literally NO draining ability. Now, we are complete novices about all things gardening, but we instinctively know that this much water every time we get a slight rainfall isn’t exactly a plant’s idea of happiness. Too much of a good thing is very, very bad.

    How could we make this space useful? First, we had to deal with the drainage issue. A little background: when we moved in, this space was already filled in with gravel. It grew lots and lots of weeds and was pretty unsightly. When we originally had the idea for the area to be a garden, we didn’t realize that the ugly, weedy gravel was serving a purpose: DRAINAGE. All we saw was a future dirt-filled area, so we spent a whole weekend removing all the old gravel, to make way for dirt. That was 2 years ago. A neighbor gladly took the gravel from us for his driveway. We couldn’t wait to fill up the empty space with some fertile soil and start growing…and then, it rained. And realization hit, hard. All the sweat and digging created nothing but a water pit.

    Realizing we didn’t have the money to refill the area with stones right away, but still wanting to start growing for the season, we got some ‘whiskey-barrel liners’ and prepped them with drainage holes, a layer of rocks, and soil. These were our first planting containers.

    We had tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers growing in the whiskey barrel liners, but they didn’t do well. The space around the containers still flooded every time it rained, and it just was not a healthy place for growing plants, which need air for their roots.

    If we wanted a good, healthy growing place, we had a little work to do first. This spring we set out to create the Little Hands Garden. First, we cleared out all the weeds, clumps of grass, and saplings that had made a home in that gnarly place. Here, my 12 year old helps dig out some insanely strong clumps of weedy grass:

    Once the weeds were evacuated, we staked down some weed liner…

    Then hired a neighbor to bring in some river rock to fix our drainage problem. Upon the bed of rocks, went cedar garden boxes that were built by my Other Half, which we then filled with a mix of soil. I will admit, Other Half (aka Craig) did most of the work.

    So now, for your viewing pleasure, if you haven’t grown tired of looking at pictures, you can see the BEFORE and AFTER shots of the Little Hands Garden:

    BEFORE AFTER

    The after pics are showing some lovely green! The plants that the kids and I started from seeds months ago seem to be doing very well in their new home!

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