... And then my Brian Exploded
I'm going to blow my own horn a little here just at the start: I'm smart. More than that, I seem to have a gift for aggregating knowledge in a way that Meta-filters only recently were able to match. I *absorb* information and am (more often than not) able to accurately and productively regurgitate it years later on a moments notice. I *know* things.
These past few years (and much more so these past few months) I've been busily falling down an agricultural information *hole*. Every time I turn around there's more knowledge out there. First it was Organic, then it was Heirloom, followed in quick (and dizzying) succession by Sustainable, Non-Petroleum (that's no tractors!), Polyculture, Permaculture, Trap Crops, Companion planting, Multicropping, and Allelopathy.
It's not just plants, or plants and dirt, or plants and dirt and farming technique (to plow or not to plow?), or all of that plus animals. And/or fungus. It's like trying to grock a whole fucking forest. Like... go dose up on some 'shrooms and try to really *understand* some natural parkland near you. Try not to have your brain leak out your ears. And let's not even contemplate, however briefly, the housing for *humans* in all of this. To pick a single concept: White roofing (it reflects the sun's heat) vs. Solar vs. Live Roofing. Which is greener and more sustainable? Which is more responsible? ...I'm trending towards Live Roofing + Solar because that way you get to offset Urban Heat Island effect and help filter/retain water while you capture some electricity (because the power problem [IMHO] can only be solved with decentralization of production and a patchwork of prodcution methods).But that's kind of off topic from where we started here.
A perfect example, however, of falling down the rabbit hole. This kind of thing *fascinates* me. Whyelse would I click on practically every link I can find on the subject. I'm not particularly interested in farming as a way of supporting my own self... Or am I? The no-till poly/permaculture style promises a minimum of work outside harvesting... Fuck. Not to diss farmers (or anyone else, really) but I strongly suspect that trying to hold onto and apply all this would make some PhDs blush, which leaves Everyman... Well, Screwed. Small scale agricultre is going to require a lot more farmers; the farmers we *have* can't reliably see why designing a crop that neuters itself but still pollinates *might* be a problem. This is to say, corn that produces viable pollen but whose seeds cannot be planted to grow. Some can, but the number that can't is alarming.
All told, the farming thing is only at it's most appealig when there's an internship involved, people coming to learn first hand how to do all this (teaching!). You can *have* cruelty free fois gras with geese so happy they call wild geese to come join the party (true story). You can grow everything you ever wanted to eat (spices, coffee, tea, and a few other crops excepted) in such quantities that a single acre of land will feed and feed well 10 people a year into perpetuity.
And here's the super frustraiting part (to me). The vast, vast majority of this stuff is super simple. Example: Happy cows get to graze. So make sure you have enough land to do that... but instead of letting them roam free, rotate them between sections of pasturage. Keeps the pasturage healthier. Three days hence, move chickens in to eat all the bugs out of the cow poo. Result? Healthier cows, healthier chickens, healthier pasturage... And the cows and chickens produce tastier food out of the bargin. But there's little "tips" like this for everything. Grow these crops with those crops... but not these others. They have other friends. Rotate these animals through these types of garden scenarios... at these times. You want *this* fungus in your soil because it will live symbiotically with your plant roots. It *feels* like there's just too much to know.
I just... wanted to share, I guess, what I've been up to. Um. I'd appreciate some kind of comments, if you feel so inclined.
*Note to the interested. My spellchecker *still* didn't like Obama until a few days ago, but *does* like "howeer". WTF?!
These past few years (and much more so these past few months) I've been busily falling down an agricultural information *hole*. Every time I turn around there's more knowledge out there. First it was Organic, then it was Heirloom, followed in quick (and dizzying) succession by Sustainable, Non-Petroleum (that's no tractors!), Polyculture, Permaculture, Trap Crops, Companion planting, Multicropping, and Allelopathy.
It's not just plants, or plants and dirt, or plants and dirt and farming technique (to plow or not to plow?), or all of that plus animals. And/or fungus. It's like trying to grock a whole fucking forest. Like... go dose up on some 'shrooms and try to really *understand* some natural parkland near you. Try not to have your brain leak out your ears. And let's not even contemplate, however briefly, the housing for *humans* in all of this. To pick a single concept: White roofing (it reflects the sun's heat) vs. Solar vs. Live Roofing. Which is greener and more sustainable? Which is more responsible? ...I'm trending towards Live Roofing + Solar because that way you get to offset Urban Heat Island effect and help filter/retain water while you capture some electricity (because the power problem [IMHO] can only be solved with decentralization of production and a patchwork of prodcution methods).But that's kind of off topic from where we started here.
A perfect example, however, of falling down the rabbit hole. This kind of thing *fascinates* me. Whyelse would I click on practically every link I can find on the subject. I'm not particularly interested in farming as a way of supporting my own self... Or am I? The no-till poly/permaculture style promises a minimum of work outside harvesting... Fuck. Not to diss farmers (or anyone else, really) but I strongly suspect that trying to hold onto and apply all this would make some PhDs blush, which leaves Everyman... Well, Screwed. Small scale agricultre is going to require a lot more farmers; the farmers we *have* can't reliably see why designing a crop that neuters itself but still pollinates *might* be a problem. This is to say, corn that produces viable pollen but whose seeds cannot be planted to grow. Some can, but the number that can't is alarming.
All told, the farming thing is only at it's most appealig when there's an internship involved, people coming to learn first hand how to do all this (teaching!). You can *have* cruelty free fois gras with geese so happy they call wild geese to come join the party (true story). You can grow everything you ever wanted to eat (spices, coffee, tea, and a few other crops excepted) in such quantities that a single acre of land will feed and feed well 10 people a year into perpetuity.
And here's the super frustraiting part (to me). The vast, vast majority of this stuff is super simple. Example: Happy cows get to graze. So make sure you have enough land to do that... but instead of letting them roam free, rotate them between sections of pasturage. Keeps the pasturage healthier. Three days hence, move chickens in to eat all the bugs out of the cow poo. Result? Healthier cows, healthier chickens, healthier pasturage... And the cows and chickens produce tastier food out of the bargin. But there's little "tips" like this for everything. Grow these crops with those crops... but not these others. They have other friends. Rotate these animals through these types of garden scenarios... at these times. You want *this* fungus in your soil because it will live symbiotically with your plant roots. It *feels* like there's just too much to know.
I just... wanted to share, I guess, what I've been up to. Um. I'd appreciate some kind of comments, if you feel so inclined.
*Note to the interested. My spellchecker *still* didn't like Obama until a few days ago, but *does* like "howeer". WTF?!