why grow your own food

after reading this news story
Aspartame Changed its Name to AminoSweet
http://csglobe.com/aspartame-changed-name-aminosweet/

it is just amazing the lengths people will go to in order to feed you horrible food,
growing your own food ensures that no one is messing with your food.
or at least seems like a good idea to me

birds eat everything

birds eat everything,
I planted spinach in the fall just to see how it grows here in the winter,
and it is finally growing bigger,

(I know I need to weed that plot)

but the spinach works here quite well here if you can get the birds not to eat it small,
they ate all but one that I planted (at that point I covered the last one with chicken wire)

the buckwheat I planted last fall has gone wild,

there is way to much of it growing for the birds to eat all of it,
but last fall they almost ate all of it when it was small.

grass

so there is a cute grass that grows around here,

it reminds me of teff,
but the seeds are not totally round,
I wonder if I could domesticate it...
but just like teff I have a hard time harvesting the seeds
I wonder what the grass is called


here is a pretty flower that I am growing, (one of the few)

rare event

so I have the I'itoi's onions growing,
check them out here
http://shop.nativeseeds.org/collections/onions/products/b001
and they are bunching onions,
usually they never go to seed,
so they are all genetic clones of each other and have been for hundreds of years, 
but I have one that got messed with to much, and it must be worried,
it is going to seed,

what is really neat about this is that each seed will not be quite like the original,
so I will be getting new onions that are close but not quite the same,
it is a fun and rare event that I was not expecting

hunza apricot trees

so I planted 5 trees last summer, 2 of then came up,
they only got to abut 1.5 inches tall when winter set in,
I was a bit worried about them,
but here they are now,

neat to see them doing so well,

they are likely hunza apricot trees,
and I am very thankful to the person that sent me the seeds,
I guess it will be a while before I find out for sure what they are,
but either way they will make food, and they seem happy

Brodiaea flower

so the Brodiaea wild flowers are all over right now,

and they are pretty close to an onion,
they are more spicy,
and the bulb grows about 4 to 6 inches deep,
the bulb is small, but large enough to bother with digging up, and the bulbs are bigger the second and third year (especially if they don't get to set seeds)
they reproduce from seeds only,
they are flowering now and in a month there will be dried seeds dropping, 
and last year I took the seeds from the plant (small black seeds that look like small onion seeds) and spread the seeds all over,
now there are large areas of them,
the gophers seem not to eat them (likely to spicy (the wimps)),
and in season it is easy to find them (the stem from the flower leads the way as you dig)
I have only eaten them raw, but I am sure they would cook well,
I think I want a larger plot of them, and I will be planting them as soon as seeds are ready.

grain growing update

so I planted some grain last fall
and the plan was to use it as a cover crop,
it is developing seed heads

so far I spot 2 grains so far in addition to the nitrogen fixer

I don't see the oats yet,
but then they did all get snow cover that killed off all of them in some areas,
so maybe the oats all died...

at any rate, they are about to make seeds,
and that is when you are suppose to till them into the soil,
but I kind of want the grain now,
I am not going to be doing much with this plot of land any time soon,
and I can fix the soil by mixing in leaves,
so I think I am just going to let the grain mature,

this also means that I can grow grain here in the winter and get a harvest without any irrigation,
and it is pretty easy to do as well, 
and I am kind of excited about how well it has worked out.

news

so someone has solved the salt issue in the fields
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/California-drought-Solar-desalination-plant-5326024.php
I guess you can find technical solutions to political issues,

I have nothing else today, I am tired.

policies

so when looking to the salt buildup in the farm fields I found a great solution,
it is salt grass, http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/tharrison/gslplaya99/saltgrass.htm
it takes the salt out of the soil and puts it on to the leaves,
you could harvest the grass and wash the salt off,
perfect solution ?
you could grow it for a few years on a plot and remove the salt from the field,
but there is an issue there,
financial policy that is in most countries does not let many people have a big farm plot that is not making money for a few years,
it is either land taxes or loan payments that really do it,
so my question is
is it really a good idea as a civilization to set financial policies that make sure we loose farmland in the not so distant future ?
the government pays people to not grow on some farm plots (the farm bill)
so why not pay farmers to get the salt out of the land ?
or at least not make self interest break all of the farmland

wildflowers

I have some great wildflower pictures,
it sure is spring

popcorn flowers

 no idea what this one is

 these only last about a day

 amazing color rising from the dirt

 so pretty

fruit tree flowers

 the entire tree

 fiddle neck flower field

farmland and desert

there are lots of studies on how farmland turns into desert,
but almost no studies on how to go the other direction,

turning desert into farmland is easier than you may think (given all the pessimistic data you have likely seen)
if left on it's own desert land that has no organic matter and the soil is compacted may take a thousand years to turn into farmland,
but it can be quicker than that,
the trick is to mix in organic matter to the soil,
but where do you get it ?
you could import it (buying things may not be possible for large areas)
but you can likely get the land to give it to you,
if you take a large area and harvest the small amount of organic matter it does have and then mix it in to the soil in one small area you will get way more organic matter than the small area than the entire large area made the year before, and by some reports it is about 40 times as much,
this gives you the ability to fix the soil for 40 times the area the next year,
and it can just keep growing that way, 3 years is likely all any size plot would need,
it really is that easy,
and this is just working with the weeds that you don't have to take care of.

there may not be any studies on it, but it is possible and is not that hard at all.

lunch

so I am really liking the chickpea pancakes,
just mix chana (chickpea) flour (besan at indian grocery stores)
with some salt, cinnamon, turmeric, or what ever your favorite spices are (if any)
mix with water to form slightly runny batter and cook like a pancake,  
and peanut butter on them seems to work very well,

all gone in 5 min. !

so good


also chard harvest time, I can't wait to have some.

spring must be here

so I have had a radiometer in my window for months now and it just sits in the sun doing nothing,
I can wiggle it and try to get it to spin, and nothing.
but yesterday it starts spinning all on it's own,
spring must be here

evaporation

so evaporation is a huge amount of the water used in farming,
when the sun hits the water it evaporates lots,
so keeping the sun off the ground helps save water quite a bit,
I use tiles because I have no flat rocks and not sure about using cardboard
I should go further out with the tiles, and likely will later,
here is a dormant grape with tiles

it also keeps the weeds down,
here is what a grape plant looks like dormant without tiles,

even this one is better than nothing,

so why not wood chips or straw ?
they tend to decay and need changed every year,
and the tile (at least if it is white) reflects the sun up into the plant and should make it grow faster, 
so I like flat rocks or tile,
either way it should save me lots of water.

here is the first grape leaves I have spotted this year,

dried sqduash

so now that I have some dried squash,
I will be putting it into a canning jar to keep the dust off of it once it is a bit more dry

but people have been asking me how to cook it
and it is pretty easy,
just toss it into soup,
or at least that is what the natives did

fast growing food

so what if you only want to bother growing food if the store runs out of it,
it is possible,
you just need food that grows fast.
radishes are a good example,
they will almost grow faster than a person will starve, 
but it is hard to live on radishes,
so boil them first and they taste just like turnips !

if you set up a mix of fast and slow growing things you can likely get away with very little stored food than if you pick all things that are long season to grow,
so think about harvest date with things and you can get away with almost a season less stored food.

tilling to deep

so I have seen the dangers of tilling to deep talked about in some books,
they idea they have is that if you till the ground deep enough you bring up the soil that has no organic matter in it,
and that just hurts things when it is mixed in...
and I finally have an example of that,
the near and far grain plants are doing well, but all in the middle are almost planted in total decomposed rock, the right 1/4 of the picture is just the weeds, so look to the left in the picture

I had to decide when it was not so much dirt and to much rock as to when I quit tilling,
it was tilled to deep there in the center.

so check how deep the roots of the local grass go down to see how deep you should be tilling,
and usually this is not an issue in california and the american southwest because there is no good soil to dilute with the soil that has no organic matter in it,
but many areas have that issue,
and now I have seen it for myself.

indoor day 3

I can almost go outside again,
but still spent the day inside,
and I had my camera with me,

it was tea party day !
and it had a fairy theme
they were hanging from branches, on the table, and all over the place

it was very bright and happy,
I had 3 more pictures, but my computer or the internet seem quite broken,
today was a good day,

likely the allergens that have kept me inside will have cleared by tomorrow,
so back to farming for me !

inside day 2

so I did nothing farming related today,
I did break a radio I have trying to get the sound quality better,
the idle current was far from where it should have been,
I blew a surface mount fuse inside it when I slipped,
then I kind of fixed it...
still low power out on the 2M band

I miss going outside

drying squash

so the squash is getting older,
and some will likely store till this fall,
but I am loosing them in storage faster than I was,
so it is time to preserve them all,

 

I started by peeling them,
then I started slicing them, but quickly figured out that this takes up lots of room on the shelf,
so I started spiraling them, and I can fit way more on the shelf that way !
the trick is to get it thin enough so that it drys before it molds,

so why drying ?
drying vegetables preserves the most nutrients of any method,
also drying uses very little energy (pressure canning uses the most energy)
and it needs no refrigeration to store (unlike freezing)
salting things puts your salt intake up high enough to cause colon cancer (use to be very common but almost vanished after refrigeration was common and people stopped salting food to preserve it) 
so it seems to me that drying wins,
and if not I am doing it anyway.

and in other news,
the spring was 1 foot below the overflow point, so that is 5 foot below the top,
and now people around here are cutting back the weeds,
so due to allergies I am stuck inside for a while...
it would have been nice to get a day of warning before they started so I could set up things to do inside, 
I wonder how many indoor activities I can do with what I already have inside

if anyone wants me to visit them, tell me now,
vacation is also a good way to not have any allergies

salt, again

salt is a big issue,
farming will be changing relatively soon,
water from wells and from rivers have salt in it,
and as you water with it, the salt builds up in the soil,





the salt buildup in irrigated fields will not allow for things to continue the way they are,
and I don't just mean the mass GMO farming,
I mean all the irrigated farming, organic included as well,

there is not a food system set up yet that is workable yet,
it is possible to do,
it is just that it has not been done yet,
there are some companies working on more salt tolerant plants, but that will only get a bit more time out of things,
ancient civilizations would change from wheat to barely to get more time, but the issue still is there,
there are quite a few solutions,
but it will change the way farming and eating is done quite a bit,
we need a new system, and we need it in less than 3 generations, and likely in less than 15 years.
most california farmers will hit the limit in 5 to 15 years (USDA numbers), other places are a bit longer,


my point is that farming will change if we want it to or not,
and it is going to do it soonish.
it seems to me that the problem is so big that most people don't want to deal with it

but maybe the big drought will  keep it from getting to use for a few more years,
because if you have no water, you have no salt in the water to mess things up.

organizing

so I have been organizing,
there are seeds that I want to plant that I have not seen in 2 years,
all the seeds in my freezers is indexed well,
but there are extra ones that I did not have indexed at all,
and I wanted them,
anyway, I got some shelves and organized

all the seeds I want to sell are on there,
and some of my research seeds,

I did not want to spend the money,
but I needed to do it badly
just really happy that I have room to do it now.

board again

now I don't normally comment on the news,
but I do read the news all the time,
this is one to think about,
http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/~/media/2C6428C5A5254BAFB484C6E43E4ADCF9.ashx
it is a PDF, and is a study on gluten intolerance and other bad things caused by glyphosate (roundup)

growing your own food is a neat idea for a few reasons,
but primarily it makes sure that you (and your children if any) don't end up as broken people (or at least more broken)
and I only say this because I am one of the people that is broken,
and there seems no way to fix it after it happens...
your cells incorporate what ever you eat,
just make sure it is not harmful 

terraforming

so I am still waiting for summer, but it is spring here already,
and when the sun gets high enough in the sky to hit my garden plots, then I can plant a garden,

a real survival garden is not possible here at the moment,
I am still relying on the well and electricity or a generator to get the water out,
spring is the time to grow things here,
root crops and grains, the gophers are not even an issue this time of year...
and the ground is wet enough to grow most things without any watering,
the problem is that the trees are all tall and block out the sun in the winter and spring,

the area needs some terraforming
even if it is just the top of a tree taking off,
or  moving metal items that are in the sunny growing spots,
or adding fenced areas in the sunny spots,
either way it needs work,

I am kind of annoyed that it took me a year to prove this,
I wanted to do it first thing, but was unable to get others to let me,
but I am prohibited from doing it unless food really does end up unavailable at the store, 

so here i am needing 2 solutions for newly found issues,
one is what am I doing here now ?
the other is how do I grow food fast enough to make sure that I am ok if I can't get food from the store and I am allowed to terraform the area.

for the first issue I have decided that I will focus on the garden seed company even more and quit trying to grow all my own food.

and the second is actually not that hard,
radishes will almost grow faster than starvation,
and they will grow almost any time of year here,
you can eat them as sprouts as well,
and I have 2 pounds of seeds (or maybe it was 4 pounds)
so if I plant them first, I will give me time to grow other things that are season dependent, and get to harvest before starving,
now you may ask how anyone can live on radishes for any length of time,
and the answer is simple,
boil them !
they taste lots like turnips that way.
and although not ideal, it is a workable plan.

you might be able to tell that I am still board waiting for planting time...

warmth

so there is no warm spot where I live,
no fire to go seek out,
it is just horrible,
every place to live should have some warm spot to go gather around,
I have been thinking of heating up bricks (or water) in a solar oven and taking them inside after they are very hot...

now it might not be such a big issue,
but I don't seem to have enough internal heat,
I measure myself between 94.1 and 96.3F over the last few days,
that is actually in the hypothermia range,
no wonder my body can't make arginine,
and that I have not been feeling so good,
it is proving hard to warm up for very long,
coats have no effect at all, 
I can't wait for summer.

native

so looking at all the native plants,
now it the time it is all growing,
if I had a spot with full sun...
now would be the time to be growing everything,
I do have some grain planted, but not enough to live on,
but it would be ideal to have all the root crops planted and growing as well,
it is wet and cool without freezing to hard,
so beets, turnips, even potatoes would be doing great here, and would not need any additional water.
if I really had to do everything by hand and feed myself,
I would be clearing at least one tree, or some parked cars, or something for a bit of land in full winter sun.
now is the magic season where everything grows on it's own,

here is a patch of miners lettuce thriving all on it's own (click on the picture to zoom in)

red wagon

so anyone try to use a little red wagon in your garden ?
they can be a bit hard to pull when they are full,

I know that filling one full of batteries is a bit more weight that normal,
but the more weight you have in them, the harder they are to pull, even when you are pulling it down hill,
when I fill it full of dirt or wet leaves, it gets hard to pull, hard enough so that I want a better wagon,

if you plan on using one lots,
get one with big air filled tires,
the little red ones are fun, but don't move things around so well,

and I charged up some of the batteries...

lots left to go...

rice and corn

so rice and corn are fantastic to eat,
people love them,
you can live on other things...

I guess that I am just figuring out that I like tasty foods (and so do most people)
just not sure I can grow them here on super limited water very easy

electricity

so some electricity fell with the rain,
that happens sometimes, (but not like this)
but this started here,
it did not drift in,
first strike woke everyone up sharply,
then it got more intense,
another hit every 5 to 7 seconds,
brighter than flash bulbs,
and it really did not move from the area, it just sat here and kept hitting,
it was as if some angry god was taking out wrath on some target shrouded by night,
it did not last that long, maybe 15 min., maybe 20 ? hard to tell when there are no clocks,

dropped 1/4 inch of rain as well,
I should have taken a video of it,
but I dared not even step on the floor,
I stayed on my insulated bed and watched for fire out the windows,
it was quite a show, one that I hope not to see again, or at least not anytime soon,


thankfully I had been charging batteries the day and night before and could not sleep with the light of the power supply on, so I had unplugged everything, my solar power system had been unplugged because I was charging the batteries earlier that day,
so I did not loose anything,
the power came back on about 10 min. after the storm passed

years ago in this area, a house had a near miss, but it did hit a water pipe in the ground, and it vaporized the water pipes in the entire house, and took out all the electronics in the house as well,
can you imagine having to replace everything that plugs into the wall, including the plugs and all the wiring in the wall ?


I got lucky there was no direct building hit here,
but I guess I do have non electric backups of almost everything, so I will be fine either way,
should be getting non electric backups that are also not conductive...

I like electricity lots,
but I am not going to go so far as to trust it,
and surely electricity gets no trust when it falls from the sky like it did

I am very tired,
could not go back to sleep after it happened,

corn shelling

so I finally got around to shelling the corn from the 2012 harvest,

I really don't like shelling corn,
but I did it,
boredom wins again.

gopher

one of the cats seem to have caught a gopher,

I suspect it is this cat,

but there are a few that look like that,

it is neat to see them doing there job

clean water

so clean water is helpful, (trying to take a clear picture of water is kind of a fail...)
I started a batch of kombocha tea today,
long ago I started with this web page
http://www.paprikahead.com/2009/07/how-to-brew-your-own-kombucha-from.html
and it worked well,
but I lived in a city where it is easy to get clean water,
and brewing things with clean water makes the end result so much better,

now I am in a place where not many drink water from wells at all,
and it is kind of nasty out of the tap, 
but I am not about to buy water from the store to make my tea,

so I use a ceramic filter on the water,
the pathways in it are just to small for bacteria to get through, and not much else gets through either, 
it is quite amazing,
here is a gravity version that needs no electricity or water pressure
http://aquarain.com/
and here is one I have that uses water pressure (it does filter faster)
http://www.crystalclearsupply.com/Ceramic_Filter_Cartridge_p/cer-1.htm
and you will need a housing to put that filter in, I have a counter top one that I can put 3 filters in,
and I have a pre filter so the ceramic needs less cleaning,

I should have used some of my rain water I caught,
but forgot to,

but all of this leads me to my next thing to try,
I bet that spring water is pretty good,
I will go exploring and try it soon,
and yes, I will be using a ceramic filter on it before I drink it,
likely will try out my portable ceramic filter, 
http://www.rei.com/product/695265/msr-miniworks-ex-water-filter
I wonder if the spring water is clear or all hard to see through,

water is needed,
but clean water is nice.

movie of the day is harry potter (yes, all of them within the next week)

walk

there is a break in the rain
lets take a walk,

my spinach is finally starting to grow,
the birds ate the rest of them long ago,
but I keep a screen over this one

 here is an Indian Warrior flower

 and another

 and one more

 I have no idea what kind of flower this is

 here is a fiddle neck flower

 and a fern with miners lettuce growing out the middle

 a close up of the first popcorn flower of the season

 and here it is form a bit back

and the spring is finally to the overflow point at 4 foot below the top,
but I forgot to take a picture of it...